Cloud9, the League Championship Series Spring Split champions, opened the Summer Split with a win over Golden Guardians on Wednesday.
In other opening-day action, Team Liquid defeated TSM, 100 Thieves dumped FlyQuest, Evil Geniuses topped NRG and Immortals got past Dignitas.
The 10 teams in the top North American League of Legends circuit will play every other team twice in the group phase, which runs through July 21. All group-stage matches will consist of a single map.
The first- and second-place teams will head to the upper-bracket semifinals for the double-elimination playoffs. The third- through sixth-place teams will open the playoffs in the upper-bracket quarterfinals. The seventh- and eighth-place teams will enter the postseason in the lower bracket, while the ninth- and 10th-place teams will be eliminated.
The playoffs will feature best-of-five matches. The top three finishers will earn berths in the League of Legends World Championship, to be played in South Korea from Oct. 10-Nov. 19. The fourth-place finisher will head to a wild-card qualifier with a chance to land a spot at the World Championship.
In Wednesday action, Cloud9 posted a 27-minute win on blue behind a 5-0-3 kill-death-assist ratio from South Korea’s Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol. South Korea’s Kim “River” Dong-woo had a 2-2-1 K-D-A ratio for Golden Guardians.
Team Liquid prevailed in 30 minutes on blue, with South Korea’s Park “Summit” Woo-tae registering a 9-2-9 K-D-A ratio. Canada’s Jason “WildTurtle” Tran wound up at 4-4-6 for TSM.
100 Thieves won in 31 minutes on red thanks to a 7-0-4 K-D-A ratio from the United States’ Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng.
Evil Geniuses needed only 25 minutes to win on blue, with Sweden’s William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen producing a 6-0-4 K-D-A ratio. NRG didn’t have a single kill.
Immortals triumphed in 28 minutes on blue as the United States’ Edward “Tactical” Ra amassed a 4-0-3 K-D-A ratio. Denmark’s Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen had Dignitas’ lone kill.
Action continues on Thursday with five matches:
–Dignitas vs. Cloud9
–TSM vs. FlyQuest
–100 Thieves vs. Team Liquid
–NRG vs. Immortals
–Golden Guardians vs. Evil Geniuses
League Championship Series Spring Split group-stage standings
T1. 100 Thieves, 1-0
T1. Cloud9, 1-0
T1. Evil Geniuses, 1-0
T1. Immortals, 1-0
T1. Team Liquid, 1-0
T6. Dignitas, 0-1
T6. FlyQuest, 0-1
T6. Golden Guardians, 0-1
T6. NRG, 0-1
T6. TSM, 0-1
–Field Level Media
