LCS Playoffs: Team Liquid Dominate FlyQuest in Semi-Finals

The final head-to-head in the 2019 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split semi-final round took place today between the upstart FlyQuest squad -- that just last week managed to come back to beat Golden Guardians -- against the LCS’ Goliath in Team Liquid. 

"Rookies like V1per or returning players like Santorin, they really, really want it. They want it more than anything else, but in my world view I always want it the most." -@TLDoublelift

On April 7th at 11:30AM PDT, will it be a #TLWIN or a #FLYWIN? pic.twitter.com/UOmaVG9jdt

— lolesports (@lolesports) April 5, 2019

“Honestly, I’d way rather be David. Being Goliath sucks and everyone wants to see you fall. Who’s the protagonist? It’s David. Who’s the villain? Its Goliath.” said Team Liquid’s star ADC Doublelift. 

Regardless of the media hype leading up to this match, Team Liquid seemed to be looking beyond FlyQuest the entire time, setting their sights on TSM and their fateful meeting in St. Louis for the title. Could that be the key that FlyQuest needed to sneak under the radar and take out the back-to-back LCS split champions? 

Attack on Titans

The best-of-five between David and Goliath would begin pretty ordinarily on the side of FlyQuest. With V1per and Santorin both selecting comfort champions. Goliath on the other hand, had other ideas. Needing to shake off the rust of a two-week hiatus, Team Liquid chose the notoriously cheesy Sona and Taric bottom lane.  

For the briefest moment, the collective audience inhaled and held their breath because it looked for a second that FlyQuest might make a push for a win in Game 1 off the back of a full team Ace, and QuadraKill from V1per. This fate was not in the cards, however, and the typical pressure and composure of Team Liquid built to a victory.

Creature Comforts

Unlike their first time on the rift, the second game in this best-of-five was truly in possession of Team Liquid almost out of the gate. It would have taken some extremely poor play by the reigning back-to-back North American champions to have lost it. The Liquid composure held, and they managed to push out to a very short sub-25-minute victory. 

Even with Rookie of the Split V1per on a comfort champion, all other lanes and matchups couldn’t find a way to gain some ground or get ahead of their counterparts. Up until this point, it’s still not a question of FlyQuest playing poorly. Rather, it’s all about Team Liquid being a dominant and suffocating team.

Giant's Composure 

Heading into match-point for Team Liquid, Fly decided that they’d had enough of Impact’s Jayce in the top-lane, and banned it out. But this took CoreJJ’s Tahm Kench off their ban list, and it was insta-locked. 

No matter how good FlyQuest looked in their first-round matchup against the Golden Guardians, they just don’t look like the type of team here, that can tussle with the top teams in the league. 

Through constant picks and pressure, Team Liquid looked to easily throw a rough last few weeks of the regular season behind them, taking their SemiFinals against FlyQuest in 3-straight games. 

Goliath Prevails

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether or not Team Liquid is seen as David or Goliath. Their play has birthed many fans, and their current domination of the league is something to behold no matter your allegiance.

With the win, Team Liquid will head to St. Louis next weekend where TSM will be waiting for them. BrokenBlade and Co punched their ticket to the finals after TSM completed a reverse sweep against rivals Cloud9 just yesterday. The final head-to-head matchup of the 2019 Spring Split playoffs will be a beauty, and as of now is far too hard to call one way or the other. 

FlyQuest, on the other hand, should be very proud of what they’ve managed to accomplish in these Spring Split Playoffs. In the entire Split as a whole, actually. Their new look, fielding some rookies, and a dominant leading class in the league all led to minimal expectations for the squad this season.

Through determination and some hard carrying by LCS pros like Pobelter in the mid-lane, and WildTurtle at ADC, led to a last-minute playoff berth, and an impressive war against GG in the first-round. Don’t expect much to change in regards to their line-up as we move closer to the 2019 Summer Split. If they stick together, they will only get better. 

The LCS 2019 Spring Split Playoffs will end next week as TSM faces Team Liquid in the Grand Finals live from St. Louis. That match will kick-off at approximately 1:00 PM Pacific Time. 

This time next week we will have crowned our 2019 LCS Spring Champions. Who do you think it’ll be? Century-man Bjergsen’s TSM? Or will Doublelift and his defending Team Liquid take the crown for a third time in a row?