North America’s final three teams are stepping up for LCS 2022 spring finals

The League Championship Series finals are back -- with an audience for the first time since 2019! Fans at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, will cheer on three of North America’s finest as they clash for the 2022 spring title and a ticket to the Mid-Season Invitational in South Korea. 100 Thieves, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses were highly rated by fans going into the season, but their developing storylines leading into the LCS finals weekend shows just how dynamic a full split of League of Legends can be.

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100 Thieves’s power of friendship (and teamfighting)

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

100 Thieves were the only team in the LCS to start 2022 without making a change to their starting lineup from last year and it paid off every step of the way. After reverse-sweeping Team Liquid 3-2 last week to advance to the LCS spring grand finals, they now await the winner of Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses’ third-place match. During the season and their playoff run, it occasionally looked like 100 Thieves might be outgunned by both Cloud9 and Team Liquid’s shiny new player, but time and time again, they achieved victory through a careful and consistent focus on their teamfighting identity.

When the team was first challenged by Cloud9 and top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae’s incredible side lane pressure at the end of the regular season, they turned to Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho’s Malphite to shut down any type of carry shenanigans. During their playoff series, Ornn filled the exact same role, as 100 Thieves continually overloaded the top side of the map and quickly engaged teamfights before Cloud9’s side lane pressure truly built up. Combined with Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun’s standard pool of engage-focused supports, 100 Thieves carried that same energy into their matchup with Team Liquid and now look to be the favorite to win the whole event. When 100 Thieves’s five-man unit is on the same page, they have no equal in North America.

Team Liquid look for answers as superteam

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

Completely opposite of 100 Thieves, Team Liquid retooled the majority of its lineup with a superstar rebrand headlined by the return of longtime TSM mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. European stars Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau and Steven “Hans sama” Liv rounded out Team Liquid’s newest additions, and the lineup has been dynamite ever since. With a boatload of talent, it’s hard to imagine a team like Team Liquid ever being pushed into a corner, but with a rising Evil Geniuses to contend with in the third-place match and the reigning LCS champs, 100 Thieves, waiting in the final match -- that’s exactly where they are right now.

Team Liquid’s season was largely defined by its bot lane domination. With lane dominant champions like Kai’Sa and Xayah taking their foothold in the meta, it’s easy to understand why Hans sama and legendary support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in dominated the LCS as much as they did. Typically, though, that leaves teams open to punishment on the top side of the map, and that’s a big reason why 100 Thieves were able to punish them as much as they did. Fans can expect Team Liquid to refine their map play, but Evil Geniuses displayed a similar level of understanding when it came to punishing the top side of the map, and it’s going to take a lot more than refinement to guarantee a rematch with 100 Thieves.

Evil Geniuses peak at the perfect time as LCS finals underdog

Photo credit: Tina Jo / Riot Games via ESPAT

After a strong 2021 season spearheaded by the rise of young phenom AD carry Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki, fans expected a meteoric rise with the addition of solo queue prospect Joseph “Jojopyun” Joon Pyun, former Rogue jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma and former Cloud9 support Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme. Unfortunately, it’s never quite as simple as gluing together a bunch of strong players, especially when players like Danny and Jojopyun lack experience compared to most of the field. It was that lack of experience -- and oftentimes, the team’s lack of a comprehensive macro game -- that punished Evil Geniuses for most of the season, but if there’s any time to step up, the playoffs have to be it.

Despite finishing the regular season 9-9 -- only marginally beating out FlyQuest and Golden Guardians for fourth place -- Evil Geniuses shocked North America after sweeping Cloud9 3-0 in the playoffs last weekend. Similar to 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses singled out Cloud9’s core strength in top laner Summit, and challenged that with teamfight compositions chock-full of crowd control and burst damage. Inspired’s Nocturne and his usage of Nocturne’s ultimate, paranoia, ended up being key as it made Evil Geniuses’ control of Summit’s side lane pressure that much more suffocating. Evil Geniuses will look to repeat that strategy against Team Liquid and Bwipo, but it’s going to be a close affair as both teams strive toward their perfect identity in a last bout for domestic glory and international aspirations.

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