Typically you’d expect to have a clear favourite when one of the teams was seeded directly into the Lower Bracket, but 100 Thieves mopped up EG pretty convincingly in the teams’ last meeting, and the head-to-head role matchups stack up quite well for 100T. Both teams are top side-heavy, with relatively quiet contributions from the mid and bot lanes.
With such similar profiles on paper, preparation and coaching could make the real difference.
I didn’t expect TSM to fall into the Lower Bracket right off the bat, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Dignitas probably didn’t expect that, either. Now we’re going to see two of the oldest orgs in North American LoL fighting for a chance to reach the next stage of the Lower Bracket.
For TSM, this is a chance to redeem themselves for an incredibly disappointing showing against the Golden Guardians. For Dignitas, it’s a chance to embrace the underdog role and win back some respect from a community that has set such low expectations for them all year long, myself included.
I had very high hopes for Evil Geniuses coming into the summer split, after they outperformed most analysts’ expectations in Spring. I even power-ranked them second, because I believed they could hold onto their form and improve enough to survive the pushes I expected from TSM and Team Liquid. Meanwhile, I thought FlyQuest had overachieved in the Spring playoffs by reaching the Finals, and that their true form was closer to the middle of the pack.
I was wrong about EG, and while I’m not convinced I’m wrong about FlyQuest yet, I think this series is going to make FlyQuest look like a Finals contender again.
