A New Look Team Liquid And Cloud9 - The Rivalry's Third Encounter
Team Liquid continued their domination of Cloud9 this season after having yet another blistering performance in their third matchup of the season in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2021 Spring Split.
Leading up to their second matchup of the split and the third matchup of the season, both teams were on slightly different trajectories. Team Liquid performed exceptionally well in the Lock In tournament, while Cloud9 began with poor performances but slowly improved their play with each game played. It all culminated in both of the teams meeting in the finals; an already battle-tested Cloud9 who were barely scraping by versus a dominant Team Liquid who were on the warpath.
It was a hard-fought best-of-five series in which Team Liquid quickly took the first two games, and Cloud9 responded by taking the next two. Cloud9 were on the verge of getting a second reverse sweep in a row — the first instance being versus 100 Thieves in the semifinals — but Team Liquid stuffed that momentum, dominated the fifth and final game and crowned themselves the first-ever LCS Lock In champions.
Once the Spring Split started, this is where their trajectories began to differ. Cloud9 took all of the experience and momentum they gained from playing 17 total games in the Lock In tournament and went all in, putting themselves in first place alongside 100 Thieves to end Week 1. Since then, they’ve kept the first place spot through to the last week of the Split and are currently in sole possession of it. In contrast to Team Liquid, who have been lagging a few steps behind. The reigning Lock In champions have been fluctuating between fourth and sixth place, all split long.
Going into their second matchup, Cloud9 were the favourites, while Team Liquid looked out of sorts, seemingly not being able to grasp a solid handle of what they wanted to do. But once both teams were on the rift, it all went out the window. Team Liquid showed glimpses of that Team Liquid from the Lock In tournament and completely stomped Cloud9 — although not ideal, Team Liquid ended the first round-robin on a high note at 5-4.
There wasn’t much of a difference this time around when it came to their third matchup of the season as, once again, Team Liquid dominated Cloud9.
The early game went as expected, seeing the two teams facing off. Robert “Blaber” Huang, alongside Luka “Perkz” Perkovic, forced Lucas “Santorin” Larsen’s flash by the mid lane, gaining a slight tempo advantage. This tempo advantage helped lead to a First Blood as Barney “Alphari” Morris made the misplay of using his Gnar jump to avoid an Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami Gangplank barrel. This misplay allowed for Blaber to come in for a gank — it ended in a trade of Flashes between Blaber and Alphari. In response, Santorin took the first drake of the game. A few minutes later, Team Liquid’s bottom lane got aggressive but only were compensated with a few summoners, mainly Perkz’s Flash. A lot of action in the first few minutes but no kills.
At nearly the 10-minute mark, both teams — minus their top laners — met up for a Rift Herald fight. Team Liquid were able to force Cloud9 away from the river, and as they were backing off, Perkz got aggressive in the mid lane looking for a play onto Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen. This led to a First Blood for Edward “Tactical” Ra as Perkz went too far forward. That one play gave Team Liquid the herald and their first tower of the game.
Even with their strong start to the game, Team Liquid were disjointed in the first real team fight of the game at 19 minutes. Team Liquid initially sent down the second rift herald of the game and got themselves a bottom lane tier one tower. To start the fight, Team Liquid were outnumbered as they were waiting for both Alphari and Jensen’s teleports to complete. Cloud9 took advantage of that and immediately engaged onto Santorin with a Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme Thresh hook, getting themselves a kill. While this happened, Alphari was able to finish his teleport and immediately went for a Gnar engage onto Zven; Zven quickly flashed away. This allowed for the rest of Cloud9 to pile on top of Alphari and kill him.
That team fight win netted them their first dragon of the game. A few minutes later, this was followed up by a pick onto Tactical, which led to their second dragon of the game. With a lead in hand, Cloud9 began to push their advantage. This was until Team Liquid decided to make the play that would put them back in the game. At nearly the 27-minute mark, Alphari went for a one versus one against Perkz in the bottom lane leading to a kill. This gave the rest of Team Liquid confidence to pull the trigger and immediately engage onto Vulcan by his raptor camp.
After that play, Team Liquid immediately hightailed towards Baron, but Cloud9 were able to stop them by sacrificing Blaber. Once this play was made, both teams reset for the next seven to eight minutes, with Team Liquid getting their fourth kill in between.
Once at nearly the 35-minute mark, the game sped up in pace. Team Liquid decided to split the map and had Alphari once again one versus one in the bottom lane but this time against Fudge. Alphari engaged onto Fudge and began to win the one versus one, allowing Team Liquid to make the call to start Baron. Cloud9 made the smart play to immediately engage onto a separated Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, killing him off, but while that happened, Alphari finished Fudge off.
Team Liquid were able to quickly rush the Baron and began to kite upwards as Cloud9 were looking for a pinch. Alphari quickly recalled after his fight versus Fudge and joined the fight. The fight ended ultimately ended up in a four for three.
With Baron in hand, Team Liquid began to siege Cloud9’s base. Slowly and methodically, they started with Cloud9’s bottom lane getting the inhibitor. After that, they moved up to the top side of the map where both CoreJJ and Tactical caught a yet again, overaggressive Perkz; this quickly led onto another pick onto Zven. Those two picks led to Team Liquid being able to finish the game.
Everyone had Cloud9 as the unanimous number one team in the league, and to just once again dominate them in the midst of a wobbly split even though they dominated Lock In, it has to be a great feeling. This match came down to decision-making, it came down to team fighting, and Team Liquid were just on top of it all.
Images via Riot Games
