100T Reverse Sweep TL, EG Eliminate C9 in LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs

The 2022 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split playoffs are closing in on crowning their winner who will represent North America at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).

This past week’s playoffs were thrilling. The tournament had 100 Thieves reverse sweep themselves into the finals, surprising both Team Liquid and the LCS alike. While Evil Geniuses once again took care of business in the losers’ bracket, this time knocking out the team who reigned supreme throughout the regular season, Cloud9.

With that in mind, here’s how it all went down.

100 Thieves Steal Team Liquid’s Finals Berth With A Reverse Sweep

Although it was clear domination from Team Liquid to start the matchup, mid-series draft adjustments from the Thieves came in clutch, leading to a reverse sweep.

In the first two games, 100 Thieves deviated away from their tried and true front-to-back team fighting that netted them success across the regular season and playoffs thus far, and instead went with a mish-mash of champions that had little to no cohesion.

Having picked champions like Tryndamere, Sett, and Vex, left the Thieves without a single point of engage, leading Team Liquid to take control over the first two games with ease. This allowed the Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Steven "Hans Sama" Liv to reign supreme as the former finished with five kills, 22 assists, and only two deaths, while the latter collected 16 kills, 10 assists, and no deaths through the series' first two games. 

It seemed like a swift 3-0 sweep was imminent from Team Liquid’s side, however, before that could happen 100 Thieves adapted in time. They first began by giving Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho and Can "Closer" Celik their ideal champions, ones that could frontline and provide engage for their team. This came at the hands of Ornn and Jarvan picks for games three and four, allowing for Felix "Abbedagge" Braun and Victor "FBI" Huang to free fire.

The Thieves had big step-ups from their solo laners as Ssumday handedly outperformed Gabriel "Bwipo" Rau while Abbedagge got closer to expected form. This allowed for FBI to do what he does best and carry the team to the promised land in late-game situations, particularly team fights.

This all led to the final game of the series, game five, in which not only was it close, it was thrilling. 100 Thieves got themselves a strong early-game lead, but Team Liquid didn’t let up as a few key team fights put them back in it. In the end, Team Liquid were looking poised as their team fighting looked unrivaled, this forced 100 Thieves to make a tough decision, one that had Abbadagge backdoor a Team Liquid exposed Nexus for the series win.

Evil Geniuses Dominate Cloud9, Earn Team Liquid Rematch

Following their momentum from their match versus FlyQuest last week, Evil Geniuses were looking to avenge their early playoffs loss to Team Liquid in a rematch. All they needed was to take care of Cloud9 who were sitting in front of them.

Needless to say, Evil Geniuses had an even easier time this time around as not only did Cloud9 not provide any resistance, the Geniuses looked nearly unstoppable. Evil Geniuses utilized swift movement and overall strong cross-map awareness to the fullest. 

This made it so Cloud9 had little to no answers and were just subject to what Evil Geniuses were willing to do on that given match. 

Now, an Evil Geniuses team that was heavily criticized for their play during the regular season, is on the cusp of making the organisation’s first-ever LCS finals. All they have to do is take down a Team Liquid team that they already have faced in the past in the first round of the 2021 LCS Spring Playoffs in which they narrowly lost. The winner will face 100 Thieves in the finals.

All of this will be decided on April 23-24 at the NRG Stadium in Houston Texas.