2022 LCS Championship Lower Bracket Round 2 Takeaways: TL VS CLG, EG VS TSM
Hearts were broken and teams were eliminated from the 2022 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Championship following two Lower Bracket Round 2 matches.
In this round of the playoffs, following a failed reverse sweep versus 100 Thieves in the past week, Team Liquid was able to complete a reverse sweep against Counter Logic Gaming. This series was later followed up by Evil Geniuses taking down Team SoloMid in a best-of plagued with pauses, and delays. It was a real heartbreaker for the losing teams as they were eliminated from both the LCS Championship bracket and Worlds contention.
With that in mind, here are some of our takeaways.
Team Liquid reverse sweep Counter Logic Gaming
Going into this playoff series Team Liquid was in for the long haul as not only did they have to make up their close 3-2 loss to 100 Thieves in which they almost reverse swept, but they were also facing elimination. In comparison, Counter Logic Gaming had even more to show and nothing to lose as this split’s breakout team was looking further advance in the bracket to put the cherry on top of their impressive performances.
To start off, Counter Logic Gaming came out swinging and swinging hard as they took the first two games. This was largely due to the team’s ability to gain a significant and early advantage in the top lane in game one and the bottom lane in game two. Team Liquid remained stalwart and impressive in their team fighting, showcasing more technical prowess, but were able to convert on every other aspect of the map.
However, come game three this all changed. Like their series against 100 Thieves before, Team Liquid sprung back to life. During the third game their jungler, Lucas “Santorin” Larsen, reigned supreme and made his presence known all across the map. This game the team a much-needed boost to start their series comeback.
Following that up in game four, Team Liquid turned it up even stronger as they dominated all throughout. The team grabbed all sorts of advantages across the map: from Flood to First Herald and enemy tower, there was nothing Counter Logic Gaming could do, putting it to a fifth and final game to decide it all in which they repeated the same type of play.
Evil Geniuses take a gruelling five-game series over Team SoloMid
Fresh off a surprising loss to Cloud9 in Upper Bracket Round 2, Evil Geniuses was looking to make sure that all of their dominance thus far this season wasn’t just for show. On the other hand, Team SoloMid, which was plagued with a myriad of in and out-of-game issues, was looking to end their season on a more positive note.
Both wanting to advance, this series was one for the record books, and not for any positive reasons… In what was perhaps one of the most drawn-out series in League history, Evil Geniuses took down TeamSoloMid, and it took every ounce of energy from both of the squads.
Filled to the brim of delays and pauses—with one of them taking two hours—Evil Geniuses took down Team SoloMid.
This all set up a highly anticipated matchup between Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid for the third and final Worlds spot and further advancement in the LCS Championship bracket.
