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5 things you need to know from the second week of LCS

Rounding up the best, the worst and everything in between from the week of League of Legends action.

Riot Games

We're through two weeks of LCS action, as the top teams and the metas in North America and Europe start to come into focus. This was the first week of play on Patch 6.11, and with it came a lot of variety -- in champion selection and results. Below, we'll highlight what you need to know from the last week of action.

If you want to check out the VODs and results from the week that was, here's EU Day 1EU Day 2NA Day 1NA Day 2 and NA Day 3. But you don't need to watch all the games to know what happened: let's talk about the week that was and the five things you need to know.

1. The still undefeateds

Five teams still stand without a series loss on their record, but every LCS team has now lost at least one game. In North America, Team SoloMid stands on top of the pack with a 4-0 record (8-1 in games) after beating Apex 2-0 and Immortals 2-1 this week. New squad Team Envy also stands at 4-0, but holds second place due to an 8-2 record in games.

In Europe, three teams have yet to lose a series. G2 Esports remains in first place with a 3-1-0 record after beating Splyce and drawing with ROCCAT, while H2K surged to second place at 2-2-0 after beating Giants Gaming and Fnatic. Finally, ROCCAT is down at fourth place, but remains undefeated at 1-3-0 after drawing with G2 and beating Vitality.

Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, SK Telecom T1 is the only undefeated team left in South Korea, with a 5-0 series record supported by an unblemished 10-0 match record. In China, preseason favorites Edward Gaming (5-0, 10-2) and Royal Never Give Up (5-0, 10-1) lead their respective groups.

2. Struggling powers

Two-time defending North American champions Counter Logic Gaming began to recover from their post-MSI slump this week, beating Team Liquid two games to one before getting swept by Cloud9. After spending so much time playing on Patch 6.8 (the last patch before the huge midseason changes), the team has clearly struggled to adapt to the new meta and sits in ninth place at 1-3 (3-7 in matches). Team Liquid, the team CLG beat, isn't faring much better, at eighth place with a 1-3 record (3-6 in matches). There is hope, however: the team has looked better since the return of starting jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett, and swept Echo Fox in the final match Sunday.

In Europe, Origen is in all sorts of trouble. Runners-up in two straight EU LCS splits, the team went through a sudden roster change when offseason signing Konstantinos "Forg1ven" Tzortziou announced he would be stepping down due to a lack of motvation, thrusting owner Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño into an unfamiliar position as the team's starting AD Carry. Origen was able to secure draws against Schalke 04 and Vitality, but sits in last place at 0-2-2.

3. The standings

A reminder: the top six teams make the playoffs, while the bottom three teams enter the promotion tournament.

NA LCS:

Standings Team Series Games
1 Team SoloMid 4 - 0 8 - 1
2 Team EnVyUs 4 - 0 8 - 2
3 Cloud9 3 - 1 7 - 4
3 Immortals 3 - 1 7 - 4
5 Apex Gaming 2 - 2 5 - 5
6 NRG eSports 1 - 3 4 - 6
7 Echo Fox 1 - 3 3 - 6
7 Team Liquid 1 - 3 3 - 6
9 Counter Logic Gaming 1 - 3 3 - 7
10 Phoenix1 0 - 4 1 - 8

EU LCS:

Standings Team Series Games Points
1 G2 Esports 3 - 1 - 0 7 - 1 10
2 H2K 2 - 2 - 0 6 - 2 8
3 Fnatic 2 - 1 - 1 5 - 3 7
4 Team ROCCAT 1 - 3 - 0 5 - 3 6
5 FC Schalke 04 1 - 2 - 1 4 - 4 5
5 Splyce 1 - 2 - 1 4 - 4 5
7 Giants Gaming 1 - 0 - 3 2 - 6 3
7 Unicorns Of Love 1 - 0 - 3 2 - 6 3
9 Team Vitality 0 - 3 - 1 3 - 5 3
10 Origen 0 - 2 - 2 2 - 6 2

Player of the game:

4. The champions

Early returns show that 6.11 appears to be a great patch: there were around six or seven champions dominating 6.10, and they were all taken down a notch, meaning nearly every position has a significantly open champion pool. In 25 games in North America, each position had at least eight unique champions (contrast that with a week before, with just 5 AD Carries). In 20 games in Europe, each position had at least eight different champions, and all but jungler had at least 10.

With the exception of super strong Ryze and Vladimir, it seems like most champions are pretty balanced, which has allowed for varying playstyles and the appearance of more pocket picks. Dardoch picked Rengar for Team Liquid, as the team built a composition around speeding him up and keeping him alive (with Zilean and Karma). Apex top laner Jeon "Ray" Ji-won played his signature full AD Jarvan IV. We also saw multiple players pull out Jax and Illaoi, as well as H2K AD Carry Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek's signature Draven.

5. Week 3's biggest matchups

1. LPL: Edward Gaming (5-0, 10-2) vs. Royal Never Give Up (5-0, 10-1)

Thursday, 5 a.m. ET, 5 p.m. CST

2. EU LCS: H2K (2-2-0) vs. G2 Esports (3-1-0)

Thursday, 1 p.m. ET, 19:00 CEST

3. LCK: Jin Air Green Wings (3-1, 6-3) vs. SK Telecom T1 (5-0, 10-0)

Friday, 4 a.m. ET, 5 p.m. KST

4. NA LCS: Cloud9 (3-1, 7-4) vs. Team SoloMid (4-0, 8-1)

Friday, 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT

5. NA LCS: Immortals (3-1, 7-4) vs. Team Envy (4-0, 8-2)

Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, Noon PT