The Thieves only have one win in their last eight LCS games.

The day opened with CLG vs 100T, and both teams have been struggling a little bit lately. CLG has not managed to string more than two wins since Week 1 and 100T is on the verge of missing playoffs completely. The matchup was also interesting since both teams played the newly released Aurelion Sol rework yesterday, even though both teams lost their respective games. Still, the Star Forger was a contested draft pick coming into the game.

Another big match was FLY vs EG. While both teams are at the top of the 2023 LCS Spring standings, FLY has been looking like the best team in the league and EG had some bad performances even in their wins. The first meetup had gone the way of FLY, so EG was definitely looking for a win in their last game against their possible playoff opponents.

Also a big surprise in the studio for long-time LCS fans, former C9 jungler Meteos made a guest appearance throughout the day both on the analyst desk and also on the cast.

Meteos joins the caster desk #LCS pic.twitter.com/vAKkm8QY5Q

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) March 3, 2023

CLG vs 100T

The bot lane draft from both teams promised early action with Kalista/Varus vs. Caitlyn/Lux. And it delivered with two early fights, CLG coming on top in both of them and Luger’s Kalista ending up with four kills before minute four. Contractz was also doing a great job of limiting the enemy’s options to respond. He took every objective available while countering Closer’s gank attempts. 100T not being able to step into their jungle comfortably, CLG started to play for the Baron the moment it spawned. It didn’t take too much effort on their side to find a couple of picks and secure the purple worm.

A misstep from CLG during the siege gave some hope to the Thieves, but back-to-back mistakes from their top and jungle meant that hope died out very quick. CLG just lured 100T to the second Baron. Without needing the buff itself, they managed to end the game with an ace around the objective.

what is happening in this game #LCS #CLGWIN #DefendTheFaith pic.twitter.com/ginEshv4hs

— CLG (@clgaming) March 3, 2023

• Teams: CLG 1 – 0 100T
• Time: 30:23
• Kills: 19 – 4
• Turrets: 9 – 2
• Gold: 58.6k – 46.3k
• Dragons: 3 – 1
• Barons: 1 – 0

C9 vs DIG

C9 continued their trend of aggressive mid/jungle drafts, and Blaber was once again active around the map. He found the first blood in the top lane with a level three gank and managed to steal the first drake from Santorin. But a silver lining for DIG was their bot lane who got two kills in the 2v2. DIG was fighting back with Jensen leading the way on Jayce and they were close to further delaying the C9 Soul, but Blaber once again came up big around objectives with his second steal of the game.

Also, they were able to secure a Baron buff thanks to Cho’Gath, even though their gold lead was relatively close at 3.5k. With the Baron buff on their side and a 6k health Cho as a frontline, they started sieging the enemy base. They did not even need to kill the enemy as DIG at this point couldn’t touch Fudge, and they just ended the game by hitting the turrets.

BLABERRRRRRR #LCS pic.twitter.com/uo4UugLMl4

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) March 3, 2023

• Teams: C9 1 – 0 DIG
• Time: 30:08
• Kills: 12 – 11
• Turrets: 10 – 3
• Gold: 56.5k – 48.6k
• Dragons: 3 – 1
• Barons: 1 – 0

EG vs FLY

NA Challengers enjoyers rejoiced as Ssumday brought out the Garen counter-pick, for the first time ever in the LCS.

The early action was mainly focused around the mid lane with EG finding back-to-back ganks from Inspired and Ssumday. But while the EG top side was ahead due to the kills, the FLY bot lane had the advantage so they were able to secure the first drake. FLY continuing to stack drakes and EG not being able to turn their kills to a gold lead meant the mid game was pretty close. It was Jojo who found Prince in a couple of critical fights and let his team pick up a Baron to run away with their lead.

But EG’s troubles closing out games resurfaced once again. A couple of overextensions and a stolen Baron by Spica meant the game did not end, and Prince’s Aphelios was able to scale more and more. EG almost threw the game, but Inspired found a hero engage on Prince which ended up in a clean ace for them, ending the game right then and there.

EG teamfighting. #LCS pic.twitter.com/2cHhKLxjOA

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) March 4, 2023

• Teams: EG 1 – 0 FLY
• Time: 39:41
• Kills: 19 – 7
• Turrets: 10 – 6
• Gold: 76.6k – 66.7k
• Dragons: 2 – 3
• Barons: 2 – 1

TL vs TSM

TL vs TSM was a much slower game compared to the ones before. The only early game action was when Pyosik got caught during an invade and gave up the first blood. But TSM did not need too many kills to establish a lead thanks to their lane advantages and Bugi controlling the objectives. TL also didn’t do much around the map. They didn’t contest objectives or looked for side lane picks, Pyosik especially was nearly invisible after his death. 

He also made some head-scratching decisions like Nocturne ulting in the backline instead of going for a drake steal, giving up an Infernal Soul as a result. With the enemy jungler dead, TSM also took a Baron after the Soul. They needed to wait till the Elder to push for the end, but when it’s all said and done it was a dominating game from TSM.

• Teams: TL 0 – 1 TSM
• Time: 33:19
• Kills: 3 – 13
• Turrets: 2 – 10
• Gold: 54.2k – 65.8k
• Dragons: 0 – 5
• Barons: 0 – 2

IMT vs GG

GG was looking to get back to the winning after their win streak ended yesterday. They had a good start toward that goal by constantly invading the enemy jungle in the early game. Unsurprisingly, it was the River/Gori duo who found the first blood on the opposing jungler. After a disappointing game yesterday, River was back to running the Rift once again. As we saw many times from him this Split, he was everywhere on the Rift. He ganked, counter-ganked and took every objective available.

The game got sketchy at one point with IMT winning two big fights. Unfortunately for them, there were no objectives available for them to take, and GG came ahead in the fights around the Soul and the Baron, taking both after. It came down to a fight at the Elder and despite IMT securing the big buff, GG still won the fight and the game.

• Teams: IMT 0 – 1 GG
• Time: 33:56
• Kills: 12 – 15
• Turrets: 0 – 10
• Gold: 55.2k – 63k
• Dragons: 1 – 4
• Barons: 0 – 1

Image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

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