Team Liquid
2020-01-28 02:35:00
Team SoloMid

Team Liquid vs Team SoloMid

2020-01-28 02:23:10Posted by Petar

Predicting the outcome of this one match is an absolute nightmare. On paper, this is a fight between two premier LCS titans -- the current and former champions. How could you not tune in? After all, top tier play and entertainment must be guaranteed with two teams stacked with so much talent?

Well, that's true on paper. In reality, however, both Liquid and Team SoloMid looked like absolute amateurs in their first 2020 outings. In fact, it was painful to watch, and it's not because of any allegiance. Liquid was demolished by Cloud9 in the Spring Split opener which, frankly, was quite the shock. Now sure, they didn't have Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen by their side, but they should've still been somewhat competitive. They still had four champions within their starting line-up, most of whom are absolute behemoths in their respective roles. Even without a jungler of Broxah's caliber, Liquid should have looked better -- it should've been a fight, rather than a one-sided shellacking.

To Cloud9's credit, they capitalized greatly. They drafted a fantastic team comp, gave Veigar to Nisqy (a perfect counter in today's engage-heavy meta), and never lifted their foot off the gas. Liquid was not only bested on an individual level but as a five-man unit as well, and Cloud9's unrelenting aggression was too much for them to handle at this point in time. Losing just a single player shouldn't make their team play regress this much, especially when they're playing against a team that replaced their entire bottom side of the map.

Still, they at least have an alibi, unlike Team SoloMid who looked like the cliche TSM of old: painfully passive, reactive, afraid of engaging, unable of making any sort of decision in the mid and later stages of the game. They played not to lose and it was evident from the very moment they stepped foot on stage. They were afraid of making any game-deciding error, so they decided to not make any decision at all. This didn't result in any cleaner macro, but in decisiveness from start to finish, and they lost in the end, to boot. It many ways, it was an absolute debacle and it lasted for over an hour. A horrendous showing from both teams.

So you can be sure that both Team Liquid and Team SoloMid want to enter today's match and make a statement. Heck, one could say that they're in dire need of one as well. Now, it all boils down to who's able to pick up the pace and fix their issues in this short a time. To make matters even more complex, both teams have a ton of stuff to work on. In the end, we're gonna side with Team SoloMid on this one, but barely so. They have their full line-up, they have the superior jungler, and they're known for fast rebounds, especially after underwhelming debacles like the one from yesterday.

Still, this is far from an easy call to make, so if you're looking for safe bets, it's best to probably skip this one.

GamePickBookmakerOddsStakeResult
Team SoloMid Pinnacle 2.56 2 Loss

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