eSports Weekly 04/11/16

The promotion tournament took place this week. Renegades, Team Impulse, and Apex made their way through and will be in the LCS in the Summer Split. Sadly, Dignitas lost against Team Dragon Knights and have been relegated. As one of the oldest eSports organizations in the League of Legends scene, Team Dignitas's relegation came as sad news to many.

The two semifinal matches between Team Liquid vs Counter Logic Gaming and TSM vs Immortals took place this weekend.

Counter Logic Gaming

In the series between Team Liquid and Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid took the first game in a convincing fashion with a superb carry performance from Piglet on Caitlyn. However, Counter Logic Gaming struck back with two Ekko and Soraka games that dismantled Liquid. In the fourth game, Liquid took the Ekko power-pick and was able to win with same great Bard play from Matt. In the final deciding game, tension was at a boiling point as both teams were neck to neck. It came down to one crucial double teleport play in the midlane that allowed CLG to catch out Piglet and win the game.

TSM

In the second series of the weekend, TSM swept Immortals 3-0. Despite being the lowest seed and having the worst regular season in their history, TSM demonstrated how much they grew in the last three weeks with three convincing wins. Immortals were plagued by a bad read on the meta, poor adaptation, and tilt. Furthermore, Svenskeren and Hauntzer both matched and outperformed their counterparts who are the star players on Immortals' team. With this convincing win, the TSM that everyone expected to see may have arrived.

Next week, the third place match takes place on Saturday in Las Vegas with Team Liquid vs Immortals. Along with Championship Points on the line, Team Liquid will be looking to avoid their fourth place curse and Immortals need to prove that they can play in this meta. Despite Immortals' dominant regular season, Team Liquid looked fantastic in their loss and have a strong shot to finish third.

Following the script to a tee, TSM and CLG meet in the finals on Sunday to see who will be crowned the Spring Split Champion and get a ticket to the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) to play against the best teams in the world. The story-lines of this match-up are almost too good to be true. The rematch of the Summer Split Finals gives TSM a chance at redemption and CLG a chance to defend their title. Doublelift plays against his old team and old bot-lane partner, Aphromoo. YellOwStaR is in yet another finals and has a chance to add to his already impressive trophy case. Lastly, TSM gets a chance for redemption from their embarrassing MSI fiasco if they win this final and perform at MSI. CLG's macro play will be going against TSM's micro play and everything is on the line. This will be one final you won't want to miss.

EU LCS Recap and Standings

The European semifinal matches featured Origen vs H2k Gaming and G2 Esports vs Fnatic.

Origen

In Origen vs H2k-Gaming, the teams went back in forth with H2k taking the first and third game and Origen taking the second and fourth. Notably, PowerOfEvil was subbed out for xPeke in game four and he returned in game five. The MVP in this series was Amazing who was able to out-jungle Jankos and help Origen make it to the finals.

G2 Esports

In the series between G2 Esports and Fnatic, G2 Esports won 3-1 due to poor drafting from Fnatic and a poor performance from Klaj who was repeatedly caught out. On the other hand, G2 had strong performances from all of their players, especially Perkz who dominated on Ryze.

The third place match between H2k and Fnatic takes place on Saturday 4/16. Despite H2k's loss, they are the clear favorite to win this series.

The finals between Origen and G2 Esports takes place on Sunday 4/17. The most notable storyline of this match-up is a battle between the owners of each team: xPeke and Ocelote. Despite both being retired, their intense rivalry continue as these two teams meet to play for the championship and a chance to play at MSI.

LCK Recap and Standings

The season has officially ended and KT Rolster has come up on top over Jin Air and SKT.

KT Rolster

Here are results of week 13:

Day 1:

1. Afreeca Freecs vs Longzhu Gaming (2-1)
2. KT Rolster vs SKTelecom T1 (2-0)

Day 2:

1. ROX Tigers vs Jin Air Green Wings (2-0)
2. Kongdoo Monster vs Samsung Galaxy (1-2)

Day 3:

1. Afreeca Freecs vs CJ ENTUS (2-0)
2. SKTelecom T1 vs SBENU SONICBOOM (2-0)

Day 4:

1. KT Rolster vs Kongdoo Monster (2-1)
2. Jin Air Green Wings vs Longzhu Gaming (1-2)

The series to watch was definitely KT Rolster vs SKTelecom T1. Not only was this a storied rivalry match (aka "telecom wars"), each game was close with a stellar performance from Ssumday on Ekko. Furthermore, this has been the first time KT has won this match-up in 21 months.

Here are the standings after thirteen weeks of play:

1. ROX Tigers (16W-2L) 2. KT Rolster (13W-5L) 3. SKTelecom T1 (12W-6L) 4. Jin Air Green Wings (10W-8L) 4. Afreeca Freecs (10W-8L) 4. Samsung Galaxy (10W-8L) 7. CJ ENTUS (8W-10L) 7. Longzhu Gaming (8W-10L) 9. SBENU SONICBOOM (2W-16L) 10. Kongdoo Monster (1W-17L)

Playoffs Preview

LCK's playoffs is a gauntlet with Jin Air Green Wings vs Afreeca Freecs on Wednesday. The winner plays SKT on Friday for the chance to play KT Rolster in the semifinals on Saturday. The grand finals take place on 4/23 where the final challenger will face the ROX Tigers.

LPL Recap and Standings

The regular season draws to a close and RNG and EDG look like the strongest with a surging LGD behind them.

LGD

Here are the results of week 10:

Day 1:

1. Hyper Youth Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up (0-2)
2. OMG vs Vici Gaming (1-2)

Day 2:

1. Team World Elite vs Snake Esports (1-2)
2. Master3 vs LGD Gaming (0-2)

Day 3:

1. Royal Never Give Up vs Invictus Gaming (2-1)
2. OMG vs Edward Gaming (0-2)
3. Hyper Youth Gaming vs Vici Gaming (0-2)

Day 4:

1. Team World Elite vs Qiao Gu Reapers (2-1)
2. Snake Esports vs LGD Gaming (1-2)
3. Energy Pacemaker vs Master3 (2-0)

The match-up to watch is Snake Esports vs LGD which went to the full three games.

Week 7 NA Results:

After week 7, these are the standings:

The standings remained mostly the same. NRG eSports had a great week beating Renegades on both Train and Cache. OpTic received two default wins against Luminosity and Winterfox.

Esports Championship Series Season 1

The Esports Championship Series, organized by FACEIT and Twitch, boasts an aggregate $3.5 million prize pool. The tournament features two leagues, European and North American, with ten teams in each league. The League is formatted with a round robin in best of threes.

Here are the standings so far:

S1mple Dies from Molly in Mid Air

0.008 second defuse clutch

DSR 1v5 NA Clutch

Dota 2

StarLadder i-League Invitational

The StarLadder i-League Dota Inviational is organized by StarLadder and ImbaTV with a $100,000 prize pool. The tournament starts on April 14th and ends on April 17th. The following teams are participating: