Counter Logic Gaming's First Blood streak may have ended earlier in the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split, but the First Blood kings of North America made one last impression in the early stages of its final match of the spring against Evil Geniuses.
Evil Geniuses joins Team Liquid, TSM, 100 Thieves, Dignitas, and Cloud9 in post-season qualification, but because of the state of the standings, no specific seeds for the 2021 LCS Mid-Season Showdown have been locked in.
Blizzard Senior Artist Dan John Cox tweeted about the unannounced game and its job listings, including Associate-level design positions.
Team Liquid is the fifth team to qualify for the post-season, leaving only one seed left for Immortals and Evil Geniuses to fight over in the last two days of regular season play before the Mid-Season Showdown.
With Immortals' best possible record to end the split being 9-9, TSM will and 100 Thieves are guaranteed spots in the Mid-Season Showdown with 10 wins apiece.
Based on the ultimate struggle between good and evil, players will battle between these two forces and determine the fate of the world. Reckoning offers a whole new roster complete with new traits, champions, and mechanics.
Despite having positive first impressions of his competition, Alphari cited the reason for his dominance as simply not being challenged individually the same way he was when competing in Europe against the likes of Fnatic or G2 Esports.
Based on the current standings and the final week of matches in the 2021 LCS Spring Split, let's try and predict which teams will qualify for the LCS Mid-Season Showdown, and specifically, which seeds each team respectively secures for the battle to represent North America at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.
Unlike his previous two stints with TSM, Doublelift will be streaming full time following his retirement from competitive play at the end of the 2020 season.
Should TSM continue to perform well, expect SwordArt to continue to be a pivotal fixture in the team’s success.
Heading into the last match day of week 5, FlyQuest was in a must-win situation to keep its Mid-Season Showdown hopes alive. Since FLY lost to IMT, its best possible finishing record in the Spring Split is 8-10. Hypothetically, FlyQuest could tie Evil Geniuses, the latter of whom is currently in 6th place, if EG lost its last three games and also finished at 8-10, but because FLY lost to EG in both meetings this spring, the head-to-head record would bar FLY from the post-season all the same.
DIG punched its ticket to the post-season with a victory over Evil Geniuses and is now tied with TSM for 2nd place at 10-5.
Counter Logic Gaming ended up winning the game against Team Liquid, but the sacrifice was the demise of its 100% First Blood rate in the 2021 LCS Spring Split, which lasted for the first 14 games of the 18 game split.
After its most recent loss to FlyQuest, Counter Logic Gaming's record through 14 games of the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split has fallen to 3-11. At 11 losses, CLG has become the second team after Golden Guardians to be mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the 2021 LCS Mid-Season Showdown, which is the post-season tournament taking the place of the Spring Playoffs.
Despite 100 Thieves losing to Evil Geniuses, ry0ma not only held his own, but was easily the strongest performer on his squad. After the loss, 100 Thieves head coach Tony "Zikz" Gray talked about why the team decided to start ry0ma over Damonte, ry0ma's growth as a player since 2020, and the similarities and differences in his approach to the 2021 LCS as the 100 head coach compared to his first year with the squad last season.
CLG mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park joined Inven Global for a brief interview to discuss the win against Immortals, the context of his return to CLG's roster following the arrival of jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen, and how and why CLG has improved upon its shoddy mid and late game to go along with a surprisingly strong early game.
A few days after his arrival in North America, Peter Dun spoke to Inven Global about how coaching remotely changed his responsibilities withing EG's system, adjusting to a traditional Head Coach role through quarantine, and the potential he saw in both Evil Geniuses' LCS roster as well as the North American talent pool as a whole.
There's no doubt that CLG has been snakebit this season, but Broxah is maintaining an optimistic perspective now that he's made it through his visa issues. Broxah spoke to Inven Global after CLG lost to 100 Thieves about how his visa issues on Team Liquid in 2020 are providing him with a different perspective on his current situation, what he thinks CLG does well and needs to improve on, and how he feels the new LCS format affects CLG's chances of turning its season around.
It didn't take long for Team Liquid to finish off FlyQuest, and after the win, TL jungler Lucas "Santorin" Larsen spoke to Inven Global about how things played out against his former team, his thought's on Team Liquid's current form relative to its record, and how the changes to the LCS format for the 2021 season affects the competition.
Sardoche took home the gold when a blunder by Wilson handed Sardoche a checkmating pattern that allowed him to take the Wilson's king without any potential counter-play by the actor.
