League of Legends World Championship 2018 Review

Surely, this Championship may be called "Game-changing", as the best team from previous seasons couldn’t show their whole potential, meanwhile teams from which you couldn’t expect much, made it to the highest point they could, at first, let's speak about entertaining part of the championship, the Opening Ceremony.

Every year Riot Game is trying to make the Opening Ceremony of the finals unique and beautiful. Last year we could see an Elder Dragon flying over the stadium in form of in-game map, just before the finals, which left people shocked. They couldn’t do something beefy, massive this year as they did last time, as it’s really hard to make something better than flying dragon over the stadium, or? 

This time Riot Games made a beautiful performance of their own virtual K-Pop band. They showed us all the previous tournaments and songs written particularly for those events. And we could hear the song "Rise" performed live from the beautiful video, written and directed specially for 2018 World championship. Maybe we didn’t see something out of this reality, as we could on the previous World Finals, but still, the show was entertaining and leaving those who weren’t on live finals shy. Every League of Legends fan can say with proud, that Finals made by Riot Games are always the biggest events in cybersport each year!

Check the video below!

No Korean teams at the finals, what?!

2018 World Finals were unique by the fact that there were no Korean teams at the finals. On the other hand, 2 teams from Europe made it to the finals, Fnatic and G2 made a big promise for European teams for the next World Championship. It was hard to expect such a big success for non-Korean teams, still, nowadays esports discipline and attitude to esports in Korea is at the highest level at the moment in the whole world, as every team is aiming to spend some time at Korean boot camp to prepare for the games at their fullest.

Rules were changed, Gen.G lost, SKT didn’t qualify for Worlds.

SK Telecom T1 seemingly recovered after a bad season, but they performed very poorly and that it ended with an 8-10 record, denying them a playoff spot for the first time in their history. While defeating Gen.G has defeated SKT by 3-2 in S8 World Championship qualifier, they still managed to stick only to the 13th place at the Worlds and finishing with 1-5 in the Group stage. 

SKT and Gen.G were playing at the finals last year, while Gen.G(previously SSG) maned to win over SKT with 3-2. They’ve been the team we could’ve expected a lot at this tournament, but everything changed, we will see in near future, what we have to expect from those 2 major teams. Faker and Ambition still hold the most iconic opposition in League of Legends Competitive scene.

Quarterfinals

Afreeca Freecs, Cloud 9, Fnatic, Edward Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, G2, KT Rolster and Invictus Gaming managed to climb to the Quarterfinals. 

• Cloud 9 smashed the Afreeca Freecs with an outstanding score of 3-0

• Fnatic made a safe win series versus Edward Gaming with a score of 3-1

• Royal Never Give Up lost in a hard game versus G2 with a score of 3-2

• Invictus Gaming manage to win against one of the best teams in Korea - KT Rolster with a score of 3-2

Semifinals

RNG and KT have been knocked out of the ladder, which is unbelievable, as these teams made a big promise this year.

Fnatic won series against Cloud 9 with a score of 3-0, leaving them no chance to participate in finals. Still, making it to the semifinals is a great result for Cloud 9, giving them a lot of different opportunities and hope for the next season, great job Cloud 9, everything is at your hands!

Invictus Gaming made a perfect series versus G2 with a score of 3-0, securing a spot in the finals. Still, a great result for G2, the same situation as with the Cloud 9, no one could probably expect those 2 teams in semifinals this year.

Finals. A triumph for LPL.

No one could expect Fnatic at the finals this year, but guys managed to make it to the finals.  A lot of people had hope that Fnatics were able to defeat Invictus Gaming and take the first place at this tournament. But the reality is not on their hand this time. Invictus Gaming, literally, crashed Fnatic with a score of 3-0 in series. Invictus Gaming made such a clear series, that Fnatic didn’t have any chances to win. Invictus Gaming had their advantage from start to the very end in each game. Still, it’s an unbelievable result for Fnatic this year, it’s going to be interesting to see what we have to expect from Europe region next year.

At the end…

Sadly, but true, World Championship came to its end. Each year everyone is hardly waiting to see this massive and beautiful event in which many regions of the world fight for a chance of becoming a Legend in the League of Legends world. This Season brought us a lot of unexpected matchups, wins and disappointments. But nothing is ever the same, what makes it really interesting to watch Tournaments. The tournament is over, and players are back into practising and preparing for the next season, to provide us an interesting and unbelievable new competitive season. See you on the Fields of Justice my friends! Leave comments below, you are always welcome!