Every region will finally be in action when the NA LCS starts their season on Saturday. The season starts with a bang as the two best teams from last year meet up in the very first match of the Spring Split. Team Liquid won both split championships last year, knocking off Cloud9 on their way to the first double in the organization’s history. However, it was Cloud9 that was the best performing North American team at Worlds, making it to the semifinals.
League of Legends NA LCS Spring 2019 Week 1 Betting Odds
Team Liquid -220
Cloud9 +180
Liquid are favored to win their third straight split and made two big moves this offseason. They massively improved at the support position by adding CoreJJ in place of Olleh, and that should make bottom laner Doublelift even stronger in lane. Liquid have a playmaker in Jensen in the mid lane too, so many observers are expecting them to be even stronger in 2019.
I don’t think we should be holding the coronation just yet though. Cloud9’s Reapered is the top coach in the league, and C9 returns all of its team from last year with the exception of Jensen. Nisqy and Goldenglue are solid mid laners, and Licorice is the best top laner in the region for my money. I’ll take my chances with C9 at this price as meta read is huge early in the year.
100 Thieves -180
Team SoloMid +150
Many observers believe that 100 Thieves are the second-best team in the NA LCS coming into the year. They have a fantastic shotcaller in Aphromoo, and he now has a legendary bottom laner in SK Telecom T1’s Bang. Landing Bang was a coup for the organization, but the much more low-key addition of Huhi looms large too. Huhi is one of the most creative mid laners around, and he should be even better with this much talent around him.
My bank account paid the price for my faith in TSM last year. I believed the addition of Zven and mithy would make this team fantastic, but instead they missed out on Worlds for the first time in years. Top lane and jungle are big question marks, so I’ll lay the chalk with 100 Thieves here.
OpTic Gaming -120
Counter Logic Gaming +100
Call this the PowerOfEvil bowl. POE was OpTic’s best player last year, and he kept them competitive while the team largely struggled. This offseason, he moved to CLG, and that organization is hoping that adding him can help them turn around their fortunes. They have veterans in Darshan, Stixxay, and Biofrost, but they have yet to really put it together since 2016.
CLG shouldn’t be an underdog in this game. OpTic are overrated because they added a former world champion in mid laner Crown, but I think he is past his prime. He clearly fell off a bit in 2018, and his addition should not be enough to make OpTic a favorite here.
Golden Guardians -155
FlyQuest +130
These could very well be the worst two teams in North America this year. Golden Guardians cobbled together a list of big name cast-offs from other teams, but there isn’t much chemistry there and most of them seem to have regressed. Hauntzer, Contractz, and Olleh did not perform well last year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were signed off of reputation alone.
There are multiple unknowns on FlyQuest, but at least this team has some proven commodities. Love him or hate him, WildTurtle is a competent bottom laner, and Pobelter is incredibly underrated in the mid lane. The continued growth of JayJ and V1per is huge, but I like them as a short underdog here.
Clutch Gaming -155
Echo Fox +130
Cue the Spiderman meme. Apollo and Hakuho were Clutch Gaming’s bottom lane last year, and they came up big at times for the organization. This offseason, both players moved to Echo Fox, and they will look to get the better of their former teammates.
Clutch’s top laner Huni and mid laner Damonte feel the same way. Both players were on Echo Fox last year and they swapped teams in the offseason. With so much interchange and familiarity, this one feels like a toss-up. I’ll take the underdog with that in mind.
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