The competition between North American teams heats up in the LCS after Team Liquid and Cloud took another step towards the championship, thanks to their outstanding performance in the first superweek of the regular season.
Team Liquid made a thrilling start to Week 5 by taking the hammer down on the reigning champion, 100 Thieves, and with Cloud9’s clean win over Golden Guardians, both teams tied for first place in the standings.
Team Liquid dominated 100 Thieves
North American super-team had a better pick ban screen given that they put Gragas in their pocket for the top lane. Viktor shined in Bjergsen’s hands, and Zeri established her kingdom against Jinx in the bot lane. Team Liquid also had an answer against Lee Sin, one of Closer’s primary picks in his champion pool, with Xin Zhao. Santorin overwhelmed the blind mong in the early stages of the game. TL found winnable skirmishes and took many advantages from them.
FBI was not on his day, and Hans Dama demolished the bottom lane while CoreJJ led his team in macro decisions. Summit was the only player who could stand firm against his lane opponent, but he could not lead his team to victory alone with Tryndamere. Team Liquid kept the global gold lead for most of the match, maintained its win streak against 100 Thieves.
After CoreJJ joined the team, Team Liquid looked like a real team, and their overall performance has stabilized, which is good news for them for the future. Bjergsen made an exceptional return to the pro stage. It would not be surprising if the Danish veteran was selected MVP of the league. Bwipo also is more effective than ever with returning to his original role after spending his last season in Europe as jungler. It seems like Cloud9, another overperformed team in the LCS, will be competing with Team Liquid on the way to the championship.
100 Thieves need to find a way out
The defending champion, 100 Thieves, underperformed in the 2022 LCS Spring Split. They have been struggling especially against competent rosters, and they are in 3 matches losing streak, which is unacceptable for the reigning champion. It is unknown what the future brings for them, but 100 Thieves need to revamp the game plan built around Closer’s 1vs9 potential.
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