LCO Split 2 playoffs, week two. If it wasn’t serious business before, it should be now. DreamHack Melbourne sits just eleven days away, where we’ll be crowning a LCO champion and sending our OCE reps to Worlds.
Chiefs take on Order in a possible grand final preview in a repeat to the spectacular best-of-five that saw Order edge out a Split 1 championship.
Coming into their first best-of-five after a narrow loss in split one’s grand final, The Chiefs will be seeking revenge against defending champions Order.
The Chiefs come into this series after the first perfect split in LCO history — a dominant performance that saw them defeating opponents in quick fashion, many times under 25 minutes.
Order will be seeking to repeat past performances and take this match and return to the grand final stage.
This time, finally, at LAN.
CHF v ORD — The Panel Picks: Chiefs
Order have had an up and down season, to be sure.
Returning from the Mid-Season Invitational and after a couple of adjustments, the Split 1 champs began the season slowly.
It’s a phenomenon that can be expected from various attendees of the international competition, as teams attempt to take some rest and diverge from the meta evolution of the tournament.
The continual developments of the squad and integration of jungler Jeong “Goodo” Min-Jae have been on display as the split grew deeper, culminating in their second-place finish and progression to the upper bracket final, narrowly edging out Pentanet, of whom they played last week.
A closely fought five game contest, Order managed to close the series out despite the curveball Zilean thrown by Pentanet, with a fifth game Soraka top, showing the flexibility that is necessary in a best of five.
Order is perhaps the only team that can stand up to The Chiefs on a consistent basis, but they’ll need to be on their A game on multiple occasions if they are to come away with the victory.
The bot lane contest will be expected to be the difference maker in this series; notably, the ability for support players to unlock themselves on the map.
Ryan “Aladoric” Richardson by far is the best in the league at doing this, enabled by the fellow members of the team to pick the map apart and accrue significant advantages for the team on a consistent basis.
This will be further enabled by the shifts in the ADC meta that has seen the rise of Draven and Kalista in what has been a scaling oriented role this split.
Draven, notably, was one of the focal points of the Order series against Pentanet last week. Expect to see this a prevalent pick this series, as Quin “Raes” Korebrits has been known to pull out the Draven from time to time even out of meta.
In spite of this evenings result, you will see both of these teams at DreamHack – and also are likely to see them playing again in the grand final.
I have this series at a three-to-one win for The Chiefs; however, while I expect The Chiefs to be dominant, I do not believe that the Chiefs will be capable of being as explosive in closing games as early as they had been known to do throughout the course of the regular season.
Callum Matthews’ Prediction: Chiefs Win 3-1
Harry Taylor’s Prediction: Chiefs Win 3-0
Chiefs. Order.
The winner secures a spot at DreamHack Melbourne’s Championship Sunday. The loser must contend with Friday’s preliminary final.
The LCO Split 2 Playoffs resume at 6pm AEST — catch up on all the split details in our ultimate coverage hub.
Follow our prediction team @CDMLoL & @ImHarryTaylor on Twitter.
