2019 NALCS Summer Quarterfinals Preview

S. Samek

Lets take a look at the teams compeating in the quarterfinals this summer.

The first match up is CLG vs. Optic. This is the three seed against the sixth seed. CLG lost a tie breaker to Cloud 9,but still holds a 12-6 record. Optic went 8-10,but servived two tie breakers to gain a spot in the tournament.

The two teams tied at 1-1 during the summer split. However CLG won the most recent meeting during week nine.

I think CLG needs to show up and not overlook Optic. This could be hurt them immensely if they do. Optic at one point looked to dominate and show they were a top four team, but have slumped recently. Whats not to say they can’t have the early split team show up and take the series off CLG.

This match I think is dependent on which Optic and which CLG show up. CLG has shown to be a top tier team during summer, but what if the team from spring shows up and they struggle. It would led to an early exit for CLG. Same for if we get current Optic, which lost their last four regular season games before winning the two tie breakers,

My prediction is CLG

Then we have Clutch and TSM in the other quarterfinal. TSM owns the head to head 2-0 for summer with the most recent match in week six.

Yet Clutch has been playing well recently. they have three straight wins to get into the playoffs outright. Despite TSM holding a better it seems like Clutch may very well be the favorite.

This is only added to by the fact TSM is going to start Spica, the academy jungler instead of Akaadian and Grig. I won’t feel to confident in this roster change so late in the season.

Honestly TSM is a good team, but I don’t think they are as good as they are advertised to be. They underachieved this spilt, but they aren’t really a bad team. Its very confusing.

Clutch I feel took advantage of teams that struggled, but didn’t really do much against the top teams in the standings. I feel like this is their time to show if they can move up in the standings and contend ,or just stay in the middle making playoffs and go no further.

I’m going to predict TSM, but I wount be surprised if Clutch takes it. TSM is just a bit more consistent and even struggling can still win games. Clutch is a bit underwhelming if they don’t perform.

A lot of this weekends quarterfinals is pretty much which team shows up for pretty much every team. All four teams have had struggles and triumphs and seem to lack a consistency that makes it easy to predict. Which is more fun as it makes the matches more competitive to have it where any team can beat any one any day.

Lets see what happens and stay tuned for more.