We are now officially done with the first split of the LTA, congratulations to Team Liquid on making it to First Stand after dismantling 100 Thieves 3-0 to qualify for the first international event of the year. There were plenty of exciting storylines that were told during the first cross-conference of the year, with plenty still to be told as North America and Brazil head into Split 2 in a few weeks. Let’s take a look back at some of the key storylines for the LTA Split 1 playoffs.

Team Liquid storms the latter half of the playoffs

Team Liquid went from being a team in complete freefall to the best North American team overnight by a country mile. While it’s uncertain how much the arrival of Spawn helped the squad, the coach flying in during playoffs definitely saw a resurgence for Team Liquid as they took down Cloud9 2-1, followed by a 3-0 smashing of 100 Thieves, a squad who was able to upset FlyQuest 24 hours prior. It was a statement series from UmTi, a player who received mass criticism for his performances in prior LTA matches. The series wasn’t close, and even when 100T did have a lead, TL remained poised and took what was rightfully theirs. 

This win will now see the squad jet off to Korea to compete in the first of three international events of the year, First Stand. This win also means APA has continued his streak of attending every international event available since debuting for Team Liquid in Summer 2023. Yeon was the highlight of the LTA Split 1, with the young ADC obliterating the competition. Even when TL was slumping, Yeon put the team on his back and dragged them across the finishing line multiple times. Yeon rightfully won the 2025 LTA Split 1 finals MVP, and is the player fans should look out for at First Stand. 

100 Thieves progress while others falter

The other major talking point coming out of this year's LTA Split 1 playoff comes in the form of 100 Thieves, a team that was expected to only be battling for a top-four place but managed to make their way to another final in North America. 100 Thieves have certainly improved on their performances from last season. So much so that they were able to take down FlyQuest, an accolade they have not been able to stake claim to since this FlyQuest roster was formed. The introduction of FBI has worked wonders for this team with the squad looking more composed at later stages of the game, which is impressive given their fight-to-the-end attitude.

Now onto the teams who faltered at one of the latter hurdles. Going into the weekend, it was predicted that FlyQuest and Cloud9 would be making it to the finals after being considered favorites in their respective best-of-threes. Even with the reintroduction of Spawn behind the scenes, Cloud9 was still expected to be too much for the Team Liquid side that has looked like a shell of their former selves. Cloud9 looked solid in games one and two, with the first game being one of the more back-and-forth games the series had.

Key mistakes in the mid-game, akin to the C9 of old, saw them lose control of the game and ultimately put them on the back foot. A more dominant game two saw the series tied up one apiece, before TL put C9 to the sword, embarrassing the favorites with a lane swap that virtually guaranteed a TL win before the first few minutes of the game had concluded. Nevertheless, it was a solid opening split for Cloud9 and it’ll be interesting to see how they perform in Split 2. 

For FlyQuest, while there are no signs yet that anyone should be worrying about them falling to the wayside, it’s disappointing to see them not return to the finals stage for another epic showdown with Team Liquid. They were outfought at every stage of the series against 100 Thieves, and when you thought FLY was about to take over the game, 100 Thieves slammed the door in their face and said not today. In what was a defining series for Sniper, Bwipo did not have his best showing, bringing out niche picks that ultimately didn’t work, perhaps not for the reason being the champion, but more the top laners own mistakes that made the game difficult to play.