The excitement that followed the announcement that five amateur teams
would be able to earn contracts to play professional LoL for season
three was immense. The community really got behind the idea of who the
next big team would be. Would we see dominance from the same teams or
could a dark horse emerge to completely change the scene? Nobody could
really answer that question, of course everyone had their own opinions
but only time will tell who was right and who was wrong.
Going into the tournament it seemed to be a fair belief that teams
like; Curse, Fear, and Good Game University (Formally Team Dynamic), all
had a good chance to make it because of their previous professional
experience either during season one or season two. There were other
players who’ve had professional experience scattered through various
other teams but none of them have been together as long as the three
mentioned above. Although some people might’ve expected Meat Playground
to be in that group their roster has changed because of the age
restrictions keeping Pobelter and Lightsludge off the team. This
created a tough situation for Meat Playground since many considered
those two players to be extremely important for the success of the team.
The rest of the teams were mostly unknown players who had come from
online qualifiers. The most recognizable team was Epik Gamer which
contained names like Salce, Dan Dinh, and Westrice who were all names
that have been associated with various pro teams in the past. Although
this team had the potential to qualify for the season they were ousted
in the group stage going down 0-2. The only other team that could be
considered known was Team MRN, not because of its players, because of
its manager. The biggest challenge for many of these teams was the
transition from online to playing in a live environment. Even though
the even didn’t include fans the idea of having to play somewhere new
that you are unfamiliar with really can change how you play. Rivington
and Phreak briefly touched on this when they talked about how something
as minor as desk height can change keyboard placement and how that works
with hand placement. Although this is something that doesn’t seem like
a big deal these things can change comfort levels of the players.
When all was said and done on day one we saw four teams move into the
season and four teams going into a four team playoff for the final
spot. Three of the four teams that advanced were mentioned above because
of their previous professional experience. For Curse, Fear, and Good
Game University made this look like business as usual and dominated
their games. Although GGU did lose their first game to Dirt Nap Gaming
it was how they responded to that loss that was impressive. They took
their loss and learned from their mistakes and responded in the
following two games. Dirt Nap definitely opened some eyes to show that
although these teams weren’t professional they were definitely nothing
to be ignored like people thought.
Day two opened with the four teams who didn’t already qualify
fighting for the coveted final spot in the NA LCS. This day proved to
be the most exciting of the weekend with both of the opening series
going two one and showing some very interesting strategies. Crowd
favorite MRN had a rocky Saturday and many people wondered if the dream
had run out for the online team. To the cheers of twitter and most of
the internet community they came back strong using a strategy built
around heartbeat and his Urgot. Urgot is a champion who has really
fallen out of favor as an AD carry in the NA scene for safer options
like Ezreal, Corki, and Caitlyn. This seemed to throw teams off because
of how team MRN used Urgot to dive in and swap their ADC into their team
to be killed almost instantly. Once the ADC died many teams seemed to
panic and crumble which caused them to lose the fight. Team MRN used a
combination of somewhat unconventional strategies, like using Urgot, as
well as simply not being very well known to their advantage. This
helped them qualify and gain the final sponsorship spot in the LCS NA
Region for season three.
Congratulations to Fear, Good Game University, Curse, The Brunch
Club, and Team MRN on qualifying for season three. Thanks to all of the
other teams for an extremely exciting weekend of League of Legends.
Good luck to all of the teams in season three and it should make for an
exciting year of league of legends.
Next week I’ll cover my thoughts on season three and why it’s setting
up to be some of the most exciting LoL play we have ever seen!
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