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It's not just South Korea that's watching the League of Legends festivities right now. North America is celebrating their own - the play-offs of the LCS 2023 summer split.
The main stage of North America's premier tournament is reaching its end. That means the match-ups are gaining special significance.
There are 4 teams left in the race for the LCK Summer 2023 Champions Cup. Given the format of the tournament, the entire quartet is already in the prizes. The thing is that in 2023 LCS has 3 direct trips to Worlds 2023 and one slot at Wildcard Qualifiers, where the top 4 LCS vs top 4 LEC will be played.
Cloud9 and NRG are already at the Worlds in South Korea, but Liquid and Golden Guardians are not quite there yet. We'll talk about the face-to-face match of the latter.
Let's find out who will be stronger in the equal fight between Liquid/Golden Guardians and will join C9 and NRG at Worlds 2023, and who will have to play against the top-4 of European LEC Finals.
Let's go.
Golden Guardians uniforms
Let's start the match with an analysis of Golden Guardians' form. In this match, I think they will play the number one.
The thing is that on paper there is no favourite in this Bo5. League of Legends betting sites are not ready to single out one of the sides, and that's why they give odds around 1.8 for GG's victory.
It is possible to believe in the parity of the sides. Golden Guardians are not playing their best game at the summer split, although they are still the top team in the region.
Golden Guardians have always been "middling" at best. They have been ranked around the top 6, but a quality boost happened last season.
Quite unexpectedly for everyone, and I think for themselves, GG took the top 2 in the league. This guaranteed them passage to the first international event in the club's history - Mid-Season Invitational 2023. There were no sensations there, but the Guardians got their Top 8.
- Golden Guardians lineup: Licorice, River, Gori, Stixxay, huhi, Array .
After a successful spring split, Golden Guardians didn't change their lineup, which isn't surprising. This helped them finish well in the LCS Summer 2023: Group Stage, sharing the championship with Cloud9.
Golden Guardians started the playoffs from the second round of the top grid. Being one of the main favourites to win overall, GG unexpectedly Ledgeili NRG with the score 1-3.
However, at the bottom of the grid they have not found any competitors yet. Although they played one game, but that one was closed on class: they beat Dignitas with a score of 3-1.
The most popular Golden Guardians champions
Gwen (3 matches, 100% wins), Fiora (3 matches, 66% wins) are the most preferred champions on the top line.
Forest is most often played with Wukong (5 games, 80% wins), Sejuani (3 matches, 100% wins), Nautilus (2 matches, 0% wins), Kindred (2 matches, 100% wins).
KSante (4 matches, 75% win rate) appears on the centre line, as well as Azir (4 matches, 75% wins), Yone (2 matches, 50% wins), LeBlanc (2 matches, 100% wins).
Aphelios (7 matches, 100% wins), Zeri (4 games, 50% wins), Lucian (2 matches, 0% wins), Varus (2 matches, 100% wins) are the most frequent shooters.
From Support Champions Rell (3 matches, 100% wins), Nami (2 matches, 0% wins), Leona (2 matches, 0% wins).
Team Liquid uniforms
We continue our analysis of the LCS Summer 2023 LCS Summer 2023 play-offs with Team Liquid's form. In this match they play on par with GG, but in my opinion they will still be number two.
Bookmakers confirm the pre-match odds. The odds for a win, just like in the case of Golden Guardians - 1.8.
Team Liquid is one of the central teams of LCS. However, the team has clearly been struggling in recent times.
While in 2022 the team was consistently in the top of the local league, finishing top 1 at LCS Lock In 2022, and then top 3 and top 4 at LCS Spring 2022 and LCS Summer 2022 respectively, the situation has changed in 2023. At LCS Spring 2023, the team finished Top 8, which is clearly not the level of a top club.
- Team Liquid lineup: Summit, Pyosik, APA, Yeon, CoreJJ .
After the unsuccessful LCS Spring, the team changed the player of the central league. The newcomer was APA, who previously played for Team Liquid Challengers.
Liquid managed to qualify for the LCS Summer 2023 play-offs. They won the group with a score of 10-8, thus securing their place in the top play-offs.
However, they didn't last long there. In the first match Liquid lost to NRG, who are surprising this season. In the first match of the lower play-offs Liquid beat 100 Thieves 3-1 and here they are.
Liquid's next opponent in the play-offs was Dignitas. The latter were no competition for Liquid and the match ended 3-0 in Liquid's favour.
The most popular champions of Team Liquid
Kenen (3 matches, 100% wins), Gnar (3 matches, 33% wins), Jax (2 matches, 100% wins), Rumble (2 matches, 100% wins) are most often sent to the top line.
Foresters pick Vi (4 matches, 50% wins), Wukong (4 matches, 75% wins), Sejuani (2 matches, 50% wins), Lee Sin (2 matches, 50% wins).
In the mid are Ziggs (2 matches, 100% wins), Tristana (1 match, 100% wins), Cassiopeia (1 match, 0 wins), Neeko (1 match, 1 win).
On Shooters Aphelios (6 matches, 66% wins), Ashe (3 matches, 33% wins), Lucia (1 match, 1 win), Samira (1 match, 1 win), Xayah (1 match, 0 wins).
On support champions Rakan (4 games, 50% wins), Milio (3 matches, 66% wins), Rell (3 matches, 33% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings between Liquid and Golden Guardians
The teams have played 4 matches against each other in 2023. The score is parity.
Predicted result of the match Team Liquid - Golden Guardians
Considering the odds, it would be logical to expect an equal fight on all maps. There should be 5 of them. However, there is no hundred per cent certainty in this.
To tell the truth, I have more faith in Golden Guardians. I think they were able to switch on after an unexpected fall to the bottom of the net and will beat Team Liquid, who are already warmed up.
Bottom line: Golden Guardians win.
