The regular season is over half way done and teams are beginning to fight for playoff contention..  This weekend showed a spark of life for some teams and disappointment for others.

The standings currently are:

1st Team Liquid (8-4)

1st100 Thieves (8-4)

3rd Echo Fox (7-5)

3rd FlyQuest (7-5)

5th OpTic Gaming (6-6)

6th Cloud 9 (5-7)

6th Golden Guardians (5-7)

6th Counter Logic Gaming (5-7)

6th TSM (5-7)

10th Clutch Gaming (4-8)

TL and 100T

Team Liquid and 100 Thieves continue to show great performances with Team Liquid sticking to their team fighting style. They took down the surging Golden Guardians and their Heimerdinger player, Deftly this weekend and swiftly took down Clutch Gaming. There seems to be no signs of this team not making playoffs. 100 Thieves continues to prove that their roster change won’t hinder their performance. Aside from the blunder of a base race against FlyQuest, two weeks ago, 100T consistently wins the late game team fights and their objective control  has net them many wins. They can potentially take the throne for first this upcoming weekend as TL and 100T faceoff in the first match of the weekend.

Fox, Fly, and OPT

Echo Fox’s new acquisition of Cloud 9 veteran, Smoothie, has definitely been an upgrade to the previous support line up. With Lost taking over the Bot Lane position, the duo will need more time to gain synergy. Taking down 100 Thieves 2 weeks ago and now taking down TSM in a more one sided fashion, FlyQuest has positioned themselves to have a strong spot for playoff contention. OpTic Gaming has completed their second 2-0 weekend and have started separating themselves from the bottom as the only team with a 6-6 record. PowerOfEvil is showing his PowerOfCash haters wrong as he is consistently taking down top tier NA mid laners this split.

C9, GGS, CLG, and TSM

The 6th place pack seems very unusual this split. Filled with old guard teams, the 6th place race is probably the most important for these teams as all but GGS have Worlds aspirations. TSM and CLG have had consecutive 0-2 weekends and time is running out for them. TSM not making finals was huge last split, but not they have a chance of not even making playoffs. CLG has had mixed success as of late. Ever since bringing Biofrost and Reignover to the team, CLG has not had the level of success. C9 and GGS are having quite the opposite run. Compared to last split, GGS has come from last to middle of the pack. Playoffs seem to be a reasonable path for GGS. C9 has surfaced from the depths as they climbed from last place to the top of 6th with this 2-0 weeked. Can C9 continue their streak of always making worlds? We will have to find out.

CG

Clutch Gaming had a surprising victory last playoffs by knocking out TSM, but it seems the high has run out. Lira cannot find success in this meta and this past weekend, the organization chose to play Piglet and Vulcan bot lane and Moon in the jungle. Solo and Febiven have not been able to carry the others as hard as they did last split and Clutch is running out of time.

With only 6 more games left for each team in the NALCS Summer Split, we will have to see which stories continue into the postseason and who’s year will end. Tune into the NALCS on Twitch or Youtube on Saturdays at 2PM PDT and Sunday at 12 PM PDT.