S. Samek

The past two weeks the group stage of the League of Legends world championships occurred. Let’s see what went down. Group a was made up of Afreeca Freecs, G2 Esports, Flash Wolves and Phong Vũ Buffalo. This group was so close it took and extra game to decide. Afreeca downed G2 in a tiebreaker to claim the first seed from group a. G2 advanced in second while Flash Wolves and the Buffalo get set home. Group B was dubbed the group of death. With MSI champions Royal Never Give up and defending world champions Gen.G in a group with Cloud 9 and Vitality. You never would have guessed what happened next. C9 came out of nowhere to go 3-0 in to finish 4-2, tied with Royal for first. A tie breaker went to Royal giving them the top spot while C9 advances out of groups as the second seed. Gen.G loses their chance to defend after going 1-5. Group c featured KT Rolster, Team Liquid, Mad Team and Edward Gaming. KT dominated with a 5-1 mark, while Mad went 0-6. One game separated Liquid and Edward with the later advancing with a 4-2 record to counter Liquid’s 3-3. Group D housed Fnatic, 100 Thieves, Invictus and G-Rex. While G-Rex looked good during play ins they struggled mightily in groups going 0-6. Fnatic used a surge of wins during the second round of games to top the group at 6-1 while Invictus took the second spot at 5-1. 100 Thieves went 2-4 leaving NA with only one representative in the bracket stage of the tournament. We now move on to the knock out stage. Afreeca gets C9 while Fnatic plays EDG on one side of the bracket. KT Rolster gets Invictus and Royal gets G2 on the other side. I think the matchup to watch in the quarter finals is the KT vs. Invictus match. Both teams have looked really strong during the tournament. I completely slept on Invictus during the group stage and was proven wrong. Yet I don’t think they get by a KT team that may finally get a shot to win it all. G2 has a task of being Royal who may be the favorite to win it all. While it has been a solid run from gauntlet to quarterfinals I think the run ends here. C9 our other team to make it from gauntlet to quarter final I think will fare better. They get honestly the weakest first seed to make it out of groups. You don’t really fear them like you do a Fnatic, or Royal. With C9 having beat Royal once before I think the ability to beat a weaker one seed team is there. The final quarterfinals battle is Fnatic and EDG. Fnatic had the best record in the group stage, while EDG is a team that has made it out of play-ins to get here. I have seen a lot of Fnatic and I know they are a good team. I’m not doubting they could make the finals, especially with the favorable draw on their side of the bracket. Should be a good bracket to watch as we get ready to crown a new champion.