Coming into Week 9 of the League Championship Series Summer Split, not a single team was eliminated from the Playoffs, with 100 Thieves, CLG, Dignitas, and Immortals all vying for the final two spots. 100 Thieves locked in their Playoff spot at the very beginning of the weekend with Dignitas' loss to Cloud9 on Friday night, but the other three teams remained in contention until the final game of the regular season, which eliminated Immortals.
Thanks to an 0-2 weekend from CLG, Dignitas found themselves in a tiebreaker match to end the weekend, and they turned on the heat to secure their position in the post-season. They absolutely crushed their opponents, led by Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett's "turbo Olaf." They took the win in 32 minutes after collecting the Cloud Soul and Elder Drake, ending the game with 17 kills, only giving up seven deaths of their own.
With their qualification, they completely turned around their 0-8 start to go 6-5 to finish up the Summer Split, and they finalize the bracket for the Playoffs starting this Thursday. Only two teams had a tied record at the end of the regular season, FlyQuest and TSM at 12-6, but with FlyQuest winning in the head to head, all seeds were locked in after Dignitas' tiebreaker victory.
Team Liquid ended the season with their best-ever record at 15-3, taking sole possession of first place. Cloud9 revamped and stopped their downward spiral, taking a 2-0 in the final weekend and locking in sole ownership of second place. Both Liquid and C9 will receive a first-round bye in the playoffs thanks to their performance in the regular season. FlyQuest and TSM sit at third and fourth, with Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses at fifth and sixth, respectively.
Each of the top six teams start their playoff run in the upper bracket, while 100 Thieves and Dignitas start in the lower bracket, as the seventh and eighth seed. The upper bracket allows teams to lose one series, sending them to the lower bracket, giving them a chance to climb back through the ranks to reach the third-place match and Finals.
With the removal of Championship Points this year, the Summer Playoffs are the only determining factor in Worlds qualification. The top three teams at the end of playoffs will represent the region at Worlds 2020, taking place in Shanghai, China. Playoffs start next Thursday with TSM vs Golden Guardians, and you can catch the action on the LoL Esports website here.
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- Parkes Ousley
- Email : parkes@invenglobal.com
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