100 Thieves vs Cloud9

The LCS is back in action! Even though things looked dire for a moment, the coronavirus-related hiatus didn't affect competitive League too much -- a one-week delay is by no means monumental, which means the North American Spring Split will continue as planned.

Still, it's easy to forget what transpired a couple of weeks ago. The vast majority of the world is in lockdown and the days when we followed competitive League feel much more distant, psychologically speaking. The LCS, much like every other region in the world, will move over to online play exclusively throughout the remainder of the split. This means stage fright will be a thing of the past. We saw certain LEC teams play a lot better than anyone expected, which could further equalize things in the LCS as well.

The standings, however, are still an absolute mess and it's fair to say that anything could happen going forward. For example, today's games are fairly one-sided on paper, but which teams practiced the most, and who'll come out on top is anyone's guess. That's why we're focusing only on this one game which, all things considered, should be a fairly easy guess.

Cloud9 is, without a doubt, the best and most capable North American team at the moment. Heck, you could even argue that they're the most dominant team North America ever had and are considered by many as a shoo-in for the finals. Some are even going a step further and are saying they'll dethrone Team Liquid. Coming into 2020, that certainly seemed like an optimistic stretch, but after witnessing their tremendous rise, that notion is no longer an outlandish one.

They're insanely talented and their games -- regardless of opponent -- are mostly one-sided blowouts and masterclasses in execution, mechanical prowess, team fighting, and individual play. There's just nothing bad you can mention, no concrete weakness to focus on. Whether they'll be able to maintain such a monumental level of play going forward remains to be seen, but the odds are definitely in their favor.

Opposite them, we have 100 Thieves. Now, frankly speaking, they've improved far more (in a short amount of time) than anyone expected. They've recently defeated Evil Geniuses, Team Dignitas, and Immortals and are sitting on a fairly commendable 7W-7L record. They're tied with two of the aforementioned teams, but have shown much more potential and cohesion over the last couple of weeks. That's why this game is so interesting. No one's expecting them to win, but how big of a fight they put up will heavily impact everyone's expectations going forward. They're pretty much a lock in for the playoffs at this point, but how strong they'll be and how much momentum they'll have in two weeks' time still remains to be seen.

We're siding with Cloud9 on this one, but it should be an interesting scrap regardless of the odds. The shift to in-house online play will introduce many previously unknown factors -- games going forward will be more akin to scrims rather than stage play, and that may or may not impact teams in new and unexpected ways. Still, Cloud9 has more than enough talent to get the win regardless of the circumstances.