The final round of the LCS 2020 Summer playoffs upper bracket will see Team Liquid clash with FlyQuest for a spot in the grand finals and a shot at the eternal glory that comes with winning the league.
Team Liquid entered the playoffs as the regular season champions and extended their dominance with a clean 3-0 win against Golden Guardians. Well, clean might not be the best word to describe the series, since Liquid made a few mistakes here and there, but at the end of the day, a win is still a win.
FlyQuest, on the other side, fought their way through the playoffs with a shaky 3-2 win over Evil Genuises in the first round and a commanding 3-1 win against Cloud9 in the second which now sits them only one step from reaching their second LCS grand finals in a row.
Both teams have proven they are worthy to lift the LCS trophy, but they also both share one weakness and that is making silly mistakes that can (and like will) cost one of them the win. It’s kind of weird to rank teams not based on their individual quality, but instead by the number of mistakes they can make, or rather the amount to mistakes the opposing team will likely make, but that’s where we are now.
Team Liquid are still a stronger opponent in this matchup and are rightfully priced as the favorites. Even though I was not impressed with their performances through the season where they claimed more than a few games that were way too close to call, they have shown a great deal of improvement in the playoffs, especially their jungle and top lanes.
The biggest concern, I have with them, however, is their drafting and how will that affect the course of the game. Winning draft is also the main win condition for FlyQuest, who still lack some individual quality to compare to Liquid on the stage but tend to be more efficient in composing a strong team. It’s worth noting that TL players in most part possess a deep champion pool, but they seem to be very inflexible in a way that when they pick outside their comfort zone, they don’t perform as well as they would otherwise.
Another thing that I must mention to further emphasize just how important draft will be is the fact that both teams play slow and controlled playstyle, meaning these games could end up very slow and will eventually come down to which team will have better team compositions to win in the late game.
This match can easily go into five maps unless either side chokes and drops the ball and while TL are still the most likely victors, I have to trust FlyQuest to draft well – as they did against C9 – and win at least two maps.
Prediction: FlyQuest +1.5 maps – 1.892
