Ever since the League of Legends Week 4 turnaround, it was obvious that this split was going to be more competitive than it looked. It’s pretty unlikely anyone expected it would be this competitive though. While Echo Fox and Cloud9 have held their lead, and will probably still easily glide into the quarterfinals, they took home a defeat each on Saturday while the two teams that beat them, TSM and 100 Thieves, continued to crush it during the weekend.

Echo Fox had a questionable draft against TSM – the Fiora mid didn’t work for Huhi, so we aren’t sure why Fenix thought he would fare better. Coupled with hugely underestimating Bjergsen on Galio, Fox dug their own grave as they gave up four kills on a failed gank and were constantly thwarted by Galio’s ults. TSM wove the same magic against OpTic during their match. They read OpTic’s first big gank easily and countered it for two quick kills. After that, it was TSM running the map and running down members. It’s only two wins, but it might mean Zven and Mithy are finally in the game.

Meanwhile, Fox’s rival for first, Cloud9, fell to 100 Thieves. Just like Fox, a disastrous call led to Cloud9 losing four kills to the enemy team early on, a deficit that C9 never quite made it back from. Coupled with Aphromoo’s 100% kill participation (CodySun was off by one kill), 100 Thieves simply played better. Licorice especially showed that he might be a lane God, but he has some things to learn about team fights as he engaged poorly and possibly cost his team the game. 100T’s next fight against FlyQuest wasn’t quite the bloodiest of the split, but with nearly a kill every two minutes, there wasn’t much downtime between grey screens. Aphromoo once again played like a monster on a hook champion, this time opting for Blitzcrank against FlyQuest’s all engage and no tank line-up.

While only 100 Thieves and TSM took home a 2-0 weekend, there were still plenty of ups during the weekend. C9’s Licorice – who is definitely getting rookie of the split – absolutely annihilated everything before him against Clutch Gaming. Nine minutes into the game, Licorice had secured four kills on Kled and taken first turret, all while making plays that will be in highlight reels for weeks. His Kled ult after a Baron also launched his entire team into the retreating Clutch backline, easily taking them out and pushing C9 to a 24 minute victory.

Not to be outdone, Echo Fox trumped C9’s 24 minute win with a 22 minute win against Team Liquid. The game started with Huni choosing Yasuo top and declaring in the lobby, “No one come top. World finalists only.” This was a throwdown reference to Huni’s 2017 run with SKT as well as Impact’s own 2013 run with SKT, both of which made it the finals at Worlds. Unfortunately, TL didn’t exactly honor Huni’s words. Xmithie spent a huge portion of the game pressuring or ganking top, but karma came back for TL when Fox Aced them in a 5v5 without losing a single person. Too much disrespect can do that Doublelift.

Meanwhile, it was a bad, bad weekend for CLG. Although they have occasionally shown promise this split, it’s too few and far between. Darshan continues to run too hot under the collar, something he has been doing ever since his solo kill on Huni in Week 4. He was baited several times by his toplane counterpart into going all-in only to be killed by a roaming jungler. But even without being baited, he often extended far beyond the safety of his team to pursue fleeing enemies or get kills only to be collapsed on. At this point, it’s pretty fair to say that CLG won’t be joining C9, and possibly TSM, in the quarterfinals this split.