Cloud9 clean up Team Liquid behind Zven’s pentakill to close out 2021 LCS Summer Split

A relatively dominant win from Cloud9 cemented their place in the top four of the postseason bracket today, while Team Liquid will be forced to hope the rest of the day’s matches can end favorably for them. The result would have had massive implications on the LCS playoff race regardless of who came out on top today.

C9 and Liquid came into today’s regular-season finale tied with identical records of 27-17 on the 2021 season. Plus, each team took half of the four games they played against each other this year, with a tied 2-2 record.

Today’s game saw Team Liquid’s mid laner, Jensen, do everything in his power to keep his team’s hopes at a top-three finish alive, but his 8/3/2 scoreline wasn’t enough to propel Liquid to a victory—especially considering the rest of the team’s starting lineup only amassed four kills throughout the entire game.

Cloud9 heavily outplayed Liquid in the bottom lane, where Zven and Vulcan never once took their feet off the gas during today’s matchup. C9’s bottom lane played exceptionally well all the way to the final minute of the match where Zven recorded the first pentakill of the LCS Summer Split.

Although Cloud9 might have won this vital game against Team Liquid, they haven’t confirmed a top-three finish yet. Cloud9 needs 100 Thieves to beat Evil Geniuses later tonight. A victory by EG will bump C9 down to fourth in the standings due to Evil Geniuses’ 4-1 head-to-head record against Cloud9 this season. 

Team Liquid will also benefit from an Evil Geniuses loss today, mainly because Liquid holds the season-long head-to-head record over Evil Geniuses. A defeat against 100 Thieves would bump them down to fifth place in the playoff bracket.

Cloud9 and Team Liquid shouldn’t be completely banking on an Evil Geniuses loss later in the day, however. 100 Thieves, their opponents in today’s matchup, elected to rest their starting lineup for the season’s final game since they’ve locked their seeding in the LCS postseason. 

Regardless of the outcome of the matchup between 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses later today, no other team besides 100 Thieves can break into the top two spots, but some combination of Evil Geniuses, Cloud9, and Team Liquid will round out the third, fourth, and fifth playoff seeds. Additionally, no tiebreakers will take place at the conclusion of the regular season, considering the odd number of games played by each team will forbid teams from finishing tied in their head-to-heads with other squads.

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