The three highlights of the 2022 LCS Championship
It's been a week since the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2022 LCS Championship finished and not only did it crown Cloud9 as the champions, but it decided which three teams would represent the North American region at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship.
The near one-month-long tournament that followed the 2022 Summer Split regular season had a total of eight teams compete for championship bragging rights and, of course, for a chance to get one of the three ever so illustrious Worlds spots. Following its culmination, three teams managed to snag the spots… Cloud9, 100 Thieves, and Evil Geniuses will all take to the international stage in their home region of North America and represent the LCS.
But before we can look towards the future, the World Championship, let’s highlight some of our eye-opening moments in this year’s LCS Championship.
Cloud9 takes it all: the championship and a Worlds first seed
It should come as no surprise that we’d put Cloud9 taking home the LCS Championship as one of our highlights.
This year this LCS dynasty team started off the season in a position that many would envy which was dominating the LCS Spring Split regular season. It was one of the Cloud9 patented springs, one that not only had all of its players firing on all cylinders but also contained MVP-winning top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae as its centerpiece. It was unreal, at the time the thought of Cloud9 being defeated in a game was unthinkable, let alone a best-of-series… But come playoffs, this all changed.
It wasn’t until they met 100 Thieves in the 2022 LCS Spring Split playoffs were not only were they defeated, they were completely figured out. Their put all of the eggs in the Summit carry basket and stopped working, it was now null and void. This made the team take a step back and rethink their ways; this meant changing up the roster, out with Summit Woo-tae and in former mid-laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen and now-support Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen.
To start the Summer Split this very much unexpected roster played how it first came together, wobbly. There weren’t many bright spots, much less one thing LCS fans could point to as a way to get far in the LCS Championship tournament. But nonetheless, this team blew everyone’s expectations away.
It all ended how it started, pure dominance. Cloud9 took a page out of their Spring Split book and not only redefined it but improved it tenfold. No longer was it all on Summit’s shoulders, it was a complete team effort. With AD Carry Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol as the team’s focus point, Cloud9 proved to be the absolute best team in the LCS going into Worlds.
Team Liquid fails to qualify for Worlds
It’d be difficult to not mention Team Liquid’s failure to not only not qualify for this year’s Worlds but also do so in an underwhelming fashion. Sure, nearly all of their matches were close, but that wasn’t for a good reason.
This team was a team that had extremely prominent members in the West, spanning both North America and Europe, and they failed. The roster that housed jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen, support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, mid-laner Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, top laner Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau, and AD Carry Steven “Hans Sama” Liv couldn’t even muster the third seed for the biggest international of the year.
That’s not even mentioning the fact that, although yes they won the LCS Lock In tournament earlier in the year, they failed to make the following finals each time.
Evil Geniuses take the LCS by surprise with a substitute
By first setting up a blueprint upon joining the LCS come franchising, Evil Geniuses played one hell of a long haul and got rewarded handsomely for it.
It all started with the first initial roster, one that over time not only evolved with key pick ups but transcended with the trust of young North American players, talents that eventually became a key part of the team and franchise, propelling it to its first-ever LCS championship. AD Carry Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki and mid-laner Joseph “Jojopyun” Pyun were the young guns to launch this team forward but they also had excellent help from their comrades. Top laner Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, jungler Kacper “Inspired” Sloma, and support Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme were all important pieces as well.
Come the LCS Championship, they proved to be a great cohesive unit as after Danny announced he was stepping down for a break, the Geniuses took no time to promote Academy AD Carry Muhammed Hasan “Kaori” Santurk. With him, they showcased greatness, taking down the aforementioned Team Liquid before ultimately falling to 100 Thieves on the way to the finals.
Their championship run and later on dominance in the Summer Split will always hold infamy, and now they get to showcase themselves once again on the international stage for a second time.