The LCS Spring 2022 regular season will be kicking off this weekend, and fans are all riled up to see how their favorite teams perform. Lock-In gave us a glimpse of what some of the players can do, but with several teams plagued by visa and travel issues, there's no telling what might happen this split. Still, we take a stab at giving our predictions for the standings by the end of Spring, ranking the LCS teams and giving a preview of the key players to keep an eye out for.

(Note that these predictions reflect the Spring split regular season standings and not the playoffs results.)

LCS Spring Split 2022: Preview & Predictions

1. Evil Geniuses (EG) and 2. Team Liquid (TL)

First and second place are a toss-up between EG and TL. Even though Liquid swept EG during the Lock-In finals, EG did take a game off TL during the group stages. For as long as the green card issues plague TL's bot lane, I think there's a good chance that they drop a couple of games early on to the other top teams. After all, the regular season matchups are best-of-one and TL play their opening match of Spring against 100 Thieves, then Cloud9 in the second week. I imagine EG can get ahead a match or two to surpass TL in the standings, especially with a rising star in Jojopyun combined with LEC MVP Inspired, and they have a lot of room to grow yet.

That said, TL's superteam is synergizing exceptionally well. Though I don't think they're at the point yet where they can go undefeated the entire season. While all the players on the roster are exciting talents to keep an eye on, many will be especially hyped to see Bjergsen continue to reign dominant over NA—he was already the KDA leader in Lock-In, and no one really seems to hold a candle to the superstar mid. Come playoffs, Liquid should take the throne with relative ease thanks to all the veterans on the roster, unless C9 or EG vastly improve in their series play.

3. Cloud9 (C9)

Cloud9 is a hard one to judge; they could excel and thrash everyone, or flop miserably (sinking to maybe as far as sixth or seventh). As another team who dealt with visa issues—and the Korean contingent literally just arriving at the start of the month—who knows how well they'll do in Spring? Can LS just draft-gap enough so the synergy doesn't come as such a big issue? How good exactly is the Academy squad as scrim partners, and is it enough to help the main roster beat the rest of the LCS competition? C9 fans expect a rocky start for sure, but they can have hope in Summit and Berserker just popping off and helping snag some wins as well. I think the Korean stars' insane mechanics—combined with how quickly Fudge has shown he can improve—will be enough to push Cloud9 to the upper echelon in the standings eventually.

4. 100 Thieves (100T)

100T at fourth is a conservative estimate based on the high potential of those above them; they could definitely go as high as second, but I'm not confident in them having enough in the tank to top the league outright. Not undergoing changes in the off-season can be good for consistency, but it could also mean there is somewhat of a cap as to how much the roster can do. We've seen 100T's highs and lows before, and teams will be better prepared to face them, even in a new meta. It will be more of an uphill battle than initially thought, especially because most other teams went through huge overhauls.

Known quantities are normally a good thing, but any LCS fan knows how tumultuous and dramatic the league can be, and the unknowns or fresh faces elsewhere might just prove a stumbling block for 100T. We've rarely seen squads stick together between seasons and still replicate their dominant performance (S3-S4 Cloud9 was probably the only exception, but even T1 in all their glory underwent roster changes), so it'd be interesting to see if 100T can actually defend their title without a refresh.

5. Dignitas (DIG) and 6. Team SoloMid (TSM)

Dignitas impressed during the tail-end of Lock-In and we finally have some fresh faces to be excited about—River and Blue. I put them higher than TSM as I think TSM's international roster will take some time to gel at the start. For comparison, some of C9's players have already bootcamped together, and it's hard to discount Korea's top-flight talents (the only reason Berserker was not a starting ADC was literally because Gumayusi was in front of him). Whereas, TSM's new Chinese players are a little less known and are at more “crucial” parts of the map as mid and support that constantly need to communicate with the squad (especially if TSM want to play through mid and have Spica turn his attention there), compared to C9's top and having an all-KR bot.

They're talented for sure, and maybe China's second league is enough to dumpster on NA, but I still think the inevitable shakiness will drop TSM a rank lower. The head-to-head between the two sides will be important, and with their first matchup coming as early as the second day of the split, DIG probably have enough to just marginally edge TSM in the final standings.

7. Counter Logic Gaming (CLG)

CLG had a surprisingly good showing at Lock-In; of course, take preseason performances with a pinch of salt, but that's pretty much all we have to work with at the moment. Despite the roster not necessarily having the flashiest of stars, they do look more promising than the iterations we've seen in the past. With how stacked the top teams are, though, it's a shame that CLG probably can't be placed much higher. They could maybe try and vie for a mid-table spot, hoping one of the international rosters straight out crumbles, but again a breakout season is needed from one—maybe even two—of their players, plus the other teams helping them out like taking a game off a “higher” squad.

8. Immortals (IMT)

Now the bottom of the pack is very hard to judge as well, but these three are here not only because of the rather mediocre Lock-In performances, but also because of where or how far I can see the team going even if they significantly improve. IMT had a disastrous Lock-In group stage, going winless. Despite that, I still think they can pull something together to at least not be last, through WildTurtle and PowerOfEvil. Both are clearly far removed from their peak, but I think the roster as a whole can still find some wins. The three teams at the bottom here could very well swap places around; they will only be one or two games apart in terms of win-loss records by the end of the regular season.

9. FlyQuest (FLY) and 10. Golden Guardians (GG)

In my mind, FLY and GG resemble each other a lot: top laners who were both on C9 at one point and looked to be the next big thing; imported junglers who might just turn the tide in some games, but may not pop off enough to carry the team the entire split; young mid laners who seemed to have potential but don't really have much to show for it yet; bot laners who are known quantities but not exactly the type to get you hyped up enough about their caliber; and veteran support players who may not be at their peak but can still have good games.

All around, the rosters are quite average, with the potential for some flashiness, but probably not enough to break into the upper part of the standings. I give FLY the slight edge because Kumo can still come good, and disappointingly, Licorice has for 2-3 splits now looked to be shades of his former self. At the same time, toucouille may still have a higher cap than Ablazeolive, if only because toucouille is still a relatively fresher face in the scene and might surprise people. In bot, I also give Aphromoo the edge to help FLY with their shotcalling a little, or maybe to grind out some hard-fought wins.