We’re finally through our first week of the 2020 LCS Spring Split, with the extended three-day broadcast setting the stage for a heavier focus on each day’s matches. So, what happened, who came out on top, and what games already set the tones for teams in Week 1? It was a mixed bag of results this weekend. So, let’s take a look at how LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1 went down.

Day 1: Cloud9 vs Team Liquid (Winner: Cloud9)

The split opened with a repeat of the 2019 Summer Split Grand Final as Cloud9 took on four-peat champions Team Liquid Saturday afternoon.

While Liquid was missing their starting jungler during LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1, instead playing with substitute Shernfire whom they only had four days of practice with, the team as a whole looked surprisingly out of sorts throughout the game.

While the team got a nice triple kill around the 11 and a half-minute mark to open the scoreboard and took cloud drake off of it, they gave up kills and objectives throughout the rest of the match. Jensen and Doublelift gave up two large kills that C9 used to swing three turrets and a Rift Herald for themselves.

#C9WIN! @Cloud9 take down @TeamLiquidLoL in the first game of the 2020 #LCS Spring Split! pic.twitter.com/5v4bsTJaxw

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) January 25, 2020

Cloud9 moved cleanly from objective to objective. Even in that first team fight, they managed to get goods hits and stacks on Nisqy’s Veigar. Nisqy was the clear MVP of the match as well, with his cages setting up picks for his squad or preventing Liquid from finding a clear path to engage. Many had feared the Azir pick by Liquid for Jensen would mean we’d see the tragically slow and dull Corki vs Azir matchup that analysts and fans dreaded since both received buffs in patch 10.1, but the C9 mid laner found a pick to stop that dull affair.

The game was also the fastest match we’ve seen in the west so far at a shockingly quick little over 24:30 on the clock. Given how many games are dragging into the 30-40 minute range or longer between the LEC and LCS already, it’s a strong statement on C9’s ability as a team that this ended so quickly. Especially after the decisive fight around the bottom inhibitor turret that snowballed into a win 30 seconds later.

Hopefully, by the time we see them play again in a few weeks, Broxah can play so we can see just how well they stack up at full strength.

Day 1: Counter Logic Gaming vs Dignitas (Winner: Dignitas)

During LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1, it was the Froggen show in the second game. The Danish mid laner popped off on Viktor to take Dignitas to a win in their first game back in the LCS over Counter Logic Gaming. CLG got some of the strongest picks in the current meta with Ornn, Cassiopeia, and Senna. Yet, they failed to capitalize on the strength of their picks as DIG grabbed some pocket picks in Viktor and Ashe fish for picks and strong teamfight power.

For every objective or kill CLG seemed to get, DIG would take two to three in response. While CLG had the power of scaling on their side, they never seemed to find it as they got outplayed fight after fight. Probably worst of all for the boys in blue was the failing of Ruin on the Ornn. The game ended with a rather disappointing .5 KDA with a scoreline of 0/4/2, a pick not helped by CLG’s strange decision to not pick up any items Ornn could upgrade his passive beyond his own Sunfire Cape and Wiggily’s Black Cleaver.

A lot of lost gold there without those items, and with Ruin’s seeming inability to find good Ornn ults meant much of the teams engage lay with Smoothie on Leona. With his final engage proving disastrously too early for his team to capitalize on, CLG collapsed under the pressure, dropping the game just past the 40-minute mark.

That’s not to say all was bad for CLG. Crown did show a level of strong play that raises hopes for the team going forward, though he’ll need to make sure he’s not hanging out in a bush again. On DIG’s side, Froggen found surprising strength from Huni on the Renekton and, surprisingly, Johnsun on Ashe. For his first-ever game on the pro stage, Johnsun looked very calm and calculated throughout the match. While he didn’t record a kill for himself, a 0/1/5 scoreline on one of League’s most support orientated ADCs is nothing to be ashamed of.

Is this going to be the year DIG finally puts together a strong roster? Is it another strong starting waiting to plummet off a cliff later in this split? We’ll have to wait and see how their matches go over the coming weeks, but they’re a team to keep an eye on now.

Day 1: 100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians (Winner: 100 Thieves)

A game of two halves was in store for us heading into the third match of the weekend. Golden Guardians took a surprising early game lead over the completely rebuilt 100 Thieves line-up. With a five minute dragon to start the game out, GGS got a nice start to the game. They followed it up with what seemed a nice team fight around Rift Herald later on as the team took out three members of the 100T line-up for first blood. That hype quickly dissipated. The rest of the Thieves showed up for their triple set of kills, forcing GGS off the Herald and giving themselves access to both it and a free turret while GGS took a cloud drake for themselves.

A short pause later saw the Thieves garner another kill onto Keith’s Braum before the game quickly began sliding away from them. GGS began picking up a handful of kills, a pair of Infernal Drakes to give them the Infernal Soul and a pair of towers to slowly choke 100T out of the game.

.@100Thieves find the fight they are looking for and take the Elder Dragon from @GoldenGuardians! #LCS pic.twitter.com/IWtvZfGXAf

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) January 26, 2020

Unfortunately, past the 30-minute mark, GGS seemed entirely incapable of closing the game out. They constantly danced around the Elder Drake trying to take it and bait 100T into a fight as they lost a couple of turrets to building minion waves. They climaxed in the 33:50 fight around Elder that saw 100T clean both it and GGS up in a two for four fight.

GGS jungler Closer was wiped out early on by a combined Gangplank-Leona burst. From there, 100T grabbed Baron and quickly pushed through the mid and bottom lanes for the win in one last fight that saw a beautiful Miss Fortune ult out of Cody Sun onto ⅘ of the GGS line-up, ending it just over 38 minutes in.

100 Thieves is going to need to clean up their early game after how much they gave away here. But, the real take away has got to be GGS’ need for a better bottom side, as FBI and Keith got completely outclassed this game.

Day 1: Immortals vs FlyQuest (Winner: FlyQuest)

The last match for Saturday, as two matches each week are now moved to Monday Night League, saw Immortals taking on the newly rebranded FlyQuest. They who took the time before the match on social media to unveil their new TreeQuest initiative that sees the team plant a tree for every kill they get, 10 for every Ocean Drake taken by any team all split and 100 for every win the team gets.

Immortals started the match with an excellent trade in the bottom lane. Mostly everyone piled in for a dive into the FlyQuest tower that saw IMT’s mid Eika pick up First Blood on his surprise Lucian mid pick. It took out WildTurtle’s Senna in the process before dropping to V1pers Riven around the 3:40 mark. The balanced trade wouldn’t last long, though. IMT snuck around into FlyQuest’s blue-side jungle to catch PowerOfEvil walking back to lane, getting both his Flash and a kill for their efforts.

Things stabilized for the next several minutes before IMT picked up objective after objective, with a Herald, turret, and Cloud Drake all going to them in the next 13 minutes. FlyQuest only picked up two kills and a Mountain Drake in that time. Things quickly blew open around the 16:32 mark. FlyQuest secured a nice 4-kill (4k) on IMT around the Herald while SOAZ, IMT’s top laner, was off farming mid lane away from his team.

From there, FlyQuest slowly began building their lead, trading a kill or turret for multiple IMT members and objectives. While IMT had the scaling of Cass on their side, the rest of the team couldn’t keep pace with the insane pressure FlyQuest was putting out. Especially V1per who managed to win every 1v1 he got all game and set up some fantastic flanks for FLY.

While it was a great showing from the boys in yellow, we saw them get a lot of comfort picks in Lee Sin, Riven, and Blitzcrank this match. It’ll come down to how they play off these picks with more meta champions that indicate whether they have what it takes to make it far this split.

For their part, IMT didn’t look too terrible on the bottom half of the map. Altec looked like he hasn’t missed a beat since his last outing in the LCS. Xmithie and SOAZ, however, showed their age with a combined score of 0/8/5 between the two of them. As the most veteran players on the line-up (highly lauded on their past teams), you’d expect a bit more out of them. Perhaps the language barrier and early season jitters are getting to them right now. We’ll need to see how they pan out as the season progresses.

Day 2: Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses (Winner: Dignitas)

People have been excited about the Evil Geniuses line-up since late last year. Many claimed the team would easily be a top four or five squad, possibly even making a run to the Grand Final in their first split.

If this is the sort of play, we’re going to get out of them. However, I don’t see them even making playoffs at this rate. The team managed only two kills, a single Ocean Drake, a Herald, and one turret in their 28-minute loss to DIG, a pretty embarrassing scoreline given all the talent involved. Kumo looked outclassed entirely on a champion he’s seemed rather comfortable in Aatrox, getting baited over a wall chasing a kill early in the game and being otherwise ineffective on his way to a 0/3/0 scoreline. LCS 2019 Summer Split MVP Svenskeren also looked out of sort on his Gragas pick as well, going 1/4/0.

There isn’t much to say about this game beyond how one-sided it was. Froggen and Johnsun are again looking very strong in their combined scoreline of 9/1/8, proving their first match against CLG wasn’t a fluke. Hopefully, the next time we see these two teams play it’s a little bit closer, but a tale of two different orgs this week coming back into the LCS.

Day 2: TSM vs Immortals (Winner: Immortals)

This game hurt to watch for both teams. A game going over an hour with only 18 kills between the two of them is a dull affair already, but to have that with two Elder Drakes is embarrassing.

The game was very back and forth for the first half-hour. TSM took a 2,000 gold and five kill lead in that period and managed to gain two Cloud Drakes for themselves. While they managed to get a couple of kills and an inhibitor of a Bjersen split push in bot lane after that, TSM spent the next 30-minutes playing on the defensive, allowing IMT to get the Cloud Drake Soul and two Elder Drakes. IMT couldn’t finish it in one. They needed a second to put the game to bed. Even then, they only got one kill with it, requiring SOAZ to backdoor to end the game.

Both teams are going to need to get their acts together if they want to be relevant. While it’s only TSM’s first game of the split, this is now the second messy game from IMT. SOAZ and Xmithie again looking out of sort. Could their age finally be catching up to them? Is it LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1 jitters?

For TSM, the big fear has got to be both Dardoch’s mental, which good explode at any moment and Broken Blade’s terrible Rumble, which as one of the strongest meta picks right now is worrying for their future drafts. While his stat line looked great, considering how many ults he whiffed, they should probably leave Rumble duty to Bjerg for the foreseeable future.

Day 2: Golden Guardians vs Cloud9 (Winner: Cloud9)

This wasn’t a great game start for Cloud9’s top laner Licorice. Golden Guardian’s Closer and Hauntzer came at him three times in the course of the first 11 and a half minutes of the match and earning themselves two kills on his Camille (and one on Blaber’s Lee Sin for FBI’s Senna in the bottom lane). That was about the only success Golden Guardians would have this game. Cloud9, annoyed by yet a fourth gank from Closer on the top lane, rotated four members to reverse the gank and get a nice 2-0 for their troubles.

From there, it was pick after pick for C9 as they utilized their excessive crowd control to constantly force GGS off of objectives for fear of getting picked off, which new support Keith consistently did not realize as he was caught out again and again. GGS did get another Cloud Drake, along with a couple of kills and a turret. But, for every inch they gained, C9 would take a mile, trashing the Guardians in every fight they took.

Credit to the Guardians, though, they did get Licorice again with a two-man bottom side, but it just goes to show how outclassed they were that it consistently took two of them to deal with him. And Closer is looking great in the early game, able to set up some major ganks and fantastic objective takes in the first half. The problem is Keith. While the team praised his transition into the role from his previous role, he’s feeding like a mad man. While more experience will hopefully help him utilize his abilities more efficiently, positioning is something he should be extremely good at as a former ADC.

Seeing him constantly get caught out is highly worrying. For C9’s part, the team should give Licorice more scrim practice in 1v2’s considering teams seem insistent on constantly pushing him with two. However, his struggles seem to have been mostly misclicks and unfortunate misreading of where another member of GGS was at the time, things that can clean up as the season goes on.

Day 2: FlyQuest vs Counter Logic Gaming (Winner: FlyQuest)

Another win, another 100 trees for FlyQuest (speaking of which 100 Trees would be a great campaign for 100T), this time taking down Counter Logic Gaming in highly dominant fashion.

A gank and kill early on against Crown at the three-minute mark turned into an even greater gold gain for FLY. CLG’s jungler Wiggily flashed well ahead of his incoming top laner to get immediately picked off by PoE and Santorin, giving the latter a double-kill that snowballed that began FLY’s snowball. CLG managed to get a return two kills against him and PoE at the 12-minute mark for Stixxay and Crown.

The two kills weren’t enough. FlyQuest began systematically squeezing CLG out of the game. While CLG did manage to find multiple kills onto WildTurtle’s Aphelios, it always came at the cost of multiple members of their team, and tragically mispositioned Elder Dragon fight at 30-minutes would quickly cost them the game.

CLG has been looking disorganized and unprepared in their first two games of this split, with almost none of the players save Crown looking like their form from last year. Is the new age of CLG over already before it’s even begun? Will the team find more success as the split goes on?

FlyQuest, meanwhile, has exceeded all expectations analysts and journalists alike have had for them in LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1, actually looking like a solid team that knows how to play. We’ll have to see how they match up against a hopefully full-roster Team Liquid and currently 2-0 Dignitas next week to see if this first week was just a fluke, or if they have what it takes to go all the way.

Day 3: Evil Geniuses vs 100 Thieves (Winner: Evil Geniuses)

It was the Jiizuke show in the first-ever Monday Night League game as Evil Geniuses took on 100 Thieves. The “Italian Stallion” ran rampant across the map as he bounced from kill to kill on Leblanc, only faltering once when he was caught out in a bush by Ryoma’s Ryze, but beyond that was nearly flawless in his execution of the mage assassin, including gaining first blood in the mid lane.

First blood on Monday Night League goes to @EvilGeniuses! #LCS pic.twitter.com/xwGjFtLMo2

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) January 28, 2020

The rest of EG looked great as well in their respective matchups, with Svenskeren dominating the jungle and constantly tracking Meteos. At the same time, Bang’s Senna proved a mighty late-game carry picking at targets from incredible safety as her range scaled from her passive. The only struggles the team had were from Kumo’s matchup with Ssumday’s Aatrox. His effective use of the Mordekaiser ult to take 100 Thieves out of the fight for extended periods proved highly valuable in netting them win after win.

For their part, 100 Thieves looked the same as they did on Saturday. They struggled early and only really picking it up in the mid game. The team’s biggest weaknesses are still Ryoma and Stunt, who seem highly outclassed by their opponents in this game. The team needs to work on improving the individual skill of these two if they want to compete against the rest of the League this year, especially in mid lane where the League is stacked across the board.

For EG, the team just needs to work on figuring out the transition from early to mid and late game. They seem to slow the pace down heavily around that point. While that worked against the likes of 100T, a lot of other teams not named TSM are going to flip the table on them in this period of the game. It’s only LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1, though. Things will surely go up from here.

Day 3: Team Liquid vs TSM (Winner: Team Liquid)

Another day another TSM mid-game collapse. The team got off to a nice double kill and three dragon lead early in the game. They managed to get first turret off of Broken Blade’s Gangplank in the top lane. It all proved for naught. The team slowly began giving up drake after drake once the Infernal Soul was on the line, slowly ceding more and more objectives until their eventual defeat.

TSM’s biggest problem throughout the match seemed to be the lacking heavy engage the team needed to set up fights. Elise and Zilean can utilize their abilities to catch out targets. Leona did almost all of the fight set-up. Biofrost often rushed ahead of his team to hit a Solar Flare on Team Liquid only to miss or get turned on, resulting in him being forced to Flash or dying in the process. His positioning coming out from his side’s blue buff as the last fight was breaking out almost single-handedly cost TSM the game, though the very passive play as time went on from the rest of the squad didn’t help.

It’s easy to write off Team Liquid’s early game issues, especially around Herald and Drake control, given that they’re playing with a substitute jungler, so not much concern there for the team. TSM, however, was at full strength, got a good lead. They once again failed to close it out. It feels like we’re seeing more of the same from the former titans of North America. If you’re a fan, it’s got to be concerning seeing the same mistakes year after year.

That’s all we have for our LCS Spring Split 2020 Week 1 recap, thanks for tuning in. We’ve got more LCS and LEC coverage coming up this week and next week with a Week 2 recap, so stay tuned.