Team Liquid, owners of the top playoff spot in the LCS Spring Split playoffs, narrowly avoided a first-round upset in the winners’ bracket Sunday, beating Evil Geniuses 3-2.
Liquid advanced to Round 2 of the winners’ bracket and will face 100 Thieves, which won the opening match on Saturday. Evil Geniuses dropped down to the losers’ bracket, where they will face FlyQuest.
In Sunday’s best-of-five match, each team alternated map victories while playing on red. Liquid opened with a 33-minute victory, but Evil Geniuses responded with its own 33-minute win. Liquid went ahead 2-1 with a 28-minute win and EG answered again, tying it 2-all with a 30-minute victory.
Liquid closed it out in just under 32 minutes on the deciding map.
Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg of Denmark had an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 4.2-2.4-5.8 to guide Liquid. Steven “Hans sama” Liv of France averaged a 3.8-2.2-6.0 for Liquid, including going 7-1-10 on the deciding map.
The top four playoff finishers will split a $200,000 prize pool, with first place taking home $100,000.
The playoffs continue Saturday with one match:
–Cloud9 vs. Golden Guardians (losers’ bracket)
–Field Level Media