Echo Fox
2018-03-31 21:00:00
Team Liquid

Echo Fox vs Team Liquid

2018-03-31 16:36:56Posted by Petar

For our first semifinal in the North American LCS we have a clash between Team Liquid and Echo Fox. Now this is an extremely interesting match-up with quite a lot of potential as both teams had some incredible games during the regular season and they're also two teams that never shy away from a challenge.

They focus on macro and play intelligently overall but they're also prone to go for kill heavy bloodbaths resulting in some incredibly exciting games.

They're on somewhat different paths however.

Echo Fox started off their split with immense success, running over their opposition as the weeks went on. However somewhere in the middle of the split things changed. Other teams adapted and developed better synergy and focused more on shutting down their bottom lane and Huni.

By week six there were some cracks in their playstyle, but it became obvious that Echo Fox was struggling in week eight when they lost both of their games. Even though they had a ton of talent on their roster they failed to utilize it to it's maximum potential. Huni wasn't as influental as the meta shifted towards tanks and his Gankplank got phased (or banned) out, Dardoch's aggression wasn't enough any longer and perhaps most importantly their bottom lane started failing every single game. It was almost mind-boggling how much they were losing every single game and we know they're a talented, highly capable duo so it must have been something internal.

Soon enough Echo Fox swapped both Fenix and Adrian in favor of their NA Academy midlaner Damonte and PapaChau. Those changes played our better than most expected, most notably for Damonte who played incredibly well every single time he stepped foot on the stage however they lost a lot of their strength overall and a lot of synergy.

PapaChau is like the polar opposite of Adrian, as he's only shown some proficiency on Alistar, unlike Adrian who's shown to be quite flexible - incredible on Thresh but also fantastic on utility support like Janna, Soraka, etc.

They're still a highly capable team overall, incredibly aggressive and dangerous but they're considerably weaker than they were during the regular season and the fact that they're 2-0 over Team Liquid during the first nine weeks of competitive play doesn't really play a big factor.

Team Liquid on other hand had a lot of ups and downs during the Spring Split. Their potential was obvious from the very get go but they needed time to adjust to each other and develop more cohesion, even though Xmithie, Pobelter and Olleh came directly from Immortals. They dropped games here and there, they displayed some in-game issues but they always came back a week afterwards and looked better and better.

As the split came to an end they were looking like one of the best teams in the region albeit an inconsistent one.

They came out victorious in their 3-0 quarterfinal series against Cloud9, but make no mistake - it wasn't easy nor was it clean.

TL started off game one strong with a quick first blood on Licorice however Cloud9 responded in force around the twelve minute mark with a fantastic turnaround. Things were looking good, they swung the game in their favor, took the drake and first turret and they successfully started the snowball. With a solid 5k gold lead they had a strong hold on the map and didn't allow Liquid much leeway until Xmithie came through with a sick, clutch Baron steal.

After forty five minutes of back and forth League of Legends, Pobelter and Impact seized the opportunity and went for a clean backdoor while the rest of the team was keeping Cloud9 busy around the Elder drake.

Game two was much of the same, with Cloud9 getting small advantages with quicker rotations and picks on the map - but yet again Liquid didn't surrender and it paid off. They shut down both Svenskeren and Licorice from the very get go and simply had the better draft for late game with Cassiopeia and Caitlyn.

While you could say that it's highly admirable how strong Team Liquid fought, how much mental fortitude they displayed as they were consistently on the back foot trying to get back into the game and so on but the fact remains that they lost almost every single early game against Cloud9. Against an early game dominant team like Echo Fox that could be a big problem.

Now player for player Team Liquid has the edge. Impact can hold his own against Huni - depending on the draft - as he's very good on bruisers and tanks but not so much on carries right now. Xmithie is one of the most intelligent, cerebral and experienced junglers in the league and should have no problem handling Dardoch's early game aggression. Xmithie knows how big of a role he plays for his team and how big of a catalyst he really is.

Paired with Pobelter and an insane, highly skilled bottom lane in Doublelift and Olleh and you get a team that is rightfully favored in this match-up. While they didn't exactly dominate Cloud (even though the third game was fairly dominant and clean) they won and they clutched it out when it mattered the most, getting the Team Liquid organization into Top 4 after quite a long time.

That said they're still prone to making mistakes, and Echo Fox had an extra week to prepare so while this probably won't go the five map distance, Echo Fox does have the opportunity to make it a close series.

GamePickBookmakerOddsStakeResult
Team Liquid Bet365 1.83 8 Win

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