LCS 2022 Summer Split Week 2 Takeaways

Following up on a rewarding first week of League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2022 Summer Split play came a second week full of surprises.

The same expected powerhouses, Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid continue to be impressed by a surprising Counter Logic Gaming that not only managed to beat the reigning LCS Spring Split champions but continue to showcase solid overall play. This was paired up by a set of bounce-back performances by both a Cloud9 who got their full roster back and a Team SoloMid upset over Team Liquid. 

There was a lot to take in from the LCS 2022 Summer Split's second week. With that in mind, here are some of our takeaways.

Counter Logic Gaming Continue To Defy Logic With Another Strong Week

Coming into the 2022 LCS Season and the Summer Split, Counter Logic Gaming wasn't one of the team's go-to picks to perform well. They only won six matches in the spring and were looking to do better come summer. 

Last week, alongside reigning champions, Evil Geniuses and super team, Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming did something they hadn't done since the LCS 2017 Summer Split which going completely undefeated to start off a split. This was largely in part by their new top laner, Niship "Dhokla" Doshi showcasing some overall solid performances.

Now in the second week, they've kept the ball rolling, one that, although had them drop a game to FlyQuest also pushed them to upset North America's MSI representatives in a marathon of a match that had both teams combine for 37 kills. 

Cloud9 Rewrites Week 1's Wrongs After Establishing Their Full Roster

Before the likes of Evil Geniuses jumping into the forefront for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) came to fruition, there was one team that everyone touted to be North America's representative internationally - Cloud9.

They had swagger, dominance, and an MVP-winning top-laner in Park "Summit" Woo-tae, they had it all - it was vintage spring Cloud9. No team could contest them in mostly metric or mark, and surely they were destined to take it all the way. However, once the Spring Split playoffs began, things turned for the worse for one of the LCS' dynasty organisations. The "prop up Summit" plan was figured out and quickly countered, and they finished in a disappointing fourth place - certainly not what they aimed for to start the split.

This prompted them to make fairly significant changes. First, Summit was gone and former top-laner turned mid-laner returned home as Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami set his mid-lane endeavours aside and went back to the top lane. The change paved the way for one of the LCS' greatest mid-laners, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen to return to the team after he failed to make the cut in the spring.

Predictions of how this team would perform range from the future LCS champions to bottom of the barrel and during Week 1 the latter rung true as their starting bot-lane that now has Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen at support couldn't show up. However, come week 2, that proved to not be the case as Cloud9, now that they finally had all of their starters, they managed to repair the previous week's damages with a flawless weekend in Week 2. 

Team SoloMid Upsets Team Liquid, Springing Some Life Back Into The Team

So many questions were raised concerning Team SoloMid as a whole before and during the 2022 season so far. Can they go back to their former glory? Can they perform well without their prized mid-laner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg? 

To start the 2022 season, the once-great organisation took on a completely different route when it came to its roster. They kept their foundation of top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon and jungler Mingyi "Spica" Lu but made significant changes everywhere else. This led to the team severely underperforming and finishing in ninth place in the Spring Split. 

Looking to not repeat that, they made a crucial change, one that brought in LMS legend, mid-laner Peng "Maple" Zi-Wei into the mix. So far, for Week 1, that didn't prove to be much, however, for Week 2 Maple with his Zoe paved the way for them upsetting Team Liquid alongside Spica.