The playoffs in League of Legends in North America begin with plenty of interesting matchups and after an interesting regular season, a spot at the Worlds is on the line.
The action starts off with a bang with important first round matches on the weekend. The third and fourth place qualifiers will face the fifth and sixth place teams in the first round. A loss will not send a team home in this round, but they will fall to the Loser's bracket where TSM and Golden Guardians await.
Saturday kicks off the action with Team Liquid going up against FlyQuest. The playoffs continue Sunday with a first-round match between CLG and Cloud9. Both match-ups saw some real firepower during the Summer Split action, so this opening round should be interesting. The action is really heating up.
Liquid has strong edge over FlyQuest
| What: | Team Liquid v FlyQuest, LCS Summer Playoffs 2022 |
| Where: | United States |
| When: | 16:00 ET, Saturday 20th August 2022 |
| How to watch: | LCS Twitch & YouTube |
| Odds: | Liquid -500, FlyQuest +333 |
FlyQuest will have to come out swinging as they weren't the best team during the Summer Split and finished at 10-8 which was good for sixth in the standings. They were lucky to clear the Loser's Bracket as they finished well above TSM in seventh. Now they must focus on Team Liquid who proved to be a contender during this event as they finished in third.
Liquid was able to go 12-6. Not to mention they also won both head-to-head meetings with FlyQuest during the regular season. FlyQuest is also coming off a loss in the 5th-place tiebreaker match with Cloud9. Having to play that extra match could cost them a bit of energy in this match.
Liquid played three matches during Week 8 which was the final week of the regular season, and they were able to win against Dignitas and Golden Guardians but fell short against 100 Thieves who finished in second place.
The winner of this match will get a date with 100 Thieves in the second round of the playoffs. FlyQuest has to find a way to get some offensive ability going or this match will be over fairly quickly. Bwipo paired with Bjergsen have been the driving force for Liquid this season. Bjergsen even finished fifth in the Player of the Game Standings as he earned that honor four times.
FlyQuest can certainly make this match tough, but Liquid has the edge.
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Cloud9 and CLG are equal, but something has to give
| What: | CLG v Cloud9, LCS Summer Playoffs 2022 |
| Where: | United States |
| When: | 16:00 ET, Saturday 20th August 2022 |
| How to watch: | LCS Twitch & YouTube |
| Odds: | CLG +162, Cloud9 -225 |
A pair of rivals will lock horns once again as CLG and Cloud9 face-off in the opening round of the LCS Summer 2022 Playoffs. This rivalry continues to grow as the teams have now met well over 50 times. Cloud9 slipped up in the most recent match-up as CLG gained just its second head-to-head win in the last eight meetings.
CLG was able to finish just ahead of Cloud9 in the standings at 11-7. Cloud9 was able to win a tiebreaker match against FlyQuest to get the fifth seed in the playoffs. It's tough to see which team really has an advantage because these teams have played each other so much.
Surprisingly neither one has met in a playoff setting this season. The only time they met recently in a match of this proportion was at LCS 2022 Lock In when Cloud9 advanced in their quarterfinal meeting.
Summer 2019 Playoffs was the last time Cloud9 and CLG locked horns and that was in the semi-finals as Cloud9 was able to grab a very convincing 3-1 victory. There has been plenty of history between these teams and that makes for yet another major match in their historic rivalry.
Cloud9 enters the playoffs on a two-match winning streak. As for CLG they have lost two of their last three matches. Including a surprising defeat at the hands of TSM who awaits in the loser's bracket for one of the losing teams in these two first round playoff games. The winner advances to face top seeded Evil Geniuses.
Palafox will be ready to lead CLG, but outside of him the team is vulnerable. As for Cloud9 they have plenty of talented players including Jensen and Fudge who both got player of the game honors this season. They aren't alone as Blaber and Berserker were also very important, each earning a player of the week honor as well.
Cloud9 has all the tools and are the right choice in this match.
