Team Liquid Holds Out Against Cloud9 To Maintain LCS Superiority

It may have been the match everyone was looking to see in Week 7 of the LCS. Team Liquid has been an undefeatable force in their 2019 League of Legends force, but Cloud9 had shown in recent weeks that they wouldn’t let Liquid rest at the top alone. When they finally came to fight this week, it was an awesome back and forth match. That said, only one team can win, and when the dust settled, Liquid was still standing.

This was a match Liquid was cautious about. Cloud9’s bottom lane Xayah/Rakan game had been more than a little potent in previous outings and it came into play here too against Liquid’s Kai’Sa and Galio. “I was really nervous coming into the match because [Cloud9’s] a really strong team, and they usually own us in scrims,” Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng would admit after the game was over. And indeed, it was a tough early going throughout for Liquid, falling behind a bit and having to be patient for the right opportunities. However, when it came to team engagements, Liquid found those opportunities and took advantage of them.

.@Jensen escapes from @Licorice, and @TeamLiquidLoL turn the chase around for four kills! #LCS #LCSBIGPLAYS pic.twitter.com/ncJsv4qj3X

— lolesports (@lolesports) March 9, 2019

When C9  Top Laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie attempted to chase down Liquid mid Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, Liquid managed to turn the tables and make it a four-for-one kill fight in their favor. Fights would go back and forth throughout the match this way for over half an hour with Liquid generally managing to eke out the win on the trades.

Even so, Cloud9 showed they weren’t going to go down easy. In an intense moment at the hallowed Baron, Cloud9 Jungle Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen managed to slip in right under Liquid’s nose and swipe the Baron buff from them. Though he was dispatched, it was a moment of electricity and life for Cloud9.

Even so, the slight wins by Liquid started to stack up and eventually even a Baron buff wasn’t enough to keep Cloud9 from losing too many objectives across the group engagements. After Cloud9’s last final desperate attempt to keep Liquid from going back to their own base to recover, Liquid was able to win the ensuing fight and take the match about 40 minutes in.

With their amazing win over Cloud9, Team Liquid has further solidified themselves on the thrown of the LCS and it will be extremely difficult to take it from them now at a 12-1 record for the season as of Cloud9.

Meanwhile, Cloud9 has their work cut out for them if they want to challenge for that spot again at 10-3. It can be done, but for now, Liquid is proving to be the unbreakable kings of the LCS. Check out the match in its entirety below. Draft starts at 4:36. Match starts at 11:31.

[Featured Image by LoL Esports]