Team Liquid will have a chance to show their title credentials when they take on NRG Esports this Friday in the 2023 LCS Championship.

Liquid finished the LCS 2023 Summer regular season in fourth place, with a 56% win rate (10-8), which isn’t the most inspiring record. But this team is a sleeping giant and one of the most underrated squads entering the playoffs.

Team Liquid boast some of the league’s most impressive performance figures, including a +2241 gold differential at 15 minutes. To put it into perspective, the second-best team on that list and the favourites to win the LCS crown, Cloud9, have a +1226 GD@15. Liquid also rank first in Herald control (72.2% ), Drake control (63.9%), first tower rate (77.8%), average towers destroyed (7.6), and total damage per minute (2542).

Liquid’s record against elite teams isn’t the best – they lost against Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses in the final week of the split. But TL have all the tools to make a deep run and potentially win the League of Legends Championship Series crown.

NRG Esports, meanwhile, are one of the most overhyped teams in the league. Their performance metrics are pretty poor, and the only thing saving them from being regarded as a weak team is their solid record against the top LCS squads.

Known as the ‘giant killers’, NRG Esports have won most of their games this split against top-five teams, including against Cloud9 and Golden Guardians in the final two weeks of the LCS 2023 Summer split. However, they’ve also suffered defeats against weaker opposition, such as Immortals, 100 Thieves, TSM, and Dignitas.

NRG’s status as a team that regularly does well against better opponents makes them an interesting underdog pick, but winning a best-of-one and winning a best-of-three are two entirely different things. Barring any surprises, Team Liquid should make it past NRG Esports comfortably.

?More esports betting tips