Cover-Credits:
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock In tournament ended on a high note with Team Liquid (TL) emerging victorious over Evil Geniuses (EG). A stupendous 3-0 record in the best-of-five (BO5) series earned Team Liquid its second consecutive Lock In win, this time with some new faces on the team. Efficient macro play and late-game scaling compositions allowed Team Liquid to roll over EG in a convincing manner and secure the coveted trophy along with $150K USD in prize money.
EG came into the series as the clear favorites as it was undefeated in the tournament and was boasting a record of 9-0 up until the finals. Despite the clean sweep by TL, EG did show signs of life during the series as it managed to garner advantages in the form of early gold leads and good laning across the map.
Must-watch moments from the Lock In finals
Game one appeared one-sided for EG but TL was swift to turn the game on its head after capitalizing on a team fighting mistake by EG. Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg’s quadra-kill on Sylas was the final nail in EG’s coffin. Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau was frivolous throughout most of the first match as he fell considerably behind against EG’s top-laner Jeong "Impact" Eon-young in the early game.
Again in match 3 of the series, EG had a comfortable lead over TL but failed to translate it into a win. They had secured three dragons and had a 3K gold lead. Team fights were probably EG’s Achilles heel in the series. TL managed to turn the game around after winning a huge team fight in the mid-game and eventually secured the fourth dragon of the game. TL’s attack-damage carry Steven “Hans sama” Liv’s triple-kill also helped the team translate that team-fight win into securing the Baron buff.
Throughout the series, Hans sama and TL’s substitute support Bill "Eyla" Nguyen were players to watch as they consistently brought advantages to their team.
After the victory, Bwipo wrote on Twitter, “Not a bad start to my LCS career at all, the team carried me today. Big props to @Hanssama and @SupportEyla for making a very strong bot lane in a short period of time!”
Team Liquid ran multiple rosters in the LCS Lock In tournament due to import restrictions and Visa issues. Team Liquid Academy top-laner Bradley "Bradley" Benneyworth, support Bill "Eyla" Nguyen and ADC Sean "Yeon" Sung were all part of the Lock In roster. But, Team Liquid went ahead to play the finals with its LCS starters in four roles and with Eyla subbing in for Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in.
Team Liquid walks away as the champions of Lock In tournaments as it has won this year’s event and the inaugural event last year. It is the second victory for TL’s jungler Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer and star support CoreJJ. It will be interesting to see when CoreJJ will be able to participate in the regular Spring Split season as he is currently facing green card issues.
The Lock In tournament certainly delivered some fantastic League of Legends action to fans and now all eyes are on the regular split. The LCS 2022 Spring Split is all set to kick off on 5th Feb, but no official schedule has been released yet by Riot Games.
