For the European representatives at this year’s LoL World Championship it hails one defeat after the other. Only the MAD Lions remain in the tournament of the three EU teams and continue to fight for the top position in the world.
Contrary to the expectation and hope of many fans, the European League of Legends teams performed historically poorly at the Worlds this year. Rogue and Fnatic finished second last and last in their groups respectively, missing out on a place in the playoffs. Only the MAD Lions were able to fight their way out of their group into the next phase thanks to a spectacular second round and the tiebreaker they won.
MAD Lions as last EU hopefuls
At the start of the final day of play in the Worlds group stage, MAD Lions were in last place in Group D. Miraculously, the line-up around mid-laner
Marek “Humanoid” Brázda managed to equalise the group with two wins against North American Team Liquid and Chinese LNG Esports, forcing tiebreaker games. All four teams in the group were tied with three wins and three losses – a historic Worlds event.
The Lions were also ahead in the deciding encounter with LNG, despite already having a long match day, and eventually secured their place in the Top 2 and thus advancement. However, the dream of topping the group was then thwarted by the Korean Gen.G, who relegated the MAD Lions to second place in the second tiebreaker. The Lions are now the only European team to make it into the play-offs of the World Cup.
We didn’t manage to win vs @GenG, but got the second spot and qualified for Worlds2021 quarterfinals!!!
Let’s call it a day (and see who are we facing next) 👀
Thank you all who supported us today ❤️goMAD pic.twitter.com/dHGfURgjd9
– MAD Lions English 🇬🇧 (@MADLions_EN) October 18, 2021
Cloud9 with historic triumph over Europe
The winners and also the cause of this subterranean European performance are mainly the Chinese and Korean teams at the Worlds. Former World Champion T1 as well as the still reigning World Champion DAMWON KIA, for example, come first in their respective groups. The latter won six out of six and inflicted two bitter defeats on the European Rogue, among others.
However, the Rogues suffered a much more surprising defeat in the tiebreaker after the actual group matches. Although Rogue had defeated a former world champion in China’s FPX in the second round, the final match against North America’s Cloud9 was the final tournament exit for Emil “Larssen” Larsson and Co.
QUARTERFINALISTS Worlds2021 pic.twitter.com/IHy6CXkcc4
– LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 15, 2021
The line-up around former LEC laner Luca “Perkz” Perković showed absolute top form to become the first and only North American team to play in the playoffs of the World Championship.
Signaling defeat for Fnatic
After Rogue’s elimination from the tournament, hopes were pinned on LEC Summer Champions MAD Lions as well as runners-up Fnatic. However, the latter fared even worse than Rogue’s European counterparts in the second round of Group C.
However, Fnatic’s success was also hampered by the fact that ADC Elias “Upset” Lipp had to declare his withdrawal from the Worlds at the beginning of the group stage due to a family matter. Fnatic thus played with ex-Prime League star Louis “Bean” Schmitz as a replacement.
Fnatic’s final group defeat was particularly tragic after a fantastic start to the day in which Fnatic took down Chinese giants RNG. After the euphoric win, however, Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau and his teammates faltered, losing to both PSG Talon and Korea’s Hanwha Life Esports. The competitive exit as group last weighs heavily, as Fnatic had only failed to make it out of the group stage once in all previous Worlds appearances.
