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The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring Playoffs started just four days ago, and we’re already nearing the grand final, as only four more teams remain in the race for the LCS crown.
This week, we have two exciting games on the schedule, including an upper-bracket final clash between Cloud9 and FlyQuest, and a lower-bracket semi-final affair between Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses.
The Clash Of The Titans – FlyQuest vs. Cloud9
The LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs will continue on Thursday, March 30, when Cloud9 and FlyQuest clash in the upper bracket final, where the two North American LoL juggernauts will compete for a spot in the big finals. It will mark their third meeting of the season, two of which belonged to Cloud9.
Throughout the regular season, Cloud9 and FlyQuest split their meetings 1-1. However, Cloud9 pulled ahead with a dominant tiebreaker victory, which secured the boys in Blue the LCS regular season crown.
Regarded as two of the league’s strongest teams, FlyQuest and Cloud9 had an entirely different experience this season. FlyQuest came out of the gates swinging and quickly secured the no.1 spot on the LCS 2023 Spring ladder, but started cooling down in Week 5, just when Cloud9 found their new identity with the addition of a new mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo.
In the end, Cloud9 caught up to FlyQuest and sneakily stole the LCS title from underneath them, granted it’s not like C9 didn’t deserve it. EMENES and co. Looked incredible in the second half of the season, and their tiebreaker victory against FlyQuest rightly earned them the tag as the favorites of this spectacle.
Esports betting sites have FlyQuest priced as +110 favorites, while Cloud9 enter the series as -167 favorites. Whether the price is right is debatable, as winning in a best-of-three (Bo3) requires a different skill set than winning a Bo1.
Not Out Of The Title Race Yet – Evil Geniuses vs Golden Guardians
Two former LCS champions, Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians, spent most of the 2023 season in FlyQuest and Cloud9’s shadow as two League of Legends squads who are talented but not quite good enough to contest the trophy. Yet neither is out of the LCS 2023 Spring title race yet, sitting just two steps away from reaching the finals.
Golden Guardians dragged their way into the playoffs, finishing the regular season with a 9-9 record – just slightly worse than Evil Geniuses, who ended the season with ten wins. Both squads struggled to find their identity this split, particularly GG, who entered Week 3 with a 0-4 record.
Evil Geniuses were comfortably mediocre this season, bouncing between second and fifth place. On the other side, Golden Guardians went through a resurgence in Week 3 and went from 0-4 to 8-5, suggesting they might be a dark horse squad to complete the Cinderella story.
That didn’t quite happen yet. But GG are well on its way to outperforming everyone’s expectations.
Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses have met twice this split, each winning one series. However, even in the opening rounds of the playoffs, neither team showed much more than the other, with EG defeating CLG (3-0) and Golden Guardians edging past 100 Thieves (3-2).
There seems to be little to separate Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians, yet BetOnline has GG priced as +175 underdogs and Evil Geniuses as -250 favorites. Still, the huge price gap can be explained by considering that Evil Geniuses always step up in the playoffs.
Will they be able to do it on Friday, however, remains to be seen.
LCS 2023 Spring Playoff Schedule
FlyQuest (+110) vs Cloud9 (-167) – Thursday, March 30 at 2:00 pm (PDT)
Evil Geniuses (-250) vs Golden Guardians (+175) – Friday, Match 31 at 2:00 pm (PDT)