What up everyone, Hoff (@belcam) here, back after Week 2 of the NA LCS and I'm here to take a look at my predictions for this past weekend, can be found at the end of this post HERE. So lets dive into what I got right and what I definitely got wrong from Week 2 of NA LCS.

DAY 1

CG vs CLG

My prediction: CG wins over CLG.
Outcome: CG wins over CLG.

I felt like CG had a better squad overall than CLG after week 1 and they did not disappoint. Febiven had a monster game on Azir and even pulled a Pentakill.

CG pretty easily snagged the win against a struggling CLG. For the most part it looks like CLG is having some trouble getting in a groove of sorts and can't seem to hold on to any advantage or lead. CLG was looking good early game but things quickly seemed to fall apart.

TSM vs OPT

My Prediction: TSM over OPT
Outcome: TSM wins over OPT

Awe yeah, 2 for 2 baby. I was hesitant to pick TSM over OPT based entirely on their poor performance in Week 1, but I knew they had the talent and would most likely pick up the pace in Week 2. OPT put up a fight and even had good objective leads with dragons but were consistently behind TSM in gold the entire game. TSM was able to capitalize on advantages and close out the game with a victory. OPT did look good despite the loss and may be able to continue improving.

C9 vs FOX

My Prediction: FOX over C9
Outcome: FOX win over C9

Alright, so I'm sure @morganaleflaye is cursing me for picking FOX over her boys and don't get me wrong it was a tough choice.
Me making this choice

Both teams are looking pretty good coming out of Week 1 with 2-0 records, however, FOX had the more dominate display imo. They have strong momentum with a pretty talented roster to boot. Huni top and Fenix mid are solid players and Dardoch has been playing pretty well from the jungle. The game was pretty good, C9 came out early and looked to be in control, however, FOX started chipping way at that lead as the game progressed. Svenskeren made a pretty good Baron steal but it only delayed the inevitable. FOX came out on top in a late team fight and came away with the victory with C9 barely unable to stop the nexus from falling.

100T vs TL

My Prediction: TL over 100T
Outcome: 100T wins over TL

Another bought between two 2-0 teams coming out of Week 1. Personally, I'm a 100T fan and I'm honestly happy to be wrong with this prediction. I was pretty confident in TL's ability and thought that they would pull out a win over 100T. I was, however, quite wrong. 100T came out hard and just kept on hitting TL. Ryu did some work split pushing lanes and taking two inhib turrets himself, not to mention he basically deleted Doublelift any time he saw him. Ssumday had a pretty sweet kill on Impact with the well timed boomerang as Impact came out of stopwatch.

100T continues to look like a force to be reckoned with as they clutch a win over TL.

GGS vs FLY

My Prediction: FLY over GGS
Outcome: FLY wins over GGS

Well I was right about this one. I should have been wrong. GGS had FLY arguably on the ropes this game and by all accounts should have won. However, they could not pull out the victory and made mistakes that ultimately let FLY back in the game and eventually on to victory. I think the talent is there for GGS but as I've mentioned before the synergy is lacking as well as finish potential. There is a lot of reliance on Hai and his ability to lead teams and make plays but the other guys have to step up if they want to be successful. FLY came out on top in a game that should not have been there victory.

mfw GGS throws

DAY 2

FOX vs TSM

My Prediction: FOX over TSM
Outcome: FOX wins over TSM

Hoooo boy, this game was a bit of a rollercoaster I would say. Hauntzer was winning the Top lane over Huni for all of lane phase, TSM had tower advantage and objectives, pretty good pick potential overall, but what happened.. they dropped the ball. TSM was not able to make that final push to win even with the lead. Not to say FOX didn't play the hell out of mid/late game to come back or to belittle their victory by any means. FOX managed to score some late game wins in the team fights and come out on top of TSM leaving them 4-0 going into Week 3. FOX is really being dominate in this split so we will see if that continues

C9 vs 100T

My Prediction: 100T over C9
Outcome: C9 wins over 100T

Two good teams going head to head and another tough decision. I had to go with 100T on this because I felt their performance in Week 1 showed that they had what it takes to be a top ranked team. C9 is in the same boat; they are a solid team and have been playing really well despite the loss to FOX prior to this game. C9 came out and put the pressure on 100T from start to finish. They ganked ssumday with success, they picked their team fights pretty well and just overall played an excellent game. 100T tried to rally but could not get on their feet against the pressure that C9 brought. C9 came out with a well deserved win in this one.

OPT vs FLY

My Prediction: FLY over OPT
Outcome: OPT wins over FLY

I should have given OPT the benefit of the doubt here, but FLY was performing relatively decent and OPT was still winless prior to Saturday. The game was pretty heavily in OPT favor. They commanded a gold lead for basically the whole game, were up 3 dragons to 1 with 2 of them being infernal. FLY looked like they were trying to make some things happen but couldn't keep OPT at bay. OPT came away with their first win keeping them from finishing out Week 2 with an 0-4 record.

GGS vs CLG

My Prediction: GGS over CLG
Outcome: CLG wins over GGS

In my defense here, CLG has looked pretty garbage so far, but on the flip side GGS haven't exactly been outstanding. The game was back and forth but CLG was coming out on top for a majority of the fights and skirmishes. I never felt like GGS were out of the match at any point and the game really came down to the final team fight mid. Hai tried to get positioned on the backside of CLG for the engage by Cauntractz, however, CLG took the initiative and pushed the rest of the GGS team further away and Hai was out of position resulting in a lost teamfight and a win for CLG. CLG finally found a win here and go into week 3 with a 1-3 record as GGS are still at the bottom with 0-4 record.

TL vs CG

My Prediction: TL over CG
Outcome: TL wins over CG

Well, I was right about this one at least. I had some small hope that CG would pull out a win over TL but TL has been pretty dominate and I just didn't see that happening at this point. Febiven had a beast of a game against CLG but could not do the same against a better TL. Lira was getting caught a lot this game and that really hurt CG along with Apollo getting caught late game as well. TL just had the pressure and used it to come away with the win.

obligatory Doublelift trash talk

Summary

Well I went 4 for 10 this week, not too bad but yeah. Definitely some surprise wins this week and good games for sure. I will be making a separate post for my Week 3 predictions, should have that up by tomorrow.

Here is the standings coming out of Week 2 of NA LCS Spring 2018

1 Echo Fox 4W - 0L
2 Cloud9 3W - 1L
2 100 Thieves 3W - 1L
2 Team Liquid 3W - 1L
5 Clutch Gaming 2W - 2L
5 FlyQuest 2W - 2L
7 Team Solo Mid 1W - 3L
7 Counter Logic 1W - 3L
7 OpTic Gaming 1W - 3L
10 Golden Guardians 0W - 4L

Hoff out!