2022 LCS Spring Split Playoffs Finals Preview - 100T vs Team Liquid Or Evil Geniuses
This upcoming weekend marks the final week of the 2022 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split playoffs in which the winner will not only be crowned the new LCS champion but will also get to represent the North American region at the first big international event of the year, the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).
It all started with the likes of Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and 100 Thieves making waves early on in the tournament, and it’ll end the same way as 100 Thieves awaits the winner between Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses in the finals.
That’s why we’re going to give a short preview of what’s to come, going into each of the team’s main storylines.
You’re Either First Or You’re Last, Team Liquid
To say that Team Liquid was built as not just an LCS championship-winning team, but a League of Legends World Championships contending team, is an understatement. This, by all terms of the definition, is a super team. With the likes of top laner Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau, ADC Steven "Hans sama" Liv, and mid-laner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg joining the team’s remaining members of jungler Lucas "Santorin" Larsen and support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in, the team was built for greatness, and it showed… initially.
They took home the 2022 LCS Lock In tournament with ease, making it the organisation’s second tournament win in a row and were poised to take the Spring crown. However, that was not the case as some performances issues arose, but nonetheless, they still finished in first place, stealing it away from Cloud9 in a last-minute fashion.
This put them against Evil Geniuses in the first round of the playoffs which they were able to defeat 3-2, setting them up against a grudge match versus 100 Thieves. This one, they proved to possibly be the best in the LCS, but the reigning LCS champions, 100 Thieves, stole that for themselves, as they came back from a 2-0 deficit.
Team Liquid are looking for the rematch, but first, they have Evil Geniuses in front of them.
The power of youth propels Evil Geniuses
As this weekend’s team looking to ruin plans, Evil Geniuses truly have been evil thus far. Starting off with the 2022 LCS Lock In tournament, the team came out guns blazing, with their young guns in jungler Kacper "Inspired" Sloma, mid-laner Joseph "Jojopyun" Pyun and ADC Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki, taking down anyone in their path, leading to a straight path into the finals. Unfortunately for them, Team Liquid rained that parade fairly quick with a 3-0.
Come the regular season, however, Evil Geniuses couldn’t quite keep that momentum going, leading to a fourth-place and a rematch against Team Liquid in the first round of the playoffs. Here, the young squad managed to get back into form, surprising the LCS landscape but were unable to get the job done. This placed them in the tournament’s losers’ bracket in which they dismantled every single team in their path from FlyQuest to Cloud9.
Now they get a chance to enact revenge on Team Liquid. And if they do, the organisation’s first-ever finals appearance will follow.
How About A Two-Peat, 100 Thieves?
Coming into the 2022 LCS Season, the Thieves were the reigning LCS champions, and to many, they were the best team in the league. However, they showed anything but as they started off slow but fortunately were able to find their groove, thanks to overall strong performances, especially from their top and bottom lanes. This resulted in a seven, nearly eight-game, winning streak run, ended only by the party-spoiling Dignitas in their last game of the regular season.
Even though they ended the regular season strong, 100 Thieves were counted out by the LCS landscape when it came to their round one matchup versus Cloud9. But in Thieves fashion, they stole the show, completely demoralising and dominating Cloud9 - this put them up against Team Liquid in the winner’s bracket finals.
Once there, they were yet again the heavy underdogs as even though they dominated a Cloud9 who had been stellar all regular season long, the general consensus was that Cloud9 fell off more than the Thieves performed well… and seemed to be true until game three of their series versus Team Liquid.
Down 0-2 early on against Team Liquid, 100 Thieves had their backs against the wall. In the first two games, they threw away their tried and true methods of front-to-back team fighting in favour of a discombobulation of champions that had little to no synergy - it seemed that a swift 3-0 sweep was imminent.
However, before that could happen, the Thieves adapted in time, giving their top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho and jungler Can "Closer" Celik their ideal champions. Allowing for their damage dealers, namely mid-laner Felix "Abbedagge" Braun and ADC Victor "FBI" Huang to free fire.
In the end, 100 Thieves were able to tie up the series at 2-2 with the final game being a nail-bitter that the Thieves barely squeaked out due to an Abbedagge backdoor.
Now, all they await is for the winner of Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses to be crowned in order to get their first two-peat.
All of this will be decided on April 23-24 at the NRG Stadium in Houston Texas.