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The top four teams in the League Championship Series Summer Split all won on Thursday, creating a little bit of space in the standings as the push for playoff positioning begins to pick up.

Evil Geniuses maintained the hold on the top overall spot at 9-2 with a 24-minute win over 100 Thieves, while Golden Guardians and Cloud9 kept pace with wins to improve to 8-3. Golden Guardians were the only team in the day’s five matches to win on red.

The 10 teams in the top North American League of Legends circuit will play every other team twice in the group phase, which runs through July 21. All group-stage matches will consist of a single map.

The first- and second-place teams will head to the upper-bracket semifinals for the double-elimination playoffs. The third- through sixth-place teams will open the playoffs in the upper-bracket quarterfinals. The seventh- and eighth-place teams will enter the postseason in the lower bracket, while the ninth- and 10th-place teams will be eliminated.

The playoffs will feature best-of-five matches. The top three finishers will earn berths in the League of Legends World Championship, to be played in South Korea from Oct. 10 to Nov. 19. The fourth-place finisher will head to a wild-card qualifier with a chance to land a spot at the World Championship.

On Thursday, William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen of Sweden paced EG with an 8-0-4 kill-death-assist ratio while a quartet of 100 Thieves players tied for the team in kills — with one apiece.

Golden Guardians weren’t nearly as dominant in their effort against FlyQuest, but behind a pair of seven-kill efforts (Kim “River” Dong-woo of South Korea, 7-2-12 K-D-A; Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes, 7-3-6), they still got the win in 35 minutes. Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan of South Korea accounted for more than half of FlyQuest’s 12 kills with seven.

Cloud9 got an 8-1-4 showing from Jang “EMENES” Min-soo of South Korea to beat Dignitas in 30 minutes. Dignitas was led by Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen of Denmark and his four kills.

Team Liquid became the only other team in the standings with a winning record, improving to 6-5 with a 25-minute win over Immortals. Eain “APA” Stearns led the winners with an 8-0-3, while Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in of South Korea posted a whopping 14 saves in the win. As was the case with 100 Thieves, Immortals had four players tie for the team lead with one kill.

In the day’s other match, TSM topped NRG in 35 minutes behind Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell’s 7-0-8. Cristian “Palafox” Palafox paced NRG with two kills.

Week 5 wraps up on Friday with five more matches.
–Dignitas vs. FlyQuest
–NRG vs. Evil Geniuses
–Immortals vs. Cloud9
–Team Liquid vs. 100 Thieves
–Golden Guardians vs. TSM

League Championship Series Spring Split group-stage standings
1. Evil Geniuses, 9-2
T2. Cloud9, 8-3
T2. Golden Guardians, 8-3
4. Team Liquid, 6-5
T5. 100 Thieves, 5-6
T5. Dignitas, 5-6
T5. TSM, 5-6
8. NRG, 4-7
9. FlyQuest, 3-8
10. Immortals, 2-9

League Championship Series Spring Split prize pool
1. $100,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
2. $50,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
3. $30,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
4. $20,000, berth in wild-card qualifier for League of Legends World Championship
5-10. No prize money

–Field Level Media