Quarterfinals: Team Liquid vs Cloud9

Cloud9 are not looking great. With the exception of their most recent win against Clutch Gaming, they have just finished a four-game losing streak. Two of those matches were against Team Liquid, who they now have to face again in a best of five. The map objective mastery that we saw from Cloud9 in the first half of the split has all but disappeared, and Svenskeren – who struggled with some synergy with the group – has been making mistake after mistake. TL, on the other hand, has tried to be a far more cohesive team, one that isn’t focused on the bot lane. This has involved great TPs out of Impact for ganks and flanks as well as Pobelter even beating Jensen in lane.

What to expect:
When Cloud9 slides, they slide hard. There is little reason to believe that C9 will recoup and bring home the gold in this match. If they do manage something, it will be by beating TL at map objectives, something TL did better than them in their last two matches. Individually, we can probably expect some outplays from C9. Smoothie has looked far better than Olleh in recent matches, and even though Svenskeren’s engages have been terrible, he has all around looked better than Xmithie when they’ve met. If TL can set the tempo in their favor – as they did previously – the win is theirs.

Quarterfinals: TSM vs Clutch Gaming

TSM and Clutch Gaming have remarkably similar styles. Both teams prefer to take things slow, eking out victories in the late game after having time to choose engages and let their power grow. Both teams are also mid-lane heavy. While they don’t necessarily play around their mid, the greatest power of their team is there. In this way, it is a matchup of styles and who is better at it. The bad news is that when they last met, TSM showed they were far better at it, and they’ve had many more years of practice at this style than Clutch has.

What to expect:
TSM is going to take this one. The simple truth is, Clutch doesn’t have a lot of strengths. Their biggest strength is their ability to force games to a slow, late game pace, but that is TSM’s wheelhouse. Unless Clutch tries a different strategy, it’s unlikely they can beat TSM at their own game. It will end up like last game where TSM slowly bleed them out one small advantage at a time. It doesn’t help that Solo is a much weaker toplaner than Hauntzer, and even if he manages to go even against him, in team fights, the difference in their strengths will become obvious.

Player to Watch: Licorice

Licorice is a fantastic toplaner… so long as he stays in the top lane. In that lane, his power is almost unrivaled. But once Licorice is put onto a tank role, or a more supportive toplaner, his power drops. Out of lane, it gets even worse. C9 need to find out what to do with their toplaner, whether they let him play his style and try to split or carry, or whether they shore up his skills in other departments. Either way, figuring out what to do with Licorice is a key factor in C9’s success because at this point, all the teams have caught on to their tricks.