Are FQ and CLG both Dark Horses? – LCS Championship 2022 Round 1

Now that the LCS Summer Split is over, it’s time for us to turn our eyes to the LCS Championship heading into Round One!

Who will advance and who will go to the losers’ bracket? Let’s break it down.

LCS Championship Round 1 Preview

FlyQuest vs Team Liquid

FlyQuest will face Team Liquid in the opener of the LCS Championship. After a very strong split, FlyQuest made it to the top 6 with some really strong performances. FQ’s mid laner toucouille has been the shining star of the roster and despite not having the strongest individuals, they managed to pull it off.

Unfortunately, they lost their tiebreaker against Cloud9, which puts them against TL in Round 1. Team Liquid also had a good finish to their split, only losing to 100T in their last match. With that being said, with the roster TL has, we were probably expecting something more.

FQ is really good at turning around fights and playing the later stages of the game when the carriers are online but the early game will be the key for this series. TL are much better in early mid-game transition and I’m expecting them to create good enough leads to close out the games.

Having said that, TL isn’t always perfect in the execution so maybe they will drop a game somewhere during the series. Nonetheless, considering their head-to-heads, TL might be one of FQ’s worst enemies.

Below you can find some of the most likely LoL odds for the series, courtesy of Midnite.

• Map 1 Winner: TL (1.4x)
• Total Maps: over 3.5 (1.48x)
• Correct Map Score: FQ 1-3 TL (2.82x)
• Team to Score Quadra Kill: TL (1.98x)
• Map 2 Winner: FQ (2.78x)
• First Blood (any map): TL (~1.6x)
• Race to 5 kills (any map): TL (1.53x)

Counter Logic Gaming vs Cloud9

Counter Logic Gaming are the other big surprise in this LCS Summer Split. Fielding almost a complete roster of domestic talent (with the exception of their AD Luger), the laughing stock from previous years became the dark horse. 4th in the regular split, they are coming into the Championship knowing that they can make a strong result and maybe create an upset.

The series against C9 will be a really tough call. On a good day, C9 should have the upper hand over CLG, but C9 can be coin flippy at times. Nonetheless, if we take the 0-3 in the first week off the equation, C9 went on an 11-5 record, which is a solid result. Zven’s return to the support position made C9 a full roster of star players. Berserker is showing why the org decided to pick him up and repay them after the weird spring split.

Regarding CLG, the main key for their result is going to be Contractz. Former C9 player who disappeared in the last few splits, he emerged once again in this CLG lineup. Other than him, Palafox has also shown that there are good domestic talents, it’s just a matter of giving them a chance.

To round it off, getting the map score on this one will be super hard, but aside from that, there are other really good bets to make in this series if you go to Midnite:

• Winner: C9 (1.46x)
• Total maps: over 4.5 (2.70x)
• Correct Map Score: C9 3-2 CLG (4.00x)
• First Blood (for any map): CLG (~2.00x)
• Map 1 Race to 5 Kills: CLG (1.89x)
• Total kills: over 24.5 (1.86x)
• Race to 10 kills (Map 1): C9 (1.63x)