The first finalist for the 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs has been named. After defeating #2 seed Cloud9 in a 3-0 sweep, 100 Thieves came into the second round of the upper bracket against #1 seed Team Liquid. Despite losing the first two games in convincing fashion, 100T managed to reverse sweep TL to qualify for the finals. As a result, TL will move down to the lower bracket to face the winner of Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses to see who will meet 100 Thieves in the finals.

After the game, TL bot laner Steven "Hans sama" Liv spoke to Inven Global about what went wrong in the series and his general outlook going forward on the 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs.

What are your takeaways from this series as a whole?

During the series, I was feeling pretty happy in terms of how we were managing with the 2-0. I think we were really dominant and aggressive, but then it felt like a rollercoaster.

I feel pretty down about us getting reverse swept. It just felt like we didn't draft the way we usually would draft in scrims. For example, in the Ezreal/Braum game, it felt like there was nothing much that we could do in the matchup. In addition, 100 Thieves got Ornn multiple times. [laughs] I think sometimes we played well as a team, even in the losses, but overall, it really sucks to lose this series.

The first two games were very convincing for Team Liquid. Can you elaborate further on what was different from how you drafted and where things went wrong for your team?

Concerning the draft, I think it was just one game in terms of the bot lane picks. I guess that wasn't a factor in all of the games, but in that game, we ended up playing Ezreal and Braum because we thought those were the best champions in that scenario. 100 Thieves really like Ornn and Aphelios and they outscaled us. We couldn't really do much to stomp the game; it was kind of bad. [laughs]

Despite the series ending minutes ago, you've already highlighted things that went wrong for TL. Do you think there are things you can learn from this series for the near future in your upcoming post-season matches?

Well, in the bot lane, we beat them in almost every lane, aside from when we had a matchup that was kind of passive. Because of this, I'm confident to go up against them again.

They force a lot on objectives and they would give us a fight even though we thought they would lose. I think there are a bunch of things that we think they didn't do very well, but they still won. [laughs]. It feels even worse to lose when the enemy misplayed some stuff. [laughs] I don't know what to say aside from that.

Despite this loss, do you still feel you have accomplished a lot in your first foray into the LCS, or are you only satisfied with hoisting the trophy?

Have I accomplished things? Not really. I really want to win this split, that's why I came to NA after a strong performance in my old region. I really want to do even better here, so I really want to win the title. I'm happy that we won the Lock-In — although it doesn't mean anything, we still won a tournament. [laughs] It's a little something. However, I'm here to win. I'm not here to be fine with being second.

Do you think it will be Cloud9 or Evil Geniuses who will move on to face you next?

I am not sure, actually. C9 recently changed their starting support and I don't actually know how strong they are with their new support. EG are a decent team, and before the lower bracket matches, I would have said EG would win. However, C9 3-0'd Golden Guardians, so we'll see. [laughs] 

Do you have a preference in terms of either opponent?

I'd prefer EG so I can win against my old teammate.

I appreciate your time, Hans sama. Is there anything you want to say to the Team Liquid fans?

Thank you for cheering for us. You must be feeling pretty bad that we lost after such an amazing start to the series. We are going to try our best for the next series and we definitely know where we failed. Individually, I'm going to try my best, too. I think there are some things that I could do better; I can always get better. See you in Houston!