After Team Liquid rookie superstar, Edward “Tactical” Ra, challenged the rest of the LCS with a tweet proclaiming himself the “king of NA, and king of ADC” all eyes were on him in his team’s match against league leaders, Cloud9.

Fortunately for Tactical, he was able to back up his claim with a sensational performance.

Despite facing an experimental C9 composition consisting of a Sett mid-laner and a Lux and Sona bot-lane, TL’s CoreJJ and Tactical proved to be a dominant force that slowly but surely dismantled C9’s early-game lead.

While C9 took an early lead in kills and gold, at the 15th minute, Team Liquid started turning the tides with a four-man dive in the bot lane. Tactical dealt some solid damage to the tower and its two defenders who fell to Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen’s Syndra.

With the odds slowly turning to their favor, Team Liquid prioritized quick and sure-kill skirmishes to lock down map opportunities like tower breakdowns and epic monster kills.

In the highlight, CoreJJ’s Blitzcrank was able to hook C9 ADC Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen’s Sona for the instant delete. Robert “Blaber” Huang’s Hecarim tried to even it out with an Onslaught of Shadows on Tactical’s Ezreal, but he easily kited the C9 Jungler for another kill.

In the last clash of the match, Tactical put his sharpshooting skills on display with a double kill on Eric “Licorice” Ritchie’s Shen and Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer’s Sett. With only two people left to defend, CoreJJ hooked one more champion to secure another kill for Tactical while Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong’s Mordekaiser executed Blaber for the ace finish.

Though C9 might have not been putting out their best and most consistent team composition forward, Tactical and Team Liquid’s slow overtaking win is a definitive sign that this team is more than ready to conquer the LCS postseason.

You can catch Team Liquid in their match against Dignitas on Saturday, August 1, at 9:00 AM (GMT+8).

Tactical backs up his claim to be ‘king of NA’