LoL: Team Liquid and FlyQuest dominate on their paths to the Americas Stage

The LTA North’s first ever split has finished. Only the top four teams move on to the Americas Stage held in São Paulo, Brazil — two of those four, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves, qualified last week. Today, the LTAN teams joining them were decided in tense best-of-three elimination matches. The winners get the chance to lift the trophy in Brazil, while the losers are left only to wait for next split, which begins in April.

Hungry after last week’s upset loss to Cloud9, Team Liquid came in ready to destroy their opponents today, securing a 2-0 victory over Shopify Rebellion.

Game one showcased the kind of perfect execution fans expect from TL. All six grubs, all four dragons, and seventeen kills — to Shopify's three — went to TL. It was functionally flawless. Sean “Yeon” Sung, Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, and Um “UmTi” Sung-hyeon all went deathless, with Yeon’s Varus in particular a key carry, ending the game just before 30 minutes.

Shopify put on a better fight in game two, including a solo kill from Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami’s K'sante onto Jeong “Impact” Eon-young’s Jayce, but 20 minutes of close gameplay were unable to stop Liquid from securing an early Hextech Dragon Soul. They were able to leverage its power into teamfight win after win, ruthless in pushing their newfound advantage, and managing to end even faster, in a 28 minute finish.

With the 2-0 match over, Shopify’s hopes of making it to Brazil were dashed, and Team Liquid looked forward to fighting for third seed in São Paulo.

Eager to prove they could still reach the heights of last year’s Worlds run, where they nearly beat Gen.G with exceptionally unique picks, FlyQuest wiped out Dignitas today with that same unique style.

In game one, they picked Swain toplane for Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, and the pick went on to define the match. Time and time again, Bwipo 1v2’d and 1v3’d on his Swain, his mixed AP-tank build proving nigh-unkillable for Team Dignitas. While Bwipo tanked in the frontline, Fahad “Massu” Abdulmalek dished out all the DPS in the backline, positioning to decimate the opposition. Massu, the ADC prodigy many in the region are placing their hopes on, went 8/0/5, unstoppable on the rift. Dignitas brawled them at every turn, but were unable to stop the 40 minute FlyQuest victory in the end.

Game two was much more one-sided. This game was the Inspired show jungler — Kacper “Inspired” Słoma proved completely indomitable on his carry Lillia. 4/0/11, Inspired pranced and danced around the Dignitas members in teamfights, putting them to sleep in-game as he crushed their dreams of making it to Brazil.

Dignitas’ roster, and their hyped rookie toplaner Jett “Srtty” Joye, will have to place their hopes on another day, while FlyQuest is poised to contest for the Americas Championship title.

After the best-of-three's ended, one best-of-one was left to play between FlyQuest and Team Liquid, set to decide third seed standing in playoffs. The match was a familiar sight to fans of last year's LCS, where the rival teams faced off again and again in playoffs. The game proved just as close as fans hoped, neck-and-neck for many minutes, but ultimately swung in FlyQuest's favor with great Neeko engages by support Alan "Busio" Cwalina.

Ultimately, FlyQuest and Team Liquid will be the final two teams to join Cloud9 and 100 Thieves in the LTA North’s trip abroad. The qualifying teams will all be flying off to arrive in São Paulo, Brazil, where the Americas playoffs stage kicks off on February 15th. There, they'll face off against the top representatives from the LTA South in the battle for the championship, and the chance to attend First Stand, Riot's new international event.