LCS Summer Split: Bjergsen leads Team Liquid to victory over Cloud9

Team Liquid mid-laner Bjergsen led his team to a victory over Cloud9 last weekend, earning the team a 3–0 weekend to start the 2022 LCS Summer Split.

Bjergsen had to face fellow North American mid-laner Jensen. Both Jensen and Bejrgsen are widely considered the best North American mid-laners in League of Legends history. The last time they faced each other was in the LCS stage nearly two years ago.

Team Liquid put all their faith in Bjergsen, and the player succeeded in leading the team to annihilate Cloud9, defeating his opponents in a very much one-sided game. Bjergsen managed to secure a number of early kills, making him too strong for the enemies to tank later.

Liquid vs. Cloud9

The second ban phase left not many support champions to choose from, and as the enemy had chosen to go with a Twitch and Yuumi combo, CoreJJ picked Bard to accompany Hans Sama’s Ezreal. Bard is currently a rare sight in a high-level championship.

Team Liquid failed in their attempt to contain the bot lane with ‘Q’ from CoreJJ, but Bjergsen jumped right into action to surprise his Cloud9 opponents and secure two early kills, changing the course of the battle from there on.

Team Liquid then began their campaign as they secured the momentum. They made their way through mid. Led by Bjergsen’s LeBlanc, with whom he recorded a 63-percent win rate throughout his career, the opposing bot laners were made powerless. In only 25 minutes, the veteran mid-laner recorded five kills and purchased a number of powerful items.

Team Liquid secured themselves the Baron after CoreJJ used his ultimate, killing two members of Cloud9 in the process. With the Baron buff, Bjergsen traversed the enemy territory without much hindrance, killing Blaber’s Volibear using only a few abilities. At that point, Bjergsen was already too strong, resulting in Jensen avoiding his LeBlanc out of fear of being humiliated like his crewmates.

Cloud9 playing with limitations

Cloud9 was limited from playing with its full capabilities. They could not field Berserker and Zve in the Summer due to Visa and passport issues. Instead, they had to feature Australian combo k1ng and Destiny, bot-laners from Cloud9’s academy team.

K1ng and Destiny are both Oceanic transfers. They have played for several years in North America, but the last time they landed together was during their time on Mammoth. The team represented Oceania at the 2019 World Championship.

It is still uncertain whether Berserker and Zven will return to the LCS soon. That being said, Cloud9 top-laner Fudge, who was also a Mammoth player as a rookie, earlier told Dot Esports that the players would return in week three.

“I really enjoy playing with [K1ng] and [Destiny],” Fudge said, as quoted by Dot Esports. “They’re really open and receptive to criticism, which I really enjoy in a teammate. They also lighten up the mood and are really easy-going in general. I really enjoy playing with them. Obviously, I played with them in Mammoth, so it’s sort of nostalgic. I think they’re really good players.”