LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs Kick Off!
Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves is one of the most anticipated match-ups of the 2022 LCS Spring Split playoffs and the way their last encounter went only makes it better. Cloud9 was first place of the standings for almost the entire split until they fell 1 spot in Week 8, on the other hand, 100 Thieves had a somewhat stable split, moving a few spots here and there in the very first few weeks of the tournament, ultimately landing in 3rd place.
The way C9 has been playing throughout the whole split is something to admire, even after dropping Nick “LS” De Cesare, their drafts, individual performances and team strategies didn’t seem to be affected at all, and they still managed to keep themselves at the top of the leaderboard.
We cannot dismiss 100 Thieves just by their performance during the regular season, even if they are one spot behind Cloud9, they still managed to beat almost every single team at least once and their performance has been going up steadily through the weeks, after all, they are the 2021 Summer Split champions and they didn’t change their roster at all which is usually something esports betting experts take into consideration very seriously.
Cloud9’s Chance to Prove They Still Remain the Best Team
There’s so much that has changed over the past couple of weeks regarding Cloud9’s performance, it’s now impossible to say with certainty that they are the best team in NA. In the last weeks of the split, they dropped games to FlyQuest, 100Thieves and TSM (the last place team at that time), so it’s fair to say that they are struggling even against teams that they clearly should not. But what happened to Cloud9? you might ask, they didn’t swap any players, the meta hasn’t changed almost at all, so the problem might be in their individual performance.
During their last games, Cloud9’s main issue seems to be their ability to coordinate on what fights they should pick or how they should approach them and this is something that reflects on the performance of the players in charge of initiating the fights or making the first move. Particularly Winsome seemed a bit lost in their games against FlyQuest and TSM, where he was going for engagements that didn’t look like the best option, yet they still kept going to questionable fights.
Summit was their key player during the entirety of the split, he currently holds 7 player of the game and 2 player of the week awards, the highest [email protected] (21) of all the players in the league, highest DMG% (30.6), and scored 14 solo kills (4 more than the next one), really no-one comes close to him when it comes to carry-oriented stats in the top lane. Now if we take a look at their last game against 100 Thieves, Summit was simply demolished by Ssumday and it wasn’t even close. It’s safe to say that the rest of the teams caught up on the ways C9 was winning most of their games and have found ways to exploit their weaknesses and create openings in the early game.
The 100 Thieves Team is Putting Their Pieces Together
The defending champions didn’t have the best start of the season but they definitely ramped up in the last weeks of the competition, and it can be attributed in huge part to Ssumday and Closer. The top laner has nothing to envy Summit, yes, he might not bring the same tools his opponent does in this matchup, but he still delivers a lot, with the highest KDA (5.3) and FB% (38.9) of all top laners, it’s clear that Ssumday is the ultimate weapon if you want a flexible top laner who can play both as a carry and as an enabler for the team.
Closer is a fundamental part in 100 Thieves early objective control, they are the best team when it comes to the amount of dragons per game (3.22) and they are tied for first place with 0.94 Nashors per game. Unlike other junglers in the league, Closer has a more aggressive playstyle and doesn’t focus entirely on taking camps and scaling up, he is tied for the 1st place in solo kills amongst the other junglers and he is always giving his team enough space to breathe during the early stages of the game.
For 100 Thieves to win the whole thing one more time, it’s going to be extremely important that their bot lane step up, particularly FBI, he used to be the undisputed best ADC of the LCS in the past, but this split hasn’t been necessarily a highlight for him. Fortunately for them Huhi has been performing up to the expectations and just like in their last split, he’s been exceptional when it comes to playing as the main initiator for the squad even though the lol odds do not always account for this.
Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves Game Information
Date: Saturday, April 3
Time: 4:30pm ET
Live Stream: Twitch.tv/LCS
Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves Predictions
The head-to-head score is 1 to 1 and 100 Thieves won their last encounter in an outstanding fashion during the last week of the LCS, but let’s be fair, Cloud9 did roll over 100T the first time they met earlier in the season. It isn’t crazy to argue both ways considering how both teams have played throughout the whole split and not just in the last couple of weeks.
Both teams are playing in a very proactive and aggressive way on their own, even if it’s hard to tell who is going to win, it’s safe to say that the series will be very exciting to watch. Taking everything in consideration, this series is almost guaranteed to go to 5 games but 100 Thieves are way more reliable at this point of the competition, that’s why I think they’ll take the series, meaning this is one of our spiciest selection in this league of legends betting season.
