Photo Credit: LoL Esports

The past weekend brought about two surprising results in the NA LCS quarterfinals as both the favorites were eliminated by lower seeded teams. Even more surprising was that both matches were not even close with the lower seeded teams comfortably getting their victories and moving on to the semifinals.

Team Liquid vs Cloud9

Cloud9 has been an ever present force in the NA LCS playoffs ever since they joined the LCS. However, this split they will not be able to attend the semifinals or finals due to the strong showing put on by Team Liquid to eliminate them in a 3-0 fashion, shutting out one of the most successful teams in LCS history. In the first two matches, Cloud9 held significant leads for the majority of the mid-game, but were unable to push their lead. The result of both games were identical with Team Liquid finding a successful team fight and picking off several Cloud9 members, translating their advantage into a Baron. From there, they were able to quickly close out the game. In Game 3, Cloud9 were the ones behind and used several team fights to turn the game back to even. However, they were picked off once again and Team Liquid secured Baron to win the match. The MVP of the match has to be Team Liquid’s Doublelift who went deathless in the entire series.

Team SoloMid vs Clutch Gaming

Just like Cloud9, TSM is one of the most successful teams in the NA LCS and they have a long list of achievements. Clutch Gaming just joined the NA LCS franchise as a branch of the Houston Rockets, taking the majority of their members from the previous EnVyUs lineup. TSM kicked off the first match as most of their fans expected taking a quick and clean victory without batting an eye. They remained in control of the game and lead for the entirety of the first game. However, in the next game, things began to fall apart. The match was a tug-of-war for the first 35 minutes until CG pulled ahead by repeatedly picking off TSM members and eventually winning the game. Things completely went downhill for TSM in the next two games as they were completely wiped. TSM only managed to get 5 kills in both games as compared to CG’s 29, resulting in a 3-1 victory for CG and a ticket to the semifinals.