As a regular player and a long-time LCS watcher, I still remember that final day of the regular season. Even now, in 2026, the memory feels surprisingly fresh. I had called one of the two upsets correctly yesterday, which felt like a small personal win. That result left us with yet another three-way tie at the top, and honestly, that kind of chaos is exactly why I love this league.
Before the last slate of games, Immortals sat at 12-4, while Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid both sat at 11-4. IMT had already finished their week, so TSM and CLG just needed to handle lighter competition to climb back into a share of first place. The only team outside the playoff picture with even a flicker of hope was Echo Fox, and that hope depended on Team EnVy losing every remaining match while EF won everything left on their schedule. Let’s be real, that’s a long shot. If that miracle was going to start anywhere, it had to start tomorrow against Dignitas.
Here is how the standings looked heading into the day:
| Seed | Team |
|---|---|
| 1 | Immortals |
| 2 | Counter Logic Gaming |
| 2 | Team SoloMid |
| 4 | Team Dignitas |
| 4 | Cloud9 |
| 6 | Team EnVy |
| 7 | Echo Fox |
| 8 | Team Liquid |
| 8 | FlyQuest |
| 10 | Phoenix1 |
The first matchup on my radar was Cloud9 versus FlyQuest. This was supposed to be the old C9 against the new C9, but it didn’t feel that way anymore. FlyQuest had been stuck near the bottom all split, and they just couldn’t close games the way their old roster used to. They would jump out to decent leads, then somehow trip over their own feet in the late game. That pattern was the opposite of what made them dangerous in the past. Meanwhile, C9 had Jensen, and whenever things got tense late, he could just show up and save the day. He did exactly that against Team Liquid earlier. Against a team that struggles to finish, that kind of closer felt like a cheat code. I picked C9 to take it in two straight games.
Next up was CLG against Phoenix1. The OmarGod era had started with a clean 2-0, and now he was about to face a very beatable P1 squad. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure how the jungle swap would turn out. Omar had been around CLG for a while, but I didn’t know if he had been scrimming with the starters consistently before the change. Turns out it didn’t matter. They took care of business against EnVy, and P1 hadn’t shown nearly enough to make me think they could stop that momentum. A 2-0 felt almost routine, and it would put CLG right back in the hunt for the top spot.
Then there was TSM versus EnVy. TSM had brushed aside FlyQuest pretty easily the day before, and they looked ready to keep that streak alive. This match was the only thing standing between them and a tie for first heading into the final week. A split title was still on the line, and you could feel the pressure even from the couch. I had TSM winning, but EnVy were scrappy enough to steal one game, so I settled on a 2-1.
The last match I cared about was Echo Fox against Dignitas. Dignitas had looked sharp against Immortals yesterday, with Ssumday going absolutely nuclear in the final game. Altec and Adrian were doing what they had done all second half of the split: quietly carrying whatever needed carrying. In their first game, top lane and bot lane combined for 11 of the team’s 12 kills. Then Ssumday just took over on a fed Kled and made the whole map feel small. For Echo Fox, this was where the playoff dream either stayed alive or flatlined. Even if they pulled off the upset, they still had to get through IMT and C9 after that. No way that happens. I predicted a 2-0 for Dignitas to slam the door early.
So there it was: C9 2-0, CLG 2-0, TSM 2-1, DIG 2-0. I felt good about most of it, but the LCS has a way of making confident fans look silly... and I wouldn’t have it any other way.