Counter Logic Gaming produced their best run through the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) regular season since 2019. But now they must face off against the reigning LCS champions, Cloud9, who enter the first round of LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs as heavy favourites to advance.

Cloud9 collected another LCS regular season trophy on Saturday when they defeated FlyQuest in a hard-fought tiebreaker, solidifying themselves as the strongest North American League of Legends team ahead of the playoffs. Cloud9 could’ve easily not been able to contest the top spot in the league, but the combination of FlyQuest slowing down in the final weeks and Cloud9 finding a new identity with rookie midlaner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo played a significant role in C9 reclaiming their throne.

Counter Logic Gaming were never in the conversation of the next LCS champions; however, they did extremely well for themselves, ending the season in fourth place after losing the tiebreaker match against 100 Thieves. Although an incredible accomplishment for the oldest League of Legends team, losing against 100T puts a bit of a dent in CLG’s run to the finish line.

On a more positive note, the final week of the regular season saw CLG beating Golden Guardians, Team Liquid, and Cloud9, who CLG crushed with 31-8 in kills and close to a 10k gold lead.

Still, we’re talking about a best-of-one game which is much easier to win than a best-of-three. So even though Cloud9 looked hopeless on Thursday, it was apparent they had an off-day, so we wouldn’t expect a repeat performance on Friday.

Cloud9 are significantly better than CLG, and we expect that to show in the playoffs. Counter Logic Gaming are no pushovers and will offer some resistance, but if Cloud9 play their game, it’s hard to imagine CLG winning more than one map.

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