LCS Summer 2020 Playoffs Preview

The Playoffs Stage of LCS Summer 2020 is just a few days away. In this article, I will take close look at who the favorites are, based on the qualities of each roster and what happened during the Group Stage.

LCS Summer 2020 Group Stage Results

Contrary to what a lot of people expected, the Group Stage of LCS Summer 2020 was very disputed. Some of the teams that should have demolished all opposition, such as TSM, went on to lose 6 matches out of 18. That’s a lot of losses. Or take Cloud9 for example. They were winning match after match and then, around mid-July, they started to lose. And they lost even against much weaker opponents, such as Golden Guardians.

Here’s a complete list of results:

• 1^st place: Team Liquid: 15 W – 3 L
• 2^nd place: Cloud9: 13 W – 5 L
• 3^rd place: FlyQuest: 12 W – 6 L
• 4^th place: Team SoloMid: 12 W – 6 L
• 5^th place Golden Guardians: 9 W – 9 L
• 6^th place: Evil Geniuses: 8 W – 10 L
• 7^th place: 100 Thieves: 7 W – 11 L
• 8^th place: Dignitas: 5 W – 13 L
• 9^th place: Counter Logic Gaming: 5 W – 13 L
• 10^th place: Immortals: 4 W – 14 L

Playoffs Format

Unlike other leagues, such as LCK, where the Playoffs Stage only has 4 matches in total and just 5 participants, the North American league features a Playoffs Stage full of matches, that features 8 participants. The top 2 teams from the Group Stage wait in the Semifinals (Upper Bracket). The next 4 teams start in the Quarterfinals (Upper Bracket). The 7^th and 8^th ranked teams start in the Lower Bracket, where they will face the losers of the Quarterfinals.

Key Players

LCS Summer 2020 Playoffs will feature a lot of important players that could make a big difference for their teams. Keep in mind that these are highly accomplished individuals who tend to play much better when it matters most. If they have a good tournament, their squad could easily jump several positions in the final analysis. Among these players, I would name the following:

• Zven, from Cloud9
• PowerOfEvil, from FlyQuest
• Svenskeren, from Evil Geniuses
• Jensen, from Team Liquid
• Bjergsen and Doublelift, from TSM

In particular, these last two players could really change TSM’s result by a lot. Right now, the team doesn’t look spectacular. And as I mentioned before, with 12 wins and 6 losses they should be finishing 4^th, just like they did in the Group Stage. But if Bjergsen and Doublelift play well, we could easily see TSM in the Grand Final.

Favorites

Based on what we’ve seen so far and the roster compositions, I would put Team Liquid as the winner and either Cloud9 or TSM and the runner-up.

 

Photo credit: Riot Games