In a quest to find the best “League of Legends” players in the world, Riot Games, the creator of the game, hosts a massive double-elimination style tournament.
The North American portion of this tournament is called the League Championship Series, and this year the LCS is off to a roaring start. Two crowd favorite teams have already lost one match and are set to drop out of the tournament if they lose another. Two other teams, who have shown they are truly professional players, are set to square off in the next match.
The first match was between Cloud 9, a long-time crowd favorite and 100 Thieves, a newer well-matched competitor. Cloud 9 took the whole match 3-0 in a best of five.
C9’s Zven stood out among his team for his above-average play in every game, gaining an early lead and driving them to a swift victory. C9’s Vulcan, the player assisting Zven, also played incredibly well by showing the two make a great duo throughout the entire and that the wins couldn’t be attributed solely to Zven.
The second LCS game was a match with similar stakes. Team Liquid, a long-standing team who placed No. 12 in the world for League of Legends pro teams, went against current rivals Team SoloMid.
Team SoloMid was expected to lose, according to professional League of Legends analysts such as former Golden Guardians academy coach Razleplasm and former Immortals player Allorim. Those analysts turned out to be correct. Team SoloMid lost to Team Liquid 3-1.
In every game, different players stood out. In the first game, Team Liquid managed to bring the game back from the brink of defeat with one good play, which won them the game. In the second game, Team Liquid’s Santorin and Team Liquid’s Jensen showed just how great a duo they can be and between the two of them, carried the team to victory.
In game three, Team SoloMid managed to bring out a unique strategy, effectively making Team SoloMid’s Lost the temporary cornerstone.
In the next game, Team SoloMid tried this strategy again, but Team Liquid adapted to the strategy quickly and exploited the weaknesses in their plot, managing to win the entire set because of it.
So far, only the first two matches of the tournament have been finished, but there are plenty more to go. There are also other conferences around the world, including a European circuit and a Korean circuit, with even more teams than there are in North America.
These generally have an even higher level of play because North America is commonly considered the “for fun” region, poking fun at the fact that North America hasn’t seen great results on the international stage.
The world-wide LCS tournament won’t end until April 13. All the matches and the schedule can be found at Riot Games website.
Dylan Shepler can be reached at [email protected]