LCS Summer Week 1 Roundup: TSM to the moon

The LCS Summer 2021 split has begun and the first week of action has been nothing short of spectacular. All the LCS talent reminded us how much we missed watching League of Legends action since MSI 2021. There were teams who were capable of going 3-0 and kicking off their season in top form. On the other hand, there were a lot of shaky performances and some teams have a lot to work on and improve. We take you on a quick recap of week 1 ahead of the second set of LCS games this weekend.

TSM sits atop the LCS standings for the first time in three years following an impressive week one performance. The team has the opportunity to further strengthen their lead when they go up against CLG, FlyQuest and 100 Thieves. 

TSM got off to a great start in the summer split of the LCS. The seven time champions were one of two sides to go 3-0 moving into what is an important week for TSM. With their competitors making changes and facing numerous problems, this is the best chance for TSM to extend the gap from from other teams.

The current league leaders started off the week with a victory over Team Liquid in a semi-finals rematch. This was a great opener to the LCS summer split and it was a well deserved victory. TSM’s next victory came against Evil Geniuses with the former champions clawing their way back from over a 3k gold deficit. The final victory of the week for TSM was against the Golden Guardians. While GGS were able to make aggressive plays early on, TSM showed their class and were able to see out the game to give them a 3-0 start.

Cloud9 dropped below first place in the LCS standings for the first time this season. The Spring split champions went 1-2 this week in what was a mixed bag from the LCS’s best team. They will look to fight their way back to the top with CLG, FlyQuest and Dignitas lined up for week 2.

Cloud9 made some changes that did not sit well with the community following their poor placement at MSI. The reigning LCS champs subbed out Zven for K1ng as well as promoting Mithy to the head coach role. It was evident Cloud9 were far behind the rest of the league in practise time. C9 made many errors across the week that ultimately resulted in a defeat. 

C9 started their week off with a gigantic throw against the team at the bottom of the league, Golden Guardians. Despite having a near 10k gold lead, C9 were not able to close out the game. The team’s next defeat was a stomp at the hands of the new 100 Thieves roster. 100 Thieves took the lead early and never looked back, closing the game out quickly. Cloud9’s only victory of the week came against rivals in TL where they played a calm and controlled game. It was almost as if this team had won the spring split!. (They did.)

Team Liquid are in all sorts of trouble at the moment with the former LCS champions currently going through major problems with their roster. The team had a poor week one with a 1-2 record. This was surprising to see given TL a favorite to rise to the top given Cloud9’s late arrival back into practice. Liquid will now go up against Dignitas, Evil Geniuses and Immortals in week two. 

Week two is an important week for Team Liquid, the four-time LCS champions are currently in turmoil and need to bounce back if they are to stay afloat in the spring split. Following their game one defeat to TSM at the start of the week, TL shocked the community by benching one of their star players in Alphari. Given Alphari’s sarcastic tweets following the weekend, it seems to be a serious issue that TL has to manage carefully if they are to stay in contention for a spot at Worlds.

Alphari only started once this week and it was in a gruelling loss to TSM. From that moment onwards, Jenkins has been subbing in for the MVP runner up. Team Liquid picked up their first win of the summer split in a solid victory over Counter Logic Gaming. Jenkin’s first true test was the following evening when Team Liquid faced off against Cloud9. This was a difficult game for the rookie. Due to the lane match up, Perkz and Fudge role swapped. Perkz put on a clinic this game and dominated Jenkins in the top lane.

100 Thieves had a solid week as the summer split kicked off. 100T went 2-1 on the week and looked good doing so. 100 Thieves goes into week two with a point to prove as they go up against TSM, EG and Golden Guardians.

100 Thieves also made some changes to their League of Legends program heading into the summer split. Firstly, 100T brought in Abbedagge as Ryoma was moved down into the academy lineup. While the LEC mid laner was put on Kharma duty three games in a row, Abbedagge was a great facilitator for other players to carry the game. This was also a chance for the 100 Thieves head coach in Reapered to prove why he is still one of the top coaches in North America.

The week did not start off in an ideal fashion for 100 Thieves as Immortals was able to claw their way back from a large deficit to close out the game. As stated earlier, 100 Thieves destroyed Cloud9 in what was a 24-minute masterclass. 100 Thieves was able to target Perkz, making the greatest western player of all time completely useless in this game as he went 0/7/0.

Dignitas were strong out of the gate in week one of the LCS summer split. DIG went 2-1 with some solid performances under their belt. Next week will be an uphill battle for the LCS side with Dignitas going up against Team Liquid, an Immortals side coming off of a 3-0 week and Cloud9.

Dignitas is once again proving to be a fun side to watch in the LCS this season and is defying expectations set out by the community at the start of the season. Many would have predicted to see Dignitas hanging around the bottom of the standings based on the roster on paper. What has transpired in that time is simply incredible. Dignitas got off to a strong start as they dismantled Evil Geniuses in the opening game of the split. This was followed up by a solid victory over FlyQuest. 

Dardoch has used this LCS season as his own personal sandbox in which to his credit has been a great success. Dardoch added Darius to his ongoing list of unique champions he has played in the LCS Summer this season. And while DIG did not pick up the victory against 100 Thieves with Darius on the rift, Dignitas is proving they will not bow to the meta and will play their own style. 

Evil Geniuses came out of week 1 of the LCS Summer 2021 split with zero wins. However, the record doesn’t paint the full picture at all. They held considerable early game leads in all three of their games against Dignitas, TSM, and FlyQuest respectively. Evil Geniuses’ shaky mid and late game cost them a lot. It cost them three wins to put it in plain words.

The team looked lost every time the in-game clock went past 20 minutes. In their opening match of the week against Dignitas, EG Jizuke on Tristana was dominating his lane and other lanes as well whenever he roamed. The team was up 5.7K Gold at 19 minutes, but couldn’t put it to good use.

A similar story repeated against TSM, with Evil Geniuses finding themselves up 3.9K gold at 16 minutes. They briefly translated it into pressure on the map through taking towers and objectives. Even the team’s support, IgNar, admitted they “weren’t sure when to take fights” 

The final game of the week against FlyQuest was a 40+ minute thriller that could have gone either way. The team comes out of week 1 empty handed, but all their performances looked promising. Evil Geniuses are in prime position to make progress in week 2.

Immortals enjoyed a relatively easy week 1 schedule, taking on 100 Thieves followed by the bottom two teams in the form Counter Logic Gaming and Golden Guardians. The first match is where Immortals truly shined. IMT Raes and Xerxe, the team’s ADC and jungle respectively, performed tremendously and didn’t die a single death.

They dominated the game from start to finish, and managed to take down an opponent higher than them in the rankings. This will help them in the long run when they are trying to catch up to higher placed teams in the standings when the weeks pass by. Not only that, they came out of GG and CLG with what was expected going into it.

There is no better feeling than to start the LCS Summer 2021 split with 3 wins on the dot. Whether Immortals will be able to carry this momentum with them into week 2, we will have to wait and see. They go up against Evil Geniuses, Dignitas, and Team Liquid.

FlyQuest Licorice pulled out Gwen against CLG, and it carried them across the finish line with a victory. A strong opening to the first game of the week, setting a standard on how the champion should be played. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t carry over their momentum to their game against Dignitas. They fell to Soligo and the rest of his team, after a tremendous performance from him on Sett in the midlane.

The third and final match of the week was against Evil Geniuses. In what was a 40+ minute encounter, FlyQuest came out on top. They were on the brink of losing it, holding on for dear life with Evil Geniuses hitting their Nexus and bringing it down to half health. They managed to fight them off from the comfort of their fountain and march down mid-lane to claim a much needed victory to help their playoffs ambitions.

FlyQuest have a very tough week ahead of them, battling both C9 and TSM. Both matches will prove crucial to holding on to that 8th and final playoff spot. A victory over any of the two would help their case massively.

Alongside Evil Geniuses, Counter Logic Gaming are the two teams who went week 1 of the LCS Summer 2021 split without a win. CLG went 0-3 in their opening matches against FlyQuest, Team Liquid, and Immortals. Except for TL, the other two should have been fairly closer than they were.

Currently the team sits in 9th place, with only 5 wins to their name after carrying over their performance in the Spring split. However, their results might soon change once Broxah and the team get warmed up and hit the ground running. Their week 2 put them against C9, TSM, and Golden Guardians. The latter encounter is a must-win for the team to break through the bottom two and keep their playoffs hopes alive.

All the way from the bottom of the standings, Golden Guardians treated us with an impressive victory over Cloud9. Their win against C9 marked only the fourth victory for GG across both the Spring and Summer splits. A promising beginning to their Summer split was quickly flipped as they lost their following two games against Immortals and TSM.

The issues that continued to arise was shaky early game plays and indecisive mid and late game decisions. Make no mistake that Golden Guardians have the talent and potential to turn this around and kick off their playoffs miracle run. However, it needs to start from week 2 straight away or it will slowly start to be a bit too late. They are coming up against CLG in a battle between the bottom two teams. It will be followed by 100 Thieves and a confident FlyQuest.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and highlights.