The lower round of the LCS Spring 2023 play-offs begins in North America. Today we say goodbye to the first team to leave the main stage without essentially starting it.
The 100 Thieves and Guardian Guardians will play for life in the championship match. The match promises to be a close one, as both teams have shown roughly the same level of play at the start of the championship.
The 100 Thieves finished 3rd in the group stage during the regular season, which allowed them to advance to the top of the playoffs. There the team lost the first round and now have no margin for error.
GG played the group stage worse than the Thieves. The team finished in last, 6th place and made it to the bottom of the playoffs.
We'll see which team will be stronger in this clash and continue to move towards the championship at LCS Spring 2023.
100 Thieves form
Let's start the match review with an analysis of the 100 Thieves form. In this match, they will have to play as favourites.
Bookmakers still believe in a 100 Thieves comeback after falling to the bottom of the table. The odds on Thieves winning are in the region of 1.5.
Quite a workable figure for a bo5. I agree that 100 Thieves look tougher this season, but they don't have a critical lead over their opponents.
100 Thieves line-up
The new season for 100 Thieves is difficult because of the drastic changes to the roster. The club has effectively completely overhauled its League of Legends line-up, leaving only the jungler on its roster.
100 Thieves players
- Tenacity
- Closer
- Bjergsen
- Doublelift
- Busio
Closer has obviously had a lot of impact, and for good reason he was the only player who didn't get re-signed before the start of the season. The duo-bot is also looking good: the Doublelift factor plays its part, but there are still plenty of problems in games against more titled clubs.
100 Thieves' performance
100 Thieves finished the regular season 10-8. That allowed them to finish in the top 3 of the group stage.
The Spring Split, however, was not without its replay problems. The tiebreaks took place towards the end of the group stage for 3 teams: 100 Thieves, EG and CLG.
100 Thieves outplayed their two opponents, which allowed them to get into the top 4 and start the playoffs from the top net.
In the first round of the playoffs, 100 Thieves played against the top 2 teams of the regular season, FlyQuest. A potentially close encounter turned into a battering of 100 Thieves, with FQ's Spica being the main offender for the losers.
100 Thieves champions
Gragas (4 games, 75% wins), Sion (4 games, 100% wins), Jax (3 games, 33% wins), Ornn, (2 games, 50% wins), KSante (2 games, 100% wins) appear in the Top 100 Thieves.
Viego, Vi and Wukong played the same number of times. All 3 have the same win rate - 75%.
Azir (4 games, 50% wins), Taliyah (3 games, 66% wins), Annie (3 games, 66% wins), Viktor (2 games, 100% wins) were chosen for the centre line.
On ADC Zeri (6 games, 66% wins), Xayah (5 games, 60% wins), Jinx (3 games, 33% wins).
The usual sappers: Lulu and Rakan with 5 games each, where the former won 3 and the latter 4. In addition, tried Azir's and Varus's spport. The former lost, the latter won.
Golden Guardians uniforms
Let's proceed to the Golden Guardians' review of their kit. The team will play as underdogs.
Bookmakers don't have much faith in GG, but on the back of 100 Thieves they are in no hurry to bury them. The odds on Golden Guardians are at 2.3.
This is perhaps the closest match-up we'll see at the LCS Spring 2023: Playoffs in the near future. Perhaps Cloud9 and FlyQuest can match this in terms of 'equal play', but far from certain.
Golden Guardians line-up
GG getting into the LCS Spring 2023 playoffs is already a measure of success. The team was so stormy at the start of the season that they reshuffled their roster nine times.
Golden Guardians players
- Licorice
- River
- Gori
- Stixxay
- Huhi
The engines of the line-up are South Korean legionnaires. River on the woods with an efficiency rating of 72%, Gori at centre line with 67% and Huhi on the back line with 78% have brought GG to the playoffs, but it is unclear how to proceed.
The Canadian Licorice is noticeably falling out. At the top he has a KDA of 2 and an efficiency percentage of 40. This is clearly not enough to offer a competitive struggle.
Golden Guardians' performance
GG have always been the "middle of the road". Since joining the LCS in 2018, the team has not risen above the top 6 splits.
At this past LCS 2022, the team finished top-6 in the Spring Split and top-8 in the Summer Split.
In the LCS Spring 2023, the team finished the regular season 9-9. This gave them a chance to qualify for the LCS Spring 2023 playoffs.
Golden Guardians champions
Renekton (6 games, 83% win percentage) is the most popular GG champion in the top tier. Also picked Jax (3 matches, 33% win percentage), Sion (3 matches, 33% win percentage).
The most frequent visitor to the Forest was Sejuani (6 matches, 66% wins). In addition Vi (4 matches. 75% wins), Wukong (3 games, 0% wins) have appeared.
LeBlanc (3 matches, 33% wins) and Yone (3 matches, 66% wins) are used abundantly in the centre.
The ADC position takes Zeri (4 games, 50% wins), Varus (3 games, 33% wins), Ezreal (3 games, 66% wins), Lucian (3 games, 66% wins).
Of the supporters, Nami (3 games, 66% wins), Karma (2 games, 50% wins), Lulu (2 games, 50% wins), Thresh (2 games, 50% wins) and Soraka (2 games, 1 win) have been picking.
History of head-to-head encounters
The teams played each other twice in the regular season. Each side has won 1 boto1 of the series.
Result of the game
In this matchup, the clear winner for me is 100 Thieves. Despite losing in the regular season on one map, 100 Thieves look more attractive in terms of personal performance and team interaction.
Not in GG's favour are their achievements of the past few years, or rather their lack thereof. Given the transfer hell the club has been through, a top-6 finish in the LCS Spring 2023 would be a good result for them.
Bottom line: 3-0 in favour of 100 Thieves.
