Analysis and Opinion

Cloud9 vs. Evil Geniuses, LCS Summer Lower Bracket Preview

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I definitely didn’t expect to be writing a Cloud9 vs. Evil Geniuses preview today. I’m still a little in shock at not only the fact that Cloud9 lost to FlyQuest, but the way the lost.

Hopefully C9 recover from that shock more quickly than I do, because they have a series to prep for, and they’d better not take it lightly if they want to maintain a shot at reaching Worlds.

Win Conditions

Cloud9

  • Take some deep breaths
  • Play the early game

I can’t imagine how tilted the entire Cloud9 roster and staff are feeling after yesterday. They need to breathe some fresh air and pull out the early game-oriented strategies that they’ve hopefully put at least some practice into during the past couple of weeks, because that’s where they’ve found their success all year.

Evil Geniuses

  • Attack Blaber
  • Draft reactive scaling picks (e.g. Shen and Gangplank)

FlyQuest just lobbed an alley-oop pass to Evil Geniuses, so EG need to jump up and slam it home with momentum.

Prediction

Continue reading Cloud9 vs. Evil Geniuses, LCS Summer Lower Bracket Preview →

Analysis and Opinion

Team Liquid vs. Golden Guardians, LCS Summer Semifinals Preview

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The Golden Guardians pulled off the only upset of the first week of LCS Summer Playoffs, dismantling TSM 3-0 on the back of star performances by FBI and huhi. It was a coming-of-age of sorts for that bot lane, who spent the entire season playing the same way and delivering similar results but not really getting credit for it until they did it to Doublelift three games in a row.

The bad news for GG is that they’re coming up against Team Liquid in the next round, a team that not only finished the regular season with the LCS’s best record, but also employs a play style and skill profile that almost perfectly counters the way GG won in the first round.

Win Conditions

Team Liquid

  • Control early dragons
  • Be patient and play reactively

Golden Guardians

  • Get Damonte out of his lane
  • Surprise TL with something they haven’t seen before

Prediction

TL 3-1 Continue reading Team Liquid vs. Golden Guardians, LCS Summer Semifinals Preview →

Analysis and Opinion

Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest, LCS Summer Semifinals Preview

Patreon subscribers had access to this post early.

The main storyline of this series is Cloud9’s fall from grace and sub-.500 record in the second half of the regular season. FlyQuest are worth talking about, but the conversation is mostly about C9 and their ability to recapture their Spring championship form. Every opinion about this series is going to spring directly out of assessments of why C9 fell off, and whether that was a sign of real problems, or just a temporary blip.

I fall into the latter camp.

Win Conditions

Cloud9

  • Get back on the horse
  • Play with pace

Continue reading Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest, LCS Summer Semifinals Preview →

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