zechs
Spring 2022United States, Los Angeles, LCS Studio
Evil Geniuses
100 Thieves
Team LiquidWith LEC done and dusted, it’s time for the LCS to shine.
Team Liquid vs 100 Thieves
The Thieves come into this game as arguably the in-form team of the LCS. After losing to this weekend’s opponents a couple of months ago, they went on a seven-game winning streak on their way to a third place finish in the regular split. An anomalous loss to Dignitas in the last game of the season was a potentially worrying blip on the radar. At least, it would have been if they didn’t go on to humiliate Cloud 9 in the opening round of play-offs.
Taking advantage of C9’s “salty runback” and some overconfidence, 100T made light work of the second placed team. Meanwhile, Liquid had a much harder time against Evil Geniuses. EG were one decent draft away from taking that series, and even then, a better showing from jojopyun could have made it a closer game. Almost everything went wrong for EG in the final game of the series, and Liquid simply had to pick up the broken pieces.
What are we supposed to take away from the first round results, then? Neither team is likely to hand games over on a silver platter like both C9 and EG did for them. I would contest that these are the two best teams in the league, but that and the fact that they split games in the regular season means this one is tough to predict. Does the ease of 100T’s victory mean they look stronger overall or does the fact that TL came through a sterner test mean that they have an advantage?
I’m leaning towards the latter, personally. C9 looked really poor in that match, whereas Liquid genuinely had a tough time against solid opposition. G2 taught us last week that results-based analysis is dangerous territory, but Liquid have been the best team in the LCS all season. Like G2, I think experience could make the difference. Liquid have it in spades, with multiple trophies in the squad, including the “winningest” player in LCS history and a world champion. Apart from Ssumday, 100T simply don’t come close to that level of big game experience, especially in front of a crowd.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I get this one wrong. 100T are a great team, and they did win the league last year, but they did it in a very different setting. Intangibles like arena-specific experience and performance anxiety are unreliable predictors at best, but when the teams are so closely matched, this is what we have to rely on as a tie-breaker. I’m giving it to the old hands of Team Liquid, but only just. 3-2.
Cloud 9 vs Evil Geniuses
Speaking of unpredictable, Cloud 9 have played two play-off matches and they couldn’t have been more different. A 0-3 hiding into a 3-0 demolition job makes C9 the wild card of the bracket. It doesn’t help that the good 3-0 was against easily the worst team in play-offs, making it essentially useless as a measurement of C9’s ability.
EG had a tougher time of it thus far, losing a tough 3-2 series to TL and winning an almost-as-difficult 3-1 against Flyquest. The FQ game is where EG fans should find some hope, though. Not just because of the result, but because they bounced back from an extremely disappointing fifth game against TL. It was important, I feel, for EG to put that awful draft (Renekton/Nidalee isn’t good in 2022) and almost as awful performance behind them, and they did so with aplomb.
Where it starts to look less good for EG is in the head-to-head. Cloud 9 is 2-0 in this match-up this year and neither game was really close. Impact’s Tryndamere gave C9 a headache in their first game of the season, but they crushed the rest of the map. The second time these teams met, EG never really got a look-in. Perhaps most worryingly of all, Jojopyun looked dreadful in both games giving up a total of 11 deaths and collecting just 2 kills.
Play-offs are a different beast to regular season games, it’s true, but EG hasn’t shown enough in their knockout games to make me think they can turn around such a one-sided fixture. The only way I can see EG eking out a win or three is through the bottom lane, but C9 kept Danny extremely quiet in their previous encounters. I hope they don’t get run over – and I think they’re good enough to avoid a sweep – but I do expect them to lose quite comfortably.