The LCS starts soon and I am stoked! (With a few little predictions)

If for some crazy reason you have no idea what the LCS is then take a seat and let me explain. Once I have I hope that you will join me on a thrill a minute ride through the world of competitive gaming. LCS stands for The League of Legends Championship Series and it represents the highest level of League of Legends competitive play in Europe and North America. This year there will be ten teams in both EU and NA leagues all vying for the chance to represent their region in international and worldwide tournaments culminating in the League of Legends world championship. If you would like more information on this great game then checkout this site. It will explain it a lot better than I ever could.

What is the main reason for this excitement I hear you asking. Well this year Riot (the game developer) has performed quite a major rework on the game. Not only has this update been visual but has also had a major impact on how teams will be forced to play. The control of map objectives is more important than ever which could result in huge team fights around important areas of the map. The meta is inevitably going to shift and we will see champion picks that we have either not seen for a while or have never seen at all. There are also more smaller short term buffs available around the map in which jungle players will be fighting over.

I could go on for pages about the changes that have been made for the up and coming season to the map itself and the individual champions however I fear that I may bore you. So instead I am going to make a few cheeky predictions about what we will see over the next few months.

Gnar will be the most banned champion (just beating Rek'Sai)
As Gnar was released in August last year he missed a fairly sizeable chunk of the pro scene schedule. In the games that he did take part in it was fairly obvious that he had the ability to completely carry games and turn team fights on there head. In his Mega Gnar form he is able to stun entire teams giving the damage dealers the chance to clean up. He is also one if not the tankiest champion in the game and if he gets ahead in his lane can become un-kill-able. He was banned a lot towards the end of last year and I very much predict the same will happen again this year.

We will be seeing a lot more of Kassadin

Will we be seeing more of this bad boy
over the next few months? 

In the 2014 EU summer split Kassadin was banned 101 times that is 60 more bans than Jax who finished second place with 41. And he did not fair much better on the NA scene. This is mainly due to his scaling and his incredible roam. From as early as the start of the mid game if he has a kill or two or is ahead in Creep Score then there is pretty much no stopping him. Not only will he wreck his lane opponent, he will also roam and wreck everyone else on the map due to his rift walk. (I know that he has been nerfed but lets be honest Kassadin is an absolute beast and will continue to be). The reason that we will be seeing more of him this year is down to the fact that other bans will be taking priority. As I already mentioned Gnar will be banned out in a majority of games but I also think that we will be seeing a focus on banning Rek'Sai. Janna and Thresh are also likely to get banned fairly often. Then once you start banning champions that the enemy carries are known for playing your soon out of bans. Allowing some lucky devil to pick up Kassadin.

Rekkles will break more LCS records
Rekkles played an incredibly strong game last year for Fnatic, including this Pentakill at the expense of the Copenhagen Wolves. He broke the record for the fewest number of deaths in an entire LCS split (27 in 28 games) and tied with Mancloud for the highest number of kills during an LCS split (167 in 28 games). This year Rekkles will be playing for Elements, a team that last year was known as Alliance. Which if you ask me is a terrifying concept. Alliance finished 1st in both the Summer Split regular season and the Summer Split playoffs so you could argue that Rekkles has a better team around him. Its only a matter of time before he is the sole owner of the most kills record.

We will be seeing more focus on all in team compositions and hard engage

Will this guy be the deciding factor when it comes
to building team compositions?

In previous years we have seen a mixture of poke comps and all in comps. However this year I think that we will be seeing a lot more all in team comps than ever before. This is due to the need to control Dragon and ensure that your team is the one picking up the buffs. Dont get me wrong a well placed Shock Blast from Jayce can give you the advantage in team fights but the all in potential and ability to lock down champions will become more important. Champions such as Jarvan IV will be getting picked up by both junglers and top laners. There is a chance that we could be seeing the return of Malphite and Sona. which ever champions end up getting picked I am certain that we will be seeing some very aggresive team compositions.

Which leads me neatly into my final prediction...............

This will be the Split of the surprising Picks
Due to the recent rework of not only Summoners Rift but also individual champions, we could be seeing far more surprising picks this year than ever before. Who knows what could be brought out. Already this year over in the LPL (The chinese LCS equivalent) Annie was played top lane by Looper for team M3. I have heard rumours of a few suprises in the jungle including the possible appearance of Leona. Who knows what new strategy's these Pro gamers will come up with. All that I know is that this years LCS is going to be more thrilling than ever.

So there you have it, my predictions for the LCS 2015 seasons. Of course its highly possible that I am wrong on some if not all of these points as these are just the views of an over keen fan boy. I would love to hear your predictions on what is going to happen over the coming months so please comment below on whether or not you think I am on course or miles away from the mark.
Whether you agree with me or not I hope that you will join me in tuning in and following what I believe to be the perfect example of how eSports should be played.