As the Worlds 2018 League of Legends Playoff tournaments draw near, competition and pressure increase among esports teams. The journey towards the playoffs is quite intense as units prove themselves worthy, having the potential to reach new heights. Competing for a professional team means a commitment to training, doing the utmost to win the audience and hopefully win the Worlds Championship 2018.
Here below are the six teams that have passed through the Group Stages so far.
From Group A, Afreeca Freecs is the first seed with four wins and two losses to progress to the Playoffs. Ranking in second place at the LCK tournament, the LOL unit has kept their consistency, improving their strategic plays in the Group Stages to represent Korea with their gaming talents. In the Group Stage, Afreeca Freecs were the top favourites even though G2 Esports and Flash Wolves had given them a hard time. They looked like the worst team in Group A, not knowing how to counter the violent tactics from the European squad, G2 and for a moment there was no hope that they would progress to the Playoffs. However, their competitive experience showed in how they managed to recover from the losses.
Does this mean that Afreeca Freecs is back in the game? Looking at the sequence of results, Afreeca lost to G2 and Flash Wolves in the first two games. Though the losses did not demotivate the squad, the players got to know well their opponents so that next time they knew what strategies to implement. The next few matches started a series of winning streaks beating G2, Phong Vu Buffalo and FW.
G2 Esports also have gone through Group A as the second seed to qualify for Playoffs. As one of the top European League of Legends teams to compete this year for the Worlds Championship, they have proved to be a strong team. Participating at such a prestigious event, G2 have accomplished their best achievement yet in their gaming career so far and in doing so representing the European region.
G2 esports player, Luka ‘Perkz’ Perkovic has had the experience of competing at Worlds since 2016, so he had an idea how high the gaming levels were in League of Legends. Better yet, the most valued player of G2 is the top laner, Martin ‘Wunder’ Hansen who carried his team to a win with LOL heroes like Aatrox, Ryze and Urgot, showing the gaming community that he has what it takes to be the best esports player in the world.
The LOL unit has won four EU LOL championships consecutively over the years, progressing to Worlds twice but they never managed to advance past the Group Stage. Seeing the results, G2 have managed to beat AF once and Phong Vu Buffalo three times. The unit lost to Flash Wolves twice, but the Europeans outplayed them in the tiebreaker match with 1-0 to advance in the Playoffs.
Royal Never Give Up are the first team from Group B that have advanced to the Playoffs of the Worlds Championship 2018. Representing China, RNG is the second top League of Legends team globally.
RNG was off to a good start in three games, beating Vitality, C9 and Gen.G consecutively. However, the next few games, RNG were on a losing streak in two games, picking up their pace once again to win over Gen.G a second time and topping the standings with a final Group B tiebreaker tournament defeating Cloud9 1-0. This result led Royal Never Give up to take the lead in the Group B standings to confirm their place in the Quarterfinals.
Entering Worlds Championship 2018, Cloud 9 were the underdogs of the event. In the past few years, the LoL team managed to go through the Group Stages, proceeding to the Quarterfinals. They never did manage to reach the Semi-finals, will the performance in 2018 be any different?
Cloud 9 know exactly how to make their presence felt in-game to entertain the esports audience. With the determination in their eyes, they can achieve great things as long as C9 keep on doing what they do best, choosing crazy heroes to perform their incredible gameplay.
It is a little early to tell, but according to their results, Cloud 9 has beaten Gen.G, the Worlds 2017 champions formerly known as Samsung Galaxy. On top of this, defeating Vitality and outplaying the favourites Royal Never Give Up and this shows that Cloud 9 does have the potential to win tournaments.
Today, Group C match results revealed the top two League of Legends teams, KT Rolster and Edward Gaming earning their spot to compete in the Playoffs.
KT Rolster is another Korean unit that ranks in the third place as the world’s best in League of Legends. Their performance in the group stages saw them win five tournaments against Team Liquid in two games, the MAD team in another two matches and won over EDG in one competition. KT Rolster suffered only one loss to Edward Gaming which makes the Korean lead Group C.
EDward Gaming is the second seed in Group C to advance in the main event of the Worlds Championship 2018. The Chinese team possessed a winning streak defeating the MAD twice, in another two games outplaying Team Liquid. On the other hand, EDG suffered two losses from KT Rolster and Team Liquid to finish as the second seed in the Group C standings.
Two more League of Legends teams still needs to be determined tomorrow 17th October. The two high ranking units are Invictus Gaming and Fnatic at the moment. Which squad will move on in the hopes of participating in the Playoffs for their chance to win the highest League of Legends reward?
