LCS 2022 Summer Split Week 8 Takeaways

The second and final League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Super Week was a sight to behold. Reigning LCS champions, Evil Geniuses, and runners-up 100 Thieves clinched a playoff bye, giving themselves a well-earned break to start the postseason.

At the same time, teams like Team Liquid, Cloud9, and a surprising Counter Logic Gaming proved themselves to be the next in line. All the while Golden Guardians managed to take the final LCS Championship slot after they ended an eight-game losing streak following an improbable comeback win. 

It was a lot to take in for the final week of the Summer Split. With that in mind, here are some of our takeaways.

Golden Guardians Quash Eight-Game Losing Streak And Nab The Final LCS Championship Spot

From an eight-game losing streak to an eighth seed in the playoffs, there aren’t many ways for a team to make an entrance into the postseason as epic as this one as Golden Guardians made sure to take that eight and final playoff spot in an astonishing fashion. 

This came after the team took down the fellow bottom of the standings partners, Dignitas, in which, if Dignitas won, an inevitable three-way tiebreaker between them, Golden Guardians, and Immortals would have ensued.

To start, it was all bad news for the Golden Guardians. Dignitas’ mid-laner, Ersin "Blue" Goren was 5/0/1 on Ahri before 14 minutes had even passed, they captured the first three drakes, and Dignitas were out of options completely. 

But that wouldn’t last as thanks to a 1000-gold shutdown kill by AD Carry Traver "Stixxay" Hayes, the Golden Guardians ball got rolling. For every objective Dignitas took, Golden Guardians replied back. This was all until a final game-breaking team fight in which Golden Guardians won.

100 Thieves Top Off Their Impressive Late-Split Run With A Comeback Win Over Team Liquid

One could say that there is no hungrier team in the LCS right now than 100 Thieves. Hell-bent on righting their Spring Split wrongs after losing in record-breaking fashion to Evil Geniuses in the finals thus missing out on back-to-back championships, this team has had their eyes set on revenge since the day they lost the final. 

This has been showcased throughout their play in the split thus far and for their first-round bye clinching match versus North American superteam, Team Liquid, this was no different. 

At first, the Thieves were down a hole early as Team Liquid, who also were looking to secure a top-two seed in the LCS Summer Playoffs, got off to a great start, but 100 Thieves proved to be too difficult to topple.

Throughout the match, Team Liquid didn’t let up, putting on the pressure on every nook and cranny, led by a significant lead provided by their bottom lane of AD Carry Steven "Hans Sama" Liv and support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in, who had all of the teams six kills prior to the 20-minute mark.

That pressure, led to Team Liquid acquiring a 5,000 gold lead, one that 100 Thieves quickly reduced with several team fight wins across the map. This allowed for a fairly even game between the two teams, with similar kills, turrets, and overall gold. This was until a 31-minute team fight in which the Thieves made short work of, claiming Infernal Dragon Soul and eventually the game.

Cloud9 Take The Tiebreaker Versus FlyQuest

Complete and utter domination was displayed by Cloud9 during the Spring Split but come playoff time, that just was no longer the case. Their now former MVP top laner, Park "Summit" Woo-tae was figured out and their opponents figured them out. 

This led to a team change, one that saw the team’s old mid-laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and former AD Carry turned support, Jesper "Sven" Svenningsen, rejoin the team while also having Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami return to his spot in the top lane. 

Somewhat starting from the ground up, this pseudo-new team had to quickly work out their problems. The team that dominated the LCS Spring Split was no more and now they had to recoup, and recoup they did.

All Summer Split long, Cloud9 remained a solid middle-of-the-pack staple and that’s how it ended going into the LCS Championship. Thanks to a relatively easy tiebreaker match versus FlyQuest, the team took home the fifth seed.