Well, last Saturday was a day of upsets in both LCS regions. In Europe, sixth seed Fnatic beat out third seed Vitality 3-1, and Team Solomid did the same to Cloud9 in North America.
Fourth seeded Origen and Team Liquid were each able to comfortably 3-0 the fifth placed Unicorns of Love and NRG Esports respectively.The general rule in all four series was that the teams who won also adapted best to the changes in patch 6.6.
This year’s playoffs rely on a dynamic seeding rather than fixed brackets, which means that for this weekend’s semi-final matches the first placed team in each region will play against the lower seeded quarter-final winner, and second against the higher seed.
H2k (second) versus Origen (4th)
Origen’s PowerOfEvil came out swinging in last week’s games. In their 3-0 wash of UnicornsOfLove, he played to a far higher standard than during the regular season, saying that observing xPeke during the break had helped him greatly. It’s now been three weeks since H2k played, but they did beat Origen in both of the regular season games, and came second for the whole split.
H2k were a powerhouse through the regular season. Finishing just one game behind G2 Esports, they only dropped one game in their last six, and their wins were generally convincing.
When they win, it’s largely off the back of meta picks, and a number of their better champions remain strong in the new patch.
I want to bring up individual players and their strengths but it doesn’t feel right; the team has been playing incredibly well together and as individuals, and as long as they have put in the time on the new patch, they should be able to come out on top this weekend.
Origen are a team, however, that we have already seen take down Unicorns of Love 3-0. Though they were not the neatest wins – Unicorns held substantial gold leads during both the second and third games – Origen were able to show that when push comes to shove, they can come back from substantial gold deficits to win the game.
Not only can they overcome a disadvantage, but they can do so with PowerOfEvil, who many (myself included) thought would be their weakest link. This tournament also allows for mid-series roster swaps, making it harder for H2k to prepare, and giving Origen the chance to change things up if their game-plans don’t work out.
Origen need to use this to their advantage, and if the carries can, well, carry, they could take the series from H2k.
All the games this weekend are harder to call than last week. I expect this to go to H2k, based on how consistently they have adapted to new patches, how well 6.6 fits their playstyle, and the support from the organisation behind them, but Origen clearly worked incredibly hard during their break, and certainly have the flexibility (both in playstyles and players) to bring this back around for themselves.
Prediction: H2k 3-2 Origen
Counter Logic Gaming (second) versus Team Liquid (4th)
I’ve been thinking about this match-up since Liquid won their game last week, and it is honestly so hard to call. There are three ways it’s likely to go: incredibly close, back and forth games, down to the last teamfight in game five or an absolute stomp for one side or the other.
The question is though, who can take the wins when it comes down to it?
Counter Logic Gaming are on a high at the moment. After winning a split for the first time in Summer 2015 and going to worlds, they had some major roster changes which many of us worried they wouldn’t recover from.
The team has had a great season though, and according to insiders, the players are in a much better mindset. The team’s carries are more than capable of playing their roles – in order to win, Aphromoo and Darshan in particular will need to show that they can adapt to a tank meta and support those carries to a victory.
Team Liquid have made some significant improvements this split, particularly in their botlane. For their support player, Matt, this is his first professional split, and he is laning with Season 3 World Champion, Piglet.
In interviews, Matt has spoken about this being a difficult learning curve, but in the leadup to playoffs they have focused on playing together and learning to understand one another’s movements and intentions. Team Liquid can win this series if rookies Matt and Dardoch play to their full potential; they need to start out strong each game, as they did last weekend, and they can win out over Counter Logic Gaming.
I’m struggling to make a call on this match-up. We’ve seen that Team Liquid can play the 6.6 meta game, but Counter Logic Gaming have shown versatility and consistent strength through this and last season.
I think this is most likely to be a close series, with both sides showing their strengths and weaknesses, but Team Liquid will ultimately be able to get off better teamfights, and play just that bit cleaner to take the series.
Prediction: Team Liquid 3-2 Counter Logic Gaming
G2 Esports (1st) versus Fnatic (6th)
I read a great line on Reddit this weekend, “Death, taxes, Fnatic performing in the playoffs.” I’m sorry for doubting you, Fnatic, and I’ll forever regret not buying that YellOwStaR jersey when I had the chance. Gamsu has picked up the 6.6 tank meta and is playing it excellently, with three wins on three different champions, and the team’s double teleport composition left an underprepared Vitality in ashes. That said, G2 come into the playoffs as first seed, and have shown the ability throughout the season to adapt easily to meta changes, despite their being a relatively young team.
G2 come into this having had a far better season than Fnatic. With a 15-3 W-L record, and no losses since the start of week six, they’re definitely in a good position to carry themselves through to the finals. G2 has built themselves on quick and confident decisions this season; if they can maintain that trust in their shotcaller, and reap high rewards from their high risk plays, they can take this series.
All that said, Fnatic were the last game to win against G2. The combination of mostly experienced team members, their intensive bootcamp, and the synergy that has come out of the bootcamp have made Fnatic look much less like a sixth place team and more like a finals contender.
I mentioned that G2 have trusted in each other, but their teamfights have still been somewhat disorganised, and they have often given up early gold leads to other top tier teams. This has been something that G2 have successfully pulled back from previous opponents, but Fnatic – when they are on point – do not give leads up so easily. With a smart pick and ban phase, and power picks for Rekkles, Fnatic can take the finals out from under G2.
If you had asked me a week ago who would win this series, I would have said G2 without a second thought (particularly as I did not expect Fnatic to make it out of the quarters). G2 have still had a very impressive season, but Fnatic have already taken down third place Vitality, who were only two games behind G2, and they now look poised to steamroll this series, too
Prediction: Fnatic 3-1 G2 Esports
Immortals (1st) versus Team SoloMid (6th)
Quarter-finalsTeam SoloMid looked like a completely different team to regular season Team SoloMid. They played so much more cohesively and had a much better stat line, they look like they may finally become the “super team” they were touted as at the start of the split. This weekend though, they are going to be against the other North American super team, Immortals – who have been living up to the moniker since day one of the split.
With their weeks-long win streaks, Immortals didn’t have to change their strategy much during the regular season, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other plans up their sleeves. This makes it particularly hard for their opponents to prepare to play against them – Immortals could be preparing any number of strategies, and there are no regular season games to take hints from.
Immortals have also played very few tanks through the season, mostly on Reignover; with the current meta, they will likely need to have Huni or Adrian on a relatively tanky champion too. In order to win this series, they need to be prepared to show some different strategies and to adapt to their opponents.
While they stumbled in game one, Team SoloMid clearly prepped hard for their series against Cloud9, winning the next three games pretty convincingly. I would expect them to be preparing with the same thoroughness for the game against Immortals; Team SoloMid have extensive support structures who will no doubt be finding every chink in Immortals’ armour.
They’re evidently looking for pocket picks too – Bjergesn’s Vel’Koz against Cloud9 last week was a surprise to most, not least Jensen. Team SoloMid is certainly capable of taking this series, but to do so they will need to know Immortals’ playstyles and weaknesses back to front, and how to take advantage of them.
Immortals have had a strong run to date, and have kept their cards close to their chest. How they will adapt to a best-of series, and to the new meta, will be a major factor in whether or not they will win, or whether TSM can take the series. Despite being a new team, these are not new players, who have shown in previous splits that they can adapt – so long as that stays true, they should still be able to take down TSM.
Prediction: Immortals 3-1 Team SoloMid
This weekend is so difficult because of how long it has been since some of these teams have played, and how much improvement we’ve seen out of particularly the sixth placed teams last week. With the quality of play shown by the playoff teams so far, I’m incredibly excited for the weekend, and to see who will make it into the finals.
The jam-packed month-by-month quiz full of 2022 sports trivia!
If someone told me ten years ago that people playing video games would generate a bigger audience than the NBA, NHL, and MLB, I…
Imagine a world where video games were like sports, professional players were scouted like NBA players, and teams trained in modern facilities as their…
With the Adelaide Crows-owned Legacy esports visiting South Korea recently to get a taste of how the world's best esports competitors go about their…
As the esports world continues to grow and new titles seem to take the world by storm out of nowhere, how do organisations navigate…
Streamers are undeniably one of the biggest players in the growing publicity of both gaming an esports, with the attention and revenue generated by…
