Semifinal Match 1: Cloud 9 vs. SK Gaming came out of the gate hot, showing everyone that they deserved a second look after a solid showing in the first game. People remained unconvinced moving into game two, though, still expecting to see the dominant Cloud 9 put down SK Gaming convincingly.
The story soon shifted, however, as SK once again crushed Cloud 9 convincingly. SK looked incredibly strong moving into the finals. While Cloud 9 have performed extremely well against their opponents to date, the players had never been at a LAN event together and it showed.
Semifinal Match 2: Team Coast vs. As far as eSports events go, you can always expect to see a TSM team representing the organization with some phenomenal plays. While the match was much closer than Cloud 9 vs. Written by Philippa Warr. That's so over. Read on for his verdict on rivals Team Coast Blue, whether SK can make it to the world championships, and if he thinks they'll ever get to play Thanatos again….
Read Story. You guys came into the tournament as underdogs — were you expecting to win? Not at all. The way we entered the tournament we had to have a tiebreaker game and we had to have a lot of luck with other teams losing for us to get here. We were just happy to be here, and would have been happy with fourth place, so to come first was unexpected. We knew we had it in us but it was unexpected. At the end of the day we're glad we did it. We prepared well, SK gave us a good set up here.
What kind of preparations were there? Looking at picks and bans, making sure you're picking the right stuff and banning the right stuff from certain teams.
Also just practicing synergy with the team, so we're playing as well as we can. How did Team Coast stack up as competitors? I can't believe Coast won — they played so well and especially for their first LAN ever. Coast haven't been a team that long, this was their first LAN, and they're young as well. They pulled it out of the bag. I spoke to them earlier and said, "You shouldn't be upset about losing to us. That's because both Aquila and SK have — in some senses — already won.
The reasoning is simple: the best two teams from Europe are going on to represent their region at the Smite World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia in early January. That meant winning the semifinal match was crucial to qualifying for Worlds. With that job done, Aquila and SK seem more relaxed. But that was yesterday. As the first game of the match gets underway Realzx and his team look as intense and are as vocal as they have done in every game of the tournament. The only difference is that before the match begins both teams scoot up to the centre of the mid lane and line up for a surprise group shot.
It's a really lovely moment Aquila and SK both came to the Regional Championships as underdogs. Aquila were the top team in the Challenger Cup the amateur competition which offers a wildcard route in to Worlds and secured their spot via the wildcard playoffs. As a result they were clearly an impressive bunch and have been picked up by Cognitive Gaming, but they were also an unknown quantity in terms of how they measured up to the pro teams and came with virtually zero LAN experience.
SK started strong in the pro league with a victory at the season's kick-off LAN event but had a rough season which landed them second from bottom in the pro league and forced them to participate in the wildcards too. But the thing about SK is that despite technically being underdogs they also tend to come into their own at LAN.
In the tournament so far that reputation had proven justified with SK not dropping a single game as they took out Team SoloMid and Mortality eSports. Looking over at both teams as they face-off in this grand final there's an element of teen dance movie underdog about Aquila. Their official team jerseys didn't arrive in time so the squad has been playing all weekend in their own clothes with an Aquila bandana tied around their right arm. They're a curious rag tag bunch in comparison with SK and their neatly branded navy hoodies and polo necks.
At one point Ataraxia, Aquila's hunter, notices his bandana has accidentally been tied on upside down. The first game of the best of three gets underway and, frankly, SK look monstrous. I'm interviewing Bart Koenigsberg — Hi-Rez's eSports manager — as it plays out but we're both keeping an eye on the screen.
At 19 minutes I look over and SK have 17 kills to Aquila's 6. Aquila have also lost 3 towers, which are the defensive buildings which help defend a lane, and are trailing by about 12 thousand XP and 9 thousand gold.
At 22 minutes the kill difference has widened to , another tower is gone and SK have increased their gold lead by another thousand or so. Aquila have a late-game friendly lineup but it's really not looking good. At this point, though, you can't help but remember their second game of the weekend. They'd just lost their first game to Cloud9 and the second was heading in a similar direction.
In fact, the match was looking so "over" that Bart had leapt up from his seat nearby and headed downstairs to prepare for the next commentary section. Cloud9 were actually in Aquila's base attacking the end-game objective — the titan. But then KanyeLife happened. I don't know why it always has to be at the end but they make it happen! It seems that Aquila has a knack for stressing their coach out as he watches the final from his front row seat and they go to two phoenixes down before getting their heads back in the game and forcing a victory over SK.
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