Two Teams Will See Their Hopes of Qualifying for Worlds End This Week

The first round of the 2020 LCS Summer Split Playoffs will culminate this week with two teams being eliminated from the postseason. Team SoloMid were shockingly swept by the Golden Guardians in their first round series on Thursday, and they are trying to avoid complete disaster this week against Dignitas. Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses failed in their attempt to reverse sweep FlyQuest on Friday, and they will need to knock off 100 Thieves to keep their slim chances of going to Shanghai for the League of Legends World Championships alive.

2020 LEAGUE OF LEGENDS LCS SUMMER SPLIT PLAYOFFS LOSERS’ BRACKET BETTING ODDS

TEAM SOLOMID -476

DIGNITAS +331

While a Golden Guardians upset of TSM was feasible, no one expected a 3-0 sweep. TSM looked completely flustered in the series, and Doublelift played very poorly in the bottom lane. He posted the worst KDA on the team, finishing the series with a 1.8 KDA, and he also had a team-low kill percentage. His awful day was encapsulated in the third game when he teleported back to lane without buying an item, putting him well behind in the laning phase.

The failures of the bottom lane were particularly galling as Spica and BrokenBlade played well throughout the series. These two took the brunt of the blame for TSM’s struggles throughout the Summer Split, yet BrokenBlade led the team with a 5.8 KDA and made a big impact in team fights, while Spica was on point with his Smite.

Bjergsen was reliable in the mid lane, performing very well in his first two games on Azir, and he will have a sizable edge over Fenix. The long-time face of the team might have to hard carry given his team’s issues, but he is more than capable and proved it in two easy wins over Dignitas this season.
Dignitas have to be commended for overcoming an 0-8 start to qualify for the playoffs. Their decision to replace Froggen with Fenix turned out great, and V1per gives them a top laner with the potential to carry. The bottom lane is finally performing well with Johnsun looking sharp on Ashe, giving Dignitas a chance to pull off the upset if Doublelift’s woes continue. Dignitas may be worth a flier given their juicy number per the League of Legends betting odds.

100 THIEVES

EVIL GENIUSES

The odds in this series will be significantly closer, and 100 Thieves might even be favored following their victory over Evil Geniuses on the last day of the regular season. While the Geniuses finished one game ahead of the Thieves in the regular season standings, this is a tough match-up for them given the disappointing play of Huni in the top lane.

It’s become apparent that Huni no longer has what it takes to be considered a top-tier top laner in the LCS. He has failed to effectively carry from the position with a 2.1 KDA this season, and that’s an issue considering he doesn’t play tanks and largely tanks individually focused champions. To make matters worse, Ssumday bullied him the last time they met, as his Camille posted a 16 KDA in a 100 Thieves’ win.
There are other real issues for Evil Geniuses ahead of this series. Bang’s limited champion pool has hurt the team’s versatility even if some of his traditional champions are back in the meta, and there’s a reason GoldenGlue wasn’t on a roster at the start of the Summer Split.

As for the Thieves, they have had an up and down season, but there is plenty to be optimistic about headed into this elimination series. Poome is playing much better in support than Stunt was at the start of the season, and Ryoma continues to develop in his first year in the LCS. The key to this series will be the play of Contractz though. He has been responsible for 19.9 percent of his team’s damage as a jungler, and you usually don’t see damage stats that high from the position. If he plays well, we should see the Thieves pull off the slight upset and advance to the second round of the playoffs.