Team Liquid vs Immortals

To close out the day, we have a clash between Team Liquid and Immortals. Now, this isn't exactly a premier match-up, but it should still entertain us for a wide variety of reasons. We find these two teams on opposite ends of the spectrum with differing amounts of hype and momentum; they're both carrying their own unique narratives coming into the fourth week of play which makes this match slightly more enticing than it would've been otherwise. On the one side, we have the former LCS champions, a team that, upon dominating for two years straight, imploded beyond measure mere months ago. Against them, we have a team that has only just registered its first win of the split.

Hardly a barnburner.

Still, these narratives make all of their games that much more interesting. Immortals, for example, have only just played two games with a line-up everyone thought should've started from the very beginning. They looked like a much better, more cohesive and dangerous team last week and we're all intrigued to see how well they'll perform going forward. With Xmithie, Apollo, and Hakuho within their ranks, they have all the right tools to trade heavy blows and compete with the best teams the LCS has to offer. They probably won't win most of these clashes, but they'll still make things competitive, at least early on. That, in itself, means Immortals is endlessly better than what we saw during the first two weeks of Summer.

By the same token, Liquid have successfully started their road towards redemption, and they did so with their Academy marksman Tactical. This might not be the same Liquid of old power-wise, but they're insanely talented and highly capable which is why they're currently ranked near the very top of the region. They're much cleaner and more proactive than before and they're also the only team according to Cloud9 that actually has a chance against them -- that's high praise coming from the most dominant champion North America ever fostered.

Obviously, we have to side with Team Liquid on this one. It's a no-brainer, really. Still, if Immortals bring their A game, they should be able to compete on even footing, at least in the early and mid stages of the game. That said, Liquid is stacked across the board and should have any trouble in taking IMT down with relative ease.