NA LCS Expansion Tournament: Online Recap
banner by Patrick "Zombienot" Young
Ever since the announcement that the NA and EU League Championship Series would be adding more team slots, the challenger teams and relegated LCS squads of the west have trained relentlessly for the past months, and have brought their A-game for a chance to join the best of the best in the premier circuits of the Atlantic.
Thirteen teams vied for the two slots in the NA LCS, and after a grueling online group stage, the competition has been narrowed down to the final four who will slug it out in an offline tournament in mid-December.
For a quick look at the results, you can view the current bracket in this link, courtesy of Leaguepedia.
Also, if you’re interested in seeing a profile of the power players in this tournament, check out our other article for some juicy context to these results.
Final Five: The New Kids on the Block
Let’s be honest, nobody really expected Final Five to make it out of Group A. They’re a team of mostly unknown players. Aside from Keenan “Rhux” Santos, the only player that can be considered experienced on the roster, having been on both Team Coast and Team Curse in the past, the only other player of note is their jungler, Ryan “ShorterACE” Nget, who had a brief stint on Cognitive Gaming in the middle of this year.
With most of the team completely green to the realm of professional League of Legends, and having qualified near the bottom of the ranked 5s ladder, the road was pretty steep for Final Five. Though their first opponent, Zenith Esports, also sported relative unknowns to the scene, Zenith placed higher than Final Five in the ladder. However, despite a shaky series, Zenith fell to Final Five.
Their next test was the better part of the compLexity organizations former LCS team, coL.Black. This team was a relative favorite, containing popular mid lane figure Neil “pr0lly” Hammad, as well as the bottom lane duo of Robert “ROBERTXLEE” Lee and Royce “Bubbadub” Newcomb.
Where many saw the end of the upstart team, Final Five had other plans. Though ROBERTXLEE put up a spirited performance, he was the only one on his team to step up to the plate. pr0lly was simply outclassed by Austin “Gate” Wu in lane, and Final Five’s AD Carry, Marko “Prototype White” Sosnicki played a superb Vayne game to open the series. Final Five prevailed, and moved into the offline event as proof that NA talent can run deep if you take time to put the right pieces together.
Final Five finds a surprise engage onto coL.Black
Curse Academy: School is in Session
One of the major power players in the tournament did not disappoint. CA received a bye because they participated in the LCS Promotion tournament, nearly gaining an opportunity to enter the LCS before CLG rallied to victory.
Nevertheless, their opponents were not to be underestimated. Unlike coL.Black, coL.White did not retain the organization’s former LCS team slot, and thus had to fight through the ranked ladders to even qualify. Led by top laner Jonathan “Westrice” Nguyen and jungler Kevin “Kez” Jeon, as well as packing talent well known throughout the challenger scene in the mid and bot lanes, coL.White seemed poised for success.
After dispatching Monstar Kittenz, 2-1, compLexity’s last hope for reentering the LCS was met with a brick wall in Curse Academy. CA’s bot lane of David “Cop” Roberson and Michael “Bunny Fufuu” Kurylo put on a clinic as they revitalized the synergy they started during their time together in the LCS. CA crushed compLexity’s dreams of making it back to the LCS, and Cop managed a combined 13/1/15 over their 2-game sweep of coL.White on none other than his signature Corki.
Not only that, CA mid laner Jang “Keane” Lae-young pulled out his pocket Hecarim mid pick to counter Zed, showing that CA has quite a few tricks up their sleeve when it comes to manipulating champ select. Under the leadership experience of veteran jungler Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco, it’s hard to bet against Curse Academy entering the LCS with the games they put on thus far.
Keane’s mid lane Hecarim charges in
Team Coast: Coasting on Through
The former LCS organization has come in with a completely revamped roster, dipping its toes into the EU talent pool to pick up Matt “Impaler” Taylor and Jesse “Jesiz” Le, pairing them with mainstays of the NA challenger scene. Because of the revamped roster, they lost their Promotion Tournament slot and had to qualify through the ranked ladder, where they placed first.
Coast had the luxury of facing the team that qualified last in the ranked 5s ladder in Call Gaming, and absolutely destroyed their opposition. Our predictions of Impaler and Jesiz shouldering the team carrying burden was justified as Impaler’s Rengar took over in one match, while Jesiz redeemed his poor World Championships showing with a masterful Ahri game.
On the opposite end, another veteran challenger team, Team LolPro, dispatched Fission Gaming, though in a much less definitive fashion. LolPro was also sporting a new roster, and ironically picked up one of Coast’s old mainstays in Apollo “Wizfujiin” Price.
Wizfujiin’s skill was not enough to win the day however, as Coast blasted through LolPro in another convincing series, with only five deaths given away over the 2-game sweep. If the series against Call was the EU imports show, the series against LolPro boasted the prowess of Coast’s local talent. The bot lane of Brandon “Mash” Phan and Jamie “Sheep” Gallagher reunited, continuing the dominance they had when they were both on Curse Academy. Mash rivaled Cop’s performance with a combined 14/1/14 score on Caitlyn and Lucian.
Of all the favorites to win an LCS slot, Coast looked the most focused, and had the cleanest games by far going into the offline event. Coast has looked dominant before, only to fall quickly on the cusp of returning to the big leagues. Will this new formula and run of top form hold until they secure an LCS spot?
Impaler’s Rengar goes to town on Call Gaming
Team Fusion Gaming: The Explosive Hype Train
No team has garnered more hype leading up to this tournament than the newly formed TFG. The organization has not been shy in saying it has spent a good amount of money on a proper gaming house and support staff for its team, and has flown in Korean talents Kim “HuHi” Seong-jin and the legendary top lane veteran Yoon “Maknoon” Ha-woon.
Combine that with filling the other roles with players that were all previously on LCS teams, and you’ve got a very potent recipe for success. That success had a few hitches to it however. There were some rumors that TFG and their first opponent, Team Confusion, colluded to allow TFG to advance automatically. This stems from the fact that Team Confusion could not field a mid laner, and that their mid laner, Joshua “Chunkyfresh” Kesrawani is also one of Fusion’s subs.
The controversy was complicated by Fusion’s support, former TSM member Nicolas “Gleebglarbu” Haddad, being unable to participate in the online portion of the tournament due to health reasons, and his replacement was announced to be none other than Chunkyfresh.
Whether or not there was any actual collusion is still up for debate. What matters is that even though Fusion were bereft of their usual support player, and up against Enemy Esports, a team that finished higher than them in the ranked ladder, they took control of the series and managed a clean sweep.
What’s even more impressive than that is even though they didn’t have their regular support player, they seemed to be completely comfortable with their play. In fact, Maknoon did the unthinkable and picked top lane Poppy in both matches, scoring over 10 kills in each match despite NME’s best efforts to keep him down.
While it was indeed a sweep, the games were far from crisp, as the bloody scoreboards evidence. Then again, Gleebglarbu has yet to debut with the team and their more serious top lane picks have remained hidden, so those looking to beat TFG have definitely not seen the best of them yet.
Maknoon’s quadra kill on Poppy
Live in Living Color
There’s still a couple of weeks left until the live event, and the EU LCS Expansion Tournament’s final four will also be decided come this weekend. If you want to hype yourself up for the up-and-coming talent in the western scenes, you can check out all the VODs on this YouTube channel.
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