LCS 2022 Spring Split Picks, Predictions, Odds February 19

• There are five teams at the top of the LCS standings in spring after two weeks
• Evil Geniuses against Liquid is the blockbuster matchup of the weekend
• 100 Thieves, Cloud9 expected to cruise through their Saturday games

100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians Pick

100 Thieves (moneyline)

100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians Predictions

These are still early days in the LCS Spring Split of 2022, and there are four teams that have soared to a 3-1 record. It tells you how competitive the match-ups are this time around. Among them are 100 Thieves. Their opponents, the Golden Guardians, have recovered from back to back losses to put up two successive wins.

What’s at stake? Current form and past history – they finished 4th last year – peg the 100 Thieves as overwhelming favourites going into this contest. The Golden Guardians have plenty to prove, having finished last in 2021’s Spring Split with an underwhelming win-loss record of 3-15.

Recent Outing

100 Thieves were neck and neck with Evil Geniuses until a point, before they arm-wrestled their way to a dominating win. They collected 9k gold more than EG. But it’s their offensive proficiency that stood out. They landed 19 kills to EG’s seven, and captured 10 towers to EG’s two. Abbedagge and Ssumday landed more kills than the entire Golden Guardians pack put together.

GG are coming off a win against Team SoloMid in a clash that went down to the wire. When victory was sealed, they had barely scraped ahead in terms of gold, were six killed ahead of TSM’s 23 and managed to capture 11 towers to TSM’s 8.

FBI Thrives In His Role

Mid laner Abbedagge and bot laner FBI are key to their plans. Abbedage’s kill rate isn’t the best, but as such considering most of the kills happen in the bot lane, that may not be a huge matter of consideration just yet. For the record, though, he lands 2.17 kills, 2.83 deaths and 4.67 assists, along with a KDA of 2.41 and creep score of 279.5. FBI averages 3.17 kills. 1.5 deaths and 4.17 assists, along with a KDA of 4.89 and creep score of 298. The gamer avatar of FBI, for those who don’t know, comes from a cyber cafe where Ian Victor Huang grew up playing. He’s also the first Australian in the LCS.

Golden Guardians are inferior in each of the big parameters. That their best kill rate number is ry0ma’s 2.67 tells you simply how much gap their have to bridge to become better in the offense. Stixxay comes next best with a kill rate of 2.17, along with 2.5 deaths and 2.33 assists. Hr has a KDA of 1.8 and creep score of 300.83.

Immortals vs TSM Pick

Pick: Immortals (moneyline)

Immortals vs TSM Predictions

In a double round-robin format where each side plays 18 games, it can be too early to judge a side’s pedigree in just four games, five in some cases. In that sense, Immortals, currently eighth, won’t have to fret much even if they have just one win in four games. Their opponents, TSM, are yet to open their account and are scraping the bottom.

This is why the odds are stacked heavily against them looking ahead to the clash. But in a field where not little separates the teams at the top, two wins can vault you back in contention. That no side has broken away from the rest of the pack is an encouraging sign for both these teams looking for an up-turn in fortunes.

But the poor start has already got TSM thinking. They have decided to shuffle their roster. Starting support Shenyi will play in the Academy league this week in place of the team’s Academy-level support, Yursan, who will start against TSM. Shenyi signed with the team after a year as a substitute support for FunPlus Phoenix in the LPL.

Recent Form

Immortals were no match to Cloud9’s might in their previous outing. On every parameter, they were hardly challenged. Towers were a clincher: Immortals managed just two captures to their opponent’s 9. It spoke of the one-sided nature of the contest. TSM will have to buck up, because they’ve been handsomely beaten by laggards Golden Guardians in their previous game.

But one look at the scoresheet will tell you how it was close and decided by fine margins. TSM finished with just 1.9k gold fewer than GG, fell six short of GG’s 29 kills and captured 8 towers to GG’s 11. If they can try and replicate the same fight, this contest could end up being a lot closer than what it may seem like presently.

Who Stands Where

Immortals’ lack of offensive proficiency stares at you on the face. Their best performer so far this Spring split has been bot laner WildTurtle, with 3.25 kills, 2.5 deaths and 4.25 assists, along with a KDA of 2.45 and creep score of 256.5.

Having made his way to a new team from Counter Logic Gaming with plenty to prove, he has shown plenty of promise. Now to sustain this. TSM is riddled with a similar problem. Hyper and Instinct have the best kill rate – a lowly 2.5 – which doesn’t quite work in a competitive field such as this with teams so closely stacked against each other.

Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses Pick

Team Liquid (moneyline)

Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses Predictions

With three wins in four, Team Liquid have made an exciting start to the Spring Split of 2022. As they head into week three, sustaining momentum will be foremost on their minds. Evil Geniuses are breathing down their neck, and are currently in with a 2-2 scoreline. One win could change all that. Last year, Team Liquid finished third, with a 12-6 record.

Having jostled with teams placed 4-5-6, they won three games on the bounce to finish third. Evil Geniuses were inconsistent, leaving them with no winning momentum at any stage. They finished sixth with a 10-8 record. Both teams will be eyeing massive improvements as a result.

A Dominating Presence

Look at most big parameters and Team Liquid have competent numbers: K, D, A, gold – they’ve got them all covered. Their win rate of over 82% and GPM of 1925 is the highest in the league presently. They also have a mighty impressive dragon and baron control. If this doesn’t help them sustain their position, they should have played very poorly from here on to lose the ground they have gained.

Each of their wins so far have been hard-working wins, and that may have worked to their advantage in formulating plans going ahead. Sometimes, a dominating win is unlikely to test your reserves.

Team Liquid To Hand Out much-anticipated Debut

CoreJJ is set to make his LCS debut after acquiring a green card in the United States of America. The resident status in the country means he wouldn’t go under the import player category. As per LCS regulations, each team can have only two non-resident players at the same time. His newfound status is some respite for the team, who were attempting to complete the paperwork prior to the start of the season.

For a while, it appeared as if while they had most bases covered, the team was missing one key piece of the jigsaw. It seems as if that piece has been found.

Evil Geniuses will look up to the impact pair of Danny and jojopyun to drive them forward. The pair possesses the best kill rates for the team at 3.67 and 3.08 respectively. They could however do with some more support from the mid lane. The odds may be against them but if there’s one team capable of upsetting Team Liquid’s apple cart presently, it’s them.

Dignitas vs FlyQuest Pick

 FlyQuest (moneyline)

Dignitas vs FlyQuest Predictions

Both Dignitas and FlyQuest are among the early pace-setters of the Spring Split, having surged to three wins in four.  These two teams struggled for winning momentum in the 2021 Spring Split, and while they didn’t do too badly, they lacked the firepower to consistently challenge the top half. As a result, they ended up fifth and eighth respectively; FlyQuest ended the season with more questions than answers. This is also among the reasons why the punters believe FlyQuest have the odds stacked against them. Not much seems to have changed in terms of their form spectrum and play style to inspire much confidence. But if they can get on a roll, things could change heading into week four.

Who Holds Aces On Recent Form

Dignitas are coming off an impressive win over Counter Logic Gaming. Neo was the most impressive, landing 10 kills, 0 deaths and 2 assists, along with a creep score of 378. He was easily the most dominant player of the contest. In FakeGod, he had some support in the defence. FakeGod’s numbers weren’t any less impressive, given the nature of his role in the set up. He landed 1 kill, 2 deaths and 4 assists.

While Luger and Jenkins landed two kills each for CLG, at no stage were they a real threat. Dignitas landed 13 kills to CLG’s 7, captured 11 towers to their opponent’s 2, and had 72.7k gold to CLG’s 62k. Such outward dominance may not always come by, and they may be forced to earn victories, but if they can be clear and precise in their planning and clarity of roles, the possibilities are endless.

FlyQuest Flying Under The Radar

FlyQuest are looking good to continue their excellent form from week two, where they cashed in on a slew of mistakes TSM made to clinch a potentially challenging clash. Their mid laner “toucouille” was impeccable as Zoe, finishing with a mighty impressive 8 kills, 0 deaths and 10 assists along with a 82% kill participation rate. They built on this win by shellacking TSM handsomely.

They landed nearly 10k golds more, captured 22 kills to TSM’s 5, surrounded 10 towers to TSM’s 3. Johnsun aka Jinx was the most proficient player in the map, landing 8 kills, 1 death and 8 assists along with a creep score of 251. While they’ve racked up impressive wins to begin the spring split, the bookmaker’s are perhaps discouraged by how they fell off the rails late last season. This is why the odds are also against them.

Cloud9 vs Counter Logic Gaming Pick

Cloud9 (moneyline)

Cloud 9 vs Counter Logic Gaming Predictions

There couldn’t have been a bigger mismatch than this. Cloud9 are soaring at the top, with three wins in four. CLG are scraping the bottom having lost each of their four clashes. Their most recent was a pounding at the hands of Team Dignitas. Only Luger and Jenkins came back with their reputations intact in what was a disappointing performance where they could neither sift through lanes or land kills and counter-attack.

It was a meek surrender by a team that is searching for a winning combination. Part of their problems stem from the lack of a Plan B. What they need is a stable core and the luck of the draw to go their way. Now to run into a top side when they’re at their lowest ebb points to a one-sided contest. CLG will have to pulled off the mother of all upsets should they find a way past Cloud 9 in this one.

Berserker Keen To Prove A Point

Cloud9 will be hoping Berserker continues his purple patch. There’s plenty of promise, given he was one of their shining lights at a time when the team was riddled with uncertainty over their core players. This uncertainty led to them being unable to narrow down on a proper combination for the Lock-In tournament.

Summit too is a proficient player who has a storied history in the LCK, and will be looking from a winning combination with Dong-Keon. Both of have shown traces of brilliance, but they’ve been intercepted by a lot of ordinary performances. If they can develop a semblance of consistency and improve their overall record slightly, they will have not only established their own presence but also deliver single-handed wins to the team.

Berserker’s entry to North America has come on the back of one of his worst-ever showings in the split, with a 5-13 scoreline with the League of Legend’s most storied franchise T1. C. Until then, they’d just dropped three games all season. Going from the top spot to a 5-13 humiliation is a massive slide, and it’s something he’ll want to correct at the LCS.

How to Watch LCS 2022 Spring Split