Building a new League of Legends dynasty
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This article was written by John Lambert Lapid.
When the 2018 League of Legends Worlds groups were drawn, everybody saw Group B as the “Group of Death”. Everybody, just like at every World Championship, expected the Eastern teams to advance out of the groups, however, the stories of both Group B and Group A in the past week show that not only are the Korean teams slowly losing form, but the European and North American teams are gaining momentum.
Cloud9’s Cinderella Story
Cloud9’s miracle run began as far back as the North American LoL Championship Series (NA LCS), where they struggled to get wins, ending up as low as 10th place in the league. Desperate to gain wins, Cloud9’s coach, Reapered, experimented with the team with constant roster rotations. From Jensen and Goldenglue replacing each other repeatedly, to Svenskeren and Blaber’s shifting out, and even the surprising departure of Smoothie in favor of Zeyzal. Cloud9 tried to feel out the right combination of players that would redeem their abysmal local run and all the way to the World Championship.
Finally, something clicked for C9. Reapered found that Blaber worked well with Jensen, while Svenskeren and Goldenglue’s synergy was almost unbreakable. With this newfound discovery, they gained momentum and beat Team SoloMid in the semifinals.
Though they would eventually lose to Team Liquid in the finals, they beat TSM once again in the finals of the NA Regional Qualifier, securing their spots in the Worlds Play-In stage.
In the Play-Ins, Cloud9 continued to ride the hype train, as they went on an undefeated 4-0 streak, beating out both the Japanese representative, Detonation FocusMe and Brazil’s KaBum! e-Sports. The main event group stage also saw Cloud9 going up against tough opponents but taking round robin wins off of strong teams like Royal Never Give Up and Gen.G. Unfortunately, in the tiebreaker against RNG for the first seed, RNG proved to be too much for them, as Cloud9’s short undefeated streak ended. Still, Cloud9 remains in the running.
G2 Refuses to Back Down
In Group C, G2 Esports was the only Western team as they looked to secure their quarterfinals spot. In one match, despite a terrible early game, G2 stole a win from Vietnam’s team, Phong Vu Buffalo, as Perkz carried his team to victory. Whichever lane Perkz went to, bodies of fallen champions were left in his wake.
And then in their match against Flash Wolves, G2 played a strange composition reminiscent of the mage bottom lane meta, as Hjarnan, their ADC, brought Brand into the bot lane. Unfortunately, G2 was unsuccessful in picking up a win. But as Phong Vu took down Afreeca Freecs in their final match of Worlds, G2 stayed in the running with two fresh chances at making it to the knock-out stage.
Their first chance came in the form of the match against the Afreeca Freecs, but G2 would end up losing to the Korean team. With their backs against the wall, G2 looked to steal a spot in the quarterfinals from Flash Wolves, as Hjarnan picked up his pocket-pick, Heimerdinger, while Wadid, G2’s support, picked up Alistar. This gave G2 their win over Flash Wolves, locking in their spot as the second seed out of Group A.
Since their debut, despite their back-to-back LCS titles in 2016-2017, G2 never made it past the group stage, always losing to the Eastern teams. After two years of disappointment, G2 has finally made it to the playoffs. The question is if they can make it all the way to the Summoner’s Cup.
This May Be The West’s Year
EU’s 2nd seed, Team Vitality, and NA’s 1st seed, Team Liquid, have both been eliminated from the running after crushing losses in their respective groups. There is still a hope for the two remaining western teams left in the group stage struggle. The longstanding EU team, Fnatic, and the upstarts from NA, 100 Thieves will both engage in the final day of the groups stage later today. Fnatic has been having a commendable run in their group but 100T has been struggling to stay in the running for the Quarterfinals. The records from these teams may paint a picture of a struggling Western offensive in Group D, but stranger things have happened in the course of the Worlds 2018 Group Stage. There’s no telling which two teams will fill out the final slots in the playoffs stage.
As it has been stated for a long while, Worlds 2018 is the most interesting Worlds we’ve had in a long while. The Korean teams look shaky, as former Korean powerhouse SKT did not make it out of the gauntlet, and reigning Worlds champions Gen.G failed to make it out of the group stage. The European and North American teams are slowly gaining momentum, as they pick up much needed wins against all the best teams of the East. EU and NA fans can rejoice, as the NA and EU hype train continues to ride on its tracks, and it doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
