FlyQuest vs Counter Logic Gaming
After taking down Immortals, TSM and Dignitas, FlyQuest will now look to claim their fourth consecutive win on LCS Summer against Counter Logic Gaming, who have shown a lot of improvement with their wins over Immortals, Golden Guardians and Dignitas.
The performances of these two sides in the opening two weeks looked fairly similar, which suggests this might be a close match. Having said that, FlyQuest did not impress with what they have shown against Dignitas. Although they came away with a comfortable win, they looked a bit shaky in the early-mid game. Something similar can be said for CLG, but they overall looked much sounder in their match against Dignitas compared to FlyQuest.
Although FlyQuest made it to the finals of LCS Spring, they did not look too sharp this split. While they managed to put up a lot of resistance against C9 in their opening game, FlyQuest’s overall performances looked a bit shaky. Even their win against TSM was arguably a result of TSM’s poor draft, so I don’t rank this team too high yet. Their decision to replace WildTurtle with Mash looks like a solid move, but he has played only two games with his team, so it’s hard to say whether Mash is as good as his current starts suggest.
I’m not ready to praise CLG yet, since Ruin and Wiggly have yet to show anything remarkable, albeit Pobelter and Stixxay have been doing their job well, which makes me believe CLG are not as bad as they are portrayed to be. Additionally, seeing Ruin expand his champion pool to use Volibear is a plus, since there are not many teams that know how to play against is – at least not yet.
I’m still a bit skeptical about betting on CLG outright, since they lack the needed macro play to defeat FlyQuest, but considering this team has been improving, while FlyQuest have not, CLG just might be able to keep this one close and entertaining.
Prediction: CLG +6.5 – 1.75
Cloud9 vs Team Liquid
Without being biased, Cloud9 are by far the strongest NA team in the league and unless we see some drastic changes in the meta, C9 will win another title without much hassle. This team not only has some of the best NA players on the team, but they also have a strong sense of how to approach games. We might see them trail in kills, but C9 will always be ahead in gold and their aggressive playstyle and strong impact on the map helps them snowball their early lead into commanding victories.
Team Liquid, on the other side, looked (relatively) strong, meaning they looked better than expected considering they lost Doublelift, but have yet to show anything remarkable. In fact, I had expected to see a bit more from them heading into this split, seeing how they had time to prepare themselves, unlike how it was in Spring with the visa issues and whatnot.
At the end of the day, Liquid are still a level below Cloud9, as it’s every other team. Their objective control is nowhere near as solid as that of C9 and TL are not nearly aggressive enough to keep up the pace with C9.
Cloud9 will eventually stumble and have a poor week, as any other team does, but from what we have seen from them, this team is not stopping. Zven had a bit shaky performance against Golden Guardians last week in the laning phase, which does not necessarily mean he lost the lane, but instead that he did not dominate his opponent. Nevertheless, I am not convinced Tactical can compete with him
Against EG, Liquid showed they might not be as strong as some may believe, and considering they failed to defeat EG and picked up only three kills, I have no confidence this game will end in any other way. Cloud9 should win this one with ease and I would not be surprised if they manage to close out the match with double digits kill lead.
Prediction: Cloud9 -7.5 kills – 1.826
