Having travelled completely different roads to the final, Cloud9 and Team Liquid will battle it out to claim 1st place in the North America League of Legends Championship Series 2018 Summer Season.
Cloud9 had a tumultuous start to the campaign, starting 1-5 while benching three previous starters in Jensen, Sneaky and Smoothie. Eventually Cloud9 would settle on a roster of Licorice, Blaber, Jensen, Sneaky and Zeyzal, one which would emerge as one the best in the league.
Looking completely rejuvenated, especially following the addition of Blaber to the starting Jungler position, Cloud9 even took down Team Liquid late in the group stage while subbing in Svenskeren and Goldenglue.
Tasty Licorice
In their semi-final match-up with TSM, Cloud9 fell 2-1 down before turning to their substitute players in Svenskeren and Goldenglue. Finding victory in the final two games, Cloud9 have now established a dangerous seven-man roster with flexibility and the ability to catch their opponents off guard.
Licorice continues to be the rock for this team, generally playing more engage-focused champions such as Ornn, but also being able to perform well on the likes of Poppy and Gangplank.
Licorice was the only player to play in every game for Cloud9, performing at the top of his role alongside 100 Thieves’ Ssumday.
Jensen strong
Despite being subbed out at times, Jensen has been the stand-out player for Cloud9, with his Zilean in particular being incredibly dominant. Goldenglue has also performed incredibly well, shutting down TSM’s best-performing player in Bjergsen to help Cloud9 close out the semis.
Joining the wealth of talent on this roster is the coaching brilliance of Reapered, who continues to give his team the edge during the pick-and-ban phase. If Cloud9 begin to stumble at any point this series, it is likely Reapered will look to swap out the Jungler/Mid-laner combination to get a fresh look.
Liquid aim to repeat
Team Liquid were towards the top of the standings for much of the season, ending with only six losses during the regular season. Winners of the Spring split, Team Liquid were put together in order to compete for championships and have not disappointed.
Liquid have been incredibly dominant down the stretch, putting as many resources as humanly possible into getting star Bottom-laner Doublelift all advantages he can muster. Doublelift has re-established himself this split as the best player in the region, transitioning absurdly-strong early games into heroic late-game carry moments.
Doublelift is a self-admitted demanding player in the sense that in order to make his play style work he needs access to as much farm as possible, while needing the likes of Impact ready at all times in terms of teleporting down to help him.
Pobelter support can be crucial
Team Liquid have adapted to this style well, with Pobelter generally picking more supportive and controlling Mid-laner champions such as Zilean, Malzahar and Azir in order to protect and facilitate Doublelift.
The other player who tends to receive accolades on this team is Jungler Xmithie, who is arguably the most consistent player in the league with his shot-calling and controlled style.
The match-up to watch comes in the Mid lane, where Pobelter has a difficult task in preparing for the possibility of playing either Jensen or Goldenglue. Pobelter was absolutely destroyed in Team Liquid’s last match against Cloud9, finding himself the target of multiple early ganks from Svenskeren. If Pobelter can stall out the Mid lane successfully, Liquid have a fabulous shot of becoming back-to-back split champions.
Liquid favourites
This final should have some of the best strategy of the LoL North American season with both teams having the ability to make in-series decisions that could significantly impact the outcome.
As such the momentum could well move back and forth and lead to a very entertaining affair.
Team Liquid start the marginal favourites with Dafabet for Sunday’s clash – 1.746 shots to Cloud9’s 2.100.
