?Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians will clash on Friday, March 31, in the LoL Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring lower-bracket semifinal – their third meeting this season. Evil Geniuses won the first matchup in the opening week of the split, with Golden Guardians securing a revenge victory in the final round of Week 5.
Week 5 of LCS 2023 Spring is interesting as it was when Golden Guardians were in peak form, having won seven straight games, before cooling down and going 2-5 by the end of the split. Evil Geniuses’ journey through the season was far less exciting, as they lingered around the third-fifth spot and eventually landed in fifth with a 10-8 record, one above GG with 9-9.
In the first round of the playoffs, Evil Geniuses smashed Counter Logic Gaming (3-0), while Golden Guardians edged past 100 Thieves (3-2). Both teams showed something positive, and they look evenly matched stat-wise. Still, historically, Evil Geniuses shift into a higher gear in the playoffs, so it makes sense for esports betting sites to price them as favourites.
Evil Geniuses should win, but we don’t expect a one-sided series, so we’ll gladly take Golden Guardians with a map advantage.
?Cloud9 and FlyQuest will cross swords on Thursday, March 30, in the upper-bracket final of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring Playoffs. As a match between two of the league’s strongest teams, it could give us an idea of how the grand final will play out, assuming Evil Geniuses or Golden Guardians don’t cause an upset in the lower-bracket final.
Cloud9 kicked off the LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs with a 3-1 victory against Counter Logic Gaming, while FlyQuest disposed of 100 Thieves with a commanding 3-0 sweep. Both teams showed up in the first round of the playoffs, but this is the match that really matters.
FlyQuest had an explosive start to the regular season but cooled down midway through, whereas Cloud9 had a shaky start to the year but then found momentum to catch up to FlyQuest and take the regular season crown with a tiebreaker victory. That win can indicate how this series will go, and the offered LoL betting odds reflect it.
In the top lane, we have a matchup between Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami and Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, which should favour the Australian pro. Fudge has proven to be a very lane-dominant player and will face Impact, who tends not to gain much during the laning phase. This could lead to C9 playing through the top side, yet this will leave other parts of the map exposed.
Besides the top lane, the bottom lane matchup will be intriguing to follow, featuring two Korean ADCs in Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan and Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol. Prince got the better of Berserker during the regular season, so it’s fair to say that FlyQuest have a slightly better bottom side.
FlyQuest’s mid laner Lee “VicLa” Dae-kwang has also proven to be a bit more consistent than Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, so in the end, it might come down to the jungle matchup to dictate the tempo of the series.
Purely stat-wise, Mingyi “Spica” Lu is a better player than Robert “Blaber” Huang, leading in all metrics except for gold per minute (350 GPM v 357 GPM) and XP at 15 minutes (209 XP@15 v 100 XP@15). Still, Blaber tends to have a better mid-late-game impact.
On paper, FlyQuest looks like a better team, and if they manage to execute their plan of working around Spica to gain an early lead, they should come out ahead. Cloud9 didn’t have to play catchup much this season, so if they fall behind early, they could struggle.
We expect a tight series that can easily reach five maps ($2.62). But if we had to pick a side, we like FlyQuest at plus money better.
Counter Logic Gaming produced their best run through the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) regular season since 2019. But now they must face off against the reigning LCS champions, Cloud9, who enter the first round of LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs as heavy favourites to advance.
Cloud9 collected another LCS regular season trophy on Saturday when they defeated FlyQuest in a hard-fought tiebreaker, solidifying themselves as the strongest North American League of Legends team ahead of the playoffs. Cloud9 could’ve easily not been able to contest the top spot in the league, but the combination of FlyQuest slowing down in the final weeks and Cloud9 finding a new identity with rookie midlaner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo played a significant role in C9 reclaiming their throne.
Counter Logic Gaming were never in the conversation of the next LCS champions; however, they did extremely well for themselves, ending the season in fourth place after losing the tiebreaker match against 100 Thieves. Although an incredible accomplishment for the oldest League of Legends team, losing against 100T puts a bit of a dent in CLG’s run to the finish line.
On a more positive note, the final week of the regular season saw CLG beating Golden Guardians, Team Liquid, and Cloud9, who CLG crushed with 31-8 in kills and close to a 10k gold lead.
Still, we’re talking about a best-of-one game which is much easier to win than a best-of-three. So even though Cloud9 looked hopeless on Thursday, it was apparent they had an off-day, so we wouldn’t expect a repeat performance on Friday.
Cloud9 are significantly better than CLG, and we expect that to show in the playoffs. Counter Logic Gaming are no pushovers and will offer some resistance, but if Cloud9 play their game, it’s hard to imagine CLG winning more than one map.
The first round of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring Playoffs will serve us with an exciting clash between 100 Thieves and FlyQuest, who will lock horns this Thursday.
FlyQuest ended the regular season in second place, following a rough loss against Cloud9 in the tiebreaker. However, despite losing their chance to claim the regular season crown was painful, FlyQuest were still miles ahead of other teams in the standings.
100 Thieves concludes their regular season campaign in third place, with a 10-8 record, which doesn’t look good compared to FlyQuest’s 14-8, but 100 Thieves looked like an entirely different team since Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm took over as the head coach at the start of March.
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With Nukeduck at the helm, 100 Thieves went 8-3, which includes seven straight victories across the final two weeks of the regular season. They didn’t have to face Cloud9, not FlyQuest, over that stretch, but 100T looked good in their wins against Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Counter Logic Gaming.
So for this match, we have FlyQuest, who regressed in the final weeks of the split and 100 Thieves, who found their rhythm just in time to contest the LCS crown. Now, how much weight should we put on the recent results?
100 Thieves have looked better, but teams look much different when we have a best-of-three series compared to the regular season single-map games. And unlike in one-off games, where any team can beat anyone, individual talent and preparation play a much more significant role over three maps.
This match has upset potential and might represent in-play betting opportunities, but if we zoom out and compare the teams and what they’ve shown this entire split, FlyQuest look like clear favourites to advance.