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Team Liquid claimed its third victory of the North American League of Legends Championship Series split Friday with a 2-1 win against Team EnVyUs 2-1 in Los Angeles to end Week 7, Day 1 of the NA LCS.
Game 1 saw an interesting draft as Liquid (3-10, 8-23 match record) opted for standard pickups in Gragas for jungler Kim "Reignover" Ui-jin and Orianna for mid laner Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer while EnVyUs (7-6, 18-17 match record) opted to power pick Cho'gath for jungler Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo on top of a surprise Kennen support pick for Nickolas "Hakuho" Surgent.
The Kennen did wonders for EnVyUs early as it was able to edge the enemy bottom lane out to build up a lead. Simultaneously, a series of successful ganks from LirA pushed liquid AD Carry Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin even further behind. But Team Liquid was able to bounce back thanks to a hero smite Baron play by Reignover. EnVyUs mistimed its rend-feast-smite combo on the Baron, and thanks to the mishap, Liquid picked up the buff, four kills and control of the game.
Shortly after, the team was able to take a final teamfight in the EnVyUs base and close out Game 1 in just 34 minutes.
Game 2 looked like a carbon copy of Game 1 except for a few differences during pick and ban. The early game was riddled with fights and skirmishes once again, and like the last game, EnVyUs was able to find an early lead. LirA, once again on Cho'gath, was able to quickly take objectives and put his team in front.
Unfortunately for Liquid, this is where the script from Game 1 changed. After finding itself at a disadvantage, there were no miracle plays that allowed Liquid back into the game. Apollo "Apollo" Price's Jhin constantly pushed Liquid out of fights for EnVyUs, and Liquid fell in back-to-back fights, allowing EnVyUs to take the victory and force a Game 3.
Team Liquid rallied to bring itself its first early game lead in the series. With two quick kills from Samson "Lourlo" Jackson's Jarvan, the team was able to quickly build a decent lead. EnVyUs responded by repeatedly ganking Piglet's Tristana, which gave the team two kills to mitigate its disadvantage.
EnVyUs was able to maintain objective control to keep itself in the game, but Liquid was able to pick up a late game Elder Dragon to tilt the balance. Immediately after, an impressive teamfight initiated by Lourlo's Jarvan and Reignover's Maokai resulted in a near-ace 39 minutes into the game. Liquid had no problem afterward pushing forward to close out the game and series 2-1.
Team Liquid will try to secure a 2-0 weekend as it battles Phoenix1 at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. EnVyUs will attempt to shake off the defeat the next day against FlyQuest at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.