It took Team Liquid a lot of tinkering and time to find the right formula, but they finally won their first title in spring. Liquid was an up and down team in the regular season, yet tore through all three of their opponents in the NA LCS playoffs. AD Carry Doublelift proved that he was the best at the position in North America in the spring, dominating the late game hypercarry meta.
Now Liquid are in a position they have never been in before as defending champions. Everyone is gunning for their crown, including the team that was favored in the spring, Team SoloMid.
2018 NA LCS Summer Split Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
Team Liquid +270
Team SoloMid +300
Cloud9 +500
Echo Fox +500
100 Thieves +550
Counter Logic Gaming +900
Clutch Gaming +1150
FlyQuest +3900
OpTic Gaming +8900
Golden Guardians +17900
Liquid has been at their best in metas where they can get into late game team fights and allow Doublelift to take over. However, at least for the early part of the season, that is unlikely to happen due to the changes on Patch 8.11.
Instead, pressing lanes have been prioritized. That’s not good news for this team. Top laner Impact plays a lot of tanks and isn’t at his best on carry picks, and mid laner Pobelter is more of a team fighting specialist too. It might lead to Liquid struggling through the early part of the season.
Team SoloMid is going to be my pick to win the NA LCS Summer Split. TSM has the best collection of talent in the region. The team went through some growing pains in the spring, but they looked very tough to beat when they were at their best.
This aggressive meta plays to their strengths too. Bjergsen is typically considered the top mid laner in the region, and top laner Hauntzer has been known to take over games in the past. He looked great on Gangplank in the spring too, with TSM going undefeated in all six games he was on the champion.
However, the offseason additions will need to perform better. Zven and mithy were somewhat disappointing as a bottom lane duo, while MikeYeung’s play in the jungle was so underwhelming that he will be splitting the role with Grig this split.
Cloud9 sent shockwaves through the NA LCS earlier this week when the organization announced that long time starters Jensen, Sneaky, and Smoothie would be benched for at least the first week of the season. The announcement was met with a ton of criticism, leading to their coach taking to Twitter.
This decision may not make everyone happy. I am also not comfortable. But there are games that are meaningful to both teams this week and can not start with negative energy. Send some positive energy so that all players can work harder, and I will do my best to answer it.
— Reapered (@Reapered) June 14, 2018
The biggest critique is that the players replacing them or not young, up and comers. Instead, the trio that will be starting in their stead are fringe starters that have failed to permanently secure a spot over the last few years. Needless to say, that does not bode well for Cloud9.
Seeing Clutch Gaming at over 10-1 is a little surprising. This was the team that knocked off TSM in the playoffs, and they looked very strong at times in the spring. Febiven is the second-best mid laner in the region, and the team has a solid bottom lane and jungler. There is some value in taking Clutch at this price.
