League of Legends: LCS 2023 Opening Day Match Results
Happy LCS opening day! After a long off-season of licking our wounds following another unceremonious ejection from Worlds, we're ready to jump back in for another season. Today also marks the introduction of the new Riot Games arena, with a brand new, modernized stage.
Leading things off today, we've got Cloud9 taking on 100 Thieves in a rematch from last summer's finals. After that, Golden Guardians will face Evil Geniuses, followed by Flyquest and Team Liquid, CLG and Dignitas, and finally, TSM vs. Immortals.
Check out our LCS Spring Split Predictions here!
Cloud9 Picks Up Where They Left Off
It was a rather brutal return to the LCS for possibly the greatest player in North American history. Entering the game only two kills shy of becoming the third player in LCS history to reach 2100 kills, Doublelift's 100 Thieves were unable to get much of anything going against Cloud9.
The opening of the game was a slow one, with only a couple of kills in the first twenty minutes of the match. There definitely seemed to be a little bit of off-season rust, as some early game mistakes weren't punished as hard as they should have been. But when the wheels came off, they came off hard for 100T.
In the mid-game, Cloud9 stormed out to a 14-4 lead and, despite having Baron stolen away from them, managed to ace 100 Thieves in response. From there, things snowballed out of control and C9 took the win, with an assist from the minions to finish off the nexus.
Overall, a good start to the season for Cloud9, who has been on an absolute tear in the off-season. For Doublelift and 100Thieves, it's going to be some frustration in the locker room.
Game MVP: Fudge (C9 Top-Laner)
Evil Geniuses LoL Struggle With Golden Guardians
In our LCS predictions, we named Evil Geniuses as our team to beat this spring split. This match did not inspire confidence in that pick. Mid-laner jojopyun had a strong lane phase but struggled throughout the mid-game. He eventually came online in the late stages of the game, but he'll need to be better.
FBI meanwhile looked comfortable playing next to Vulcan, while Ssumday played well despite a rough 1v1 outplay by the opposing Olaf. Golden Guardians fought back from a massive early deficit to take a lead throughout much of the mid-game, and props to Young, who played very well despite being a last minute substitution.
Despite the loss, GG has to feel good about their performance against Evil Geniuses. The win, meanwhile, probably feels a little bitter for EG. They need to be better going forward.
Game MVP: Inspired (EG Jungler)
Match of the Week - FlyQuest LoL Has Arrived
Yesterday, an idiot proudly proclaimed that FlyQuest would struggle in the Spring before storming onto the scene come, Summer. My bad.
FlyQuest played an outstanding game from start to finish. Landing first blood on a 2022 World Champion must have felt pretty good for Spica as he took down Pyosik at 12:49. He would go on to have an outstanding game, making his presence felt all over the map.
For Team Liquid, this is not what they were hoping for as they assembled a powerhouse roster in the offseason. Despite it, though, they never really seemed to have a chance to put themselves ahead, and FlyQuest looked like the better team from the start.
Game MVP: Spica (FLY Jungler)
Counter Logic Gaming LoL Defend The Faith Against Dignitas
Defend the faith, indeed. The only team to return their entire rosters from last season were rewarded for the confidence they showed in their team. From the word 'go', CLG took to the offensive and at no point in this game did it feel like Dignitas had any real chance of getting back into it.
Every time DIG showed life, CLG immediately had an answer to shut them back down. Can Counter Logic Gaming keep it up against the better teams in the LCS? Time will tell, but Contractz, Luger, and Poome all looked very strong while Palafox scaled into a monster.
Game MVP: Palafox (CLG Mid Laner)
TSM Dominate Immortals
If you're a TSM LoL fan, you have to be pretty happy with that. TSM were shown a lot of disrespect for their off-season, including by yours truly. But after falling behind by 4k gold in the early game, TSM powered back and dominated from the mid-game onwards.
Solo, in particular, showed a lot of heart, falling behind against a Fiora counter-pick and managing to be a major difference maker by the end. Neo, meanwhile, did what you're supposed to do on Lucian and scaled into a late game monster. On the other side of the map, Fleshy and Tactical had just about everything go right for them in the early game as Pyke and Draven but were unable to convert it into a mid-game snowball.
These are two teams that will probably end up pretty close to each other in the standings, and those are games you absolutely have to win. Tough loss for Immortals and a great confidence boost for the underdog TSM.
How To Watch League of Legends
Check out all the action over at the LCS Twitch and Youtube channel. You can follow the LCS every Thursday and Friday throughout the Spring Split.
