Team Liquid – NA LCS Week 1 Preview

January 24 2015

The NA LCS is starting at last after an endless off season of roster moves and imports. Going into the first week of the season Team Liquids big import Piglet is not yet with us, being held up by Visa issues and will be subbed out for week one. His replacement KeithMcBrief will be looking to prove that he can match up against some of the top talent in the LCS. With the lack of Piglet the rest of the team will be looking to show that they aren’t something to forget about either as well as ensure the team starts the season off on a positive note.

When asked about the start of the LCS season Liquid`IWillDominate said:

“I am kind of expecting a little bit of a slow start from us. Getting back into scrims were not as quick to make decisions as before and we don’t really have a crisp mind about what to do in certain situations. But I think once we get Piglet and Fenix back into our scrimming schedule and Peter(coach) is here more we will be a strong team.”

Team Liquid opens the season matching up against the new roster of Team Impulse. Both Liquid and Impulse’s big off season moves will be missing in week one, Impact being one of the other players having Visa trouble. This match will be a good test for an unknown Impulse roster. Impact will be aiming to come out of the gate and make an impact as a team to watch out for.

Team Impulse won’t be the only test of the match. This is also the LCS debut of Team Liquid’s mid lane player Fenix, who is also a huge variable going into the season. Fenix will be going up against XiaoWeiXiao, one of the top mid lane residents in the LCS.

The day two match for Liquid will be against the consistently fine team, Counter Logic Gaming. CLG also has some roster trouble in the first week of the season as ZionSpartan and their coach, Scarra, were suspended during the offseason. The mid lane will once again be an important factor in this match as CLG’s Link is on what could be his last chance at showing he can reach the heights he was always said to be capable of.

The bot lane will be a scary place for KeithMcBrief and Xpecial as they have to try their hardest to deny the aggressive Rush Hour bot lane of Doublelift and Aphromoo from going on a roll. If Liquid’s pair can keep up with the experienced duo Liquid should be in a good place to take the match, but that is far from guaranteed.

Liquid, Impulse and CLG are all teams trying to prove their offseason moves will be good enough to move them up in the standings. Week one will be a key time to show their fans what they are made of as all three teams are playing without a full line up and will need to work hard in order to edge out these games.

“It will just be sub wars because were playing with subs against subs both games. So I expect the first couple weeks of LCS to look kind of shaky for all teams.” - IWillDominate

Writer: suicideMARE
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Photo Credit: LoL Esports