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Invictus Gaming is victorious LEAGUE OF LEGENDS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS COME TO CLOSE BY IAN VAN ORDEN ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR . A n o th e r W o rld C h a m p io n s h ip h as com e to a clo se , and another champion has raised the Summoner’ s Cup in victory. This year, C h in ese re p re se n ta tiv e In v ic tu s G a m in g p roved too stro n g fo r w e ste rn h o p e fu ls , c la im in g v icto ry in a crushing final match against European representatives Fnatic. This year’ s League of Legends World Cham pionship saw upset after upset-, setting up one o f the most exciting knockout stages since the earliest days o f professional League of Legends. Com ing out o f a turbulent group stage, the first major phase o f the World’ s tournament, two tournament fayorites rem ained. Kt Roister, the first seed froth Korea, was thought to be one of the strongest contenders coming out of groups with a 5-1 record. Despite this and Korda’ s historical d o m in a n ce th r o u g h o u t W o rld ’ s^ history, Invictus Gam ing was able to defeat them in a bloody 3-2 victory. The oth er tou rn am en t fa v o rite , Chinese powerhouse Royal Never Give Up featuring the star talent o f Jian ‘Uzi’ Zi-H ao, was widely considered to be one o f the best League of Legends players in the w orld. Despite th is, they fared little b e tte r in th e ir quarterfinals match versus European rep resen tatives G2 E spo rts. Once again fighting through five full gam es,. they were able to dethrone Royal. Never Give Up in a shocking upset. “ I fin ally reached'to se m ifin a ls,” said Kim ‘W adid’ B ae-in, G2 Esports support, in a-post-gam e interview. “ I’ m not sure is it true, like, is it real actually? We did i t ; I ’ m so happy.” In an equally shocking gam e, the sole re m a in in g N orth A m e rica n representatives in the quarterfinals, Cloud9, were able to defeat the final Korean representatives Afreeca Ereecs 3-0. This marked the first time since 2013, the first year Korea was invited to participate in the tournament, that a Korean team would not reach the sem ifinals. The match would also mark the first time a North Am erican team would reach the sem ifinals since 2011. The win was a continuation of Cloud9’ s incredible rise to dom inance which b egan m o n th s before during the summer split of the NA LGS. In the fin a l b est o f five o f the W o rld ’ s q u a rterfin a ls/sE u rop ean representative Fnatic defeated Edward G a m in g , an o th e r C h in e se tea m , 3-1; This marked an unprecedented time for the W orld’ s Cham pionship. H is to ric a lly , w estern team s had struggled to find success at W orld’ s, unable to gain ground on their Asian Riot-Games ■Bit Championship* Despite the region’s dominance at other international events, this year marked the first time a Chinese team was able to take the Cup home. Clackamas Print ■ : Riot Garnes counterparts. This year, how ever, would see only a single Asian team , Invictus Gaming, reach the semifinals w ith the other three spots fille d h y western teams. The first-sem ifinal match featured Invictus Gam ing against G2 Esports. T h o u g h th e y fo u g h t v a lia n tly again st th eir C h in ese op po nen ts, G2 Esports would; fa ll to In victu s Gaming 3-0, locking in the first finals representative and keeping C h in a’ s hope of a W orld s victory alive. The second match saw the showdown of two of the w est’ s most prominent tea m s. F n a tic , one o f League o f Legends oldest professional team s as well as season one’ s World’ s victor, was pitted against Cloud9. . “ This is the best opportunity that NA has ever had and maybe will ever The win was particularly meaningful h a v e ,” said Eric ‘ Licorice’ R itch ie, for mid-laner Song ‘Rookie’ Eui-jin, Cloud9’ s top laner. “ If there’ s ever the veteran player of Invictus Gaming, a year fo j NA to make fin als it’ s this who had previously struggled to find success on the international stage. o n e .” Though Cloud9 had previously shown an unheard-of strength, considering, opponents. Kang ‘TheShy’ Seung-lok the youth of their roster, tjiey were and jun gler Gao ‘ N in g ’ Z h e n -N in g unable to find footing against Fnatic. were the standouts, though attack Though know n for, th e solo lane damage carry Yu ‘JackeyLove’ Wen-Bo stre n g th o f R itch ie and N icolaj zalso performed admirably. Sm ashin g Fnatic in a 3-0 series, ‘Jensen’ Jensen, they were no match for their Fn atic counterparts, w ith the Chinese team more than proved especially strong perform ances from them selves w orthy of raisin g the F n atic m id lan er R asm us ‘ C a p s ’ Sum m oner Cup, m arking the first W inther and Mads ‘ Broxah’ Brock- time a Chinese team would have that honor. Pedersen securing them a 3-0 win. Speaking through a translator in a W ith the two final teams ready to face o ff, only one last set o f three postgame interview, Zhen-N ing said, gam es was le ft to determ ine who “ He’ s super happy about the fact that he actually proved him self, that h e ’ s would walk away with the prize; T he m o m e n t w as e s p e c ia lly the best jungler in the world. He was im p o rta n t fo r In v ic tu s G a m in g . an AD Carry player and then switched Though they represented China as to the jungle position and was always the region’ s second seed and featuring trying to prove [himself], but with this the talents of mid-laner Song ‘Rookie’ trophy right now, it is a statem en t.” For those returning home in defeat, E u i-jin , who many considered to b e the best mid-laner in the world, many the only th in g left to do is to look believed that their weaknesses as a towards next year. The stakes will bd* team would prove too great to earn especially high for North Am erican them a World’s title. Though they had team s, as, w ith Invictus G a m in g ’ s grown enormously even throughout victory this year$ North Am erica is the tournament itself, Fnatic was still the only-m ajor region left that ha^ not claim ed a W orld’ s victory. seen as the favorite. Will 2019 be the year the summoner’s These doubts were quickly put to rest. T hroughout the best o f fiv e , cup fin a lly fin d s a hem e in N orth Invictus Gam ing tore through their America? Only time will tell. th e d a c k a m a s p rin t.c o m ___________ November 7, 2018
