The second week of the 2021 LCS Summer Split continued today with day five. With eyes on TSM to see how they would respond to their first loss, and teams looking to climb in the standings, no game disappointed today.
Here are the results from today’s games:
- 100 Thieves > Golden Guardians
- TSM < FlyQuest
- Evil Geniuses > Team Liquid
- Counter Logic Gaming < Cloud 9
- Dignitas > Immortals
100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians
In the first game of the day, 100 Thieves looked to take on Golden Guardians and extend their winning streak to four games. Unfortunately for the Golden Guardians fan base and their players, the game was never close. 100 Thieves were too far ahead at fifteen minutes for the Guardians to be able to accomplish anything and would lose any team fight that would occur across the map. The deciding factor would be one such team fight where Golden Guardians would steal baron with a Jinx rocket but got aced by an angry chasing 100 Thieves, who would then go on to end the game.
The story would be the combination of the 100 Thieves jungler, mid laner, and their ADC. The trio of Closer, Abbedagge and FBI would finish with a combined KDA of 17/1/23, with the only death coming from FBI. These three did not feel like they could ever be stopped and would pick team fights apart. Add in the setup from Huhi on Gragas and this team is looking a lot stronger than they did after the first game of this split.
TSM vs FlyQuest
Coming off of being on the receiving end of a perfect game, FlyQuest looked to correct their trajectory and hand TSM their second loss of the split. Early into the game, mid-laner Palafox was able to make plays early on Sylas and impact the map, finishing with an impressive KDA of 5/2/5. The only way TSM seemed to be able to make it back into the game was when FlyQuest faltered in the mid-game and gave up objectives and kills. On the TSM side, Huni had a poor performance on Nocturne. Finishing with a KDA of 0/6/5, he tried to make plays with his ultimate but gave his life in the process too many times to have his efforts make a difference.
Despite the 3-0 start to the split, TSM is starting to show cracks. Starting the week in the first place due to their undefeated finish last week, they are now tied in second place with 100 Thieves in the standings. They don’t seem to be able to translate any leads from Power of Evil in the mid lane anywhere else in the map, and the side lanes have not made any impact in the game, at least not for the right reasons. If they want to regain their first place position, then they will have to iron out these issues as soon as possible.
Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses
Despite the slow start and Team Liquid suppressing Evil Geniuses early in this game, it was a fight around the fourth dragon where Evil Geniuses were able to find their footing and come back and find the right fights to come back. The game looked like it could have gone to Team Liquid, who had pushed into the base of Evil Geniuses with both baron and elder dragon buffs, but a base defence was all that was needed to save the game for the victorious Evil Geniuses, as Team Liquid still looks rough this split.
There was no real stand out player from this game, as it was a team effort from Evil Geniuses that helped them come back in this game. With flanks from Impact on Aatrox, Jiizuke making plays on Akali, to even Danny on Ezreal hitting critical skill shots and dealing massive amounts of damage. It seemed that in spite of Jiizuke making questionable plays or being out of position, the rest of his team was able to cover him, and in return, he was able to get ahead on his Akali and take out anyone that he wanted to in the side lane.
Cloud 9 vs Counter Logic Gaming
Going up against one of the best teams in North America, Counter Logic Gaming tried to change the narrative surrounding their team and make an impact in the overall standings. They started out well, getting first blood, making small plays that lead to a gold lead and would trade the first dragon for two turrets in the mid lane two minutes later.
Unfortunately, that would all fall apart at thirty minutes in the game when CLG tried to bait Cloud9 into the baron pit but would end up with Cloud9 killing off all but two CLG players. The mistakes continued at thirty-six minutes when CLG was sieging the bottom lane inhibitor tower. They were flanked by a Fudge teleport on Gwen, which allowed Cloud9 to kill everyone but Broxah, forcing him to flee. It would all come down to a final fight in the mid lane, where k1ng, the replacement for the benched Zven, would come up clutch on Kog’maw, finishing off the final CLG team member in a close team fight, allowing them to push down mid and end the game.
Similar to yesterday, the game was dominated by Perkz. Finishing with a KDA of 6/2/5, he was able to make his way around the map and kill whoever he saw. He was able to hit level 18, allowing him to have the maximum range that was granted by his passive and hit multiple resets, allowing him to rocket jump in and out of fights. Despite the jokes about his play from last week, if this version of Perkz shows up every game, teams should be scared, and Cloud9 could find themselves back in the form that sent them to MSI.
Immortals vs Dignitas
With Immortals and Dignitas coming off losses in their previous games, both teams looked to get right in the final game of the day. Despite giving up Rumble, one of the best jungle champions in the game, to Xerxe, Dignitas was able to play through Neo and Aphromoo in the bot lane early to snowball the game to an easy victory. It got to the point where everyone on the team was able to get in on the action, with three members even finishing with a perfect scoreline. Those members would be Yusui on Lulu, FakeGod on Gnar and Dardoch on Xin Zhao. By the end of the game, Dignitas was so far ahead that they were able to force the nexus push with almost every member of Immortals alive.
The LCS 2021 Summer Split returns tomorrow, with the opening game being Golden Guardians vs FlyQuest at 12:30PM PDT / 3:30PM EDT / 9:00PM BST.
