The seventh week of the 2019 LCS Spring Split finished up last weekend, and Team Liquid fans celebrated their victory over Cloud9. This win solidified their first place spot, putting them two wins ahead of second place C9. TSM’s 2-0 placed them two wins above fourth and two wins below second. FlyQuest’s 2-0 moved them to a lone fourth place, while Golden Guardians and OpTic Gaming remain tied for fifth. Counter Logic Gaming, Echo Fox and 100 Thieves each took another 0-2 weekend, sitting out of playoff position with Clutch Gaming. When the dust settled, it was clear there were some standout players from Week 7.
The Fantastic Four recognizes four different players from different teams that exhibited different strengths in their gameplay. To review the qualifications for these awards, check out week one’s piece.
The Thing – TSM Bjergsen
TSM’s undefeated weekend comes in large part thanks to mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, who played Leblanc versus 100 Thieves and Corki versus OpTic. In game one, 100 Thieves got out to an early lead, particularly around top lane, despite Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik getting last pick Riven. Meanwhile, 100T drafted Syndra in response to TSM’s Leblanc lock-in, and Bjergsen was able to maintain enough tempo to get key picks and split-push. He frequently used Distortion to dash into the enemy to poke and keep 100 Thieves on their toes.
Against OpTic, Bjergsen got the reverse set-up in draft; OPT took the first round Leblanc, and Bjergsen got the Corki in response. Both Broken Blade and Bjergsen had strong laning phases, but Bjergsen really nullified OPT’s strongest player–Lee “Crown” Min-ho. He was able to control the lane, split push when necessary and poke enough to grant key objectives to TSM. Bjergsen showed how he is the backbone of the team in these two Week 7 games.
Mr. Fantastic – FLY Wildturtle
Jason “WildTurtle” Tran popped off in both of FlyQuest’s week seven games on Jinx. In both matches he secured multiple kills and his full turret before turret plating fell. From there, FLY’s win over Echo Fox was fairly clean, only granting them three kills and no objectives. Clutch put up more of a fight, winning one big 5v5 at 23 minutes. However, Wildturtle piloted Jinx way too well and put out massive damage (21,000).
Week 7 was a complete turnaround from Wildturtle in Week 6. FlyQuest played arguably worse opponents and lost due somewhat to Wildturtle’s play. Teams may need to consider banning Lissandra, Jinx or Braum, as FlyQuest’s teamfighting compositions seem to work best with those champions. As mentioned previously in The Fantastic Four, FLY looks its best when Wildturtle plays to the top of his game.
Human Torch – TL Jensen
Plenty of players had strong performances in Week 7 of LCS, but Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen truly shined. A deathless weekend is a rare accomplishment in North America, yet Team Liquid’s mid laner went 13-0-18 over the weekend. This guy was the thorn in Cloud9’s side, constantly zoning and threatening the Shockwave on Orianna. While both teams placed a lot of focus on the top lane, Jensen slowly built up a lead and allowed every teammate around him to shine. He and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng played every team fight extremely well.
Then, versus Golden Guardians, Jensen drafted Leblanc and put on a show. He seemed to pull out kills from every engagement. GGS pulled an early lead, with two Ocean Drakes and better farm. Henrik “Froggen” Hansen even had some scary Karthus ultimates, but Jensen always escaped death while Distorting forward for kills. Whenever GGS initiated onto TL, the team would absorb the pressure, and Jensen would roam and chase down any remaining members. This entire team coordinates very well, but Jensen deserves the recognition for week seven.
Invisible Woman – CLG PowerOfEvil
CLG has been having a rough season, recording their third 0-2 week of the 2019 Spring Split. To make matters worse, their two losses came at the hands of Golden Guardians and Clutch Gaming. Despite these poor performances, Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage did his best to maintain some kind of pressure. In the GGS game, he constantly split-pushed on Ryze, even taking an inhibitor while CLG was 7,000 gold behind and pressuring the Nexus while GGS took Baron. In the end, CLG lost the game, but they only had pressure because of PowerOfEvil.
The Clutch game was a little rougher. CLG’s top and bottom lane were losing, and Galen “Moon” Holgate did not pull off ganks with Zac. Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo secured Rift Herald and used it to knock down PowerOfEvil’s turret. Despite this he kept up his farm, played safe and even roamed to bottom lane to secure a kill on Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin. PoE did overextend once, and almost got saved by Biofrost’s Tahm Kench, but he also played out the last two teamfights pretty well. Ultimately, CLG lost this one pretty harshly, but PowerOfEvil did the best he could individually.
CREDITS
Images from LoL Esports Flickr
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