Yesterday marked the final match in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Quarterfinals for the summer split. Riot Games normally has some of the smoothest production in the industry, but this time it went a little rocky. The second match in the EU LCS was supposed to be on Sunday. Due to technical difficulties, they had to push the match back a couple of days.
This was actually a pretty standard quarter final that went in-line with almost all of my predictions, but it was definitely interesting, nonetheless.
EU LCS MATCH 1: Unicorns of Love vs. Giants – UOL WIN 3-1
This was an awesome series that featured some off-meta picks. Game one featured a Unicorns of Love victory due to the power of a Ryze and Kennen combo. Game two was a Giants victory, led by the strength of Ekko mid versus a Kassadin. The third game was probably the closest of the series, but UOL ran away with it after about the eighteenth minute. The Unicorns closed out the series in quite a dominating fashion in just four games.
EU LCS MATCH 2: H2K vs. Fnatic – H2K WIN 3-0
Fnatic’s coach had departed from the team just days before the match. Everyone knew that there were some problems in the organization, but no one knew how they would perform. H2K had problems of their own this split. They got rid of their AD Carry, Forgiven, in the off-season because of personal issues with his teammates. They picked up Freeze for the position but he had wrist problems toward the end of the split and could not play in the playoffs. In order to fill the AD Carry role, they picked Forgiven back up, in spite of the team’s personal issues. H2K proved to be just too much for Fnatic, because they absolutely crushed the competition in just three games.
NA LCS MATCH 1: Cloud 9 vs. Envyus – C9 WIN 3-1
This series was all about Cloud 9’s mid-laner, Jensen. He went absolutely off on Syndra in the first game, busting out nine kills in their defeat. The second game he played Syndra again and tied an LCS playoff record with 14 kills. Cloud 9 picked up the third game after Jensen managed to go the whole game without dying. The fourth game featured Jensen, yet again, going off by breaking an all-time LCS record with 20 kills on LeBlanc.
NA LCS MATCH 2: Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Liquid – CLG WIN 3-1
Team Liquid has had quite an odd season. They subbed out their world champion AD Carry, Piglet, for Fabby, a rookie that no one has ever heard about. Fabby proved time and time again that he was not fit for the role, and Liquid noticed that a little too late. Team Liquid’s coach, LocoDoco, subbed out Fabby after losing the first two games in this series. They brought in another no-name AD Carry, Jynthe. This guy actually went of in game three, carrying Team Liquid to their only win of the series by posting seven kills on Ashe. Counter Logic Gaming looked like the more seasoned team in this series and punched their ticket to another semi-final.
This weekend is the semi-finals for the LCS. There are some awesome match-ups in both regions. Team Solo Mid is facing off against their biggest rivals, Counter Logic Gaming, for a rematch of the last two NA LCS finals. After an awesome 16-2 end to the split, Immortals will be battling against Cloud 9 to see who can go to the finals. Immortals finished 17-1 in the spring split but could only manage to finish third in the playoffs.