Six teams vying for one spot at MSI in LCS spring playoffs

March 31, 2022

by Xander Torres

The LCS spring playoffs are set to kick off this weekend and it couldn’t be any more exciting. For weeks, some teams have battled for spots atop the standings, while others fought for their chance at one of the final playoff slots. Team Liquid and Cloud stand out as immediate favorites to win the playoffs and punch a ticket to the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), but stranger things have happened in North American League of Legends.

Team Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses

Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games via ESPAT

Team Liquid was immediately branded as a superteam this offseason after acquiring European stars Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, Steven “Hans sama” Liv and Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, and they’ve had no problem living up to that moniker. Bjergsen spent last year coaching TSM but showed very little rust returning to professional play and immediately took back his title as the best mid laner in North America. Meanwhile, Hans sama and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in formed one of the most deadly and flexible bot lanes in the league.

The bot lane is explosive when set up to carry and patient when resources are diverted to the other side of the map. In the top lane, Bwipo has reinvented himself as a player, confidently performing at a high level on a stable of meta picks that include Graves, Gragas and Jayce. When you add in Lucas “Santorin” Larsen’s continued dominance in the jungle, it’s a surprise this team didn’t complete a perfect season.

On the other side of things, Evil Geniuses practically performed on the opposite end of the spectrum. Evil Geniuses were lauded for their talent early in the season with Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun debuting in the mid lane alongside the additions of jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma and support Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme. With top laner Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and AD carry Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki returning, the roster seemed like a slam dunk to contend -- especially after Evil Geniuses’ success last summer.

Unfortunately, it felt like Evil Geniuses never really found their footing after finishing 9-9, tied with both Golden Guardians and Flyquest for the final three playoff slots. Evil Geniuses failed to take down a major opponent this spring and it’s looking likely that trend will continue against Team Liquid this weekend. If there was any time for the talented roster to show up and prove that they can put it all together, though -- it’s now.

Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves

Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games via ESPAT

Cloud9 were at the center of LCS discourse all season long from Nick “LS” DeCesare’s unique coaching style, to LS being fired midseason, to the team’s eventual dominance following the change. Although it was fun to see Cloud9 succeed with out-of-the-box picks early in the season, the team truly found its footing as a top-tier team on the back of Park “Summit’ Woo-tae’s dominance in the top lane.

Seriously, it’s much easier to be a top team when your lineup is running arguably the strongest player in the league. Summit’s performance this season is reminiscent of Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho’s early days in North America, as he continually ran away with side lane advantages against the best players in the league. That dominance is largely a strength, but toward the end of the season, we saw numerous teams challenge that playstyle with full-on 5v5 teamfight compositions -- one of those teams being 100 Thieves.

It’s weird to think of 100 Thieves as being on “the outside looking in,” but the team was far less flashy than that of Cloud9 or Team Liquid. Starting with a conservative offseason that featured no changes to their starting lineup, 100 Thieves dedicated themselves to focusing on what worked last year and continually improving upon that formula. Considering the amount of firepower that Cloud9 and Team Liquid added to their lineup, it’s impressive that 100 Thieves maintained a solid third place while also defeating both teams during the regular season.

In a playoff setting, 100 Thieves’ past experience as a five-man unit will certainly favor the team against just about anyone. With recent attempts to innovate their pick and ban phase, including their Malphite pick against Cloud9 last weekend, 100 Thieves look ready to make another deep run in the playoffs -- and hopefully for them, another shot at international glory.

Lying in wait

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games via ESPAT

This weekend, it’s all about Team Liquid, Cloud9, 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses, but Flyquest and Golden Guardians await the losers for their playoff matches next weekend. Despite losing out in seeding to Evil Geniuses, both teams are on a relatively similar level. They don’t have the same star power, but that just supports how both teams succeeded by concentrating their efforts on a simple team identity.

For Flyquest, that identity has largely centered around Colin “Kumo” Zhao operating as the team’s major split-pushing threat, giving the rest of his team time to scale up into the mid and late game. The approach can be easily dismantled by teams like Cloud9 with a side laner as potent as Summit, but it gets the work done against teams without the same type of carry asset.

Golden Guardians, on the other hand, largely succeed on the back of their bot lane with Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung making a pronounced return to competitive play. Although Olleh hasn’t always been the most cerebral support in League of Legends, he has a tendency to rally his teammates around him with aggressive playmaking. It’s easy to forget that he was once paired with Yilliang “Doublelift” Peng as a championship winner on Team Liquid.

Lead photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games via ESPAT