Its been quite a while, but the LCS is finally back! North America’s best teams are now returning to fight for the title of LCS Champions. The offseason brought many changes, including new players, rosters and organizations. Because of all this, 2020 is guaranteed to be a great year for League of Legends!
Cloud9 vs Team Liquid
First up on the agenda was a rematch from last year’s Summer Split Finals. With their new roster, Cloud9 (“C9”) rather easily dismantled Team Liquid (“TL”), though to their defense their new jungler Broxah was substituted by Shernfire due to visa issues. Overall, this was a relatively slower-paced game to start, as the only deaths in the first 10 minutes were neutral objectives. C9 took them both, an Ocean Dragon and Rift Herald, before collapsing mid. Here, they dropped the Herald and turned for a fight with TL. But TL struck hard, securing First Blood and three kills to one in the team fight.
This was a set back for C9, but one they recovered from swiftly. The main part of this was Licorice, as he solo killed Impact at 13 minutes before going mid and setting up a kill for Nisqy on Jensen. This mid kill helped C9 claim the First Tower bonus as well. From here, C9 grew their lead by destroying two top lane towers, slaying an Infernal Dragon and finding a pick onto Shernfire. With their jungler dead, TL wasn’t able to stop C9 from killing Baron Nashor, and C9 walked away from the pit with its coveted buff.
Empowered with the Baron buff, C9 made short work of TL. They pushed through two bottom lane towers before diving the TL Inhibitor tower to engage a fight. C9 slaughtered TL five-for-zero and freely pushed into the base to win.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 24:30
- Kills: 9-3
- Turrets: 9-2
- Gold: 44.8k-36.5k
- Dragons: 2-1
- Barons: 1-0
Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Dignitas
It was quite a back and forth game, but in the end, Team Dignitas (“DIG”) got their first win of the LCS versus Counter Logic Gaming (“CLG”). Unlike the previous game, the action started early and was frequent. Indeed, at three minutes into the game a skirmish broke out over the bottom Scuttle Crab, where Wiggily secured First Blood. DIG responded with a three-man top lane dive to kill Ruin, which prompted CLG to get a kill at the Rift Herald. Right after that, a team fight erupted in the top lane where DIG came out on top two-for-zero.
At this point, DIG had a respectable lead, but through clever objective trades, CLG managed to stay close behind. Unfortunately for CLG though, Froggen’s Viktor amassed a few kills and was a massive threat. This showed at 26 minutes, as he survived a 1v2 and, with the help of his team who collapsed, picked up two quick kills. Later, at around 32 minutes, a long fight occurred near the Baron. First, CLG got a kill, but when they tried to do the Baron DIG killed one of their members. Because of this, DIG was able to claim the Baron buff themselves.
With the buff, DIG made short work of five CLG towers and the bottom Inhibitor. Although they couldn’t quite finish the game here, they were able to take a fight at 39 minutes to Ace all five CLG members. No one could stop DIG now as they rampaged right through CLG’s base and blast their Nexus.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 40:09
- Kills: 4-15
- Turrets: 2-11
- Gold: 58.2k-68.5k
- Dragons: 3-3
- Barons: 0-1
100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians
The third match of the day was hard-fought, but 100 Thieves (“100T”) pulled off a solid comeback win against the Golden Guardians (“GG”). GG did destroy Meteos in his jungle early on, allowing Closer to get all four of the first red and blue buffs and outfarm him hard. This also gave Closer the opportunity to take the Mountain Dragon at five minutes. The first fight of the game happened around the Herald at 11 minutes, and despite 100T getting First Blood, the fight was an even three-for-three.
But from here GG laid on the pressure. Using their fed LeBlanc and vision denial, they found picks to gain themselves a healthy lead. While they did this, GG slew four total dragons by 24 minutes, giving them a terrifying Infernal Soul. Subsequently, there was a trade of kills in the mid lane, but little happened before the Elder Dragon spawned and even for a little while after. Finally, at 33 minutes, the teams met at the dragon pit. Goldenglue knocked Meteos to critical HP, so GG went for the Elder, but Stunt, Ssumday and Cody Sun delivered huge damage. While all this happened, Meteos snuck back in, body slammed over the wall and claimed the Elder buff for his team with a Smite steal.
In the ensuing fight, four GG members fell for only two from 100T. This gave 100T the perfect opportunity to take Baron Nashor too. Equipped with both major buffs, 100T forced down the middle Inhibitor before knocking down the bottom lane Inhibitor tower. Right then a team fight erupted, and now 100T was unstoppable. They crushed the fight and pushed on to demolish GG’s Nexus.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 37:58
- Kills: 14-12
- Turrets: 10-3
- Gold: 66.0k-58.1k
- Dragons: 1-4
- Barons: 1-0
Immortals vs FlyQuest
In the final game of the day, Immortals (“IMT”) faced the full wrath of V1per’s Riven and lost their first game to FlyQuest (“FLY”). Though they lost, IMT made some moves early to get a small lead. First, they dove the bottom lane to get First Blood, then they picked off PowerOfEvil in his jungle. They lost a kill and a dragon to FLY, but answered back swiftly with a Rift Herald take that led to the First Tower bonus. But the tipping point came at 16 minutes, when the second Herald spawned. Here, a team fight started and V1per Flashed in to get a huge combo and slaughter IMT four-for-zero.
With this lead, FLY controlled the map well. V1per dominated the bottom lane, while Ignar fished for hooks. This resulted in them getting a couple of picks and V1per even solo killed Soaz bot. IMT did manage to win a smaller fight in their jungle two-for-zero, but this didn’t amount to much. That was because at 34 minutes, another team fight broke out. Again, V1per carried the fight to get four kills for his team and the Baron.
The Baron spelled doom for IMT. Multiple towers fell very quickly and two Inhibitors were knocked down with little resistance. Eventually, Ignar hooked Hakuho and got him killed. Now in a 4v5, IMT had no chance to rout the powerful FLY champions. They were Ace’d and had to watch their first Nexus of the split explode at the hands of FLY.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 38:28
- Kills: 8-21
- Turrets: 3-10
- Gold: 59.2k-70.6k
- Dragons: 2-4
- Barons: 0-1
Broadcast Information
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