Silver Scrapes guaranteed this weekend – LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs

The second round of the LCS Playoffs is here. In the qualifier to the final, Team Liquid will face 100Thieves, while Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses will go head to head in elimination.

We take a look at both games along with our betting predictions.

Team Liquid vs 100 Thieves – Final before the Final

Let’s start with a blockbuster contest between the best team of this spring split Team Liquid and the reigning LCS champions in 100 Thieves. Liquid were taken all the way by a solid and resurgent Evil Geniuses team but came out on top after five maps of high-octane League of Legends. 100 Thieves breezed past a solid Cloud9 team on their way to this qualifier. Both teams are high on confidence.

This could come down to Liquid’s concerted aggression as opposed to 100 Thieves’ lane dominance. Liquid have been fantastic in the lanes, led by some of the most experienced players in not just the North American set-up but in entire League of Legends.

Liquid’s top laner Bwipo thoughts on the matchup are clear:

“100 Thieves like playing Ornn and playing scaling compositions where if their top laner doesn’t die, their mid and bot lane usually have strong enough scaling that their team will be fine. No matter what, I think that’s the name of the game for them, and it’s the same thing with us. Obviously, there are a lot of nuances in the jungle and the bot lane in terms of how that will exactly play out. There are windows for difference in gameplay.”

Liquid have been in strong form in the mid and bot lanes. Led by Hans Sama in the bot lane, who has produced returns of 3.94 kills, 1.89 deaths and 6.44 assists per map at a KDA of 5.5 with a creep score of 331. Bjergsen has returned to League of Legends in fine style, with numbers of 3.33 kills, 1.17 deaths and 7.06 assists at a KDA of 8.9.

Even though 100 Thieves also have a strong mid and bot laner pairing, in Abbedagge and FBI, it just seems like Team Liquid are a bit too strong over the course of a longer match, like five maps. And as a result, our betting pick would be Team Liquid for this game.

Cloud9 vs Evil Geniuses – Underdogs Galore

The second match will be between Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses, who have found some impressive form recently. Cloud9 were thrashed by 100 Thieves in the first round but came storming back in the losers’ bracket to beat Golden Guardians without dropping a map.

For Cloud9, there have been significant changes, including the drastic dip in form to Summit. As a result, Isles, Cloud9’s Academy support player, was drafted quickly into the match against Golden Guardians as a starter, and after a day of scrims, the franchise decided it was time to change tact for these playoffs.

“Tuesday was our first day of scrims, so Monday night, one of our managers messaged me and asked if I wanted to play LCS the following day. I said, yeah. It’s literally that simple,” Isles said. “In scrims, C9 weren’t doing their best. There was that week Fudge tweeted they went 0-15 in scrims, then they went 1-2 in the last week of the Spring Split before getting swept by 100 Thieves the following week.”

Evil Geniuses took Liquid all the way to Silver Scrapes, which will inspire them with plenty of confidence after a slow start to spring. Their mid laner Jojopyun has been a bit inconsistent as evident from his regular season stats of 2.63 kills, 2.47 deaths and 5.05 assists at a KDA of 3.11. However, bot laner Danny has compensated for that lack of offensive production with a high kill rate. Overall, he has managed 4.89 kills, 1.89 deaths and 3.53 assists at a KDA of 4.44.

On paper, it does seem like Evil Geniuses have a bit more in their roster, and they have been together for a while, which means that gamestyle has been iterated over time. Cloud9 eased past Golden Guardians but they will find that this EG unit makes for a much harder contest.

Expect another Silver Scrapes in this match.