Team Solomid does it again at IPL Faceoff eSports Central

IPL Faceoff in San Francisco this weekend was not without their share of problems. However, the tournament dug down and produced a spectacular event for League of Legends fans everywhere. With teams from around the world like World Elite and Singapore Sentinels along with the staple North American teams, the event produced some exciting matches to spectate.

Team SoloMid continues dominance

Team Solomid, yet again, impressed in a live event setting. Their play at IPL Faceoff was fantastic, not dropping a match all weekend. They plowed their way through Orbit Gaming (who had a bad tournament), Singapore Sentinels, Team Legion, and Curse Gaming.

This weekend's team was led by Reginald. The play we saw from the aggressive mage was very consistent all weekend. His Morgana play was especially on this weekend going 17/4/28 over 3 games. For some strange reason, no one learned to ban Chaox's Corki all weekend since he played the champion a total of 8 times and ended the tournament with a stellar 9.00 KDA.

All in all, the performance was very impressive and will do nothing but add a lot more momentum for the team going into MLG Raleigh and the North American Regional Finals at PAX Prime.

Curse battles

The surprise team of the tournament was Team Curse. A mainstay of the competitive scene, Curse, was able to battle their way through the lower bracket after losing to the Singapore Sentinels in the first round. The scrappy team was able to reach the finals where TSM awaited them.

The run through the losers bracket was not short of suspense. They were down a game against the Chinese team, World Elite, but it seemed like after that loss the top laner, Crs Westrice, was able to flip a switch. His stats weren't incredible but most of the time he was in a 2v1 laning situation. We were however able to see what makes a great top laner; a guy who doesn't let the AD carry breathe! In one game against mTw NA he was able to play his beloved Akali and the AD carry for mTw, Aphromoo, was completely neutralized in team fights due to the Shadow Dance. Curse's Cop also didn't disappoint down the tumultuous losers bracket run as he went a fantastic 6.87 KDA. In the first game against Legion, he went 16/4/9 on Graves, and they still lost the game. Turned out alright as he went 9/0/8 and 8/2/6 in the next two games to advance to the finals.

Asian teams struggle

Coming into this tournament all the talk was about the Asian teams, World Elite from China and the Singapore Sentinels. The expectations were large and many League of Legends pundits were putting them in the top 3 for the tournament. However, a different story would be written on the weekend.

Whether it was jetlag or just being outplayed, we will never know. However, the Singapore Sentinels were barely able to get past Curse in the first round before losing to TSM in the second round and falling to the lower bracket. In the bottom of the bracket they faced off against mTw NA. The North American team shocked the entire world when they beat the team that was supposed to come in and dominate. No one expected the likes of the Singapore Sentinels to come over and only play 3 series the entire weekend.

World Elite didn't fare much better. After beating the struggling Team Dynamic, they lost to the red hot Team Legion in the 2nd round. In the losers bracket, they faced a determined Curse. They ended up losing the series despite being up a game on Curse. Basically, they didn't have an answer for Westrice in that series and it ended up being the end of the Chinese run at IPL Faceoff. In all the games that the Chinese lost it came down to one lane, the top lane. If Caomei was unable to keep up with his lane mate, the chinese team lost. This ended up being the trend which was why a lot of the teams focused on ganking the top lane as it could snowball out of control.

Team Legion and Wild Turtle impress

The most impressive team this weekend was Team Legion. They were impressive because of a couple of reasons. One, they made it to the upper bracket final. Two, they were playing with a substitute for their team leader, PR0LLY. The substitute was Wild Turtle and he played amazingly! There were many times during the weekend that Twitter would erupt with tweets like "GodTurtle!" and my favorite from Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere:


The best moment of the tournament was Legion vs mTw NA in the first round where it was a base race scenario but Wild Turtle as Twisted Fate back doored with the nexus turrets down to win the game while his teammates kept mTw at bay in the Legion base.

This tournament performance proved that Legion is one of the best up and coming teams in North America right now. Their roster is finally stabilizing since bringing on Cruzer and Demun to join iNoobish, Lautemortis, and PR0LLY. The jungler, Lautemortis, continues to prove that he is a jungler that deserves respect in the scene. The ones that were even more impressive is Cruzer, the top laner, and Demunlul, the AD carry. Cruzer can farm and trade with the best of the them and his team fighting skills are fantastic. Demunlul does what an AD carry does; farms and positions himself to do the most damage he can. Which is why he averaged 5.73 / 2.73 / 5.64 over 11 games.

The team had an extraordinary run that has them now sitting in 7th place in the North American Challenger Circuit standings. MLG Raleigh in 2 weeks is the last chance for teams to get points. In order for LgN to be comfortable, they need to do better than Orbit and mTw at Raleigh.

The Challenger Circuit standings (with 1 event to go)

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Team Solomid CLG Prime Dignitas Curse Solomid EVO Dynamic Legion mTw NA Orbit

Points 1875 1150 860 515 350 200 165 125 100

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