Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid battled through five maps before the Geniuses rallied to clinch the victory in the lower-bracket semifinal of the League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split playoffs on Sunday.
The Geniuses advance to the Sept. 10 lower-bracket final against 100 Thieves, who were bounced from the upper-bracket final by Cloud9 on Saturday. The Geniuses-Thieves survivor moves on to face Cloud9 in the grand final on Sept. 11.
The $200,000 double-elimination event culminates the season for the top North American League of Legends circuit. The top three finishers will earn berths in the $2.25 million League of Legends World Championships, scheduled for Sept. 29-Nov. 5 in San Francisco, Atlanta, New York and Mexico City.
The LCS winning side will pocket $100,000 and the runner-up will get $50,000. All LCS Summer Split matches are best-of-five, including the grand final.
The Geniuses took the first map on blur in 39 minutes, but Liquid took the second on blue and third on red in 34 and 36 minutes, respectively. The Geniuses recovered, however, taking the fourth map on blue in 31 minutes and the clinching fifth map in 42 minutes on red.
Joseph “jojopyun” Pyun of Canada and Jeong “Impact” Eon-yeong of South Korea led the way for the Geniuses, with kill/death/assist ratios of 19/13/21 and 15/14/22, respectively. Steven “Hans sama” Liv of France and Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau of Belgium finished at 20/9/20 and 15/18/16, respectively, for Liquid.
The LCS Summer Split playoff schedule for Saturday and Sunday:
–Lower-bracket final: 100 Thieves vs. Evil Geniuses (Saturday)
–Grand final: Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves-Evil Geniuses winner (Sunday)
League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split prize pool
1st: TBD — $100,000, Worlds
2nd: TBD — $50,000, Worlds
3rd: TBD — $30,000, Worlds
4th: Team Liquid — $20,000
5th-6th: Counter Logic Gaming, TSM — no money
7th-8th: FlyQuest, Golden Guardians — no money
9th: Immortals — no money
10th: Dignitas — no money
–Field Level Media
