Their spots in the upper-bracket semifinals already locked up, Cloud9 and FlyQuest squared off Wednesday with one goal in mind: the regular-season crown in the League of Legends League Championship Series Spring Split.
Now, with two games left before the playoffs, Cloud9 have that crown virtually at their fingertips.
Cloud9 beat FlyQuest in 27 minutes on the opening day of Week 8 to improve to 13-3, one game better than 12-4 FlyQuest with only two games remaining.
The 10 teams in the top North American League of Legends circuit play every other team twice through Friday. The first- through fourth-place teams will then head to the upper-bracket semifinals of the double-elimination playoffs. The fifth- and sixth-place teams will enter the playoffs in the lower bracket.
The winner and runner-up in the playoff final will earn berths in the Mid-Season Invitational along with other teams from LoL leagues worldwide. The LCS Spring Split carries a $200,000 prize pool, with the champion earning $100,000.
Playing on blue, Cloud9 got a 6/0/3 kills/deaths/assists ratio from game MVP Robert “Blaber” Huang and a 3/0/5 from Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol. Only two FlyQuest players had kills, and each had only one.
100 Thieves and Counter Logic Gaming kept their hopes for top-four playoff spots alive with wins. 100 Thieves, also on blue, beat TSM in 47 minutes, thanks in large part to Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s whopping 11/2/9. Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang led TSM with a 10/3/5.
As for CLG, Fatih “Luger” Guven led the way in the 39-minute win on red over Golden Guardians with six kills, while Philippe “Poome” Lavoie-Giguere paced the team with 12 assists. Kim “River” Dong-woo posted a 3/6/3 for GG in the loss.
With GG’s loss, Evil Geniuses retained sole possession of third place despite losing in 38 minutes to Immortals. Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura led the winners, who were playing on red, with a 6/0/3. A trio of EG players had one kill each, including Ian Victor “FBI” Huang.
In the final match of the day, Team Liquid beat Dignitas, who occupy the bottom in the standings, needing only 31 minutes while playing on blue. Liquid got a 5/1/2 from Harry “Haeri” Kang. Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen led Dignitas with a 2/3/3.
Thursday’s matches:
–Evil Geniuses vs. 100 Thieves
–FlyQuest vs. Golden Guardians
–Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Liquid
–Immortals vs. Cloud9
–TSM vs. Dignitas
League Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split group-stage standings
1. Cloud9, 13-3
2. FlyQuest, 12-4
3. Evil Geniuses, 10-6
4. Golden Guardians, 9-7
t5. Counter Logic Gaming, 8-8
t5. 100 Thieves, 8-8
t7. TSM, 7-9
t7. Team Liquid, 7-9
9. Immortals, 4-12
10. Dignitas, 2-14
–Field Level Media
