(Scroll down for live blog updates)
It’s Spring Split Finals weekend in the NA LCS, and while the two top teams will fight on Sunday for the Championship, Immortals and Team Liquid will battle it out for third place Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. The winner will take the lion’s share of the Championship points to put them in a better position to get into the World Championships coming up in September.
Semi Final Matches:
Immortals v Team Liquid
Stream: Riot Games
This is not the day Immortals expected to be playing. They came into their semi final match as the favorites after TSM’s lackluster regular season play, and had every reason to believe they would be playing on Championship Sunday. After a thorough beating by TSM, Immortals are back down to earth, and presumably ready to face Team Liquid. TL had a close match with CLG in the semi finals, but fell 2-3 in the end.
I’ll be with you throughout the match providing live updates. You can join in the discussion by tweeting with the hashtag #ESSLCS during the match. I’ll post some of the more insightful observations and the hottest memes here in the live blog.
LIVE BLOG (refreshes automatically)
How the bracket looks so far this Spring Split
Here is what they playing for, Championship Points
The two best ADC’s this Split
MVP of the Split, Reignover, faces off against Rookie of the Split, Dardoch.
Game 1 – Pick and Bans
We’re underway!
Game 1 – Picks and Bans
The picks and bans are in, we’re underway! Who will win and take third place? Tweet your predictions using the hashtag esslcs
2MIN
IMT see Piglet bot so they rotate their duo top. Team Liquid have a very strong ADC and Support so it’s probably best to avoid them.
5MIN
Nothing has happened yet, everyone is farming. TL pick up Rift Herald.
7MIN
A beautiful stun by Lourlo catches Huni and Reignover. Dardoch comes in and picks up the FIRST BLOOD for Team Liquid.
9MIN
Team Liquid overstay their welcome inside IMT’s Jungle. IMT collapse quicker around Dardoch, Matt and Lourlo and take the kills. Fenix trades on back for TL.
10MIN
13MIN
Immortals out rotate Team Liquid and are able to take mid turret more or less uncontested. Early gold lead for IMT.
14MIN
Immortals take the first dragon of the game.
16MIN
TL take Rift Herald
17MIN
Wow! Matt’s Bard is godlike. A beautiful stun saves Lourlo and allows Dardoch to get a kill onto Adrian.
19MIN
This game has been so hectic! Dardoch takes out Adrian but then gets slaughtered after. Lourlo doesn’t use his ult in time and goes down – Pobelter then gets a double kill on Matt and Piglet!
20MIN
Huni catches out Fenix with a great bodyslam.
23MIN
IMT get Baron. This is desperate stuff from Team Liquid, they are the ones forcing team fight after team fight and it is seeing them go further and further behind.
24MIN
TL catch Pobelter and Turtle bot! Unfortunately, the kills go to the support, but it’s still good shut downs for Team Liquid!
28MIN
Piglet gets caught out in the jungle and IMT’s collapse so quickly! They clear up Team Liquid and take the Inhibitor. Seconds later, TL get dragon at the sake of Piglet.
29MIN
Here is how the game looks at 30mins with Baron spawning in 10 seconds. IMT have a big gold lead now.
31MIN – IMMORTALS WIN
Immortals grab baron and clear up once again in a team fight with only Reignover going down to Piglet. They push on to take Game 1!
IMMORTALS WIN
PICK ORDER BY ROUND
Game 2 – UP NEXT
Game 2 – Pick and Bans
Pobelter stepped up in Game 1 on Azir, will he get it again in Game 2? Liquid are blue side and have first pick though, so I doubt it. Pobelter will have the counter pick though.
Game 2 – Pick and Bans
The bans are in!
Game 2 – Pick and Bans
Game 2 pick and bans are in! Mid lane match up will be good – 2 scaling Champions with Cass countering the Ryze in lane.
2MIN
Lane switch again for Immortals, they manage to avoid the duo again.
4MIN
Matt tries to flash stun Pobelter but misses! He’s left to dry as Fenix is low. Reignover picks up the first blood.
6MIN
Fenix picks up a kill on Pobelter and Dardoch just survives! Matt goes too ham trying to get Reignover under turret though and dies.
8MIN
Matt and Piglet go down bot. Piglet has a huge CS lead but TL are getting picked off here.
10MIN
Huni and Pobelter dive in for Fenix under turret but Dardoch manages to get a kill back onto Pobelter.
12MIN
Knowing Pobelter has no summoners, Fenix and Lourlo manage to catch him out and get the kill.
13MIN
14MIN
TL try to push bot and catch WildTurtle in the meantime. They get cut off though and lose 3 members. Huge for Immortals.
18MIN
Fenix makes a questionable recall near the fight. He’s noticed by a ward and Reignover catches him.
20MIN
As a Team Liquid fan, this is hugely annoying. Team Liquid, despite having no vision of Immortals jungle, chase Pobelter and get collapsed on by Immortals. It’s desperate stuff from a team that really doesn’t need to be chasing the game – they should be letting Immortals pressure them, not the other way around.
26MIN
Dardoch manages to steal dragon but Immortals clean up and take the inhibitor. This could be over.
27MIN
TL try to push and gain some sort of advantage, try to gain any extra gold they can. Instead, they lose the game. A team fight sees WildTurtle get a quadra kill! Immortals push in and end the game. One more win and Immortals get themselves the 3rd place spot.
Game 3 – UP NEXT
Game 3 is coming up. Can Immortals perform a clean sweep on Team Liquid?
Game 3 – Pick and Bans
Game 3 – Pick and Bans
Pick and Bans underway
Game 3 – Pick and Bans
Solid team compositions from both sides. Should be a good Game 3. Can Team Liquid win to avoid the 4th place Curse? Or will Immortals secure the 3rd position with a win?
2MIN
Keystone Masteries from each team. Immortals yet again able to avoid the 2v2 lane. Feel like Team Liquid should have made it so they got that lane matchup.
3MIN
First blood to Immortals. Lourlo teleports to a turret thats about to go down. What is he doing? More importantly the kill goes onto Lucian too.
5MIN
Team Liquid catch Reignover as he stays too long top. They gift the kill to Lourlo.
8MIN
Immortals secure top turret and Rift Herald.
9MIN
Immortals secure dragon and they seem like the team that will most likely make something happen.
13MIN
A fight near Team Liquids mid turret sees a 1v1 trade. Lourlo for Reignover.
14MIN
Piglet is picked off by Reignover and Pobelter
15MIN
Immortals go for this turret again and Team Liquid get 2 kills after a good ult from Fenix! Whilst Liquid recall, WildTurtle is able to pick up the mid turret.
16MIN
Fenix solos WildTurtle bot – don’t know why WildTurtle thought he could win that one!
18MIN
A huge fight mid lane sees both teams go 2 for 2, Team Liquid keep on losing out team fight after team fight by the smallest of margins!
20MIN
Immortals getting another huge pick onto Piglet! This sees Immortals win another close teamfight 5-3! They’ve now got a 3.5K gold lead.
22MIN
Piglet really needs to buy QSS, or Matt needs to buy Crucible to try and stop the stuns going onto Piglet. He’s been a non-factor so far, getting caught out by Reignover.
24MIN
WildTurtle is caught off by Fenix at the side, huge pick.They now try to bait Baron.
25MIN
And just like that, Immortals get Baron, a minute after they catch out WildTurtle. They bait baron and it doesn’t work. They back, but they don’t fully back and stay in their jungle – the communication is everywhere! 1 member gets caught and the rest of the team funnels in and dies one after another. Really poor.
29MIN – IMMORTALS WIN THE SERIES AND SECURE 3RD PLACE (3-0)
This game is over. Team Liquid were so far down in gold, they needed to do something. They try to stop Immortals getting their mid turret but they get aced. Immortals go on to push in bot side. GG. Immortals take the series 3-0.
Game 1 – UP NEXT