This is a weekly article series that will go over just some thoughts, ideas, predictions...whatever I’m feeling for the week. It may be anything from current champion ratings to the pro’s state of mind. This week's landing page can be found HERE

Capten’s Pieces o' Eight

No. 1 Who deserves to be where?

Looking at the standings after last weekend...and every weekend for that matter...has me wondering who really deserves to be where in the standings. Sure, Echo Fox is number 1...but then they get outplayed by Golden Guardians? If you’re the best team, you shouldn’t be losing to one of the worst...right? The same thing can be said about Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, and TeamSoloMid. All four of these teams have showed some serious inconsistency in their gameplay, especially lately. Cloud9 and Clutch Gaming actually have continued to perform consistently, with some slip ups here and there, but if you watch the games there are clear mistakes made that can be corrected. You can even see that in a team like Golden Guardians.

A lot of rambling here, but I’m just curious what will happen when playoffs begin and teams have multiple games to get in their groove against an opponent.

No. 2 Let's go Clutch!

I might just keep one of these reserved to brag or chat about Clutch Gaming. These guys are making me proud of the fact I bandwagoned them immediately upon hearing that my home city was getting an LCS team. They haven’t lost a single game to the lower tier teams through the whole season. No other team can claim that right now. Does that solidify them as ‘good’ but not ‘great’? I don’t think so. These LCS seasons aren’t sprints...they’re marathons. Consistency is massively important, and if you can add in some continual improvement...that’s a recipe for success. If you’re still one of the doubters...just take a look at how Clutch is also taking over the stats leaderboards.

No. 3 What’d you say?

Communication. I firmly believe it’s about 80%+ of the reason my friends and I aren’t winning all our games. No we aren’t amazing or anything, and some of us might even suck, but if you have a group of 5 people working together towards a singular goal, you’re likely to achieve it. It’s a very noticeable issue in my games, miscommunication, lack of understanding for the path forward, misinterpretation of the win conditions...etc. I blame myself, I need to work better to talk more and communicate with my team. All this rambling aside, it got me wondering how some of these pro teams manage really good communication. Many teams have language barrier issues. Some have wishy washy ideas of who is the shotcaller. I’d like to see/hear more of the background and behind the scenes on these teams to understand their struggles. Might be a great learning experience for myself and my teammates. We all speak english just fine. Perhaps if we stopped trolling each other a bit, it might all workout better. Maybe.

No.4 Clutch again? Really Tate?

Yes really. Shut it. My boy Febiven is the topic of this piece o’ eight. Or maybe his opponents. A question for them... Are you seriously going to keep giving this guy Azir? He was legendary on the champion BEFORE coming to the NA LCS. Then his first penta on stage comes from the champ earlier in this season. I mean look at this guy...

Great hook from Hakuho too.

No. 5 That’s a nice strat you got there, would be a shame if.....

With the 8.4 changes, last weekend had a bunch of teams focusing on the banner/siege minion strategy. Essentially baron empowered minions became much stronger in 8.4, and stacking that with Banner of Command (which buffs a minion) allowed that single minion to take a tower from 100 to 0 with 8 shots. So you saw teams protecting the minion and just sitting back to watch the show.
Pretty interesting gameplay really, but....looks like it’s already gone. Or it will be shortly. Depending on when pro play swaps ot patch 8.5. In the new patch, they are removing the stacking of damage mechanic between the banner and baron buffs.

50:37

No. 6 New champ?

Speaking of gameplay, Riot just released the newest champ. Kai’sa. While it does appear the intended role for her is ADC, people are playing her in mid as well. It’s hard to tell where she slots into things. Her abilities ‘evolve’ depending on the amount of particular stats, namely AD, AS, and AP. Her abilities remind me of an assassin somewhat. Take a look, or let me know what your experience is with her so far. Think she’ll be in pro play yet?

No. 7 My shop

MY SHOP IS BACK! Or is it your shop? our shop? Who cares...it's cheap skins! and we all know what to do when there's a sale...buy more than you would have needed in the first place! I'm just hoping I don't end up with 4 skins for champions I never play. I'll have to wait to log on later to find out. Any horror stories for your shop?

No. 8 Pieces of what?

I fell short again this week, maybe I need a new name. Or get better at writing. Or take notes on the games....

Well, those are my ramblings for the week. Shower thoughts. Momentos. Whatever. Feel free to comment below and strike up a conversation on any of the above, or anything at all.

Source: All from Giphy.com