There was a lull in the League of Legends action this past week with three of the five major regions -- LCK, LPL, and LMS -- taking a holiday break for Lunar New Year. North America and Europe both had some major shakeups and upsets, but not much affected the teams in the top ten given that the majority of them are from South Korea and China. This gives us time to revisit the current top ten teams in the power rankings and reflect on what has made each of them so strong through the first half of the spring split.
1. Kingzone DragonX
Record: 7-1 | League: LCK | +/-: --
Given the acquisition of jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho and explosive 2017 KeSPA Cup Finals against KT Rolster in December, Kingzone DragonX was the team on everyone's radar after the 2017-18 offseason. Questions of Peanut and mid laner Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong's coordination surfaced Week 1, but since Kim "Khan" Dong-ha returned to the lineup in Week 2, it's been mostly smooth sailing for Kingzone. The team is on a 14-game winning streak and only dropped the one series to KSV Esports with Kim "Rascal" Kwang-hee starting while Khan was benched that week. What's most important for this Kingzone squad, and what makes this iteration different than last year, is that the team is not as overly-reliant on one specific style and has a much stronger mid/jungle duo in Peanut and Bdd. Adding insult to injury for Kingzone's opponents, veteran AD carry Kim "PraY" Jong-in is still the best AD carry in the world.
2. Afreeca Freecs
Record: 6-2 | League: LCK | +/-: --
There is no more exciting team in South Korea to watch than Afreeca. Kingzone DragonX may be the best team in the region, but the Freecs bring intelligent gameplans that make the most of players' individual talents and the team's strong coordination. Afreeca had only one offseason roster move, but it strengthened the team in a way that cannot be reduced to a one-for-one, on-paper swap. Former top laner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan's top lane pressure is irreplaceable, but newcomer Kim "Kiin" Gi-in hasn't tried to be MaRin. He holds his own, and has shown off a few surprising picks, mainly top lane Ryze. Afreeca can beat opponents with a variety of flex champions in draft, or with a more standard style. The overall flexibility of this team around mid laner Lee "KurO" Seo-haeng, who has always been known for his efficiency, Lee "Spirit" Da-yoon's wide array of jungle picks, and a career start to the split for support Park "TusiN" Jong-ik have made Afreeca a top-tier team.
3. KT Rolster
Record: 6-2 | League: LCK | +/-: --
The so-called "new KT Rolster" filled with superior cohesion according to team interviews looks a lot like the KT Rolster of last year, although you do have to give KT credit for being slightly more coordinated this time around. KT still errs on the side of one player (said player varies from game to game) jumping ahead aggressively at the wrong time, but the follow-up and response from the rest of the team has been better. In sticking with the same roster, KT are giving the five players of its superteam one more chance to bring home an LCK title. Their talent still makes KT a top three team in the world for now, but given a rising SK Telecom T1 (the team that KT continuously struggles to beat) and a crop of strong LPL teams, KT could continue to slip in these rankings if the team stagnates.
4. EDward Gaming
Record: 5-1 | League: LPL | +/-: --
Since the organization's inaugural competitive season in 2014, EDward Gaming has never been considered a top-focused team. Even in the glory days of Tong "Koro1" Yang in late 2014 through early 2015 - the team's strongest top laner historically - EDG prioritized bot lane carries like Zhu "NaMei" Jia-Wen and Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu. Now the team has a rising star AD carry in Hu "iBoy" Xian-Zhao but EDG has branched out, playing a bit more around topside and returning top laner Jeon "Ray" Ji-won. Much of this is due to the team's 2018 starting jungler Chen "Haro" Wen-lin. Haro has a much different style than Ming "Clearlove" Kai, whose jungling has shaped the team since inception. This is a new, more versatile EDG and given that the old EDG was consistently the best team in China with multiple LPL titles, there's no reason that this new EDG won't contend for the same, especially given Ray, Haro, and iBoy's continuing improvement.
5. Snake Esports
Record: 6-1 | League: LPL | +/-: --
There are a lot of teams in China's LoL Pro League adept at using, or abusing, Unsealed Spellbook on patches 8.1 through 8.2. Bili Bili Gaming, in particular, comes to mind. Yet no other player has used it quite like top laner Li "Flandre" Xuan-Jun. Flandre has always been a bit of an oddball, known by much of the international community for his top lane LeBlanc, unusual builds, and carry potential. This year, finally, might be Flandre's year. Much of this is due to increased coordination with jungler Lê "SofM" Quang Duy, who has also had a strong split. Due to the two-week break for Lunar New Year, Snake Esports and the rest of the LPL have not played on the latest competitive patch in professional play 8.3. This may hinder Snake's bid to be the best team in the LPL, depending on how well AD carry Yang "kRYST4L" Fan and support Liu "Hudie" Yan-Zhu perform in a more volatile bot lane meta.
6. ROX Tigers
Record: 4-4 | League: LCK | +/-: --
The ROX Tigers are the first of two teams, the other being the Jin Air Green Wings, that know who their starting lineup is, what those players do, and how to play around their strengths and weaknesses. Every team has faults. The Tigers know their faults better than most, and have focused on giving somewhat unlikely starter Kim "Lava" Tae-hoon strong waveclear champions like Corki or Galio that help him hold mid while playing more around the topside of the map. This wouldn't be possible without significant improvement from both top laner Heo "Lindarang" Man-heung, and jungler Yoon "Seonghwan" Seong-hwan. The two have been together since their time on the Afreeca Freecs in 2016 but it's only recently that they've played at a higher level. ROX also has AD carry Gwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yun, who is coming off of a career split last season, and continues to show his carry prowess this split.
7. Invictus Gaming
Record: 6-1 | League: LPL | +/-: --
If you like KT Rolster, yet want to see a team that focuses a bit more on individual outplays and duels, then Invictus Gaming is your team. This is iG's second split with the same roster core and marks the highly-anticipated debut of AD carry Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo who finally became age-eligible for the LPL. JackeyLove has performed fairly well, perhaps not up to the level that fans wanted to see immediately, but iG still revolves around mid laner Song "Rookie" Eui-jin. Rookie enables his team with strong mid lane control, overwhelming his opponents to consistently hold the mid lane, or roam and apply additional pressure in side lanes. Top laner Kang "TheShy" Seong-iok has risen above his veteran counterpart Lee "Duke" Ho-seong to become the team's starting top laner, and jungler Gao "Ning" Zhen-Ning looks far more comfortable with all of his lanes this split. This is an iG that still makes a lot of mistakes, but is slowly growing into a top-tier team.
8. KSV
Record: 5-3 | League: LCK | +/-: --
The reigning world champions are struggling. At first, KSV Esports' 2018 problems looked like a continuation of the team's 2017 problems: finding a balance between Kang "Haru" Min-seung and Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong. Last year, this was compounded by Lee "Crown" Min-ho's mid lane struggles, necessitating Ambition's presence not only for his veteran leadership but his steadier playstyle to help Crown hold mid. Crown hasn't returned to form, but he has been far more stable this split. Unfortunately, the rest of the team has not and in Week 4, regardless of which jungler got the start, KSV looked disorganized, lacking the strong late-game teamfighting that led the team to the 2017 World Championship title. Perhaps Viktor buffs on 8.3 will further revitalize Crown, and KSV can return to the top of the LCK standings.
9. Jin Air Green Wings
Record: 3-5 | League: LCK | +/-: +2
The Jin Air Green Wings know who on their team to play around, and the answer is AD carry Park "Teddy" Jin-seong. This means that, much like nearly all prior iterations of Jin Air, the team will cede objectives and map control to scale. Forty-minute first bloods and 90-minute games aside, the Green Wings' early game is surprisingly good, it's the mid game that needs work. Jungler Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon still makes mistakes but has been a bit smarter with his early pathing, and top laner Kim "SoHwan" Jun-yeong has performed well on the likes of Vladimir, Ornn, and Gnar.
10. Echo Fox
Record: 9-1 | League: NA LCS | +/-: +6
A Week 5 victory over North America's other top team, Cloud9, pushed Echo Fox back up in the power rankings as the top-ranked NA team for the first half of the split. Make no mistake, these two teams are close in terms of both skill and success, despite in-game execution varying wildly between the two. Echo Fox tends to play fast and loose, reflecting the playstyles of top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon and Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett. Early chatter around this squad had it internally imploding by now, but with no signs of slowing down amidst a few losing early games, narrow victories and a loss, talk has shifted to how Echo Fox brute-forces opponents with superior mechanics. This too is a bit unfair, and underestimates how thoughtful Echo Fox can be. The team often fumbles the mid game but also shows surprising patience - and strong drafting that suits this point and the individual players on the team - when choosing late-game teamfights. If it could find this patience a bit sooner in some games, Echo Fox would be NA's top team by a much more significant margin.