LCS 2022 Summer Split Week 1 Takeaways

The first week of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2022 Summer Split proved to be a treat. 

Expected powerhouses such as Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid were joined by surprise performers Counter Logic Gaming as the only teams to go flawless. While 100 Thieves, the only team to finish 2-1, and the rest of the league were left to fend for themselves as they struggled to translate their spring play to the summer. 

There’s a lot to digest from the LCS 2022 Summer Split’s first Super Week and week. With that in mind, here are some of our takeaways.

North America's Superteam, Team Liquid, Kick-Off On Form

For the first time in a while, the LCS finally had itself a superteam. Following the 2022 offseason, Team Liquid managed to bolster its forces by bringing in superstar mid-laner and one of the all-time North American greats, Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg. Not only that, but they also managed to snag two European stars in the form of top laner Gabriel "Bwipo" Rau and ADC Steven "Hans sama" Liv. With this squad, they were determined to run through the league but as evidenced by the LCS 2022 Spring Split, that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Now, in the summer, Team Liquid have a fresh new slate, one that they’ve gladly taken advantage of. 

To kick off their warmer League of Legends months, Team Liquid had a historic perfect game over Immortals. The boys in blue finished the game in just over 25 minutes and held a gap of nearly 16,000 gold over their opponents by the time they took their Nexus. Then they followed that up by handily taking care of Dignitas, as they gave them zero leeway into the game. This was all to be topped off by them completely steamrolling Cloud9, after getting Bjergsen ahead - something they gladly did in every match this week.

Evil Geniuses Continue Right Where They Left Off

Evil Geniuses winning the LCS 2022 Spring Split is undoubtedly one of the most shocking stories in the league’s history. A team that was looking good coming into the season with their performances in the Lock In tournament was left by the wayside as they fizzled out during the regular season. However, once the playoffs started they proved to be more than a threat. Following their round 1 loss in the Winners’ Bracket, they dominated anyone in front of them and captured the ever-so-illustrious LCS championship trophy and booked themselves a trip to their first-ever Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). 

Riding off the coattails of that amazing domestic performance and a respectable international one, the Geniuses were looking to continue that momentum for the summer, and they did.

To start off the Summer Split, Evil Geniuses demolished Cloud9. Both of their young star players mid-laner Joseph "jojopyun" Pyun and ADC Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki proved to be too much for a Cloud9 squad that was without two of their starting players. They later followed that up by taking care of business as usual versus FlyQuest, showcasing why they are a level above their lower-tier teams. This was all finished off by the Geniuses repeating their spring finals performance against 100 Thieves, showcasing that it wasn’t a fluke in the first place.

Counter Logic Gaming Finish 3-0 For The First Time Since Summer 2017

Coming into the 2022 LCS Season and subsequently the Summer Split, you’d be hard-pressed to include Counter Logic Gaming as a solid team. This was a team that only won six matches in the spring and was looking to better that come summer. 

As the third team to finish the opening week of the Summer Split flawless, Counter Logic Gaming came as a surprise to the whole league. Not only they did achieve a feat that they hadn’t done since the LCS 2017 Summer Split, one of the league’s OG teams did so in style and it all started with their new top laner, newly promoted Academy player, Niship "Dhokla" Doshi.

With this new player at the helm, this Counter Logic Gaming squad seemed to have got to some newfound morale, showcasing some synergy that the team hadn’t seen in a while. This led to them cleanly beating weaker-sided teams Dignitas, Team SoloMid, and Golden Guardians.