Spring Champions of The Big LoL Regions

LPL Spring 2021 is the last of the 4 big League of Legends tournaments that needs to conclude. The other 3 have already decided their champions and the results are quite surprising, at least in light of what happened in the previous seasons. Let’s have a look.

LEC Spring 2021 Results – How MAD Lions Conquered Europe

LEC Spring 2021 started as you might expect, with G2 Esports and Rogue dominating the competition. The Group Stage was not a flawless run for them and they both finished with a record of 14 W – 4 L. G2 looked stronger overall, simply because they managed to win both of the direct confrontations against their number 1 rival. But they had predators of their own. No less than 4 teams managed to win a match against them: Excel Esports, S04, Fnatic, and MAD Lions. However, nobody managed to win twice. So practically, if we consider both rounds, G2 ended the Group Stage of LEC Spring 2021 undefeated.

Playoffs

The Playoffs had the same two favorites: G2 and Rogue. MAD Lions had finished 19^th – 20^th at Worlds 2020 and had never done anything significant regionally. So nobody prepared for them. They were just one of the other competitors, nothing to worry about.

Then it became obvious that these guys were no joke. Since MAD had finished the Group Stage in the top 4, they started the Playoffs in the Upper Bracket and had to play one of the Semifinals against Rogue. Odoamne’s team won the first game, but MAD just crushed them after that.

The Winners’ Finals went even worse. This time the opponent was G2 and after the first two games, the score was 2 – 0 in favor of MAD Lions. The match ended 3 – 1 and what’s remarkable about it is that MAD just spammed Gnar, using the champion in every single game.

After the Losers’ Bracket Finals, Rogue advanced to the Grand Finals where they had to face MAD Lions again. Strangely enough, they won the first two games of the match and it looked as though things were finally going back to normal. But MAD turned it around, using a lot of their most picked champions in the process.

No matter how much their opponents tried to decipher their playstyle, MAD always seemed to have an ace up their sleeve. And thanks to this great result, they are now a big team to watch in the Summer Split.

LCS Spring 2021 Results

In LCS, everyone expected either Team Liquid or TSM to win the trophy. But it was clear right from the Group Stage that things were not going to go as planned. Both teams lost a ridiculous number of matches (at least for their aspirations) and ended with a record of 12 W – 6 L. Meanwhile, Cloud9 had a slightly better result: 13 W – 5 L. Overall, the top 6 teams were very close to each other. The 6^th place competitor, Evil Geniuses, ended the stage with 10 wins and 8 losses, so only 3 wins fewer than the number 1 team.

The Playoffs of LCS Spring 2021, known as Mid-Season Showdown, started well for C9. They easily won against 100 Thieves (3 – 0) and then did something similar against Team Liquid (3 – 1). Meanwhile, Liquid had a field day of their own, because none of the other competitors could stand up to them. The only real obstacle in their path to the title was Cloud9.

The Grand Finals needed 5 games to conclude. Liquid was always in front until the moment of truth came. After leading 1 – 0 and 2 – 1, Jensen’s team lost game 5 and with it the tournament.

LCK Spring 2021 Results

The battle in LCK looked over before it even started. DAMWON Gaming were the champions of Worlds 2020 and nobody was looking even remotely capable to stop them. The Group Stage made everyone’s predictions come true, as DAMWON finished with a record of 16 W – 2 L. If they couldn’t be stopped in Bo3 matches, then how were they going to be stopped in Bo5 ones?

DAMWON played directly in the Semifinals because they were the winners of the Group Stage. And their opponent, Nahwha Life Esports, stood no chance against them. The match ended with a score of 3 – 0. And since the other Semifinals match, between Gen.G Esports and T1 ended with an identical score (no, Faker didn’t win this time), DAMWON Gaming now had to face Gen.G in the Finals. Needless to say, the match ended with a score of 3 – 0 in favor of DAMWON.

Based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s quite obvious that DAMWON Gaming will not have any real opponent for Worlds 2021. Unless Riot can make some big changes to the game until then and force everyone to adapt to a new meta, the LCK champions cannot be stopped because they’ve clearly mastered the current state of the game.

 

Photo credit: Riot Games