The first finalist for the 2022 LCS Spring Split will be decided this weekend as top seed Team Liquid will take on 100 Thieves in what could be the closest best-of-five series of the playoffs so far.
After both teams advanced with a victory in the first round of the upper bracket, it’s now time to find the first finalist. Team Liquid entered the playoffs as the first seed but had more struggles than expected taking down Evil Geniuses in a series that went to all five games. 100 Thieves raced through its first series with an impressive 3-0 sweep over Cloud9.
This leaves this match in a tight spot where Liquid might not enter as the big favorite that everyone expected. Given 100 Thieves’ recent dominance, fans should be looking forward to a very close match that could go in all sorts of directions.
Santorin to try stopping Closer’s momentum
With star power at every position for both teams, this series might also include the highest level of play that has been seen in the LCS so far this split. Team Liquid is full of individual skill and has the ability to play towards most lanes. Jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen will have to judge whether he wants to play towards his strong bot lane or maybe try to get top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau a lead, as Bwipo didn’t have his best series against EG last week.
For 100 Thieves, it will be all about carrying on its momentum from a win against C9. In that match, it was jungler Can “Closer” Celik who mainly stood out by punishing everything C9 tried to do around the map. This led to the quick 3-0 and makes Closer an important tool when going up against the solid Liquid roster.
Focus will likely be in the jungle because of how Closer has played recently, but if anyone can stop him it may be Santorin and the rest of TL. But if Liquid doesn’t fix some of its clear weaknesses from the EG series, then it could turn out in favor of 100 Thieves despite 100T coming into this series as the underdog.
Liquid will have to play a bit more swiftly in the early game, as they can’t play so slow against the likes of 100 Thieves and expect to win based on macro and team fighting alone. Liquid will also have to take care when acquiring an advantage, as the team has previously been punished for aggression and potential disrespect of its opponents.
All in all, this is shaping up to be a banger of a series where a lot of focus should be on the junglers and how they prioritize their time on the map.
100 Thieves vs. Team Liquid rosters
100 Thieves roster:
- Top – Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho
- Jungle – Can “Closer” Celik
- Mid – Felix “Abbedagge” Brain
- Bot – Ian “FBI” Huang
- Support – Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun
Team Liquid roster:
- Top – Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau
- Jungle – Lucas “Santorin” Larsen
- Mid – Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg
- Bot – Steven “Hans Sama” Liv
- Support – Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in
100 Thieves will face Team Liquid as an underdog in the LCS
Despite 100 Thieves’ incredible performances recently, the bookmakers are still putting Liquid as the favorite for this match. Liquid is by no means as big of a favorite as previously expected, but the odds are in favor of the defending LCS Lock In champion. This means that good odds on 100 Thieves can be had for those who believe that 100T can continue its momentum and create an upset in this series. 100 Thieves is still the defending LCS champion and has shown great improvement over the last few weeks. Because of this trend, we are going with 100 Thieves to surprise in this match in a series that will likely go to all five maps.
Picking Liquid as the winner of this match will give odds of 1.60 while we believe that going with 100 Thieves to win at odds of 2.20 will give better value compared to the risk involved.
The first LCS finalist will be decided on Saturday, April 16, when the battle between Team Liquid and 100 Thieves kicks off.
