League of Legends Worlds: breaking down the quarterfinals matches

The quarterfinal matches have been drawn for Worlds, which will start next week. We break down each of the showdowns in the chase for the League of Legends World Championship.

And then, there were eight. Just eight teams remain alive in their quest to claim the ultimate prize for the League of Legends World Championship. The Worlds quarterfinal matches will begin play later this week, on September 26, but if you’re wondering who is playing who we will give you the rundown.

Griffin vs. Invictus Gaming

The number two seed from Korea faces the defending World Champions and the current number three seed from China. It’s not just a battle of the two best regions in the world but a showdown of two teams that are still looking to silence the haters.

Griffin comes in as the “favored” team, having taken the first seed in a very tough Group A. They finished the group with a record of 5-1 but secured the top spot in the group by winning a tiebreaker over Europe’s best team (and the favorite to win Group A) G2.

More from Blog of Legends

On the other side of the match-up, Invictus squeezed out of a fairly easy Group D by beating out North America’s Team Liquid on the final game of the group stage. This victory pushed Invictus into that second seed out of Group D with a record of 4-2.

FunPlus Phoenix vs. Fnatic

The first of the east versus west matchups here features the number one seed from China and the number two team from Europe. While FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) will be looking to regain their footing, Fnatic will be looking to ride their wave of unexpected success.

FPX is the number one team in this match-up, yes, but they didn’t look quite as strong as most people would have assumed. Group B was widely considered to be the easiest of the groups at Worlds, but FPX limped to a 4-2 record and were forced to take down Splyce in a tiebreaker to secure that number one seed.

Fnatic, on the other hand, are still thanking their lucky stars that they even got here. The LEC’s second-best team drew the dreaded “Group of Death” in Group C with Worlds favorites SKT and RNG. However, Fnatic managed to stage a surge on the last day of group play, ending the group second with a 4-2 record.

SKT vs. Splyce

The most lopsided match-up coming out of groups pits a Korean dynasty against an organization making their furthest foray into Worlds ever. SKT is the number one seed from Korea coming into the tournament, while Splyce was Europe’s third seed and needed to survive the play-in stage to make it this far.

SKT will be the favored team in this match-up, given how dominant they were in that dreaded Group C. They went 5-1 in the group, their only loss coming to Fnatic, and saw their star players like Faker, Clid, and Teddy play at their highest level all year.

Splyce was a clear beneficiary of good group draw luck. They ended up alongside FPX in that Group B and equaled the Chinese champion’s 4-2 mark. It was only a tiebreaker game that kept Splyce in that second-seed in this match-up.

Damwon Gaming vs. G2

This is the match-up most European fans would be excited for since it should be their best chance to advance. After all, the series will pit Europe’s number one seed against Korea’s third seed.

However, the roles are reversed from what you would expect. Damwon is the “favored” team entering this matchup as the higher-ranked team, having won Group D with a 5-1 record. They certainly over-performed relative to expectations, although they were in a more manageable group.

Next. Stock watch after Day 8. dark

G2, unfortunately, underperformed relative to expectations. Yes, Group A was one of the harder groups, but most pundits expected they would finish first given their dominance in the LEC. While the 5-1 record in groups is impressive, G2 failed twice to take down Griffin and secure the top seed out of Group A.

Home/International Tournaments