We are less than three weeks away from the NA League of Legends Championship Series summer championship in Toronto, Canada, but the road to get there starts Saturday in the warmer confines of the League Championship Series Arena in Santa Monica, California. While regular-season champions Team SoloMid (17-1) and runners-up Immortals (16-2) will be able to sit at home watching the action to see who makes the semifinals, the next four teams in the summer split standings will play in the quarterfinals to see which two advance.
The time for preparation ends here. It's the postseason, and it's either survive or perish in the ultra-competitive North American region.
Quarterfinal #1: Cloud9 vs. Team Envy
The Saturday matinee matchup will pit an upward-trending team against one that was decidedly sinking in the second half of the season. Cloud9, third-place in the league, comes into the quarterfinal matchup with a bit of the old swagger the organization used to have when it made four straight NA LCS finals. Although it's been over a year since the former two-time champion has made it to a final, this is shaping up to be C9's best shot at it since back then, when it lost to TSM at the end of the spring 2015 playoffs.
The added presence of veteran Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong has brought stability to a role that had been shaky ever since C9's golden days atop the league. The former world champion brings a shot-calling edge to the group that it seemingly lacked after captain Hai "Hai" Lam stepped down from the main squad; Impact's versatile style of play allows C9 the advantage of playing around any of the three lanes depending on the matchup.
It's also been the readdition of old jungler William "Meteos" Hartman back into the lineup that has softened the blow of losing Hai. Meteos, who failed to gel with star mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen in a short stint last summer, has rectified his in-game relationship with the offense-focused, talented ace of C9 to form a solid partnership. Meteos isn't a carry jungler -- eighth in kills and 11th in damage per minute (DPM) -- but he doesn't have to be; he's surrounded by the triple threat of Impact in top, Jensen in mid, and Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi -- Mr. Consistent himself -- in the bottom lane. His set-up plays and engages have won C9 many a fight this split, and his supportive, experienced nature embodies the type of player the club needs prowling the jungle.
"Meteos, who failed to gel with star mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen in a short stint last summer, has rectified his in-game relationship with the offense-focused, talented ace of C9 to form a solid partnership."
Looking over to C9's opponent, Team Envy, there isn't nearly as much of a case for optimism. The team started out of the gate strong and appeared to be a shoo-in for a postseason slot, but a disastrous second half of the split left NV falling face first into the playoffs. The club changed team houses during the course of the season and had difficulties transitioning. Yet, when its postseason life was on the line versus last-place Echo Fox in the last game of the season, the navy-clad team was able to pull through.
For NV to pull off one of the biggest upsets in NA LCS playoff history, it'll need to find the form that brought them so much success in the early days of summer. The key player, per usual, for Envy will be Shin "Seraph" Woo-yeong in the top lane. Almost every team has at least one player that brings the entire team together, and for Envy that player is Seraph. When NV got off to a blistering start at the beginning of the split, it was thanks to the stellar play of the team's ace in the top lane. Seraph was believed to be one of the frontrunners for the MVP award in the first month of the season before his and Envy's collapse back into the middle of the pack.
Impact, who Seraph told ESPN.com was the player he looked up to most when he was developing as a professional, will be the one standing between Seraph and a flight to Canada. The rest of the team needs to wake up as well, but Seraph, above everyone else, needs to find the forward-thinking play that helped him lead Renegades' renaissance at the end of last season and NV's bold beginning this past season.
Prediction: It's hard to look at Team Envy in the second half of the split and think it can make the top four of the league. It possesses good players, yet, when compared to C9, the lineups seem like a mismatch in almost every position. While I think NV is an organization with a lot of potential to grow over the next few years, Cloud9 is at the point where it's already full grown. C9 isn't just looking to settle for the third-place game in Toronto; rather, the boys in bright blue want another crack at the domestic title.
Cloud9 3 - 1 Team Envy
Quarterfinal #2: Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Liquid
Last season, the semifinal matchup between Counter Logic Gaming (fourth seed) and Team Liquid (fifth seed) resulted in one of the greatest best-of-fives the LCS has ever witnessed. In the end, it was the defending champion, CLG, who found its path paved to a second straight finals. For Liquid, it was simply another split where regular-season expectations came crashing down. CLG went on to win its second championship in a row, and Liquid finished fourth for the umpteeth time by getting knocked around by Immortals 3-0 in the third-place series.
After the first few weeks of the summer season, it felt like the roles were reversed for the teams. CLG was out of a playoff spot, and Team Liquid, having reinstated ace jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett, was rising up the rankings at a steady pace, believing it could challenge either Immortals or TSM for the top spot in the league. Yet, almost as though their destinies dictated it, CLG found its groove in the second half of the season and TL started to trail behind the rest of the top teams in the league. Eventually, TL settled into a fifth-place spot with an even record for the season.
Team Liquid, fifth or not, won't be happy unless it makes Worlds this split. As the only remaining long-running North American team that has never qualified for the biggest tournament of the year, another missed opportunity would feel like a failure for a team that has always been on the cusp of greatness. It won its first regular-season title last year, but then fell in the postseason semifinals. In the spring split, the team was rounding into championship form with a confidence to back it up, and then, as mentioned previously, CLG ended its journey prematurely.
Jovani "Fabbbyyy" Guillen is my highlighted player for TL in the quarterfinal duel. Liquid decided to swap its main roster's AD Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin with Fabbbyyy from its minor league team. During the first few weeks it seemed like a brilliant swap for Liquid, with the main team communicating on a higher level and Fabbbyyy more willing to take on a background role; however, things haven't been so smooth to end the season, and the new patch implemented in the playoffs will favor teams with stronger in-lane combatants. TL has been able to survive even with Fabbbyyy and support partner Matt "Matt" Elento getting held down early in games, but that won't be the case if it happens in the upcoming games against CLG.
For the back-to-back winner of the league, Counter Logic feels at home being considered a longshot to win the championship. It wasn't expected to beat Team SoloMid at Madison Square Garden last summer in New York City, and then CLG swept them. CLG were underdogs once again to TSM last split in Las Vegas, and while SoloMid took two games that time around, it was CLG who ultimately raised the trophy.
When it comes to leaders, CLG's Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black is one of the best in the business. The veteran knows how to get it done in difficult situations, and he has two championships to back up his confidence. All season long, even when CLG was faltering near the bottom of the table, Aphromoo spoke confidently of his team as a whole and didn't fear missing the playoffs at any point. And here he is, again a top four seed in the playoffs, and only one match victory away from possibly facing TSM for the third straight postseason.
Prediction: Like the matchup on Saturday, Sunday's match is a contest between two teams on diverging roads, albeit less extreme. Liquid shouldn't be counted out by any means, but the team certainly comes in as an underdog against the reigning champion. Fabbbyyy will need to have the best professional games of his life to push Liquid into the semifinals. CLG will play like it has this past year once it found the most organizational success it's ever had by far; its mantra: respect all, fear none, and believe you're going to win.
CLG 3 - 2 Team Liquid