Team Liquid defeated Cloud9 3-1 on Sunday in the upper-bracket final to advance to the grand final of the League of Legends’ League Championship Series Summer playoffs.
Cloud9 dropped to the lower-bracket final against LYON on Saturday, with the winner facing Team Liquid on Oct. 4. Cloud9 beat LYON 3-1 in the upper-bracket semifinals on Sept. 19.
The LCS Summer Split is an eight-team event that began July 25 and will run through the grand final. A seven-week round-robin regular season — in which all teams played each other once in a best-of-three match — set the field for the six-team playoffs.
The top two teams in the regular season — LYON and Team Liquid — advanced to the playoff semifinals, while the third- through sixth-place teams advanced to the quarters. The bottom two teams in the standings were eliminated.
The teams that claim the top three positions in the playoffs will qualify for the $5 million LoL World Championship, scheduled for Oct. 15-Nov. 14. The fourth- and fifth-place teams will receive spots in the $223,000 Demacia Cup Global Invitational, to be held Oct. 3-17 in China.
On Sunday, Team Liquid started strong against Cloud9, winning in 32 and 27 minutes on blue. Cloud9 stayed alive with a 22-minute victory on blue, then Team Liquid closed out the match with a 47-minute triumph on blue.
South Korean Park “Morgan” Ru-han paced Team Liquid with a 19-7-23 kill-death-assist ratio, while teammate Brandon Joel “Josedeodo” Villegas of Argentina had an 18-5-24 K-D-A ratio. Sean “Yeon” Sung of the United States had a 14-8-26 ratio, and Jo “Corejj” Yong-in of South Korea had match-high 45 assists. Villegas, Sung and Park were voted MVPs of the first, second and fourth maps, respectively.
Canadian Phillippe “Vulcan” Laflamme of Cloud9 was selected the MVP of the third map and finished with a 2-8-36 ratio.
League of Legends’ League Championship Series Summer split final standings
1. TBD, qualify for LoL World Championship
2. TBD, qualify for LoL World Championship
3. TBD, qualify for LoL World Championship
4. Shopify Rebellion, qualify for Demacia Cup Global Invitational
5. FlyQuest, qualify for Demacia Cup Global Invitational
6. Sentinels
7. Disguised
8. Dignitas
–Field Level Media
