One series on day 3 in Daejeon, and a place in the Play-Ins final at the end of it. Karmine Corp arrived stung by their loss to T1; Team Liquid came in on the back of a clean sweep of DCG. Two second seeds from two rival regions, and the loser facing elimination.
Team Liquid took KC apart 3-0, and they did it with speed. Every call seemed to come faster than Karmine Corp's — in skirmishes, around objectives, across the map — and they never gave KC the time to react.
Josedeodo drove it from the jungle, outpacing Yike, especially on game 1 and 2, and snowballing his signature Lee Sin out of reach; he closed LCS Spring unbeaten on the pick, 4-0 in the LCS plus a win at MSI. He and CoreJJ played in constant sync — moving and committing together — while KC's jungle-support pairing was a step out of time, and that was the gap that let Liquid reach every fight first.
KC also made it really easy for TL. The drafts seemed a step behind the meta, prio left open, matchups disrespected — and Liquid punished all of it. Once the game got moving, KC came apart at exactly the points TL pressed: Caliste laned well in games one and two but cracked in fights under Liquid's tempo, caught out of position, late on Zhonya, late on flashes. Yike and Busio were pulled out of the game entirely, leaving the solo lanes nothing to work from.
Seeing KC this disconnected in teamfights is not something we're used to. Morgan made sure of his side regardless, containing Canna across the series and taking a game-one solo kill on Gnar into Canna's Vayne. KC leave Daejeon without ever having found who they are as a team.
Team Liquid join T1 in the Play-Ins final, with a main-event spot on the line. A 3-0 of this calibre will have done plenty for their confidence — they looked sharp, fast and in control from the first game to the last. But T1 are a different proposition. The two already met earlier in Play-Ins, and T1 ran out comfortable winners; if Liquid want a different result this time, they will need to clean up the early-game mistakes that cost them in that first meeting. The pace and synchronisation they showed against KC is exactly what they will need to bring — and then sustain — against a side that punishes every misstep faster than anyone in the tournament.
For Karmine Corp, the next date is closer to home: the EWC in two weeks, in Paris.
