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League of Legends LCS Summer Playoffs semifinals recap – marry, date, kill Clutch’s world chances

By Josh Tyler

League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games.
League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /
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CLG Wiggily, PowerofEvil, and Stixxay. League of Legends.
League of Legends. Courtesy of Riot Games. /

Two of the three LCS spots at Worlds are locked in. But with the League of Legends championship match for North America approaching, whose stock is the highest?

One more week of LCS play before the Gauntlet and already two of North America’s best League of Legends teams are locked into a spot at Worlds. Cloud9 and Team Liquid will not only meet in the finals next Sunday, but they will also be traveling to the 2019 League of Legends World Championships together in just a few weeks time.

Behind them, Clutch and CLG will battle for a higher spot in the Gauntlet with that third Worlds seed up for grabs. After the semifinal matches, which teams are we marrying, dating, and dumping as far as their chances going down the stretch.

More from LCS

Getting the third Worlds seed

Marry: CLG

Although their 3-1 series loss wasn’t nearly as close as the 3-2 Clutch/Liquid series, I still think CLG is the best North American team that will be playing in the Gauntlet. They will, unfortunately, not get a spot at the end of the Gauntlet (TSM will have that thanks to their second-place finish in spring) but I’m confident CLG would be able to beat any of the Gauntlet teams (FlyQuest, Clutch, and TSM) in order to make it back to Worlds for the first time since 2016.

Date: Clutch

Clutch put up one hell of a fight in their series against Liquid, nearly taking down the titans of NA. They’ll get to face CLG next week to determine which team will get pole advantage in the Gauntlet (the loser will start at the bottom of the Gauntlet, needing to beat FlyQuest to advance) but considering how well Clutch have played, even if they lose next week all they’ll have to do is beat FlyQuest (a team they swept in the Summer Split), TSM (a team they just ran over in the quarterfinals), and CLG (a tough but winnable series)

Dump: TSM

Forgetting the fact that CLG and Clutch both looked exceptionally strong in their losses, I have no faith in TSM despite the fact that they are in the catbird seat in the Gauntlet. They’ve already lost to Clutch in a playoff series and I don’t think they could stand up to CLG in a Best of Five either. Given all the drama that has emerged over the last week regarding their decision to swap out Akaadian for Spica, there are just too many distractions and not enough time for this team to turn things around.

MVP of the playoffs

Marry: Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng

Part of the reason I have so much trouble justifying Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in as the MVP of the Summer Split is that he gets to lane with Doublelift. Yes, CoreJJ is driving the action and Jensen stepped up massively to carry games, but can we appreciate just how damn good Doublelift was last weekend?

5.8 KDA, 68.7% kill participation, won lane every time, and contributed over 30.1% of his team’s damage. That’s on a team with Jensen, who leads the LCS playoffs in damage contribution. And Doublelift did it without taking Corki’s package into the enemy team to die.

Date: Cody “Cody Sun” Sun

I don’t think there is much of a debate anymore as to whether Cody Sun is a top-three ADC in North America. He was out of his mind in the series against Liquid and his 622 damage per minute over these playoffs is just straight bonkers.

Dump: Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong

For a guy who tends to get ahead in lane quite often (60% first blood rate, positive gold, XP, and CS differentials at 10) Impact does die a lot. His 2.8 deaths per game are one of the highest among top laners in the playoffs, as is his 24.1% percent of his team’s deaths. It’s not even as if he is contributing a ton to his team before dying, positing below-average damage shares, kill participation, and gold shares.

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