LCS Championship 2024 Upper Bracket Finals: Team Liquid vs FlyQuest - The Battle of the MVP's

Following their dominant victory over Cloud9 last Sunday (August 25th), FlyQuest are set to face off against the undefeated Team Liquid in the upper bracket finals of the LCS Championship.

Winner of the series will move on to the grand finals, securing a top 2 seed for the Worlds 2024.

Coming off the most dominant season in LCS history, Team Liquid will seek to maintain their undefeated record throughout the playoffs. (Credit: Steve Wisnoski/Riot Games)

Battle of the MVP's

Despite FlyQuest finishing the regular in third place behind Team Liquid (1st) and Cloud9 (2nd), FlyQuest has put up an incredibly showing to close out the year.

In fact, all three LCS finalists for the Most Valuable Player award stem from these two teams (Team Liquid and FlyQuest).

Kacper "Inspired" Sloma's dominant performances in the jungle all season long have proven enough for the Polish player to creep into the MVP podium next to Team Liquid's Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong and Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in.

With so much star power bundled together on the rift, the TL vs FLY series is set to be an explosive show to behold.

Time to exact revenge

The last time these two teams met was on the very first day of the LCS Summer Season, back on the 15th of June.

Coming in cold after a period of inaction, TL and FLY took to the rift in a competitive best-of-3 series which saw Team Liquid walk away with a close 2-1 victory in the end. A riveting game 1 marked the series for good, with both teams pushing past their limits.

After a 42 minute long bloodbath that could have gone either way, Team Liquid managed to grab that first game victory in the series, one that would prove to be crucial for the rest of the season.

A long time has passed since then, and FlyQuest are hungry to show they have leveled up their game. If their dominant series against Cloud9 is any indication of FLY's current strength, then Team Liquid better come prepared.

Match-up to keep an eye on: Volatility runs into a brick wall

Perhaps the most interesting match-up over the course of the series will be that of the top lane, as Impact vs Bwipo will be a complete stylistic clash.

With Impact in the lead to earn MVP of the season, Team Liquid knows the rock of the team lies in the top lane. The former World Champion has dominated the competition all Summer Season, finishing the group stage to lead all top laners for KDA and damage per minute. 

His DMG/M numbers for the season are particularly surprising when you discover that Impact had the lowest average CS per minute out of all top lane players.

Impact's numbers draw a clear path towards what has been a known fact about the player for several years now, the man is an absolute menace of a team fighter.

While Bwipo can be incredibly disruptive in team fights as well, his mid-game and late-game performances are heavily reliant on the way he performs in lane. After 8 games played by him in the LCS Championship, Bwipo leads the tournament in CS per minute for all top laners in contrast to Impact.

The Belgian top laner has continuously been able to carry strong lane performances over into the mid-game, where he has been a threat to any and all opposing back-line players.

If Bwipo is able to have a free lane against Team Liquid, they are sure to suffer the consequences.

Impact, however, working in tandem with jungler Umti, will surely look to give Bwipo a hell of a time in lane, looking to make sure he becomes a non-factor for ensuing team fights.

Picks to watch out for

Renekton

Out of FlyQuest's 8 games in the LCS Championship, they have picked Renekton a total of 5 times for Bwipo in the top lane. Four of those five picks came in FLY's crushing victory over a strong Cloud9 team.

Despite putting up a respectable 3.92 KDA on the champion, Bwipo's Renekton has really come through when the time came to team fight. Against Cloud9, every time Bwipo was able to find a CS lead against Thanatos, he was successful in turning that lead into eye-catching performances in the mid-game, creating all of the space his carries needed in order free hit in team fights.

The question now is, will TL look to remove a pick Bwipo clearly feels so comfortable on during the draft phase, or do they feel confident enough in Impact's ability to shut the pick down?

Ivern

With both Umti and Inspired showing they are more than capable of performing on one of the highest winrate junglers in the game right now, the pick is set to be highly contested in these upper bracket finals.

If Team Liquid and FlyQuest have one thing in common, it's their confidence in relying on their carries. With incredibly strong players in the mid and bot lanes, both teams are likely to want to get their hands on a jungler that is one of the best carry-enablers in the game at the time.

Zeri

The recent surge of Zeri picks in the mid lane in professional play will have both APA and Quad salivating at the possibility of getting their hands on the champion.

As if that was not enough, both Yeon and Massu are remarkable Zeri players themselves. Thus, Zeri's flex capabilities can open up a whole lot of room in the draft for whichever team can get their hands on the champion.

If knight's recent domination on the champion in the LPL finals (in which he posted an incredible 10/1/13 KDA with Zeri) are an indicator of the champion's current power level, then Zeri should be a pick that TL and FLY will be willing to fight for.

Where to watch

North America eagerly awaits to find out if Team Liquid will continue their incredible undefeated run in the LCS, or if FlyQuest has worked up their game enough to conquer the giants before them.

To find out, catch all of the action live on the official LCS channels on Twitch or YouTube, where the series will be expected to broadcast this Saturday (August 31st) at 1 pm PT/10 pm CET.

For the latest League of Legends news, follow Strafe Esports. Also, follow the Strafe YouTube channel for exclusive interviews with players and coaches.

Image source: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

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