LTA
LEC
LCK
LPL
LCPLearn more
Events & Standings
4 thoughts going into Playoffs Week 3
-
Years from now we’ll look back on this moment of the LCS and remember it fondly for being the era of Cloud9 vs. TSM. This week, though, it will only become a fond memory for one of these teams. The other will shoulder immense heartbreak as they head into a long quarantined offseason. The final Worlds spot is on the line. It’s C9 vs. TSM once again. Here’s 4 thoughts!
**1. Team Liquid (1) -- Keep your enemies closer**
I have a theory about Team Liquid, which is based on empirical evidence and as such cannot be refuted, where I believe they are intentionally making the games close. This is akin to how when you are arm wrestling a three-year-old child, you pretend to struggle and then eventually you slam their little hand into the table to teach them a valuable life lesson. That’s why all of their games look the same -- a stable early game that transitions to a slow middle game where they look like they are doing nothing (and may in fact be doing nothing) and then you blink and they somehow are up six turrets, three dragons, and have Baron. Blink again and bam -- we’re in the champion select screen for the second game. Blink again and bam -- we’re in the upper bracket finals. That’s Team Liquid. They’re riding a 16-1 run right now, and while it hasn’t *looked* as impressive as Cloud9’s run in the Spring, the end result has thus far been more-or-less the same, which is the enemy Nexus falls. Which is all you need to do to advance in League of Legends. TL has punched a ticket to Worlds for the third consecutive year, and the biggest difference going forward is going to be the strength of their mid and jungle duo -- Xmithie and Jensen were often punished on the international stages (and other teams made a point of even saying they were weak). With Broxah, though, TL has a mechanically gifted jungler that can potentially increase their ceiling. I’m not saying they’ve utilized him perfectly so far, but you can see the theory behind it, yeah? With C9’s struggles, TL feels like the big favorite to win the Summer Split outright. The matchup with FLY should feel like a bit of a mirror as both teams like to take it slow, but I feel like TL plays that type of style a little better, and while paper may beat rock, a smaller rock will never beat a bigger one.
**2. FlyQuest (3) -- The Eye of Doom**
The eye of doom is too powerful for NA. We will send it to the shadows of Worlds, where it will forge wins. Three wins for the EU kings under the sky. Seven for the LCK lords in their halls of stone. Nine for the LPL, doomed to die. One for the Eyeball on his dark throne. One win to rule them all. One win to find them. One win to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Is that canon? You bet -- you can’t spell Tolkien without Kien after all. FLY also punched their ticket to Worlds, which is a first in franchise history, thanks to a dominant showing against C9 in a 3-1 series that felt more like it was 4-0. In particular, the PowerOfEvil and Santorin combo dominated the map thanks to some big roams from IgNar (which was made more possible by Vulcan locking in an unable-to-roam Yuumi over and over). International play has pretty much always dictated that if you aren’t able to have a strong presence from your mid and jungle pairing, then your options on the map are going to be extremely limited. PoE and Santorin should have the individual talent to not be overwhelmed in Shanghai, so I am very excited to see how they perform there. First, though, they have a date with Team Liquid in the upper bracket final -- the winner of this match guarantees that you avoid the Play-in Stage and can begin Worlds in the Group Stage, so there are still some pretty big stakes on the line. It’s going to be a really difficult matchup for FLY because both teams play similarly -- strong laning from mid which waits for a support roam to make a play. I think this series will come down to how CoreJJ and IgNar can match each other on the map -- gaining the favorable matchup in champion select is going to be huge.
**3. C9 (2) -- Is this it?**
One of my favorite songs is The Strokes’ “Is This It,” which is an apt title for how I feel about C9 heading into the weekend. Again, to remind you, C9 started this year on a 35-2 run, which was historically great and the single best streak any team has ever posted in NA. If you ask people which NA team had the highest ceiling ever, many would say it was 2020 Spring Split Cloud9, and anyone else would have a hard time outright refuting that. And yet, here we are. Is this it? They’ve got a date with destiny this weekend as TSM comes knocking on the door of a house C9 once thought was impossible to lose. C9 is still the favorite to take the series, but the shakiness against strong teams has persisted throughout the last month and now they are facing an enormous amount of pressure. I can’t imagine what the nerves are like for them now knowing they’re only one series away from relieving a massive weight from their shoulders. It’s not like TSM who is nervous for a bunch of other reasons -- the have-nots struggle with a different kind of anxiety than the haves. There is a reason despots in power have historically committed atrocities when faced with the proposition of losing said power, which means I expect a desperate look from C9 this weekend that could cause them to fumble more than usual. Look for them to lean heavily into enabling Vulcan to roam again -- that helped a lot in their series against EG (as opposed to Yuumi being stuck bot lane) as it removes a ton of pressure from Nisqy and Blaber to carry the early game. I think Zven is more adept at playing without a support than Doublelift, so C9 should look to work that in their favor. C9 is the big favorite here, but, well, we’ve been saying that for the past month, yeah?
**4. TSM (4) -- The Script**
If one were to script out the 2020 Lolesports season in such a way that TSM was the main character, this is how you would do it. They would struggle through the Sprint Split in the shadow of their mighty rival, but they would slowly improve. Then they would add an old ally halfway through the year -- a big fan favorite -- but it wouldn’t be an easy transition. Still, slowly but surely, they’d ramp up towards the big moment until finally everything seemed to be clicking only to suffer a massive setback. Such was the first 0-3 to the Golden Guardians. Such was starting the rematch in an 0-2 deficit. How else would you set it up? You already know what happened after that 0-2, and if you believe in the script, then you know what’s next. That mighty rival is on deck with everything on the line. This is what everything has been building up to as the season finale, and if you are a Haikyuu fan, then you are hoping we are on Season 2 and not Season 1. TSM has taken the high road to Worlds before -- in fact basically every time they went to Worlds in the past was as the favorite (or at least one of the favorites) from NA, but we haven’t seen them on the international stage since 2017. Now they are only three wins away after bringing back Doublelift, who was also here the last time they went. As was Bjergsen. As was Biofrost. Maybe a trip to Worlds now -- overcoming so many obstacles and two years of futility -- is the kind of script you’ve been waiting for. Bjergsen looks like the best player in the league right now, and if you can’t win with him playing like this, you maybe start to wonder if you’ll ever win again.
