Week 6 of the 2020 LCS Spring Split was another cold one for Immortals. They lost to tied-for-sixth place Golden Guardians and barely won over last place Counter Logic Gaming. Their win rate remains 50% with a 6-6 record, and Immortals stays tied for third. Looking forward to Week 7, Immortals faces 100 Thieves and Team Liquid.
100 THIEVES: 5-7, 6th Place (tied)
The Thieves had one of their most dominant victories and one of their most disappointing defeats last week. Ssumday has been the shining star of this roster, hard carrying on Sett and Lucian in the past two weeks. The rest of the roster has had their ups and downs. On The Hiest, Coach Zikz has been stressing for the players to play aggressively from the start of the game. He keeps repeating that they should keep up pressure in laning phase. Immortals should be a good test for them.
Immortals’ most recent win over CLG reinforced their greatest strength–late game decision-making. If 100 Thieves is unable to gain a reasonable early advantage and pressure through the end, then Immortals will pull off a victory through wave control, vision control, and better scaling compositions. Both 100 Thieves and Immortals average behind in gold in the early game, have poor dragon control and rarely destroy the first three turrets. However, Immortals has stronger Elder Dragon and Baron control, which will be their greatest advantage.
Both teams should probably try to prioritize comfort picks for their solo lanes. Ssumday and sOAZ, Eika and Ryoma – these players tend to make or break their teams right now. Expect to see Syndra, Orianna, Zoe, Sett, Aatrox and Ornn featured in the draft. The top lane counterpick for Ssumday or sOAZ will be big. And on the Rift, Meteos and Xmithie will be tasked with tracking each other and ganking lanes.
Player to Watch: sOAZ
The Week 7 matchup versus Ssumday will be a big test for sOAZ. He has the seventh largest gold deficit at 15 minutes of all LCS players, while Ssumday has the 14th largest gold lead. 100 Thieves have gained wins from Ssumday dominating his 1v1 matchups, while Immortals tends to win from late game decisions out of sOAZ and Xmithie. Much of this Immortals-100 Thieves game will hinge on the top-side.
Prediction: #IMTWIN
Immortals need to find their footing, and 100 Thieves is a good team to do it with. This is one of those matchups where the loss is especially bad, because Immortals drops in the standings and could be surpassed by 100 Thieves in one weekend. Immortals has been more consistent with their late game, while 100 Thieves has been inconsistent in all stages. Unless the draft goes heavily in 100 Thieves favor, Immortals should be able to hold out until Baron and Elder become the win condition. This should play out like Immortals’ recent game versus CLG.
TEAM LIQUID: 6-6, 3rd Place (tied)
Team Liquid is actually a mismatch for Immortals. They have some of the best early game stats and a short average game time, while Immortals thrives in the late-game. TL also has a much higher kill-death ratio, so Immortals should try to only take their best fights. Both teams’ top laners tend to handshake the laning phase and play more for the team, so look for more action towards mid and bottom lane. Drafting around those lanes will probably be a higher priority. Braum, Miss Fortune, Syndra, Leblanc, Sett and Elise will be pick-or-ban in this matchup.
Player to Watch: Xmithie
Last time Immortals played Team Liquid, Xmithie actually stood out as the MVP. His early tracking pretty much nullified Broxah, and he and Hakuho kept Liquid’s bottom lane in check all game. For the Week 7 matchup, Xmithie either needs to repeat that performance, or make sure his team can make it into the late game and beat Liquid around objectives. If Liquid is able to bully Immortals’ players individually in lane and get an early Dragon soul, then they will probably win out.
Prediction: #TLWIN
Unfortunately, Team Liquid looked very good last week. They are starting Tactical, so expect them to look similar this week. Meanwhile, Immortals is on a downswing, and nearly lost five games in a row. Unless Immortals has found some OP strategy that catches Liquid off guard, then expect Jensen and Tactical to run away with this game.
CREDITS
Images from LoL Esports’ Flickr
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