EU Expansion tournament - The last tickets to enter the LCS

H2K will face off versus Giants in the fourth and final round of the European Expansion Tournament. The winner will reach their dream destination - the LCS - whereas the loser must face Reason Gaming in another best-of-five to determine which team gets the second spot. Tomorrow, one of these teams may just have all their hard work they've put in pay off. Here, we will delve deeper into the matchup.

Clean sweeps

Both H2K and Giants 3 - 0'd their opponents before advancing to the fourth round. Before that, they also performed extremely convincingly - H2K haven't even dropped a single game, whereas Giants have dropped one, although they have played an extra series.

H2K is made up of parts of the former European C9 Challenger Series squad - Odoamne, Febiven and Hjärnan. They recently picked up Loulex and Voidle as well, and were definitely one of the favourite teams going into this tournament, and they have lived up to that hype.However, what caused them to lose their previous LCS qualifier tournaments was the fact that they tend to choke on stage rather easily. They seem to have learned from their earlier mistakes, which could be seen during the series versus N!Faculty, where they didn't seem to have too much trouble closing out the series without a single loss in front of a crowd.

Febiven has said himself that if he can get into the LCS and get some proper practice versus better teams, he finds himself potent to be just as good as the likes of Froggen and Xpeke. We will see if he can live up to his own statement, or if it will follow his career forever in regret. Hjärnan has some tendencies to go too aggressive sometimes, and Odoamne can be a bit inconsistent - he went 1/5 as Lissandra in game one versus N!Faculty, followed by a 8/1 score in the next. If he can make sure to perform consistently and Hjärnan knows his limits and the team in general doesn't repeat history with a choke on - stage, we might just see a H2K as our 9th LCS team over here in Europe.

Giants is an organization that has actually participated in the LCS before, during the very first LCS split - the spring split of 2013. The Spanish organization did well in the qualifier tournaments, and made their way into the very first professional league for LoL E - Sports. However, their performance was definitely not stellar during the split - they finished 7th with a record of 8 - 20, where they lost the qualifier tournament back into the LCS with a 3 - 2 record to Team ALTERNATE. 

Following this, Giants did not renew the contracts of their players, and the team vanished from professional League of Legends for an extended amount of time. Aproximately ten months later, Giants announced their comeback, and got a new roster together. On November 14th, they picked up Rydle, a very promising support player who used to play for Gamers2, the former SK midlaner Ocelote played on, who Giants later on during the expansion tournament, beat during the first rounds. 

One of Giants advantages are currently that all of the five players are native Spanish, easing up communication, where as H2K is made up of a several nationalities, such as Swedish and Russian. Pepinero and Rydle definitely were the shining stars of their team, which will be needed in the upcoming best - of - five. 

So, who will come out victorious?

In my opinion, I feel H2K has the upper hand here. They have several hyped players, two former NALCS players as coaches and some of the players have played together for almost a year, promoting some very strong synergy. While Giants have the advantage of speaking the same language, I feel that H2K's raw mechanical prowess will outclass that of their opponents.

Regardless, we have some interesting games to look forward to. Tune in at lolesports.com to check it out.

PS. I have started doing some commentary on youtube to try out shoutcasting for fun. Link in my bio.

Group Stage (Group A&B) Finished, what can we expect from the upcoming Quarterfinals?

With EDG taking home the tiebreaker against AHQ in a very back and forth game where both teams stood with a respectable chance of winning (AHQ who had earlier the same day taken down the same EDG), they now advance to the quarterfinals, facing off against Starhorn Royal Club (Or Supa Hot Royal Crew). TSM on the other hand now has to face one of the pre-favourite teams for winning the entire tournament - Samsung White. What can we except from these quarterfinals?

                                                                  Group A standings:

Group B standings:

EDG versus SHRC (October 3rd, 1 am PST/10 CEST)

While it was EDG that finished at the top of the standings in the LPL, they would most likely have prefered facing off against TSM. SHRC is probably the team at worlds that knows the most about them and their playstyle, and seeing how SHRC definitely performed more confidently in their group (granted, they had what many considered an "easier group", but group B was definitely a more even group than group A in terms of average skill across all teams). Had TSM not lost versus SK earlier today, we would have seen a tiebreaker between SHRC and TSM, and if TSM would've won it, they would be duking it out versus EDG instead. That is not the case currently, and we will therefore now discuss this upcoming series.

Lane to watch: Botlane

When the other laners of EDG faltered, or Clearlove didn't get going, EDG could always rely on Namei and FZZF. With a combined KDA of 9.1, the botlane pair would always step it up whenever needed to, especially in the last game, where they dominated the botlane versus AHQ. What almost cost EDG the game though was their recklessness, something very prominent for Chinese teams. During one of the last teamfights, they went in with over 15 000 more gold in their pockets, but the teamfight still ended 4 kills on each side. Their warding was also lackluster in comparison to that of for instance SSW earlier. 

SHRC on the other hand definitely looked impressive. Uzi showed off his marvelous mechanics, insec stepped his game up to another level (especially well shown off in this game ) and Corn dominated his lane. Uzi and Zero was definitely the best botlane in their group, and he is definitely on par with Korean ADCs. If there is someone who can rival the OGN representants, its Uzi&Zero, with a whooping total of 17,3 KDA!

 What could be their downfall however is that they are facing a team that, in the end, still is from the same region as themselves, with a therefore similar playstyle, only EDG obviously played it better, seeing as they got the #1 seed to worlds. The familiarity could be what makes the Chinese equivalent of Alliance able to bring an end to SHRC's journey to the finals. One thing for sure is that these are going to be a very exciting series.

TSM vs SSW

TSM, as mentioned earlier, were at one point during the day (theoretically speaking)  close to getting their dream matchup in the quarterfinals. If AHQ would've won against EDG and TSM won against SK and conquered SHRC in a tiebreaker, we would have seen TSM facing off against AHQ; probably the "easiest" team for TSM that had a potential chance at making it out of group stages. Those dreams were crushed however by the hands of Svenskeren and Freddy122. TSM now has to face, what many deems, as the potential winners of the Summoner's cup. Samsung White, on the other hand, has had a flawless group stage. They went 6-0, with two perfect games against DP (where they lost zero drakes, zero towers, and zero kills ) and played their games to utter perfection. Their ADC Imp even got a penta! The mistakes that they made would've been overlooked in the West; we simply would have ignored it, and focused on other big plays. SSW doesn't ignore those things, they improve themselves constantly, only to reach perfect themselves even more.

Lanes to watch: Mid lane

If there is one lane that definitely can decide the outcome of the games, it's the midlane. TSM relies heavily on Bjergsen leading the lineup and his shotcalling. If Bjergsen gets ahead and becomes confident, the team becomes confident. Amazing definitely needs to step up his game and almost babysit the mid lane, because Bjergsen is up against Pawn, who alone had a KDA of 10,5 (Bjergsen having 2/3 of that; 7). SSW's jungler had the lowest KDA on his team, 8,1, but it is still 2,5 times that of Amazing, who sat at 3.2 after group stages were finished). Pawn isn't afraid to bring out new picks either, with his Katarina demolishing AHQ.

What could be TSM's saving grace is their bot lane. Wildturtle had a slightly weak showing during the last week of NALCS and the playoffs, but stepped it up during the last few games, which he also has during the group stages. Lustboy has also been bringing out jawdropping plays, especially with his Nami. If they can get going versus Imp and Mata, and have the team shut down Dandy like they shut down Winds versus TPA, we could see a potential upset. The chances are slim, though. 

Expected outcomes:

EDG vs SHRC: 2 - 3

TSM - SHRC:  1 - 3

Sources:

http://euw.lolesports.com/worlds/2014/worlds-2014/standings

http://euw.lolesports.com/worlds/2014/worlds-2014/teams

Youtube links can be found in the texts. Images are taken and edited from above links.

Upcoming relegation tournament - what can we expect? NA&EU

Aside from epic, outdrawn best-of-fives in the playoffs finals and Worlds, I would say that the promotion tournaments into the LCS are one of the most exciting tournaments in the LCS. We get to see new, hungry players who have been working so hard to reach their dream job - playing professionally, as well as current LCS players fighting to make sure they can keep the paychecks rolling in. Having new teams in the LCS, if they do qualify, is also very healthy for the scene, and it also makes for upsets - just look at the EU scene, where all team that was part of the spring split 2014 also partook in the summer split, something many viewers found slightly boring. NA on the other hand, got two entirely new teams, LMQ and CoL, and provided us with very interesting games and upsets.

This year, we have some very interesting games. See below for the teams facing eachother, as well as my theories what we can expect from the teams, as well as who will come out victorious.

EU:

CW vs H2K

GMB vs SKP

MIL vs UoL

NA:

CLG vs CRS A

EG vs CST

CoL vs T8



CW vs H2K:

CW are coming into this tournament with several recent roster changes. Airwaks, who was picked up in place of Amazing, was benched during the end of the split for Brokenshard, only to be put back onto the roster at the very end again. In addition to this, Cowtard decided to step down from the roster and was replaced with SorenXD. This is therefore a team that has gone through several roster changes in a short period of time, which normally hurts synergy. However, it has been a while since the EULCS ended, so they have had a lot of time to work on their synergy and teamplay. H2K on the other hand is a team coming into this tournament with a lot of expectations, seeing as their ad carry, top and mid laner have been playing with eachother for an extensive amount of time (they were part of the old C9 Eclipse team, who failed to qualify for the summer split of 2014), and their other two members have integrated well into this core. Febiven, the midlaner, stated in an interview with ongamers  that in "half a year, I would be equally good as Froggen or Xpeke". We will see during their games next week if he can live up to it.

Estimated outcome: 3-1 to H2K


GMB vs SKP


Gambit, oh Gambit. Once, one of the few, if not the only team, that could take games of Koreans. Nowadays, they are but a mere shadow of their former glory. Their summer split performance can be considered as their worst so far in the LCS, ending in the 7th place spot. The team has also done some roster changes apart from Alex Ich and Darien - Genja moved into a sub role in place for Krislund. However, the team saw an impressive resurgence during superweek, going 3-1 (Only losing to Alliance) and snatching the 7th place spot from CW. We will see how they fare against SK Gaming Prim, who's midlaner, Watdefox, has been doing really well recently, and their jungler Kikis has shown great play too.

Estimated outcome: 3 -2 to Gambit

MIL vs UoL

Millenium can be seen as the CLG of Europe. Lots of potential, but we rarely see it come to its maximum level. The team was originally named Alternate with a few other players on the team (Like Forellenlord, the ELO god, and Aranae, now a kind of "mental coach" for Fnatic), and did really well during the summer split of 2013, only to go into a slump and almost get relegated. Their performance during the spring split of 2014 was nothing but lackluster, where they finished last. However, coming of a 3 -2 victory in the promotion series, the team got new energy, and resided among the top 4 teams of the EULCS for quite a while, only to slump at the end. UoL on the other hand, was one of the major upsets of this summer. Noone expected them to make it to the top 3 - Gamers2 and NiP were the teams that  many people assumed would make it to the promotion tournament. Instead, UoL beat NiP and snatched the third spot. Their top laner, Vizicsacsi, has been making wonders in the top lane, and their jungler, Gilius, has been providing stability from the jungle. Powerofevil has proven himself to be able to play at an LCS level as well, so UoL is therefore coming into this tournament with a very strong lineup.

Estimated outcome: 3 -1 to UoL

NA:

CLG vs CRS A

Another way to spell CLG is potential. The team has been jumping up within the NALCS standings, from first place to their humiliating 6th place at the end of the playoffs. Link seems to have grown tired of the game and given up on soloqueue, Doublelift considers retiring after the tournament, Seraph seems to be feeling isolated from the team and Dexter isn't the happiest either. Aphromoo still has his drive, but it looks dark for CLG. Curse Academy on the other hand, has every reason to expect a victory. They have a korean mid laner (!), three former LCS players (Bunnyfufu, a very skilled support player, who has the ability to become one of the best in NA, played on Curse's main roster, Saintvicious, former member of CLG as well as Curse's main roster with tons of experience and Cris, former top laner of Velocity and soloqueue god) and a very potent AD Carry, Impactful, who used to be on the #1 PVP guild in World of Warcraft in NA. Can CRS A still shake the old CLG though, with all the experience the team has, or will they choke? It remains to see...

Estimated outcome: 3 -1 to CRS A

EG vs CST

If you would've asked me a few week ago who would win this matchup, I would've said EG without hesitation (Biased? No). However, it was recently announced on Coast's facebook page that the team had picked up two korean players, Yongwoo "Miracle" Yi for the top lane and Sangkyun "Ringer" Park for the midlane. According to some rumors, these two players had already been practicing with the team during some recent time, and they already speak fluent English, allowing them to overcome any language barriers that former Korean imports into the scene had. The duo was also part of a team that was ranked #1 on ranked 5v5 on the Korean ladder. This makes the already dangerous team even more threatening, with their star jungler Santorin, who is famed for his expertise in shot calling. EG is a team coming off a 4 - 0 superweek though, a feat very impressive considering they have basically spent the entire season amongst the last placed teams in the standings. If they can carry that momentum into the playoffs, they can definitely give Coast a run for their money, seeing as they have played with eachother for much longer time, and in LAN environment as well, where many challenger teams tend to choke.

Estimated outcome: 3 - 0 to EG

CoL vs T8

Complexity became during the summer split the team that got known as the "blue shell", the team that everyone loved for their upsets versus higher - ranked teams. The team in itself is very strong, with their star player being Robertxlee, a very mechanically gifted AD Carry, and Pr0lly, a talented mid laner. Team 8 do have something that CoL doesn't, something we are starting to see more teams picking up - Koreans. CaliforniaTrlolz, their Korean top laner, is popular within the community for his off -meta picks (he even played fizz toplane once, and did really well on Kha'Zix in the Lonestar Clash 3 tournament. Frommaplestreet, the former AD Carry of Velocity, has also shown that he can carry in conjunction with his Korean support. Team 8 has however been having some tough times stepping up when required, and some people call them the "NiP of NA". Will they be able to step up this time?

Estimated outcome: 3 - 1 to CoL.

Regardless, we have some very interesting playoffs coming up during next week, Turn in at www.lolesports.com during next week to see who enters the LCS. And don't forget, since the LCS is expanding, we may see the relegated team partake in next season anyways!

Sources:

http://lol.gamepedia.com/Curse_Academy
http://lol.gamepedia.com/H2k-Gaming
https://twitter.com/Febivenn
http://lol.gamepedia.com/Team_8
https://www.facebook.com/TeamCoastGaming?fref=ts
http://lol.gamepedia.com/Gambit
http://lol.gamepedia.com/Unicorns_of_Love

Curse 3-0 Sweeps CLG. Holy moly. What happens next?

I wouldn't call this an upset, but damn, I did not expect this to happen.

CLG barely stood a chance throughout the games. They won a few teamfights, got some picks, but that's about it. We will probably never know if CLG actually improved that much from their bootcamping, since this is actually the raw results from weeks of practice in South Korea, the currently best LoL E - sports region in the world.

So, Curse moves on to the semifinals vs C9. They'll most likely lose there, 3 - 1 to C9, because C9 is waaay more consistent and is actually a few levels above of Curse. Still, seeing as TSM will most likely lose to LMQ, I could see the Curse vs TSM match being very exciting and even.

CLG on the other hand, now have to play versus Dignitas in a series deciding who goes to relegations. Seeing as Dig actually took a game off TSM, I would actually call them the favourites, since they are probably not as heartbroken as CLG is at the moment. CLG were the expected victors of this series before it even began, whereas Dignitas were considered to be "the underdogs", not to a very large extent, but the matchup definitely favoured TSM.

So, what happens to CLG's main roster now? Well, I for one, like many other redditors, assume that Seraph may actually go. He did not live up the expectations, granted they were way to high even from the start, and while CLG has a toplaner that kind of leaves the toplaner on his own, he should have performed better, in my opinion.

Dexter could potentially leave - he wasn't that comfortable with the team as seen in "Chasing the Cup - episode 1" . He could probably find a new team, either in NA or EU, or start working for Riot. I doubt some teams will actually be interested in him honestly, perhaps the bottom teams of each regions standings or a challenger team, perhaps.

I doubt Link will continue. If he can't get any further than this, he probably doesn't have the motivation to continue. Link will most likely retire or start streaming Hearthstone. (Yes, I know, too soon)

Doublelift, as I mentioned in an earlier post, will probably retire, or start working for Riot. He said himself that if you don't go to worlds you're nothing, and since he didn't go, well, I suppose that's what he.. is. To some extent. He might stay though for Aphromoo, since they had so good synergy.

Aphromoo will probably continue. He is still a really good support, and if he doesn't get continue with CLG, another team will definitely pick him up. I highly doubt he'd go to another team though if he doesn't continue with CLG; he'd probably retire.

So, last man standing is Montecristo. People blame him for the loss, something I find undeserved. Montecristo has been in Korea for the majority of the summer split, therefore being unable to actually be a present force at the team's gaminghouse. I think that's one of the reason his coaching cannot be blamed on - he "barely" coached them. Of course, he spoke to them often, but it's a huge difference between being with your team and skyping with them on a daily basis. Montecristo either needs to move in with the team, or quit his job as a coach - he can't coach them from the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the CLG roster, and how Curse fares in the rest of the playoffs.

Until then,

/John

Hi I'm Gosu signed for CLG - bigger than you think

If you checked Reddits league of legends subreddit today, you would see that the post at the top said that "hi I'm Gosu joins CLG". 

This received an immense amount of attention, and the thread currently sits at about 1200 comments and almost 2500 upvotes. For those of you who don't know who he is, I'll give a brief explanation below, as well as going deeper into why this could be considered to be more of a PR - move for the CLG.

Hi im Gosu is a very famous Canadian streamer, who streams on a regular basis and plays marksman. He's well known for his Vayne mechanics and montages.


The man himself resides in the Challenger bracket, and climbs steadily. Little is however known about him, some people arguing that he is actually Doublelift from CLG, since he does not stream with camera, nor does he have voicechat. This has lead to the famous comment that you will repeatedly see in Twitch chat saying "gosu grill???", where as grill is a misspelling of girl - since noone knows his gender, he may be Doublelift, but could just as well be a girl, or a grill (sorry). Gosu definitely can be considered one of the best Challenger bracket marksmans in the NA scene, and can probably rival some over in EU as well. However, he has not been picked up by any challenger/LCS teams, most likely to him not wanting to, since he earns share fare just through streaming (regulary has about 25 000 people watching his stream).

So, why did CLG sub someone who doesn't even want to play for them? Well, there are two reasons. One, CLG will earn a lot of money through having Gosu streaming for their brand, since some of the profits gained goes directly to the company obviously, and having such a popular streamer definitely gives the organisation more attention. However, there is one more thing. Doublelift has been rumoured to be quitting the professional LoL E -sports scene in case CLG fails to qualify for this year's worlds. With more teams than ever actually being able to contend for the top 3 spots in NA, we see that this could actually happen. Not hating on CLG - I definitely believe in them and I hope their sejour to South Korea helped them a lot, but they looked really week during the last two weeks of LCS, and they need improved performance to take on Curse. So, in case Doublelift does decide to quit the professional E -sports scene, CLG definitely has a valid replacement with Gosu. If Gosu does decide to join - it's still up to him. Or her.


I do not claim ownership for any of Gosu's videos. Everything produced in his video should be credited to him solely.

NA Quarterfinals - Day 1: TSM vs DIG - In - Depth discussion; what do the teams need to do to secure a victory?

Two of the oldest gaming organisations and teams in the competitive scene of LoL facing off against eachother. A loss here means elimination from being able to qualify to Worlds, and having to face the loser of CLG vs Curse to determine who needs to face relegations as the 6th place. A lot is at stake!

TSM is without doubt the team under the most pressure coming into this best-of-five. They have the largest fanbase, a new, hyped korean support import, and, seeing as they have been to every single worlds tournament before, they are almost expected to qualify for this one as well. But how and were should TSM focus in order to grant themselves the victory over the Donger Squad? Here's a few detrimental points.

• Get Wildturtle going - Wildturtle has shown that if he gets ahead early, he can outmaneuver his opposing laner with ease, and with the aid of his Korean support Lustboy they should be able to easily control the game. At the same time, we can see that if the botlane of TSM loses, it most likely will also cause them to lose the game. Dyrus can lose toplane, or Amazing may not perform his best, but as long as Wildturtle and/or Bjergsen gets going, they can carry the rest of the team on their backs. 

• Don't let Amazing fall behind - Amazing can be considered to be an emotional player, and the expectations were high regarding his performance coming into the Summer Split. He has lived up to those expectations, but only during the later part of the split. When he does fall behind, he rarely has any presence at all, and it basically becomes a 4v5 for TSM, as shown in his Volibear game, or a few others were he plays Xin Zhao.

Dignitas on the other hand, can probably rival TSM regarding which team has the biggest fanbase, especially thanks to Qtpie. The team has a lot of potential (I know, overused word), and can be a monstrous team wrecking all resistance at their best. However, they tend to be very inconsistent, hence the reason why they dropped so many games during the end of the split. Here's what DIG needs to make sure works for them during the games in order to secure a win:

• Get the solo-laners going - When Shipthur gets a lead, especially with a few kills, he turns his godmode on. At his best, he's amongst the top 2 midlaners in NA. At his worst, he falls behind in farm and doesn't have any presence at all. If Crumbzz can get him rolling, their chances of victory should definitely increase. Same with Zionspartan - he has great mechanics in 1v1s, and can destroy his opponent laner if he gets a lead. It's up to Crumbzz to ensure this, so he has a lot of pressure.

• Don't throw! Dignitas is famous for throwing, especially at baron. They have adjusted it to some extent, but it still occurs. Imagine their place among the rankings if they would've won all of the games they threw... In order to avoid this, I'd say that Dignitas should aim at acquiring full map awareness with wards before engaging Nashor, sa well as trying to pick off one or two from TSM. This way, they can turn an encounter with their opponents should they engage even though one or two of them have fallen.

TSM went 1 - 3 during superweek, and it may have affected them mentally directly after the week. However, NA playoffs is scheduled almost a month after the last LCS week. Therefore, this should not be a problem. Dignitas should be considered the underdog, but since they have improved so signifcantly with their new sololaners, they too have a lot of pressure, since the management as well as the fans most likely want to see some kind of improvement in comparison to last splits placement.

Assumed winner: TSM 3-1, with one of TSM's victory being really close.