The LCS Playoffs will begin in a few short days with Evil Geniuses taking on Dignitas on Saturday, August 7. Before then though, Week 9 finished up with some teams powering through to the playoffs and others showing some major weaknesses. This will the last weekend that CLG and FLY are a part of power rankings for 2021 as their season has ended. With that, here are the LCS Summer Split Power Rankings Playoffs Week 1.
[Realted: LCS 2021 Summer Split Week 9 Power Rankings]
Not a whole lot to say here other than the fact that they ruined FlyQuest’s playoff dreams. This team has been bad for a while now and sadly this will likely be the last time some of these players play in front of LCS fans. At least their goodbye was a win.
There are building blocks for this team, but even with their own destiny in their hand, they couldn’t win their way into playoffs. They certainly had chances against GG and CLG, but came up short. It is really too bad but hopefully, it will be a learning moment for many off the young and talented players that makeup FlyQuest. Their future is bright but 2021 was not their year.
Immortals had the opportunity handed to them on a silver platter to make top six and be in the double-elimination portion. Instead, they couldn’t beat TL, FlyQuest or GG. These were all very beatable teams for an IMT squad that took down EG just the weekend before. Now they head into playoffs and will likely face DIG. Depending on which team struts out there, IMT will either 3-0 or 0-3.
A win over CLG was all DIG needed. Then Neo showed off his Gragas jungle in a meaningless game against TSM. While they are in the upper bracket, they will need to improve quite a bit before their Saturday series against Evil Geniuses. Otherwise, it will probably be a quick 3-0 for a team that leaned heavily on its Spring Split record to make it this far.
The miracle run from 3-15 to Summer Playoffs happened with a little help. GG taking down FLY and then IMT shows that they are here to play. While not exactly a Dark Horse, they could definitely make some noise during these playoffs. Whoever they face in C9 or TL during their first round better come prepared. If they don’t GG might just slip right on past them.
Getting Santorin back was certainly quite the boost for a team that has been missing his stability. Truthfully Armao was solid in his sted but the team looked noticeably different with Santorin in the lineup. Now they look forward towards a Spring Finals rematch against C9 and should be thirsty for revenge. This should be the best series of the first four played and TL certainly stand a much better chance with Santorin and Alphari back.
The Fudge Factor is very real on C9 right now. They were able to stomp TL and remind them of their place, but that was only one game. Now they have a best of five against TL to determine who gets their shot at TSM. Perkz and Blaber specifically are really going to need a playoff buff if C9 are going to want to make their run as many think they could.
They had a chance to solidify first place this weekend against TSM but 100T came out flat. Now they get a week off to prepare for most likely EG. This will allow for them to figure out why they have been so slow to adapt to the meta and where their early Split mojo has gone. This team has the talent to beat anyone, they need to just put it all together again.
A loss to TL possibly kept EG from getting a week off and only being one game away from Worlds 2021. Instead, they will face a pretty average Dignitas team as a warm-up for 100 Thieves in the next round. They will want to keep things vanilla in terms of comps and strategies so as to save it for a more worthy opponent. Evil Geniuses are fighting for their first LCS title and this team can absolutely win it if they play together and stay ahead of the meta.
A big win against 100T on Friday as well as an easy stomp of CLG on Saturday was enough for TSM to finish in first place in the LCS. Their game against the Thieves was one that this team had been needing for awhile. It helped to cement them as the current best team in the LCS and now they can avoid EG in their first playoff series. They will get a week off and then they will get the winner of C9 and TL. They are a combined 9-1 against them during the regular season but lost to TL last Spring in the Playoffs. Not only will they want revenge but their season goal has been Worlds redemption and a win in their first series would guarantee that they get that chance.
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