Team Liquid has won their 4th consecutive LCS Championship in a ferocious 5 game series with runner-up Cloud 9. With 4 out of the 5 players being First Team All Pro, it was almost expected, but Cloud 9 was hungry. Cloud 9 fell behind after game 1 before turning it around and winning the next two to jump ahead 2-1. This was thanks in large part to Cloud 9's Mid laner Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer and some crazy outplays. Cloud 9 has been to finals every year but has not been able to find a victory in the last 5 years. Game 5 felt underwhelming on the side of C9. Their draft felt a little all over the place and they weren't able to play to their win conditions. But with how dominant Team Liquid has seemed and how much praise they have received from the community, Cloud 9 has nothing to hang their heads about. Hope is not lost for C9. Team Liquid has solidified themselves as the most dominant team in North American LCS history. Both teams will represent North America this year at Worlds in hopes to bring the Summoner's Cup to North America for the first time ever.
Flip the script from domestic success and look at international. Until this most recent MSI (Mid Season Invitational), Cloud 9 had been the only North American Team to find success since Season 1. Even the NA "Super Teams" have struggled to get out of the group stage. Last year at Worlds 2018, Cloud 9 defied expectations by starting Summer Split in 10th place before fighting their way all the way to the Semifinals at Worlds and escaping the Group of Death. C9 has been dubbed in the years past as the last hope for North America as they have seemed to be the only team to be able to succeed and make it out of the Group Stage. And they have been able to do so usually as the 3rd place seed from North America. The odds always seem stacked against them, but they find a way to redeem NA and ease the pain from the insults of their European counterparts.
A lot still needs to happen in NA before the Worlds this October. North America will have a Regional Qualifier, gauntlet style, winner stays, tournament to decide who will represent North America as the 3rd seed. The teams competing from lowest seed to highest are as follows; FlyQuest, Clutch Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, and Team Solomid. TSM, although looking very weak at the end of this split, only have to win one best of 5 series to qualify for Worlds this year. FlyQuest looks like the biggest underdog of the tournament qualifying only off of performance from Spring Split 2019. They likely will not make it to worlds this year but stranger things have happened. In 2015, Cloud 9 was in a similar situation as the lowest seed and was able to win 3 best of 5's in a row to represent NA at Worlds for the second year in a row.
This years Regional Qualifier is going to be interesting to say the least. TSM has been declining and seem to be in the worst state they've been in in a very long time. They dropped their playoff series to a Clutch Gaming squad that was overlooked and was almost able to beat out Team Liquid in the Semifinals. CLG has looked pretty steady throughout the split and after beating Clutch in the 3rd Place match, they are looking like the strongest team left in NA. Clutch Gaming has a very in your face type of play style and seem to be able to pick up wins through their Top and Mid lanes. If they can draft well, they are going to be hard to beat.
The winner of the Regional Qualifier will compete in the Worlds Play in Stage. The five main regions for League of Legends are North America (LCS), Europe (LEC), China (LPL), Korea (LCK), and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao (LMS). Each of these regions will have 3 teams at Worlds with the 3rd seed competing in the Play in stage. China is the exception to this as they won the World Championship last year. They therefor get 3 seeds automatically qualified for the Main Stage at Worlds 2019.
North America has struggled internationally and is looking to breakthrough this year. Team Liquid needs to continue their domestic dominance on the international stage this year to prove themselves. They have said on numerous occasions that they are focused on Worlds this year and LCS is just an avenue to get them there. Many of TL's members have found success with other teams at Worlds including Top Laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong, Mid Laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and Support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in. With Team Liquid locked in as the first seed and Cloud 9 as the second, North America is looking as strong as they have in a while moving towards worlds.
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