Right now, nobody can beat Immortals. The team consisting of major players from all around the world has gone 10-0 in the first half of the North American League Championship Series. In every game they managed to get first blood on the enemy, a feat onto itself. Some expect Immortals to have a perfect split, like Fnatic in last year’s EU summer split. What exactly sets them apart from other teams?
Immortals have great team synergy. If someone makes a play bottom lane, the whole team knows to rotate top and pressure objectives. It’s a learned instinct, something that comes from years of practice and intuition.
Two of Immortal’s players, Huni and Reignover, used to play for Fnatic during their fabled run. They both have an aggressive play style that punishes bad map awareness. If Huni sees that the enemy top laner doesn’t have flash, he will take every opportunity to get a kill. Reignover will sit top lane and gank over and over. Either Huni gets a kill, or the enemy lane is so far behind it’s impossible for them to come back.
On the other side of the map we have Wildturtle and Adrian. During the preseason's massive roster switcheroo, Wildturtle was kicked from TSM to be replaced by longtime rival and trash talker extraordinaire, Doublelift. Last year Adrian came over from Korea to join Team Impulse. Roster problems and scandals plagued TIP last year, with Adrian floundering in the toxic environment.
The bot lane duo’s play styles mesh very well together. In nine out of ten games Adrian has either played Soraka or Janna, two champions that have strong disengage. Wildturtle plays almost anything, preferring to make risky plays that could endanger his team. If Wildturtle goes to deep, Adrian can help pull him out.
One of the best NA mid laners is Pobelter. Last year he carried CLG to their first LCS split victory that nobody expected. CLG replaced Pobelter, with Huhi, his substitute on the team. Lulu and Lux are popular meta picks. Pobelter plays them perfectly, roaming the map and setting up plays. If anyone was to be assigned the role of shot caller, it would be him.
Seeing Immortals go undefeated this split still seems like a long shot. Teams are improving with each new game. TSM and Team Liquid both put on terrible performances the first few weeks of LCS, but are now showing great promise. The last two weeks TSM went undefeated showing that their roster is starting to find its place. Immortals are a bunch of good players who play well together and hopefully they do manage to pull off a perfect split.
