The LCS Lock In tournament is the flashy event to open up a year of LCS play and 2022’s groups have now been confirmed. Here are our predictions for how the group stage of the Lock In tournament will play out in 2022.
Group A is helmed by the 2021 LCS Summer Split champions, 100 Thieves. 100 Thieves had the first choice of placing an opponent in the opposite group due to defending its title. As the first placement in Group B, 100 Thieves chose to place Evil Geniuses in the enemy group.
100 Thieves’ Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith said that the reasoning for this was that 100 Thieves evaluated Evil Geniuses as the likely strongest opponents on day one of Lock In. This allows 100 Thieves to avoid Evil Geniuses while still getting the strongest competition possible as Group A teams will be scrimming with those in Group B.
We expect 100 Thieves to come out of Group A looking the strongest, with Cloud9 a close second and TSM taking up third. We have confidence given that 100 Thieves’ roster is unchanged and its aggressive play style can be used to cement some early wins in the tournament.
Group B is a tighter race with the newly formed Team Liquid super team and Evil Geniuses’ intimidating roster. These two are the obvious frontrunners for first place in Group B. Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg’s form upon his return for TL would need to be near the top of his potential for Team Liquid to be the favorite ahead of EG on its side of Lock In.
We’re leaning on the side of 100 Thieves’ perception of power in Group A while favoring Evil Geniuses to come out in first place from Group B. The EG roster has more carried over from last year than Team Liquid’s, and is better able to play around their staple lanes from last season. The bot lane remains strong for Evil Geniuses, and the addition of Kasper “Inspired” Sloma should only strengthen that focus.
Team Liquid could certainly show up on day one able to defeat Evil Geniuses, but EG seems the more likely victor. All the other teams in this group will be fighting for third unless the unexpected strikes.
The 2022 LCS Lock In tournament will begin on January 14, 2022.
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