Cloud9 vs Team Liquid

Team Liquid are one of few teams in the league that can stand up to Cloud9. While they have the tools to win, Liquid don’t match up well with C9 stylistically. Two arguments we could make in favour of TL are their strong early game, which is statistically the best in the league; and their top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris, who should do more than fine against Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami.

By targeting Fudge, TL could potentially get ahead early and translate that advantage into the mid-game. The problem here is that while Liquid have been very effective in gaining early advantages, they haven’t been good enough to snowball their leads. Whereas C9 on average increase their leads between 15-25 minutes by 5543 gold, Liquid’s record in that category in almost 40% worse at +3440.

Liquid’s subpar performance in the mid-late game comes from poor coordination and individual mistakes, which is just another factor that makes us like Cloud9 more here. While a bet on Liquid may seem appealing, they just don’t seem ready to take down Cloud9.