Team Liquid made sure a hiccup didn’t turn into a full-blown emergency.
A week after suffering their first loss in the League Championship Series Summer Split, Liquid swept Dignitas on Saturday to wrap up their regular season and lock up a coveted top-two spot in the standings.
Cloud9 won the day’s other match to move into third place with one day left in the regular season.
The LCS Summer Split is an eight-team event that began July 25 and will run through the finals in October. The seven-week round-robin regular season — in which all teams play each other once in a best-of-three match — will set the field for the six-team playoffs.
The top two teams in the regular season will advance to the playoff semifinals, while the third- through sixth-place teams will advance to the quarters. The bottom two teams in the standings are eliminated.
The playoffs, which run Sept. 12 through Oct. 4, are best-of-five and double elimination. The top three teams will advance to the World Championship, played in New York, Los Angeles and Allen, Texas, from Oct. 15 through Nov. 14.
After losing to LYON last Sunday to put both teams at 5-1 with one weekend remaining in the regular season, Liquid topped Dignitas in 25 and 29 minutes on Saturday, taking the first map on blue and the second on red. South Korean Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung posted a 13/1/13 kill/death/assist ratio in the win while teammate Brandon Joel ” Josedeodo” Villegas of Argentina posted a 12/0/16. Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett had a 2/8/2 in the loss.
In the day’s other match, Cloud9 needed to put in a little more work than did Liquid but still got the sweep, taking down Sentinels in 27 and 33 minutes, both times on blue. Lee “Loki” Sang-min of South Korea posted an 11/2/13 in the win. Countryman Cho “Rahel” Min-seong went for 8/7/7 in the loss.
LYON will get their shot at a 6-1 regular season and trip to the semifinals on Sunday when they face Disguised. A pair of teams currently in the 5-6 spots play in the other match, Shopify Rebellion vs. FlyQuest.
LCS Summer Split Standings
Place, Team (Match Record, Map Record)
1. Team Liquid (6-1, 12-3)
2. LYON (5-1, 11-2)
3. Cloud9 (5-2, 10-7)
4. Sentinels (4-3, 9-8)
5. Shopify Rebellion (3-3, 8-8)
6. FlyQuest (2-4, 4-8)
7. Disguised (1-5, 3-10)
8. Dignitas (0-7, 3-14)
–Field Level Media
