Team Liquid Alienware have won the LCS Finals. They beat LYON 3-1 on October 4 and gave up a single game in a best-of-five where they looked the sharper side for most of the day.

The one blemish came in the third game, and LYON earned it. Facing elimination, they produced their most complete outing of the series, a 41:29 win with 16 kills to TLAW's five and ten towers taken. Inspired, on Jarvan IV, was involved in every LYON kill and went 5/1/11, while Saint and Berserker each died just once. For a moment, the final looked as if it might go the distance.

Josedeodo sets the tone

It didn't. TLAW's first two wins rested heavily on their jungler. Josedeodo had a hand in 93% of his team's kills in the opener and then went 8/2/10 on Qiyana in the second game, dealing 28,192 damage, the most of anyone on the map. That second game was arguably the starkest of the set before the finale: 23 kills to six, two Barons to none, and a gold gap of more than 16,000 for TLAW. Quid's 8/1/10 Galio and Yeon's deathless 0/0/14 Ezreal backed him up, and CoreJJ's Nautilus didn't die either.

LYON's best individual numbers kept coming from the mid lane. Saint was the top damage dealer on his team in the first game with a 6/1/0 Syndra, and he dealt 27,336 damage on Viktor in the fourth, the most of any player in that game. Even so, his team couldn't turn it into results.

A one-sided finish

The fourth game was the shortest and most lopsided of the series. TLAW won it in 27:02, with LYON scoring a single kill. Morgan's 6/0/4 Jax led the way, and three of TLAW's five players finished without a death. LYON took one tower and no dragons, and Dhokla's 0/4/0 Gnar was involved in none of LYON's kills.

TLAW were on the blue side in all four games, and they took a total of 15 dragons to LYON's six. That fits a team that controlled the map for most of the series. LYON can take something from the third game, when they beat this roster convincingly. The other three games will likely be harder to look back on.