Quarterfinals are finished and we have our top four teams in the world.
Griffin vs. Invictus Gaming
This quarterfinal featured two of the youngest, and most mechanically talented, teams in the tournament. The expectation was Griffin controlling the series, with many analysts predicting them to win 3-1. However, TheShy had something to say about that. The Invictus Gaming top laner had an outstanding series, utterly destroying his lane opponent, Sword. Although Invictus Gaming certainly has the talent to defeat Griffin, they were meant to be worse as a five man unit. As a fan, I have to wonder if the result was a product of Griffin choking as we have seen before. IG closed the series in a 3-1 manner.
FunPlus Phoenix vs. Fnatic
The best of five between FunPlus Phoenix and Fnatic was, in my opinion, the hardest to predict. Both teams were shaky in groups, with some high moments, but Fnatic was in a much harder group. I expected this to come down to players performing on the day, while giving a small edge to Fnatic. I could not have been more wrong. The Chinese squad outclassed Fnatic, with the biggest difference being between the two junglers, with FPX’s Tian having a great series. The LPL giants took down Fnatic 3-1.
SK Telekom T1 vs. Splyce
A matchup between Korea’s first seed and Europe’s third seed should be dominated by the Korean side. In some ways this was the case, but in others it was the opposite. SK Telekom T1 are the best team to ever play League of Legends, while Splyce hasn’t made it to a world championship since 2016. Clearly, SKT were the favorites and should have had zero problems dispatching Splyce. However, Splyce put up a much better performance than anyone expected from them, they were even able to win a game and had several successful early games against the titans. Although they were defeated 3-1, Splyce should still be proud of what they achieved.
Damwon Gaming vs. G2 Esports
The final quarter final was considered to be the closest, and while the end result doesn’t necessarily show that the game play certainly does. These two teams fought blow for blow in the first two games, but G2 Esports’ flexibility and experience were simply too much for the young Korean squad to handle. G2’s captain, Perkz, was as consistent as usual and was able to lead his team to victory. However, the real difference was the entire team finally stepping up around Perkz and mid-laner Caps. This was the G2 that was missing in group stage, and this is the G2 that beat Damwon 3-1.
Semifinals begin Nov. 2, 5:00 a.m. MST, with an all LPL showdown featuring IG and FPX.
