After eight long weeks, the 2022 League of Legends Championship Series summer split regular season has finally ended. Each team has played their 18 scheduled games and after the dust has settled, eight of the 10 teams have qualified for the LCS Championship where the title of North America’s best and spots at Worlds 2022 are on the line.
Here is a look at each team as well as which players to watch heading into the most exciting part of the year: the 2022 LCS Championship.
First Seed: Evil Geniuses
Ever since their 2022 LCS spring playoff run, Evil Geniuses have been near unbeatable in the LCS in the summer. The team locked up the number one seed entering the LCS Championship with an impressive 15-3 record which is the best mark in franchise history.
Although the team has killers in every position the reason why the team is as good as they have been is their superstar jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma. Inspired has played arguably the best split in his entire career and that’s saying something since he came off a year when he was named the 2021 League European Championship Summer MVP. If Inspired continues to gap the other junglers in the LCS, EG will easily march their way to Worlds 2022.
Second Seed: 100 Thieves
Despite being one of the more underrated teams going into the 2022 LCS Championship, 100 Thieves grabbed the second seed at the conclusion of the 2022 LCS summer split. In the second half of the double round-robin, 100 went 8-1 which was actually the best record in the league over that stretch.
The team made zero roster changes from their 2021 LCS championship roster. But for the team to make it back to Worlds for the second straight year, the team will need to rely on their top laner Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho. Despite the team having no holes and players that can take over the game at any time, it was Ssumday that has been the player to step up the most often as he finished the split tied for second in player of the game honors.
Third Seed: Team Liquid Honda
Perhaps the greatest superteam ever assembled, Team Liquid Honda were clearly going to be one of the top teams in the LCS. However, it seems like the team did not meet their expectations, especially with the team they had on paper. As the third seed, TL are still in the playoffs but missing out on the first-round bye has to sting. The team had a mix of highs and lows as the team finished with a 13-5 record.
In his first full year back in competition, the catalyst of the team is their legendary mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg . In a team full of superstars, the eyes will all be on Bjergsen as his performance, in a region with fantastic mid-laners, will be critical for TL’s journey to get back to Worlds.
Well played @100T_Esports
We’ll see you again in Playoffs— Team Liquid Honda LoL (@TeamLiquidLoL) August 14, 2022
Fourth Seed: Counter Logic Gaming
The biggest surprise of the 2022 LCS Summer season, if not the entire year so far has been the revival of Counter Logic Gaming. After being at the bottom of the league for years, CLG made one simple roster swap coming into the summer split that has turned the entire organization around. After going 6-12 in the summer, CLG nearly flipped their record to secure the fourth seed with an 11-7 record.
After looking like one of the worst players in spring, CLG’s best performer in the summer has been their mid-laner Cristian “Palafox” Palafox. After hanging with the best mid-laners in the league and picking up five player of the game awards which ties him for second in the entire league, CLG has shown as long as Palafox holds his own, CLG can beat anyone in the league and that holds true entering the LCS Championship as CLG looks to go to Worlds for the first time since 2017.
Fifth Seed: Cloud9
After a disastrous start to the summer split, Cloud9 have turned it around and after their 0-3 start, Cloud9 went 10-5 the rest of the way. After winning a tiebreaker against FlyQuest, the team ended the summer split in fifth place.
Cloud9 has a solid team with great players in every lane but the one lane to watch will be their bot lane, specifically Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen. As a player who has just transitioned into the support role literally just weeks ago, C9 will need him to continue to develop into a world-class support player if C9 wants to head back to Worlds this year.
Sixth Seed: FlyQuest
After an up and down summer split, FLY find themselves in the sixth seed slot heading into the 2022 LCS summer playoffs after losing their tiebreaker game against C9 to round out the regular season. The team finished with a technical 10-9 record after the tiebreaker game making them the closest team to average in the entire league.
However, their rookie mid-laner Loïc “toucouille” Dubois has been far from average and is the primary reason why FLY is in the playoffs to begin with. In a season with many players new and old stepping up big time, it was toucouille that managed to lead the entire league in player of the game awards, even more so than Inspired. If toucouille can play even better in the playoffs, FLY has an outside chance of making it to Worlds for the first time since 2020.
Seventh Seed: TSM
For a team that looked like they were destined for tenth place, especially after desperate roster swaps half way through the summer split, TSM surprised everyone by picking themselves out of the gutter and were able to clinch the seventh seed in the LCS Championship after their Week 8 Day 1 win against CLG.
The team is still a for sure bottom two team in the LCS Championship but with their former MVP jungler and leader Mingyi “Spica” Lu the team can make some noise especially if Spica can keep performing at an elite level.
Eighth Seed: Golden Guardians
With eight of the ten teams in the LCS making it to the LCS Championship, one of the bottom teams were bound to make it into the playoffs. Heading into the very last day of the season, the three bottom teams in the league could of either finished tenth in the standings or made it into postseason play. Golden Guardians certainly entered the final day as the favorite of the three teams to make it in and all they had to do was simply win their match against Dignitas to do so. After an eight-game losing streak, GG finally got a win when it mattered the most.
The team is not expected in any capacity to win games in the LCS Championship bracket but if they are it starts with their veteran trio of Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes Eric “Licorice” Ritchie and Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung all three of these players have been to Worlds before and for GG to do anything, they are going to need these three players to play the best League of Legends of their careers.
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