Week 3 of League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) is set to kick off this Saturday, February 8, with four exciting fixtures between top North American LoL teams, some of which will look to continue their strong start of the season, while others will hope they can find their rhythm and start performing on the level that is expected of them.
We had a very successful run on Day 1 of last week, where we hit all but one prediction, as Evil Genuises failed to secure two more kills before the loss to Golden Guardians. Nonetheless, it was a great week, and we will hope we can reproduce the results this time out. So without further ado, let’s jump into our LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 3, Day 1 predictions.
Evil Genuises vs Counter Logic Gaming
Saturday, February 8 – 14:00 PST
Counter Logic Gaming are entering Week 3 with a 0-4 record, making the worst team in the league and to be fair, they deserve to be seen as one. They failed to show anything, which includes bad communication, questionable macro play and weird drafts, and the results of that are clearly visible. Talking about bad drafts, Evil Genuises are in the same position as Counter Logic Gaming.
Much like CLG, Evil Genuises have their own problems and while they are a better team on the paper, their performances are nowhere near solid. We must give them some praise for their performance against Golden Guardians where they almost won, and even had their moments against TSM, but in the end, they failed in execution and fell flat on both occasions.
Comparing the two sides it’s hard to pick out a winner. Evil Genuises are a hit-or-miss team, while CLG have been outright disastrous so far this season. As we see it, EG are rightfully the favorites here, but due to their inconsistencies, we believe CLG can at least give them a run for their money. The total kills line is set at 21.5, which we believe is slightly too low for this match. As we see it, EG will either completely stomp CLG just like FlyQuest did, or the teams will go back and forth for well over 30 minutes, which should be enough time for them to produce 22 kills combined.
Prediction: Over 21.5 – 2.02 Pinnacle
100 Thieves vs Team Liquid
Saturday, February 8 – 15:00 PST
Team Liquid are entering this match as clear favorites, which is fair, as they are still a superior team to 100 Thieves, even though they don’t have their star jungler ready to make his debut in the LCS.
That said, we don’t believe 100 Thieves should be completely overlooked here. They had a solid showing against C9, and while they lost with a convincing fashion, they did not get stomped which is a promising sign. Their bottom lane had a solid performance last week while we are pleasantly surprised with Tommy “Ryoma” Le’s performance so far this season.
While 100 Thieves have little to no chance of winning this, they have shown enough for us to believe they can go toe-to-toe with the best which leads us to believe they can drag this match out for long enough and produce enough resistance for the final score showing over 21 kills combined.
Prediction: Over 21.5 kills – 2.02 Pinnacle
Prediction: Team Liquid – 6.5 kills – 1.96 Pinnacle
Team SoloMid vs Dignitas
Saturday, February 8 – 16:00 PST
Arguably one of the most exciting matches of the week, will see Dignitas take on Team SoloMid in what will finally give us an answer whether Dignitas are the “real deal” or were they simply overachieving in the opening weeks.
Team SoloMid had a slow start of the season, but they have shown some clear signs of improvement. We have already praised them last week and we will continue doing so, as we believe they are a team that will pop off and surprise everyone in not so distant future. That said, they will need to prove themselves against Dignitas who have shown they are a team that deserves a lot of respect, despite their less-than-impressive defeat against Team Liquid last week.
Both teams are playoffs contenders and we expect them to produce a playoffs-level match this Saturday. Odds show TSM as favorites, which is fair, however, this match can go either way.
We are a bit concerned, with the top lane. If Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon gets ahead, he will play aggressively and stomp his opponents into the dirt. If he does not get ahead, he will still play aggressively, which can backfire big time as seen in their clash with FlyQuest. His Saturday’s opponent will be Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik who has been playing well this season, making this lane a 50/50. And the same can be said for both mid and bottom lane.
With that in mind, this match seems like a toss-up bout, which should see the two sides go back and forth. If TSM can avoid falling behind early, they should deliver here and win, and we will trust them to do just that.
Prediction: Team SoliMid to win – 1.77 Pinnacle
Prediction: Over 22.5 kills – 1.98 Pinnacle
Cloud9 vs FlyQuest
Saturday, February 8 – 17:00 PST
Following the TSM versus Dignitas clash, we will tune into the match of the day, featuring two of the best performing teams now – Cloud9 and FlyQuest, who will meet on the Rift for the first time this season.
Comparing the two teams and their strengths, Cloud9 are clearly the better team. The only way FlyQuest can (maybe) win is if they somehow have a stronger early game, and even then we don’t know if that will be enough for them to triumph. Cloud9 have not yet played a match where they had to fight from behind, which does make us wonder whether they are one of the teams that can produce comebacks. They were notorious for that last Summer, but we have yet to see them show that quality this season.
Nonetheless, that is one big IF, and we would not count on that happening here. Cloud9 have been the dominant team this season and their individual quality alone should be enough to win here. FlyQuest had their moments of greatness and even played well against Dignitas, but even that win came as a result of Dignitas’ mistakes rather than FlyQuest’s superb performance.
We don’t expect anything less than a dominant performance from C9 here, who have momentum on their side and should overrun FlyQuest with their fast pace and superb individual quality.
Prediction: Cloud 9 – 7.5 kills – 1.99 Pinnacle
Best Bet: Team Liquid – 6.5 kills – 1.96 Pinnacle
