The Swiss Stage of the League of Legends World Championship ends today at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center, and three elimination series will settle which teams fill the last three places in the quarterfinals.
Six teams enter the day with two wins and two losses. Every matchup is a best-of-three, so the winners advance and the losers go home. According to Riot Games' event guide, play starts at noon Central time. The pairings, drawn Friday night:
- LOS vs. LYON
- Karmine Corp vs. Movistar KOI
- Hanwha Life Esports vs. Bilibili Gaming
LYON is the last North American team still alive. Brazil's LOS has already knocked out two teams from North America at this tournament, Cloud9 in the Los Angeles play-ins and Team Liquid on Friday, Hotspawn noted. Because Karmine Corp and Movistar KOI both play in Europe, one European team is sure to reach the quarterfinals.
Already through
Gen.G and Dplus KIA won their first three matches to finish 3-0. T1 and Invictus Gaming clinched spots Wednesday. Top Esports joined them Thursday by beating Bilibili Gaming 2-1, RG.org reported, while playing without its regular top laner, who could not travel to the United States because of a visa problem.
A long week of eliminations
Thursday's other series stretched out. Karmine Corp beat CTBC Flying Oyster 2-0, but the second game was stopped several times after CFO reported a possible equipment problem; one pause lasted close to half an hour, according to RG.org. CFO went out at 1-3.
On Friday, LOS needed three games and a 47-minute decider to beat Team Liquid 2-1, according to GosuGamers. Liquid finished tied for 12th through 14th and leaves with $125,000. In the evening series, Hanwha Life Esports swept G2 Esports, Europe's top seed, in two games that together lasted barely 54 minutes, Hotspawn reported.
