With Team liquid losing to FlyQuest 2–1 on the final day of play of the North American LCS they have solidified their place in the promotion tournament along with Team EnVyUs. This happens one day removed from Team Liquid doing the unthinkable by defeating number one seeded TSM 2–1 in a closely fought series. One would think that if TL were to defeat arguably the best team in the league they could easily beat FlyQuest who barely made into playoffs right?

TL’s struggle, like all lower tier teams seems to be the late game team fighting and the protection of their superstar ADC, Doublelift. The ADC in 2017 meme really comes to light when you mention TL. Doublelift is perhaps the best ADC that NA has ever had and he alone can’t bring TL back into the LCS. The team as a whole need draft around Doublelift and play off of him to give them a chance to win.

I also think the TL’s drafts could be better in the end. Ever since the beginning of the split I have thought that Natilus should the top laner you a team should strive to get in almost all team comps. His layered CC and overall tankiness are great attributes for a top lane champion. This split the champion had a 60.9% win rate, which is the highest win rate for any top lane champion that has been played at least ten times. The picture below is from game 2 against FlyQuest. TL was on blue side and did not ban out lulu or Orianna. Nor did they pick Varus or Rengar. This draft was flawed from the start the game result showed it.

Image provided by Riot Games

The final reason that TL could not beat FlyQuest is Piglet. I will admit that in this series, Piglet played the best that he has probably all split. He posted a 3.7 KDA and only died six times the entire series, which is a great improvement from recent weeks. However, is still the weakest player in TL’s lineup and he seems to be the key variable on whether they win or lose the match.

TL will kick off the promotion tournament by facing eUnited. They have LCS caliber players and record to show for it. They came in first in the CS regular season and place 2nd in the playoffs. The playoff match they lost to Gold Coin United was the first set they dropped all split. If TL wants to be back in the LCS next split, they to get these problems fixed or we might be seeing a split without Team Liquid.

Stats provided by gameoflegends.com

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