The second week of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) kicks off on Saturday, June 25, with a handful of exciting matches. However, it will be as thrilling to follow as the meeting between Team Liquid and TSM, two of North America’s most successful esports organizations.
Admittedly, the charm of this clash is not as strong as it was years back, mainly due to TSM’s fall from grace. Although still the winningest organization of the LCS, TSM are nowadays regarded as a mid-tier team at best, which also explains why the League of Legends betting odds on this match are so one-sided.
Last game records
TSM head into the second week of LCS 202 Summer with a 1-2 record, which isn’t great, but it could definitely be worse. They lost their opening match of the split against 100 Thieves and even stumbled against CLG on Saturday before bouncing back against the unconvincing Immortals on Sunday.
On the other side, Team Liquid are one of the three teams that ended Week 1 with a perfect 3-0 record. They have won against Immortals, Dignitas, and even Cloud9, which is fairly impressive. Still, it’s not like Liquid had to face many tough opponents while Cloud9 were missing key players, so we would be careful calling Liquid the undisputed best team in the league purely due to their 3-0 record.
TSM vs. Team Liquid Betting Analysis
TSM and Team Liquid last met in March during the LCS 2022 Spring regular season, when Liquid won with relative ease. And even though a lot of time has passed since, we have not seen anything that would suggest that TSM are better prepared for the rematch.
This also explains why the League of Legends betting odds show Team Liquid as -400 favorites and TSM as +275 underdogs. The price seems fair as there are more than enough reasons to believe that Liquid must blunder quite badly if they were to lose.
TSM
The roster changes ahead of the summer split introduced some optimism back into the Liquid camp, but we have yet to see them produce results that would suggest that Liquid are now a better team.
So far, they had beaten just Immortals, which is hardly worth praising, while TSM were outclassed by 100T and CLG, proving that even though TSM might be stronger than the last split, they’re not particularly strong.
On a more positive note, TSM have, one week into the summer split, already collected 20% of all wins they had managed in spring. But that’s more a testament to how poorly TSM have been playing in LCS 2022 Spring rather than the team improving.
Team Liquid
We’re one week into the LCS 2022 Summer, so it’s tough to make any conclusions. But if we go purely off what we saw last week, Team Liquid are the current best team in the league. Ok, perhaps they’re still a bit weaker than Evil Geniuses, but they’re one of the top-two NA LoL teams.
With commanding wins against Immortals, Dignitas, and Cloud9, Liquid have shown that they’re to be taken seriously. But at the same time, they had yet to be properly tested. Yes, they had to face Cloud9, who are on the title contenders, but Cloud9 were missing their key players that day, so we would take Liquid’s success with a grain of salt.
Updates
TSM and Team Liquid have yet to announce any major changes to their roster for the upcoming match, and we even don’t expect the teams to make any. Team Liquid have no reason to change up the roster, and neither does TSM.
However, we would follow the team’s social media for any updates that might get posted in the days leading up to the match.
TSM vs. Team Liquid Betting Preview
As the latest betting odds suggest, this is Team Liquid’s match to lose, and we can’t argue with that. Liquid are easily one of the top teams and main contenders for the LCS title, whereas TSM could be happy if they even make the playoffs.
Although it’s not fair to many any strong conclusions, it’s clear that Liquid have much better players than TSM. And besides the individual quality gap, Liquid also play like a much more cohesive unit.
There is a world where TSM improve and becomes a strong mid-table team. But we have yet to see anything from this team that would lead us to believe that TSM will actually be competitive against the top dogs.
TSM vs. Team Liquid Betting Prediction
Team Liquid shouldn’t be losing this game, but they’re not a good pick at the offered odds. Likewise, we would not recommend anyone betting on esports to settle for a kill handicap bet on this game.
That is largely because we have not seen enough from the teams and how they’ll do in the current patch to feel confident recommending a bet on Liquid to cover seven kills. Instead, we’ll take over 22.5 kills.
How to bet on TSM vs. Team Liquid
With the latest patch, the LoL games across the globe have become much bloodier, making overs a far better choice. Although if you look at season-long stats, they would suggest otherwise, there was a clear shift in how the games are played with the recent changes to turret damage.
That, combined with a more scaling approach to games, should lead to plenty of kills, granted we expect most of them to be on the side of Team Liquid.
Prediction: Over 22.5 kills -120
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