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Look back at the League of Legends NA LCS Spring Finals in our recap
Join us as we run through everything that happened in Miami at the NA LCS Spring Split finals, where Team Liquid triumphed over 100 Thieves.
The NA LCS Spring Split finals drew to a close in Miami, with Team Liquid taking home the trophy in what looked like confident fashion. Two 3-0 wins from both Echo Fox and Team Liquid made both the finals and third-place decider look like complete stomps from the outset. However, there’s a lot more to analyse than just the scoreline.
How did the teams truly stack up down in Miami? Did Team Liquid or Echo Fox have any trouble at all with their opponents, or was it truly just a one-sided stomp? Catch up on all the action from Miami as we run through everything you need to know about the NA Spring Split LCS finals.
Third-place decider: Echo Fox vs Clutch Gaming
The stage is set
© Riot Games
Before Team Liquid and 100 Thieves’ final match got underway, the battle for third place still had to take place, with Clutch Gaming facing off against Echo Fox. Many thought Echo Fox would be down for the count after losing 3-1 to Team Liquid in the semi finals, and especially after Clutch took 100 Thieves to five games last week, but Echo Fox rose to the occasion and gave a stunning performance.
Clutch Gaming’s win conditions are usually interesting, they always try not to lose until late game. They hardly make any plays around the map in the early game, and at some point in the mid game they turn it around. This is mostly due to the fact that Fabian ‘Febiven’ Diepstraten likes to create advantages through farm. If his enemy mid laner roams, he’s the one that pushes out the wave and threatens the tower. He does follow up on roams, but not very often. Nam ‘LirA’ Tae-yoo tries to facilitate this style by warding for Febiven and his bot lane. However, this creates a discrepancy in the top lane where Colin ‘Solo’ Earnest has to play on an island. So Clutch relies on superior mid-to-late-game team fighting through Febiven and their bot lane. The problem in the last series for them was that Echo Fox like to speed up the tempo – a lot.
Echo Fox like to play through Heo ‘Huni’ Seung-hoon, their top laner. They do this by warding for him and ganking him very often. However, their bot lane is fairly weak, so they like to put them on safe champions like Ezreal and ranged utility supports. Kim ‘Fenix’ Jae-hun is the mid laner that ties it all together. With enough pressure on his enemy laner, he is able to deter bot lane dives. If there is enough pressure, Joshua ‘Dardoch’ Hartnett is able to gank for him, which gives him an even bigger lead.
Before the game even started, Echo Fox’s style had the upper hand. Because Solo is put on an island without any wards, he becomes an easy target for dives. The fact that Huni is the best mid laner in NA and Solo is mostly put on tanks creates an even bigger mismatch. In all three games, Solo was attacked over and over again, which gave Huni space to do whatever he wanted. By banning out playmaking supports, Clutch Gaming’s support, Nickolas ‘Hakuho’ Surgent, was stuck on Braum duty. With no kill pressure on bot, Clutch wasn’t able to convert to other lanes and help Solo. In the third game, the pressure became so bad that LirA tried warding for Solo to make the lane safer, but this only meant that Febiven had less vision which made him the target for ganks. Echo Fox’s fast tempo was too much for Clutch to handle, which ultimately cost them the series.
With Echo Fox’s 3-0 victory over Clutch Gaming they cement themselves as a top-three NA team and they’ll be representing the NA LCS in Rift Rivals in the summer.
Finals: Team Liquid vs 100 Thieves
100 Thieves getting ready
© Riot Games
Team Liquid was the team expected to win it all from the start. They built themselves a star roster and anything less than first would have been a disappointment. After a rough 2017, they bounced back to win it all. Stylistically, the team is able to do it all. Their superstar ADC Yiliang Peter ‘Doublelift’ Peng saved them from relegation last year, and helped them secure the NA LCS Spring Split title in Miami.
Doublelift losing lane is a rare sight. He’s always able to push the enemy bot lane to their towers. This means that there’s always pressure in the bot lane which gives Jake ‘Xmithie’ Puchero easy control over objectives. As the first turret is taken, their bot lane rotates to the top lane, which gives even more pressure over for an easy Rift Herald. Their mid laner, Eugene ‘Pobelter’ Park, is often used as a pressure point. Pobelter has a great deep champion pool which facilitates Team Liquid’s diverse playstyle. For example, on Azir he can wave clear and create plays during the mid and late game, but on Ryze he can create side-lane pressure and push down towers. The main thing that makes Team Liquid so good is that there are superstars in every lane, they don’t need to worry about rookie mistakes because they won’t make them. This gives them a step ahead in the competition and in the finals.
While 100 Thieves’ roster is also made up of hardened former champions with the likes of former NA LCS Spring Split MVP Zaqueri ‘Aphromoo’ Black and Kim ‘Ssumday’ Chan-ho, they still had to deal with some growing pains in the beginning of the split. But as the weeks progressed their game plan formed. 100 Thieves like to play through the bot lane, and Cody ‘Cody Sun’ Sun has improved all throughout the split and has become their win condition in their games against Clutch last week. Ssumday has an incredibly deep champion pool which he often uses to create unorthodox counter picks like his Darius into Sion. With Aphromoo as their shot caller, their play is always decisive and quick. 100 Thieves’ coach, Neil ‘pr0lly’ Hammad, is great at drafting. This often gives 100 Thieves the edge over their opponents, because pushing and winning lanes are easier to convert into wins than losing lanes.
So why did Team Liquid end up winning in three relatively quick games? First off, Cody Sun couldn’t win lane against Doublelift. Even in the Caitlynn-Jhin match-up where Caitlynn should push Jhin under the tower, Cody wasn’t able to come out ahead. This was mostly due to the fact that Cody and Aphromoo leased for their jungler and Doublelift didn’t have to. This gave Doublelift an early push where he doesn’t have to creep score under the tower from the beginning.
In the third game of the series, 100 Thieves tried a different tactic, a 1-3-1 with Ryze and Gnar having the pushing power to split push. In the early game William ‘Meteos’ Hartman was able to put Ssumday ahead with a great early gank. This resulted in a quick first tower. However, Jung ‘Impact’ Eon-yeong was able to withstand the pressure and, even with a great deficit, he was effective in teamfights. In the mid game, Team Liquid were able to repeatedly pick off the side laners, which relieved the pressure and made objectives like Baron and drakes an easy target. In the end, Team Liquid were able to close all three games before the 31-minute mark. A feat that no one on the analyst desk expected. With Team Liquid’s overwhelming victory at the weekend, they became the fourth team to ever hoist a NA LCS trophy. Will the superstar roster be able to lift NA to greater heights during MSI and Rift Rivals? We’ll have to wait and see.
