Last Week in LoL Esports: Mar 13th-Mar 23rd

- By Edward Brady

The full week of League of Legends esports all around the world has wrapped up. The LCS is going down to the wire, it's playoff time in the LEC, V5 cement their legitimacy in the LPL, and T1 have done the impossible in the LCK. I have a quick breakdown of all 4 major regions around the globe to catch you up on anything you may have missed.

Let’s get started...

LCS Week 7 (NA): The middle of the pack tightens up and TSM shows signs of life

The penultimate week had quite a few surprises in store and is setting up quite the photo finish. 4 teams are sitting with the same record on the verge of playoffs. Nobody is mathematically eliminated. Cloud 9, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves have all locked playoffs, and given the games, they all have coming up, it is likely that will be the order they will finish in. Flyquest stands alone with the final upper bracket spot. A massive comeback upset over TL is the reason why. The Golden Guardians also are going into the super week with momentum. Two dominant wins over teams they are directly competing for seeding with will do that.

The final undefeated team last week surprisingly enough was TSM. Despite firing their coach for a conflict of interest earlier in the week, TSM absorbed early aggression from their opponents and fired back in a big way to win the day. While their game against fellow bottom-feeder Immortals might have been somewhat expected, their convincing victory over the first place C9 was anything but. While it is likely far too late for it to mean much in Spring, these games have been good signs for the future for a team that desperately needed some.

The LCS will resume play Friday at 4:30 PM CST with Team Liquid vs Golden Guardians.

LEC (EU): Playoffs are here and the stakes are high

The LEC is coming off a 2-week break after the regular season ended with the super week and will kick off the playoffs this Friday. As for who made it in, everyone has something to prove. Rogue, after crushing their boogeyman on the final day of the season to lock up 1st wants to translate it into their first title. Fnatic is looking to take the almost unstoppable superteam all the way to the top. Misfits are trying to prove that they are more than just Vetheo and the man himself is looking to join the ranks of the LEC’s elite. G2’s rebuild kicked off faster than many anticipated and the new blood will have their first test in a best-of-5 with their old rivals.

Meanwhile, in the lower bracket, it is a tale of two opposites. Excel Esports made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, a huge accomplishment for all involved. With new and old faces, XL wants to see if they can take it even further. Meanwhile, their opponent was much-hyped but limped into the playoffs. Team Vitality has shown flashes of the talent that got them rated so highly. But their inconsistency and general lack of coordination that they had to beat Astralis on the final day of the season to finally lock up a playoff spot. They will be looking to silence the doubters and haters and play up to their potential.

Given the exciting matchups (RGE/MSF, G2/FNC, XL/VIT), playoffs are sure to be fun. The time for experimentation and catchup has ended. May the best team win.

The LEC will resume play at 12 pm CST this Friday with Misfits Gaming vs Rogue.

LPL (China): Victory 5 clinched the top spot and JD Gaming ended the split on a surge.

Given that the LPL seems to shift around massively every split, there was always bound to be plenty of chaos. But I think few people predicted what just happened.

Victory 5 has clinched the top spot in the LPL at 14-2. Although it’s been said plenty of times by plenty of people, it really can’t be overstated how surprising this is. V5 has been a historically terrible organization with multiple winless seasons, many of their big pickups were coming off subpar seasons, and the team was overall projected to finish somewhere around the .500 mark and get smacked in the first rounds of the playoffs. But they have just kept winning! Rookie is looking like one of the best mid laners in the world, Rich has completely transformed after leaving Korea, Photic is developing spectacularly and Ppgod is returning to the form that made him a fan favorite on the first V5 miracle run. Whereas teams like World Champion EDG have continued to flounder and the super team LNG being inconsistent, V5 has risen above.

But a returning challenger is hot on their heels. JD Gaming out of nowhere with a roster not projected to go far has finished third in the league with an 11-5 record. The team closed out the year on a 6 match winning streak. And all of them have been sweeps. Whether it be middle-of-the-pack teams like Rare Atom and Ultra Prime or giants like LNG and V5, JDG has conquered them all. They clearly won the 369/Zoom trade. Kanavi is throwing it back to 2020 with a complete resurgence after a down year. The team has been on fire as of late and given the incredibly competitive nature of the LPL, they have a very real shot at being the MSI representative. With only a few makeup games left to determine the 10th seed, (either FPX or OMG) playoffs will soon be upon us, and we can only wait with bated breath to see who will take it all.

the LPL will return to play March 24th at 6 am CST with LNG Gaming vs Oh My God.

LCK (South Korea): T1 makes history and are running the world.

To cap this off, T1 actually did it and the world is on notice. Everyone has fired on all cylinders and it paid off with the biggest accomplishment of any team this year. 18-0. Perfect season. Little more that needs to de said. Almost no team has looked even close to T1’s level on an individual or teamplay level. While the playoffs have started up this week, they feel like less of a 6-team race and more like T1 vs everyone else. And everyone else are the underdogs.

Speaking of everyone else, the rest of the field shook out quite nicely. Although the week started chaotically with Fredit BRION being forced to forfeit thanks to so many being out with Covid. But they pulled off the upset against Damwon KIA of all teams to make the playoffs for the first time in the young organization’s history. While the defending champs got their revenge earlier this morning with a 3-0 sweep, it is still an impressive accomplishment for a team few rated highly and was 4+ years in the making for multiple members. Meanwhile, DRX leapfrogged Damwon for the 3 seed, Gen. G is still the best non-T1 team in Korea, and Kwangdong Freeces edged out KT Rolster in the 3-way battle between those 2 and Fredit for the final spot.

The LCK will return on March 24th at 2 am CST with Kwangdong Freeces vs DRX.