2022 LCS Spring Split Week 2 Day 1 Recap

Team Liquid vs Cloud9 delivers. 100Thieves fumble at the end. FlyQuest… undefeated??

DIG vs EG

EvilGeniuses debuted their smite top with Karma and it couldn’t have started worse. Impact made up 100% of the game’s deaths going into the early-mid game but Dignitas were unable to keep their dragon stacking going and didn’t push the envelope on accelerating the game. Eventually the late-game carries of EG scaled with Jojopyun single-handedly winning them some fights with massive Corki poke in the mid game, as well as a one-man base defense in order to stop Blue’s Ahri from splitpushing to win.

BlogofLegends MVP: EG Jojopyun (1)

100T vs IMT: PowerOfYeezus Strikes True

In a lopsided game that ended as abruptly, Immortals take the unlikely win after going 0-6 for the start of the 2022 season, off of an extremely good performance from PowerOfEvil’s Syndra. Closer and the 100Thieves got off to a rampaging start early, with the Turkish jungler’s Viego completely annihilating the Immortals lineup in big teamfights with his razor-sharp mechanics. However, PowerOfEvil and WildTurtle held strong and with game-changing Syndra stuns from the German mid laner, combined with lightning quick spacing from Old Man Turtle, Immortals ace 100T in a mid-game teamfight and just push for the win, snapping their lose streak and putting themselves on the board.

BlogofLegends MVP: IMT PowerOfEvil (1)

C9 vs TL: The Church is too small for WideBwipo

In what felt like a Finals game between the two North American titans, Cloud9 and Team Liquid battled it out in a 38 minute slugfest, with Team Liquid finally pulling off the win thanks to Bwipo’s monster Gragas engage from fog of war. LS ran his patented Karthus strategy with a full AD comp, setting up Blabber to succeed with the Karthus. However the two-time MVP looked extremely uncomfortable on the champion, which runs counter to how Blabber usually likes to play the game; while his mechanics were good enough to clear the jungle (3:04 first clear), his teamfight awareness was constantly out of place as he channeled Requiem too close to Team Liquid and had it interrupted multiple times throughout the game. LS eats his first loss of his new coaching stint based on a frequent criticism he used to receive – Karthus is a fine jungle pick and Blabber is a fine jungler, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Blabber is a fine Karthus player.

BlogofLegends MVP: TL Bwipo (1)

I was pretty torn on who to give MVP to this game, based off the sublime performances from both of the newest European imports in Bwipo and Hans Sama. In a matchup where I had Berserker winning out, Hans Sama completely took the young rookie out of the game very early, handing Berserker his first two deaths of the split. His teamfighting was reminiscent of his Rogue days, threading the needle between autospacing to put out key autoattacks in fights that changed the course of them. The reason, however, I’m giving to Bwipo was his game-winning engage in the late game, which took out Blabber early and allowed TL to run C9 down the mid lane to win the game. He also was going blow for blow against Summit’s formidable Aatrox, and his crucial anti-heal buys (first Bramble Vest, then Oblivion Orb when he figured out he might be ignored in fights by the Korean top laner), changed the flow of some of these fights and, along with Hans Sama seemingly returning to form, carried the superteam to a decisive win in an absolutely incredible game.

GG vs CLG: One of these team gotta win eventually

You could really tell why GoldenGuardians were winless before this point, as they struggled and toiled to close out a game when they were 10k gold up in midgame. Lost had a monster performance on his Aphelios, basically solo-winning the game from early-mid game, before the team’s cohesion problems and sloppy follow up on engages dragged the game to 40 minutes. While Pridestalkr seems to be a good player, he is obviously having trouble gelling with his new squad and sometimes seems to be doing things that run perpendicular to the calls being made by the rest of the team. CounterLogicGaming played alright to bring the game within somewhat of a striking distance but Contractz did not have the best of games, dying several times whilst looking for insecs, and CLG eventually fall to 0-3.

BlogofLegends MVP: GG Lost (1)

TSM vs FLY

And the only undefeated team heading into Day 2 is… Cloud9? 100Thieves? Nope. It’s FlyQuest! In quite possibly the weirdest timeline that we could have been living in, the smite top team reverts back to a regular draft and absolutely mutilates the fledgeling TSM roster in a 25 minute slaughter. toucouille, supported by a great performance from Josedeodo, went absolutely berserk on the enemy team, landing virtually every single skillshot when it mattered and chunking out/assassinating key members on his comfort Zoe pick.

BlogofLegends MVP: FLY toucouille (1)

The new TSM roster continues to disappoint as the team is very obviously on different pages, owing to the language barrier. If Spica is busy translating in game, it is showing in his play as the reigning MVP looks passable at the very best. While the imports look decent mechanically, there is so much they are lacking in terms of team identity, cohesion and setting for objectives. I believe it is important for fans to temper their expectations for this roster, not only for this split, but perhaps for the whole year until this team can get a few more months under their belt until they can show their real potential.