Team Liquid beats Team SoloMid without Doublelift in 2020 LCS Spring

Team Liquid picked up a critical win over Team SoloMid in the 2020 LCS Spring season.

Liquid started the second half of the season with a massive victory and is ready to fight for a spot in the playoffs. Liquid came into Week 6 without its bottom lane star, with Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng missing the action due to a serious case of laryngitis. The team started Academy player Edward “Tactical” Ra, who got the job done.

TSM tries too hard against Team Liquid

Without Doublelift in the rotation, Liquid looked like a vulnerable opponent. TSM wanted to take advantage, going for an experimental composition with Maokai in the mid lane and Kayle in the top lane to add some late-game strength. With that in mind, TSM wanted to play slowly and scale.

Liquid wanted things to go in a very different direction, and forced TSM out of its comfort zone very quickly.

In the top lane, Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong and Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen secured first blood. Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik burned his flash, forcing TSM invest heavily into keeping its top laner safe. TSM ultimately succeeded in this, but it came at the expense of their bottom lane duo, allowing Tactical to have a leisurely debut in the LCS.

Liquid continued to push its  advantage and everything went wrong for TSM from there. TSM couldn’t react in time to Liquid’s aggression and flinched every time Liquid threatened to start a fight. That passiveness gave Liquid the chance to build up Tactical, take over the game, and capture the victory.

The game was a change of pace for Liquid. The solo laners and Broxah stepped up when the team needed them the most.

It was the first time this season that Liquid looked similar to the 2019 version of itself that captured two LCS titles. This comes not a moment too soon, as the team needs to start firing on all cylinders if it wants to challenge Cloud9 for a spot in the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational.