LoL Worlds: Top 5 Highlights So Far

Two weeks of Worlds action have passed and if we had been told about the group’s outcome prior to the event, nobody would have believed it. Historically the European and North American teams have had a rough time going up against their rivals from Asia, but in this League of Legends World Championship everything seems to have changed. The group stage has been a roller coaster of emotions for the fans of every region. To catch up with all the hype, just take a look at the five greatest highlights so far.

5: Balls showing off his Diamond 2 practice

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQVZIuWhAzM[/video]

The drama prior to the World Championship has been juicy. On twitter one of Riot’s on air-analysts has stated that the lackluster performance Cloud9’s top laner An ‘Balls’ Le has shown on the Korean server’s match making indicated “a worrying trend” for the team. The reactions to this statement have been loaded with controversy, eventually triggering an apology from the Rioter.

Nobody expected Cloud9 to do well, one guest on the analysis desk even predicted them to lose all of their six games, but in the first week of the group stage the team managed to prove their critics wrong. They did not drop a single match, which resulted in a 3:0 score and them taking first place. Individually Balls was able to make an important statement as well. Prior to the event people would call him the weak link of the team – now he’s that guy, who managed to get a penta kill at the most prestigious tournament to date.

The second week did not provide Cloud9’s fans with very much euphoria though: The North American team went 0:4, resulting in their elimination. Overall their colleagues from the NA LCS went 0:10 in the second week of the World Championship.

4: Dyrus reaching the end of his career

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq9mRLc04ec[/video]

When heading into the World Championship, Marcus ‘Dyrus’ Hill publicly announced that this would be the last tournament he was going to compete in. The top laner of Team SoloMid is a living legend as far as League of Legends stars go – he competed in the maximum amount of LCS matches possible, while sharing this achievement with only a hand full of other luminaries like Froggen and YellOwStaR.

TSM’s performance at Worlds was not really the end to his career that he was looking for though. After having only won one match against LGD, the North Americans were not at their best. In his last player interview Dyrus addressed the disappointment for his fans among other emotional topics.

3: xPeke single-handedly causes the first upset

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo-XUXtBM9o[/video]

Remember how we explained that Asian teams always seemed to have the upper hand in international comparisons? Well, this year especially, the Chinese representatives underperformed initially. One of the early signs for this was the match of China’s first seeded power house LGD facing off against Origen.

Nobody expected the Europeans to do well and the one-sided early game justified that attitude. However, Origen’s mid laner Enrique ‘xPeke’ Cedeno Martinez pressed his R-button when it was needed most. Watch how the use of just one ability turned everything around: The match, the community’s expectations, and the group’s outcome. If it wasn’t for this miracle victory, Origen would have had a much harder road into the quarter finals in week two, while the former tournament favorites LGD Gaming could have avoided their early elimination.

2: Huni shows, who’s boss

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3BfElTWnW8[/video]

When Fnatic faced off against Invictus Gaming, they were able to add insult to injury for the Chinese team. After the upsetting poor performances of the LPL teams, many experts expected them to come back stronger in week two. This World Championship’s results were mostly decided by the team’s understanding of the current patch – an issue the Chinese could have solved within the short break.

Well, not with Huni though. The charming top laner of Fnatic did his best to crush every IG fan’s hopes in a matter of seconds. After getting first blood in top lane, the Korean teleported down into the bot lane, where his team mates were having a lot of trouble facing off against a gank by Invictus Gaming’s KAKAO. This move by Huni did not only defuse the situation, it also served as an opportunity to perform a miracle outplay. Watch how the clinically dead Riven flashed back into the action to get an unexpected quadra kill – sorry, “quaaaaadra kill” - before facing her inevitable knock-out.

1: Fnatic’s miracle comeback

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCpsXmhSR-s[/video]

Let’s head back in time to last Sunday: It is the final day for the groups and both Fnatic as well as ahq sit on a score of 3:2. At the same time Cloud9 obtains three wins and three losses. Whoever wins this final match between the former two teams will be winning the group. The loser of Fnatic versus ahq will have to face off against Cloud9 for a final tiebreaker, deciding the second placed team, which makes it to the quarter finals. This match is important – take a look how Fnatic handles it when it matters the most.

Plenty more to come

The remaining eight teams who made it out of the groups have been drawn into a tournament bracket – both Fnatic and Origen managed to save their spot in this intense phase of the competition. The two European representatives are going to face strong opponents going into the quarter finals, but if the group stages are able to tell us anything, it is that stars like xPeke and Huni are able to do the unthinkable, when we need them to. Details on the schedule as well as on the upcoming matches can be found here.