Last weekend took place the quarter-finals of the European and North American League of Legends LCS instead. The fans in NA could (had to) the end of an era and the retirement of Team SoloMid (TSM) watch.
League of Legend EU:
Already on Friday could Splyce quite clearly 3-0 against the team Roccat push through. Splyce will have the next heavyweight opponent next Friday G2 esports stand in front of you in the semifinals. G2 Esports and Fnatic were able to secure a bye for the quarter-finals through their placement in the season.
A much more exciting match awaited us in the team on Saturday Vitality surprising against H2K could win. The series continued until the decisive 5th match in which Vitality ADC Minitroupax achieved the victory with 7/2/3.
League of Legends NA - The End of an Era
Even the first quarter-final Cloud9 against Team Liquid should cause a surprise. On paper one would have expected a hard-fought series with 5 games, as both teams are rated equally strong. Team Liquid with ADC Doublelift and Cloud 9 with Jensen in the midlane, each had different strengths and star players around which their teams could group.
Unfortunately, the fans in the studio saw how Team Liquid was able to prevail with 3-0 and Cloud 9 just couldn't get into the game. The individual matches weren't as clear as the end result, but Cloud 9 couldn't take advantage of Liquid's mistakes.
Play with it Team Liquid next week against Echo fox in the semifinals.
Team Solo Mid vs. Clutch gaming
The sensation, however, was the match on Sunday evening Team Solo Mid against Clutch gaming.
Team SoloMid was on a winning streak after the bumpy start to the season and it finally seemed to have clicked. The new team, with the botlane imported from the EU, finally played as the fans expected. Accordingly, nobody doubted a clear victory for the record champions in NA. So far, TSM has been in EACH NA final and was able to win 8 of them, a unique dominance in the region, which was always the consolation for the poor results at the world championships.
After TSM's opening win in the first game, everything seemed to be going according to plan. Then, however, Clutch Gaming began supporting gamers Hakuoh warming up with Thresh. Almost every hook landed and usually meant a dead TSM champion. And not only in game 2, which CG won, but also in games 3 and 4.
Hakuoh provided the engages and his team followed. On the other hand, on the other hand, one could clearly see morale crumbling. Especially with TSM newcomer MikeYeung the nerves were on edge and a series of bad invades and fights followed. In the 4th game at the latest, he had also infected Support Xmithy on Tahm Kench. Top Laner Hauntzer, who is always noticed on Twitter with very "optimistic" statements, could not follow up with his words either. ADC Zven At most it fell on the fact that he caught every hook from Thresh and accordingly spent a lot of time on the floor.
Nothing came together on all fronts for TSM and so the sensation was not only perfect, but also completely justified. Clutch Gaming won 3-1 and is the first team that TSM could ever beat before the playoff final.
Since before Cloud 9 flew out and CLG didn't get into the playoffs, there will definitely be a new NA champion this season. Maybe the Liquid Meme team will always strike 4th in positive form and TL will be the 4th NA LCS winner?
CG will fight 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals next week for a place in the finals.
All semi-final matches can be followed live on Riot's League of Legends channels on Youtube, Twitch or LoLesports.com.