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For Years, Korea has dominated Worlds – the world championship of League of Legends. Nobody was surprised when SK Telecom T1 managed to secure their third world title. Or when Samsung White managed to take home the trophy after an incredibly dominant series. That was simply the way it was: Korea was the better region. The teams that came after that were secondary. They didn’t really matter.
When you say outplay, a few examples immediately come to mind. Out of all examples, the most obvious ones are the famous Zed 1v1 by Korean star Faker, or the Teamfight by SKT T1 that turned around their game against EDG at Worlds 2017. Korea simply had more talent and skill that western teams seemed to lack – Which is why people began mentioning ‘The Gap’. Every year, around October, when the hype for worlds started to build up, social media began to fill with hopeful messages of “the gap is closing!”, referencing to the literal gap of skill between Korea and western regions. However, year after year these hopes were shattered after no western teams made semi-finals, let alone the finals. Time and time again it was Korea that took home the trophy. Until 2018.
Worlds 2018
In Worlds 2018, the entire world was turned upside down. Big names as SKT were missing, replaced by younger teams. The big title favorites were Gen.G Esports, the new Samsung White, or KT Rolster. Furthermore Royal Never Give Up¸ the dominant Chinese flagship of the LPL was one of the names people wrote down as a potential champion.
Three western teams managed to secure a spot in the quarterfinals. The European G2 and Fnatic, the two biggest teams from the European region. America also had a team in quarters, as Cloud9 had managed to secure their spot. That said, nearly all of them had unlucky drafts as they all had to face strong title contenders in their respective matches. G2 was matched against Royal Never Give Up, Cloud9 had to face the Korean Afreeca Freecs, and Fnatic had to play against EDG.
Cloud9 was the first to play their matches. Nearly everyone predicted it to be a clean sweep for the Korean team. However. Cloud9 completely reversed that statement by sweeping the Koreans, sending them home. Amerika advanced to the semifinals for the first time in forever. After that, Fnatic played EDG. In a close Best-of-Five, the European team managed to take the upper hand and defeated the Chinese team 3-1, also advancing to semis. This meant that Fnatic and C9 would face each other, meaning that for the first time since 2011 a western team would make finals.
With two out of three western teams advancing, G2 had to fight against title favorite RNG. In what would turn out to be one of the most exciting Best-of-Five’s in the history of League, the European team managed to beat all odds and defeated the Chinese powerhouse 3 to 2. Suddenly all three western teams had made semis, while all Korean teams had been sent home. For the first time since 2011, the dream of a western title was suddenly alive again.
The result
Back when Korea was still considered the most dominant region (maybe they still are, and this was just a once-in-a-blue-moon) a rivalry between Europe and America started to form. Even though it was mostly a friendly rivalry, it spawned a long history of threads about EU>AN or NA>EU. And while it was never meant to be a serious thing, for the first time the two regions would face in a really important match: One that would secure a slot in finals for a western team for the first time since 2011. Back then, there weren’t any Korean participants at worlds – so it wasn’t really a World championship. So, all eyes were set on C9 vs FNC, which could’ve turned out to be one of the most memorable series in Worlds – ever. However it turned out into a somewhat anticlimactic stomp: Fnatic took home the series in three quick matches, sending their American rivals home. Europe had made the finals.
In the other corner, G2 had to face the Chinese Invictus Gaming. IG had made it to Worlds despite nobody really expecting them to get that far. They were good, yes, but weren’t named favorites when it all began. Still, they managed to defeat the other Korean team in quarter-finals, KT Rolster. If G2 managed to beat IG, it would’ve been an EU vs EU finals – a guaranteed trophy for the west. However, Invictus destroyed that dream in three quick games. With their 3-0 they defeated G2 and advanced to the finals, where they would face Fnatic.
After that, it was just Fnatic left to see what EU was worth. They would get to avenge their fallen European brothers. They had played each other three times before in the group phase. Fnatic won two of those matches, Invictus Gaming one. So people still had hope.
Invictus Gaming took home the title in a convincing 3-0, and the dream of a European title died just as quick.
Spring 2019
After the dust had settled down, Europe began their regular season again after a strong showing at Worlds. The European division, the EULCS, got a complete make-over. New name, new graphics, new teams. The introduction of franchising turned the EULCS into LEC, with a place in the finals as a sweet memory.
A standard year in the League of Legends Esports goes as follows: Everyone starts with a spring split, where all ten teams play each other twice. The best six teams advance to playoffs, where they play a Best-of-Five tournament to see which team is the best. The eventual winner gets to crown themselves as champion and advances to the Mid-season invitational – MSI in short. MSI is essentially a small Worlds with less prize money, fewer teams, and less flair, but still an important tournament to see who are the strongest coming into summer.
All the regions in the world send their spring champion to MSI, where they battle for a slot in groups along with the three strongest regions: Korea; China and Europe. After a play-in phase, the three teams that qualified were Invictus Gaming, G2, SKT T1. Alongside those three, the winners of play-in were the American Team Liquid, Dashing Buffalo from Vietnam, and Flash Wolves for Taiwan. These six formed the groups phase for MSI.
The group phase didn’t really show many surprises. The Chinese and Korean teams were back on top, followed by the European and American teams. Those four advanced to the semifinals, where they’d play for a slot in the finals to get a shot at crowning themselves MSI champs. Team Liquid faced Invictus Gaming, and G2 had to play SKT T1.
In their semis, Invictus Gaming expected to easily defeat their American enemies. However, Team Liquid set the world on fire by upsetting the World Champions, defeating them 3-1 and advancing to the finals. Just like that, the title favorite was out of contention.
G2 had to face the legendary SKT T1. SKT already had three world titles in their bag, with star player Faker still behind the steering wheel years later. It was up to G2 to show that, what America had already succeeded in doing, they could too. In a thrilling best of five G2 managed to tie the series 2-2. Everything came down the fifth and final game, where SKT seemed to have the upper hand for the bigger part of the game. However, G2 managed to miraculously turn it around and managed to defeat the Korean team. The MSI finals of 2019 would be EU vs NA. In the finals, all three matches seemed to be quite close. However, it was G2 – the European team – that managed to take home the title 3 to 0. The European delegate turned out to be the better team. Europe had finally won an international tournament. It might not have been the real Worlds, but MSI was a good start for the LEC.
Summer 2019
Following MSI, all ten teams get to battle each other again in the summer split. Summer split has the exact same formula as spring split, with the best six teams advancing to playoffs, the best of which gets to crown himself summer champion.
However, the regular season (the two splits) also hands out points for the results of playoffs. After playing the summer playoffs, the champion automatically receives a ticket to worlds. The team with the most points combined over the two splits auto-qualifies as well and the third slot is decided by a small tournament with the four remaining teams with the most points. Even though the summer season is still ongoing, the strongest teams have already qualified: G2 and Team Liquid both secured a ticket to Worlds.
G2 Esports looks incredibly strong. Even though it lost the semis to Invictus Gaming just last year, they managed to add one of Fnatic’s strongest players to their roster and ever since they seem undefeatable. Throughout the summer season, they only dropped three of their 18 games. Fnatic also seems – despite a rather rough start in spring split – to be one of the stronger teams, with multiple teams looking to secure the third ticket for Europe.
This year, Worlds will be held in their own region. The group phase will be played in Berlin, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in Madrid, and the finals are held in Paris. A world championship at their home turf, one year after they came closer to the title than ever before. A world championship at their home turf in the first year of LEC. A world championship at home turf after winning MSI. Europe looks stronger than before and seems to be focused on one thing, securing the title. Only one question remains:
Who can stop EU?
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