LCS Championship Quarterfinal Matchups, Odds and Picks – Evil Geniuses and Cloud9 Favored to Advance

• The LCS Championship begins on August 7th & 8th with Evil Geniuses vs Dignitas, and Cloud9 vs Team Liquid
• The finals will be hosted at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on August 27th and 28th
• The top 3 teams will qualify for Worlds 2021

The LCS Championship gets underway on August 7th, with the tournament coming to a close on August 28th from the Prudential Center in New Jersey. The first-place team will win $100,000 USD and be named the LCS Champions. On top of that, the top three teams will punch their ticket to the 2021 World Championship.

The tournament begins with two quarterfinal matches: Evil Geniuses vs. Dignitas & Cloud9 vs. Team Liquid. The losers will drop down to the lower bracket, while the winners will move on to the Winner’s semifinals and face either 100 Thieves or TSM.

LCS Championship Quarterfinal Odds

Odds as of August 5th from Betway

Evil Geniuses vs Dignitas

Eight teams qualified for the LCS Championship, and the tournament begins with a matchup of the #3 seed in Evil Geniuses and the #6 seed in Dignitas. Over the course of the LCS, we’ve seen a significant gap develop between the top 5 teams, and the rest of the league. That boasts well for EG who finished with an 18-9 record in Summer, which tied them with 100 Thieves and TSM for best in the LCS. Evil Geniuses really found their form at the end of LCS Summer, as it seems that they’ve ironed out their aggressive style. They closed the Summer season by winning 14 of their final 17 games, proving that they’re not just a favorite against Dignitas, but a favorite to make it to Worlds as well.

At times, Evil Geniuses downfall was over aggression – a term that has become synonymous with Jiizuke over the course of his career. In Summer, we’ve seen less and less of that as EG has honed their style. During LCS Summer, they led the league in gold differential at 15 minutes and finished second in kills behind only Cloud9. Although they’re the third seed, they might be the most dangerous team entering the LCS Championship.

None of that bodes well for Dignitas. They finished LCS Summer with a record of 12-15, and even after a swap from Dardoch to Akaadian in the jungle, they slid into the sixth seed for the LCS Championship. To Dignitas’ credit, they were able to defeat TSM twice and 100 Thieves once during the Summer season, but those results were overshadowed by inconsistency and multiple losing streaks. Add on Dignitas’ 0-2 record against Evil Geniuses, and it’s no surprise to see EG as -500 favorites.

EG is the clear play here but to add some value, I’d take Evil Geniuses winning in a clean 3-0 sweep.

Pick: Evil Geniuses (-500), U 3.5 (+155)

Cloud9 vs Team Liquid

The battle between the fourth and fifth seed is a rematch of the LCS Mid-Season Showdown. Despite being the top two teams in Spring, the Summer season has been disappointing for both. TL and C9 both finished Summer with an identical 15-12 record. It’s not a horrible result, however, it’s far from what you’d expect from rosters of this caliber who were once viewed as NA’s best hope at Worlds.

In Summer, both teams have had their run-ins with roster drama. For Cloud9, they benched star AD Carry ‘Zven’ to start the Summer season before bringing him back a third of the way through. Although moving a player like Zven to the bench came as quite a surprise, it’s nothing compared to what Team Liquid has gone through. Alphari has been benched, their head coach Jatt resigned, and starting jungler Santorin has had to take a leave for health reasons. Entering the LCS Championship, the TL lineup is back to as it was originally designed, but they’re undoubtedly behind in practice with the revolving door of roster moves.

This should be a close series that mimics the Finals of the Mid-Season Showdown, and I’d expect the end result to be exactly the same – Cloud9 defeating Team Liquid 3-2.

Pick: Cloud9 (-143), O 4.5 (+145)