Greetings, Summoners, from the Fields of Valoran! This week on the Rift, we saw the end of the League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split. Last week we crowned the LCK champions, this week the EU and NA LCS; we also saw Third Place decided with a Best of Five match in each region.
EU LCS
The EU LCS Finals kicked off the weekend by settling Third Place. Unicorns of Love and H2K squared off in a Best of Five series. While H2K claimed Game 1, UOL refused to give up easily and took Game 2. H2K came back in Game 3 and maintained their momentum to win Game 4 and the official standing of Third in the EU LCS.
Then came the final showdown. A Best of Five series between Splyce and G2 Esports would determine the 2016 Summer Champions—only four games were needed to determine a winner. Much like with UOL, who only managed one victory against their opponent, SPY was overwhelmed by G2’s ferocity for the title—Game 2 belonged to Second Place, but Games 1, 3, and 4 belonged to the 2016 EU LCS Summer Split Champions: G2 Esports.
This week’s highlight comes from the final Game of the Finals. In this excerpt, G2 exemplifies the peel and kite teamfight techniques to both claim a Base Tower and clean up the competition. Follow this link or skip to 33:55 in the video below to watch the play.
NA LCS
Like the EU, NA LCS began their weekend determining Third Place. Unlike the other three sets played this weekend, the NA match for Third took all five games in the Best of set. Counter Logic Gaming took Game 1, but Immortals came up from behind to win Game 2 and maintained momentum for victory in Game 3. Refusing to have victory snatched away, CLG came back to take Game 4. It all came down to Game 5. The match was close for the first sixteen minutes, but IMT had the gold advantage from the beginning and proceeded to snowball.
The final showdown for the NA LCS wasn’t quite so climactic as the vie for Third, but the drama was there. Cloud9 took an early lead by winning Game 1, but NA fans have come to learn that TSM does not easily accept defeat. Game 1 was the only victory allowed to C9; TSM steamrolled Games 2, 3, and 4 to claim their spot as 2016 NA LCS Summer Split Champions.
This week’s highlight comes from Game 4 between Cloud9 and TSM. C9 had been making a strong vie for the win, building a large advantage for five minutes before TSM’s doublelift on Lucian and Hauntzer on Shen made a game-turning play and wiped the field, paving the way for TSM to claim C9’s Nexus. Follow this link or skip to 50:50 in the video below to watch the play.
And there you have it, LCS fans. This year’s Summer Split has come to its epic conclusion. Next up, Regionals. See you on the Rift!
