NA post groups round up: Quantics broken hearts and crushed dreams
This weekend Well Played and ESL hosted the group stages for the challenger promotion series. And with that came some great games and some bitter defeats. Many of us experienced the emotional highs and lows watching teams we cheered on winning and losing. With a tournament so important it was one that had the eye of the community on it. With the stream keeping a steady 30K viewers most nights the promotion groups were a hot topic.
Most discussed and debated is the fall of Korean team Quantic. Quantic is comprised of Korean players who made their way to the US back in September in order to try and qualify for the LCS. Plagued by internet issues since day one Quantic had a difficult time competing in the US. And this tournament is no exception. Quantic played the first day at their gaming house with a small amount of lag and ended the day going 2-0. After the first day many had just written them off as automatic entry into the Promo bracket stage, but this was unfortunately far from true. On Quantics second day of games they had to go to a “net café” in order to play their games. This was problematic to say the least; Quantic proceeded to drop 3 games in a row and ended their run at 2-3. But hope was not lost for some, there was still a chance Quantic could qualify if the stars aligned and there was a 2-3 tie in the groups. Unfortunately for Quantic on the third day their chances at a tie breaker were dashed when The Walking Zed defeated Complexity and clinched a chance at the next stage of Promos.
Lag didn’t just plague Quantic though. On the first day of groups Riot’s tournament server had spectator lag causing the spectators to see the champions skating around, although this is very minor, Riot probably should have seen this as an issue and maybe tackled it earlier. The spectator lag was not even the problem, on the second day the lag got so bad it lead to an awkward game between VVV and Cognitive. COGnitive was able to acquire a 10K+ gold lead but started throwing mid game due to lag. This led to a Riot admin having to pause the game and ask the teams to remake despite the match reaching end game. Despite VVV coming back from a 10K gold deficit COGnitive was able to take the game and with that Riot made the call to play the rest of the day’s games on the live realm.
With Quantic out of the way the following teams were able to qualify for the next stage of the Promotional tournament:
The Walking Zed (former GG:LA)
Now that the group stage is over there is only 2 more week before the final teams for the next LCS split are decided. The next stages matchups have yet to be decided, but the LCS relegated teams will get to decide who they want to play from the group stage. The order of choice will go via a coin flip/RNG and probably be announced soon. The teams who were relegated are as follows:
Velocity (Old EG players and Pobelter + 1 this is all but officially confirmed. This is irritating)
Many expect Curse and Coast to retake their spot in LCS but Velocity is a toss-up.
With the demise of many teams who were fan favorites we have narrowed the competition and the games are getting better. Hopefully next weekend’s Battle of the Atlantic in Cologne will be an indication of what we will see in NA. Preview for the games will be out next week sometime.
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