LOL LCS Lock-in 2021 – Team Liquid vs Cloud9 Betting Preview and Prediction
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock-In tournament will come to a close on Sunday, January 31 with the grand finals bout between Cloud9 and Team Liquid. Seeing these two-sided make an appearance in the finals is not entirely shocking since they were priced as the main favourites to go all the way, however, there are definitely some arguments to be made about C9 looking much worse than expected – more about that later.
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Team Liquid vs Cloud9
Sunday, January 31 – at 13:00 PST
Cloud9 clawed their way into the LCS Lock-In finals with a shocking, yet very impressive reverse sweep win over 100 Thieves in the semi-finals. And it’s not like C9 did not deserve to win, but it’s hard not to be disappointed in 100T who did not look like themselves after securing the second map of the series. Their slip-up has cost us a big payout, but that’s early-season League of Legends for you.
The main thing to take away from C9’s victory over 100T is their strong team fighting and a solid mid-game which served as the main driving force behind their comeback. It will also act as their main weapon when facing Liquid, which should, in theory, provide us with a close bout, however, we have a few things to say about that.
When it comes to predicting the outcome of this match, I have to favour Team Liquid, who are much stronger than 100T, largely because they make far fewer mistakes in their games. And it’s not only their 3-0 sweep of EG yesterday that led us to this decision but also the quality of the performances this team has been showing throughout the entire tournament – and especially since the arrival of Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer.
As with any of C9’s matches, we have to put some focus on their weakest lane and how much of an impact it will have on the final outcome.
Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami has been averaging 4.7 KDA (2nd), 7.2 CSM (8th), 355 GPM (7th), 54.5% KP (5th), 351 DPM (11th) and has dealt only 19.7% of his team’s damage (lowest in the league), although his damage share does not tell us much since he is by no means the primary carry. Barney “Alphari” Morris, on the other side, exceeds Fudge in almost all of the mentioned stats with 5.5 KDA (1st), 8.2 CSM (1st), 430 GPM (1st), 49.3% KP (10th), 646 DPM (1st) and 29.3% damage share (2nd highest in the league).
It’s very hard to ignore the Alphari vs Fudge matchup, especially if we consider Alphari completely smashed the LCS Lock-In MVP candidate Jeong “Impact” Eon-young yesterday, so it’s fair to say Fudge will not have a fun time tonight.
There are, however, some cases we can make in favour of Cloud9. Their bottom lane has been playing well throughout the Lock-In and it’s nice to see Zven finally doing well in the laning phase, which is something he has traditionally been struggling with.
When we talk about advantages C9 COULD have, then we also can’t look past Luka “Perkz” Perković, who should arguably be the best player in the LCS and even though he has yet to show that form, you can’t deny he brings the “X factor” that can win you games.
Perkz, however, is also the only player on C9’s roster I could say is better than his counterpart and even that’s under the assumption that he can improve his performances and finally show what he is capable of. Then there is also Liquid’s questionable drafts which we got to see in their series against EG, but much of the same holds true for C9 who did not impress me with their team compositions so far either.
If we draw a line, Liquid are significantly stronger than C9 in the top lane and hold at least a marginal advantage in all remaining positions – besides (potentially) in the mid lane. They also play much cleaner LoL and come off as a more disciplined team, so you just have to favour them here.
We would side with Team Liquid to win at 1.450 but we already have a position with them to win the LCS Lock-In so we will pass on it. Another bet that might appeal to some is Liquid to win with at least two maps to spare (Liquid -1.5 maps) which pays at around 2.07.
Prediction: Team Liquid to win – 1.456 at Pinnacle
Prediction: Team Liquid -1.5 maps – 2.07 at Pinnacle
This bet has been provided for free and is not a part of our premium membership or BetMarkets, since we have already placed a bet on Liquid to win the tournament.
