Now that the off-season is over, here’s our LCS Power Rankings for 2022! Teams have worked hard during the break to secure the best players, as this is looking to be one of the most competitive seasons in recent history! With the LCS Lock-In tournament on its way and many more league of legends tournaments to come, it is time to rank the teams based on the rosters they put together!
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NA Power Rankings 2022 ahead of the LCS Spring Split
10. CLG
(Key Player: Palafox & Poome – Mid & Support)
Counter Logic Gaming comes into 2022 scrapping everything they did from last year. Gone are the two imports Broxah and Finn and all the other players. This year, CLG changed its strategy, with a clear intention of getting and developing young talent, while building a cohesive team around the players with the highest potential.
As a result, CLG picked up Academy players from other organizations that have already been on stage for a while. Jenkins played for Team Liquid when Alphari was benched, Contractz has been around for many years now, and Palafox is finally getting a chance to be the starting mid laner. Paired with the duo bot lane from 100Thieves Academy, Luger and Poome might be the spark that CLG needs to make a strong result.
CLG will be an interesting team to watch because there are basically no expectations on them. They can’t really do worse than last year, and with a new wave of players, it should only get better. With that being said, however, the overall competition increased a lot in LCS this year and I’m afraid CLG will still finish at the end of the pack.
Potential Finish for Counter Logic Gaming: 10th-7th
9. Dignitas
(Key Player: FakeGod & River – Top & Jungle)
Dignitas and CLG kind of swapped their identity during this off-season. From developing the homegrown talents, Dignitas decided to pick up some imports from overseas: the first is River, former PSG Talon jungler, while the second is Blue, former SK Gaming mid laner.
Out of the two, the one that raised the most questions is Blue, who didn’t make a strong impression in the LEC last year. In EU, he was still a below-average mid laner: how will he fare against the NA mids will decide how well can Dignitas perform. If he’s not able to deliver, it will be down to ADC Neo and River to drag this Dignitas roster. I doubt top lane FakeGod and support Biofrost, who returns to pro play in 2022, will make a strong enough impact to bring the team up a notch.
Potential Finish for Dignitas: 10th-6th
8. FlyQuest
(Key Player: toucouille – Mid)
FlyQuest seemed to have a good direction to continue their work coming into 2022. They locked their top and jungle, Kumo and Josedeodo, from last year and looked to find strong talents for the rest of the map. In one way or the other, they did find a solid set up.
In bot lane, they picked up aphromoo, reuniting him with his former Dignitas partner Johnsun. Both had a decent stint back in 2020 on DIG and FlyQuest are hoping that they can deliver once again on this roster. With a weakside player like Kumo, it is almost guaranteed that FlyQuest will want to play through bot in order to win.
The other big addition to the team is toucouille. The french mid laner previously played in the LFL with GameWard, earning the 2021 Spring Split MVP title. His value spiked through the roof and FlyQuest decided to give it a shot for this year. If he’s able to make the exploit FlyQuest is hoping for, then we might be looking at a potential playoff team. Otherwise, the team might hover around the 7th-8th spot.
Potential Finish for FlyQuest: 9th-5th
7. Immortals
(Key Player: PowerofEvil – Mid)
Immortals put together a decent team with players of known value, yet they are were one of the hardest to put into these LCS Power Rankings. Why? Because we don’t know whether these veterans have more up their sleeve, or they’ve already reached their potential in these years. Players like PowerofEvil, Xerxe and Wildturtle have been in the LCS for quite some time, especially WildTurtle who started playing in the LCS back in Season 3. PowerofEvil will surely be the core player of the roster, but with how the competition is shaping up, I don’t think he will be a top 3 mid laner throughout the whole year.
Top laner Revenge and Support Destiny might be the two exceptions who can still improve, but even then they don’t give the impression to become top-tier players in the league. Nonetheless, Immortals do have a solid team and will be consistent enough to become potential playoff contenders and finish in the top 6, but I’m afraid that is going to be their limit.
Potential Finish for FlyQuest: 8th-5th
6. Golden Guardians
(Key Player: Ablazeolive – Olleh – Mid & Support)
This is, to me, the most exciting roster of the mid-bottom pack. Golden Guardians managed to create a very interesting team, with strong players that can make the breakthrough this 2022. Licorice returned to its form after joining GGs last year and Ablazeolive is coming into his own after playing in the LCS for some time. He might not be the best, but he still has room for improvement.
With that being said, the player that intrigues me the most on this roster is Olleh. After an extended break, he’s returning to pro play and he’s eager to show himself. He might have stopped playing competitive last year, but his soloQ performance since then has skyrocketed. In 2021 Olleh reached the top of the Korean SoloQ ladder, peaking at rank number 3 and always being in the higher part of the Challenger standings.
This means that mechanically speaking, Olleh is in the best shape possible. We’ll have to see whether he can transition those results in the LCS.
Potential Finish for Golden Guardians: 7th-4th
5. TeamSoloMid
(Key Player: Spica & Keaiduo – Jungle & Mid)
TSM made its own headlines during the off season, primarily linked to the drama between TSM’s owner Reginald and former TSM ADC Doublelift. Aside from the situation between those two, SwordArt, PowerofEvil, Lost and Bjergsen’s departure also meant that TSM had to rebuild its roster and staff again for 2022.
From last year’s roster, only top laner Huni and jungler Spica will be staying with TSM. Huni has seemingly found a more consistent level of play, especially when he’s on weakside duty. Spica, with Bjergsen gone, is looking to replace him as the face of the organization, especially considering he’s one of, if not, the best homegrown jungler. In the ADC role, TSM picked up Tactical from TL.
To complete the roster, TSM made a very bold move by picking up two Chinese imports. Mid laner Keaiduo and support Shenyi will be playing as the starters in 2022, but the question mark is how well will these two perform in a completely different environment. Keaiduo was a rising talent in the LDL, the Chinese secondary League, while Shenyi played for FunPlusPhoenix’s Academy team. Being in the academy team of top teams in the LPL obviously means something, but their players have still to prove everything.
TSM has so many question marks regarding their roster: depending on how all the variables play out, it can make or break the team this year. If everything goes well, we might be looking at a top-tier team fighting for the Championship at the end of the year. If it doesn’t, TSM might only be a mid to bottom-tier team, fighting for the last few spots in playoffs.
Potential Finish for TeamSoloMid: 7th-2nd
4. Evil Geniuses
(Key Player: Inspired & Danny – Jungle & ADC)
Evil Geniuses got arguably the best deal of the whole off season: the number one LEC jungler Inspired. No matter how you look at it, Inspired’s addition immediately pushes the team up a notch. An MVP jungler is definitely a player you want to build your future around and Evil Geniuses will likely do everything they can to make him stay. As a consequence, it will be vital for EG to make a strong result in 2022: the roster, however, has some question marks.
Starting from the top lane, we have Impact who has been on a declining trajectory in the last few splits. He still has a lot of consistency but he’s not the best top laner in the LCS anymore. Aside from that, this will likely be his last season, as he needs to go back to Korea for military duty.
In the mid lane, EG brought up jojopyun, a homegrown prospect that a lot of people have been talking about. There’s a little skepticism about his level of play, but if EG opted to go for him, they must have something planned out. The potential for the Canadian mid, however, can be something NA hasn’t seen in years. We’ll see if he can make that happen.
In the bot lane, we have Danny and Vulcan who are looking to establish themselves as a top-tier bot lane this year. Danny comes from a strong season in 2021, as he earned the Rookie of the Year award and skyrocketed in the LCS adc rankings. Vulcan, instead, left Cloud9, but that wasn’t due to his performances: he was still a pretty solid support and he can still deliver in the upcoming LCS season.
Potential Finish for Evil Geniuses: 5th-1st
3. 100Thieves
(Key Player: Closer & Abbeddagge – Jungle & Mid)
100Thieves won the 2021 LCS Summer Split and had a relatively strong showing at Worlds 2021. They were the only team to not make big changes to its roster, essentially adding top laner Tenacity to the roster. The player will be splitting its game time with the other top laner Ssumday, so we still don’t know who will be the starter.
Nonetheless, 100Thieves comes into 2022 with a huge advantage that no other organization has: chemistry. Since no changes were made, 100Thieves only needs to polish some minor details and they will be ready to go at it again. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them at the top of the LCS standings in the beginning, since all the other teams will need to work more on their flaws. Having said that, I think there are arguably two teams with a slightly higher potential than 100T this year and they suffer the competition when it really matters. Nevertheless, expect them to be consistently at the top throughout the season.
Potential Finish for 100Thieves: 4th-1st
2. Cloud9
(Key Player: Summit & Fudge – Top & Mid)
This is going to be the most controversial team in the LCS Power Rankings and putting them in 2nd place might have been a little too optimistic on my side. I must say, however, that I rate LS quite highly and think that he has been given all the tools needed to make it work.
Not only he has his squad of coaching staff with him, but he was even able to get two Korean imports in top laner Summit and ADC Berserker. The first had a strong season with Liiv Sandbox in the LCK; the second was previously the academy marksman from T1, as he will become one of the best ADC in LCS. To put it simply, they have the background to make a strong start on this Cloud9 roster. It’s just a pity that we won’t see Zven on the roster, as he’s set to play for Cloud9’s academy.
Speaking of bot lane, Cloud9 picked up two prospects for the support role: Winsome and Isles. They are two young players that Cloud9 have decided to go for instead of the more established Vulcan: the organization must have seen something that we don’t know of yet.
Fudge has a little question mark on how he will transition to the mid lane position, but rumors say that he had no problems and can definitely become a decent player for the position. With all the chemistry he has with LS and his coaching staff, he shouldn’t have big issues adapting, making Cloud9 one of the best lcs teams for this upcoming season.
Potential Finish for Cloud9: 4th-1st
1. Team Liquid
(Key Player: Bjergsen & Hans Sama – Mid & ADC)
To finish off our LCS Power Rankings, we have Team Liquid as the top team to beat in 2022. With the insane amount of resources they spent during the off-season, you should be expecting them to be consistently top 3 in the league. Not only they imported Bwipo from Fnatic and Hans Sama from Rogue, but they also locked the returning Bjergsen, as the starting mid laner. Just based on this trio alone, Team Liquid has a top 3 finish almost in the bags.
Add a consistent veteran like Santorin and LCS’ best support player CoreJJ and you have one of the most complete rosters in the league. No matter how you look at it, Team Liquid has top-tier players in every position. The only thing that might hold Team Liquid back during the first part of the season will be the synergy and that might mess up some of the early results. Once that is also fixed, however, we will be looking at the strongest team in the LCS, hoping that this will be the time Team Liquid finally delivers on the international stage.
Potential Finish for Team Liquid: 3rd-1st