Cloud9 3-0 Afreeca
This is the first time in the history of the LoL World Championship that there will be no South Korean representative in its semifinals matches. Cloud9 has just left a huge mark in history in the early morning of Sunday. They swept the last representative of the LCK, Afreeca Freecs, through a brutal and swift 3-0 series.
It is certain that Afreeca did have for themselves some unusual picks as preparation. A great example of this is “Kiin” Kim Ki-in’s pick of Victor in the top lane. However, this team seemed so uncoordinated as well as completely unprepared for the series if we don’t count their 1-on-1 matchups for champions. The control C9 excessed during early games of all the matches when compared to what their opponents showed clearly illustrated that the difference of the teams is quite large. After all, both of Afreeca’s junglers had looked ready for extremely aggressive early skirmishes. These skirmishes have been the definition of this 2018 World Championship. On the other hand, C9’s jungler Svenskeren put up a performance that can only be worthy of the MVP award.
However, he was not the only member of the C9 team to have performances that far exceeds all expectations. Every member of this squad has managed to step up and left their own marks on this game. The Mid laner “Jensen” Nikolaj Jensen was the first one to break the South Korean team’s hope with his breakout performance utilizing LeBlanc during the first game. In this game, Jensen completely dominated Afreeca Freecs all through the laning phase until the leads were just too high for the Korean team to overthrow.
He did all that while his lane opponent Kuro was given a counterpick in the form of Kassadin. “Sneaky” Zachary Scuderi had also announced his presence in a forceful manner throughout the series. This is due to his Lucian being a complete terror for Afreeca’s side. The South Korean team had struggled throughout the series to find an effective answer to the pick but to no avail.
This undoubtedly beautiful performance from C9 was, in fact, far more than the totality of their parts. While it is clear that they are not lacking in individual skills in any way, the collective initiation that they always managed to make was the thing that defined this series. Not counting the third and final game, each of this series’ games looked like they had been decided before the timer even hit the mark of 20 minutes.
This is due to C9’s measured yet at the same time incredibly aggressive play style make the game time shortened. The team from NA was willing to push all of their advantages at any turn possible. This is especially true when Afreeca Freecs seemed like their blood was pouring out from their many wounds.
C9 has always been known as the last hope of NA due to them always getting through the group stage. However, this time they did not just make their way to the knockout stage of the LoL World Championship. They are the first ever NA team to take down a South Korean team in a best-of-5 at the Worlds stage. In addition, they are also the very first NA team to make it past the quarterfinals.
In addition, both iG and G2 are looking quite scary on the other side of the bracket. However, this squad proved on Sunday that they have the ability to leave their marks in history. Right now, no one knows how much additional history the team can accomplish when Worlds 2018 comes to its end.
Fnatic 3-1 EDG
Fnatic has also punched their ticket through the semis of this year’s Worlds Championship after taking Edward Gaming down through a series of four hard-fought games. With this feat, FNC has become the only first-seed out of all the regions to get through the quarterfinals of this tournament.
This series could have lasted to the very fifth game as both of these teams have proven to be as evenly matched as any of the teams going to the fifth game earlier. The laners of EDG, especially “Scout” Lee Ya-chan, have proven that they can match their counterparts on FNC. This led to a series full of explosive games that were decided largely by their team fighting ability and decision making. However, it was unfortunate for the Chinese team that they were only able to match FNC on high-intensity brawls. Right when the games went from brawling to playing chess, FNC just took the series over without ever letting go.
However, EDG did have their strong first game. “Ray” Jeon Ji-won, their top laner, has made a big stir with locking in Kled, the LPL’s signature champ. This pick is quite rare for the rest of the world. Nonetheless, it proved its extraordinary effectiveness quickly in this skirmish-heavy meta. Ray not only had great tools to start the fights in advantages but also the damage to win them. EDG took the first game in under 25 minutes.
Fnatic did not let the loss got into their head. They came back swinging in Game 2. Caps carried FNC to a massive victory with his best ever game on Irelia. After the games, EDG’s cracks began to show themselves. They proved to be either unable or unwilling to reinvent their Game 1’s formula. Putting all their hopes on Kai’sa was a big mistake as FNC focused on their early game and crushed Edward Gaming convincingly.
The rest of this series was the same situation, EDG kept on pining on Kai’sa. This made them outclassed in early and mid-game team fights. Scout still showed that he is a beast as he clearly outperformed Caps, especially in the third game. In the end, FNC won the series with the score of 3-1 and would go on to face C9, NA’s last hope.
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