E-SPORTS E-SPORTS ARTICLES

For the first time since 2011, we will have a Western team in the World Championship Finals as either Fnatic or Cloud9 will make it through to take on either G2 or Invictus Gaming. Fnatic have been here before, winning the first World Championship back in 2011 (although with none of their current roster), while this is Cloud9’s first appearance in the semifinals.... 

This was not the semifinal that anyone expected from this side of the bracket. Invictus Gaming had their hands full against KT Rolster last weekend, and they were about a 3-1 underdog to advance per the eSports betting odds. However, they won the first two games of the series and eventually rallied to win the fifth game after losing Games 3 and 4 to the Korean champs. Invictus getting to the semifinals was an upset, but it wasn’t in the same ballpark as G2 Esports knocking off Royal Never Give Up. ... 

The two favorites to win the 2018 League of Legends World Championship are KT Rolster and Royal Never Give Up. The Korean and Chinese champions have largely looked like the two best teams in the world this season, but they both had a bit of a hiccup during the Group Stage. KT Rolster were dominant through the first round robin, yet a loss to Edward Gaming nearly led to the team needing a tiebreaker to grab the top spot in the group. Meanwhile, Royal Never Give Up surprisingly dropped two games i... 

If you’re a fan of Fnatic or Cloud9, Wednesday’s Quarterfinals draw worked out as well as possible for you. The best team in Europe and the only team left from North America each got put in a much easier bracket than expected, and there is a lot of optimism that a Western team could reach the League of Legends World Championships Finals for the first time since 2011. Both teams have winnable matches, and the three most talented teams at the tournament are all on the other side of the bracket. ... 

The League of Legends World Championships are set to get underway in Korea this Wednesday, and 16 teams will be duking it out to see which one is the best in the world. Coming into the competition, the three teams from Korea and the three teams from China are the favorites to win it all, with the remaining 10 teams far behind in terms of their odds to claim the Summoner’s Cup. A Korean team has won each of the last five World Championships, but China has dominated the international scene this ye... 

The League of Legends World Championships are set to get underway in Korea this Wednesday, and 16 teams will be duking it out to see which one is the best in the world. Coming into the competition, the three teams from Korea and the three teams from China are the favorites to win it all, with the remaining 10 teams far behind in terms of their odds to claim the Summoner’s Cup. A Korean team has won each of the last five World Championships, but China has dominated the international scene this year and they look poised to have a team grab the region’s first title. ... 

The two favorites from major regions that are most at-risk of missing out on the main event of the League of Legends World Championship will play for their spot in the field of 16 on Sunday. Europe’s G2 were simply outplayed by SuperMassive on the first day of action. They rallied and beat SuperMassive in a tiebreaker to win the group, but it’s still a little hard to be impressed with their performances. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s G-Rex only got here after catching fire in the regional final, and no on... 

This hasn’t been like last year. At the 2017 LoL World Championship Play-Ins, teams from North America, China, and Europe all dominated their opponents and had little trouble getting through to the main event, while the lone favorite to stumble was the team from Taiwan. This year, the team from Taiwan has been the most impressive to this point, while teams from North America, Europe, and China have all looked shaky. On Saturday, North America’s Cloud9 and China’s Edward Gaming will aim to shake ... 

Can you feel the excitement? The League of Legends World Championships are nearly upon us. Next week, the five-week tournament starts in Korea, with 12 teams aiming to make it out of the play-in stage and into the main event. Those 12 teams are fighting for just four spots, so the competition will be intense. In this half of the Play-In Preview, I will look at Groups A and B. The second part of the preview will cover Groups C and D.... 

Can you feel the excitement? The League of Legends World Championships are nearly upon us. Next week, the five-week tournament starts in Korea, with 12 teams aiming to make it out of the play-in stage and into the main event. Those 12 teams are fighting for just four spots, so the competition will be intense. In this half of the Play-In Preview, I will look at Groups A and B. The second part of the preview will cover Groups C and D.... 

For the past five years, Korean teams have dominated League of Legends. Each of the last five World Champions have hailed from Korea, and we have had an all-Korean finals in each of the last three years. However, this might be the year that Korean dominance comes to an end. A Chinese team, Royal Never Give Up, won the Mid-Season Invitational and China knocked off Korea for a second straight year at Rift Rivals. It’s incredibly likely that a team from one of these two regions wins Worlds, but who... 

We are guaranteed to have some new blood in the LCK in 2019. Either Damwon Gaming or BattleComics will win promotion to the LCK 2019 Spring Split depending on the outcome of their match on Thursday, and whoever wins that match will look to follow in the footsteps of Griffin.... 

Over the last three years, Flash Wolves have been an institution in Taiwanese League of Legends. Flash Wolves have easily been the best team in the region for the duration of that time, winning the league five straight times. They are a heavy favorite coming into their LMS Summer Split Finals tilt with MAD Team on Saturday.... 

This weekend, four North American teams will compete for the region’s last spot at the League of Legends World Championships in October. Echo Fox, Clutch Gaming, Team SoloMid, and Cloud9 are looking to join league rivals Team Liquid and 100 Thieves in Korea, but only one of these teams can grab the spot and earn a chance at glory. A mini-gauntlet will decide the winner and the first series will be between Echo Fox and Clutch Gaming.... 

It’s been a historic run for Cloud9. The two-time NA LCS champions rallied from a 3-7 start that saw them tied for last place to come back and win eight straight in order to make the playoffs. Their epic run gave them the second-best record at the end of the Summer Split, and they were able to knock off arch-rival Team SoloMid to advance to the final. Cloud9 is out to win its first NA LCS title since Spring 2014.... 

With their win over Misfits last week, Fnatic have clinched a spot at the World Championships. Fnatic won the EU LCS Spring Split championship back in April and advancing to the Summer Split Finals ensured that they had more cumulative points over two splits than any other team in Europe. That earned them one of the three European spots at Worlds no matter the outcome of their series with FC Schalke 04 this Sunday. ... 

There’s a lot of intrigue surrounding this weekend’s NA LCS Summer Split Semifinals’ matches. The winner of Saturday and Sunday’s matches will move on to Oakland where they will square off for the Summer Split Championship and one of North America’s three automatic qualifying spots at the World Championships.... 

Four teams are competing for a spot in the EU LCS Summer Split Finals in Madrid this weekend with an eventual automatic berth into the World Championships on the line. Schalke were pushed to the brink by a game Splyce team in the quarterfinals, but they eventually got the job done in the decisive fifth game. Upset led the way on Kai’Sa, grabbing seven of Schalke’s 10 kills once the cham... 

It was a wild end to the NA LCS Summer Split regular season last weekend. Team Liquid’s win over Echo Fox on Saturday afternoon locked Liquid into the No. 1 seed and in all likelihood earned the team a spot at the World Championships due to total points accumulated through both splits. The second spot was taken by the red hot Cloud9, who might be the favorite entering the playoffs at this point. Cloud9 won eight straight games to erase a miserable start and make it to the postseason.
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After nine weeks of regular season action, the EU LCS Summer Split playoffs will start this Friday. Both Schalke 04 and G2 had an opportunity to earn a first-round bye by either going 2-0 in Week 9 or winning a tiebreaker, but neither team was able to do so giving Team Vitality the bye in their stead. Both teams are moderate favorites coming into this week’s matches, but a loss would be devastating considering what might have been. ... 

There is just one more playoff spot up for grabs in the NA LCS entering the last week of the regular season. Team SoloMid and OpTic Gaming are the two teams vying for it, and as luck would have it they are meeting in the last game on Saturday. A win for OpTic would guarantee them the spot given their prior victory against TSM earlier in the year. If TSM wins though, they would move a game ahead of OpTic in the standings, but they would need to win again in order to assure themselves of the spot. A TSM loss coupled with an OpTic win in this situation would lead to a tiebreaker being played for the last spot. ... 

The six playoff teams for the EU LCS Summer Split Playoffs have already been decided coming into the last week of the regular season. Even though seventh-place ROCCAT is just two games back of Splyce, ROCCAT has already lost both of its meetings with Splyce this season and cannot catch them on tiebreaker. That leaves only seeding to be determined in Week 9. ... 

The teams that were the best in the NA LCS during the Spring Split have started to separate themselves from the pack during the Summer Split. Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, and Echo Fox look destined to finish in the top three in some order as those teams are ahead of the middle of the pack by two games. There are just four more matches to play in the regular season, and those three teams are gunning for automatic byes into the semifinals. Team Liquid is also looking to assure themselves of a spot at the World Championships in case they stumble at some point in playoffs. Finishing in first place after winning the Spring Split would virtually guarantee that they have more circuit points than any other team in the NA LCS. ... 

The race for the EU LCS Summer Split title is wide open after some major upsets last week. Misfits had a hammerlock on the top spot in the region entering playoffs after starting the split 9-0, but three straight losses have thrown that out the window. Coming into the penultimate week of the regular season, Misfits and Fnatic are tied at the top of the standings at 10-4, with G2, FC Schalke 04, and Team Vitality right behind them at 9-5. Those teams are vying for the two direct byes into the semifinals, and they can’t afford losses in that quest. ... 

Team Liquid isn’t satisfied with just one NA LCS title this season. Liquid finally broke the curse by grabbing the Spring Split title earlier in the year, and now the team is looking for more. They are currently tied atop the NA LCS Summer Split standings with 100 Thieves at 8-4. A win for either team would give them sole possession of first place and put that team in the driver’s seat for the top spot in the NA LCS entering playoffs. That would be huge for either team as one of North America’s three World Championship seeds is determined by cumulative points acquired from finished in the Spring Split and the Summer Split. ...