Welcome to the Weekly Recap, where we gather the top stories that happened in the past week to help you catch up with the busy world of eSports!
League of Legends
LZ ends SKT’s Cinderella run, wins Summer Split final
Longzhu Gaming officially ended SKT T1’s dominance in the LCK after the top seed outclassed the fourth-seed 3-1 in the Summer Split final and earn a spot in this season’s World Championships in China.
LZ, who entered the finale as the underdog against the three-time world champion, dominated the series throughout, except in Game 3 when SKT subbed in Huni for Untara for a change of pace.
The Blue Dragons were a step ahead of SKT in every point of Game 1, and everywhere SKT tried to force teamfights, LZ knew how to regroup and turn the fights around. By 16 minutes in the opener, LZ was starting to snowball and was taking down towers at will. After 31 minutes, SKT has lost 10 towers and LZ, only one.
SKT put up a fight in the early game in Game 2, but LZ found its feet in the middle phase, with LZ Khan’s fed Jayce and GorillA’s empowered Thresh, and the latter side was able to translate its networth lead into pushing advantage, making it 2-0 in just around 36 minutes.
Huni replaced the struggling Untara in Game 3 for SKT, and the move worked well for the four-time Split defending champion as Huni’s Gnar led SKT to victory in the map, finishing with a 5/0/1 KDA.
But LZ rebounded well and showed it deserves recognition as Korea’s best team in Game 4, as they completely took the life out of SKT in the last match, dominating the kill count 14-4 and the gold department 52.1k to 37.4k, while bringing down 10 towers and not even losing any of its own.
Both teams will play in the Worlds, with LZ taking the LCK top seed and SKT taking the second.
KT Rolster and Samsung Galaxy will play for the third LCK spot in the Worlds this Saturday.
EDG, RNG collide in LPL Summer final
EDward Gaming and Royal Never Give Up meet in the LPL Summer final to see who will be China’s top seeded team in the coming World Championship.
Both EDG and RNG are set to overtake current leader Team WE in circuit points, as the winner of the Summer Split gets 180 points and the runner-up earns 90.
EDG, which has 50, will finish with 140 circuit points even if it loses the final, meaning they will still be 10 points ahead of WE, which finished with 130 points. RNG, which has 70, will earn at least 160 points even if they lose.
Both teams went through the eye of the needle to reach the final, as EDG needed five games to dispatch Invictus Gaming in the semis and RNG outclassed WE 3-2 in the other bracket.
Bookmakers favour RNG in this finale despite losing both games to EDG in the regular season games of the Summer Split.
Dota 2
Roster Shuffle Updates
Since our last recap, the landscape of professional Dota has seen major changes.
In Southeast Asia, a new power team got formed as Fnatic let go of three players and replaced them with NA veterans EternalEnvy, pieliedie and Xcalibur. Along with Ohaiyo and DJ, Fnatic is now one of the most experienced teams in the region, at least individually.
Fnatic matched the moves of regional rivals like Mineski, who will combine the experiences of Mushi and iceiceice in the coming season, and TnC Pro Team, who will stay with the roster that brought them success in the latter half of last season.
In Brazil, South America’s most famous team SG E-Sports released its remaining players, though it said it will have a new team in no time (in Portuguese).
The team, which was created in November 2016, failed to make it into the International 2017, though they placed 5th-8th in the Kiev Major.
In the EU region, w33 has shifted from the midlaner position to a support role and formed a team with former Planet Odd teammate Saksa, along with former Secret offlaner KheZu, complexity Gaming midlaner canceL^^ and Infamous carry Timado.
w33 made the announcement in his Twitter page, but is yet to release details like team name and where they will be based, or whether they will be handled by an established organization.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
PANTHERS win ESL Meisterschaft Summer 2017
PANTHERS Gaming defeated EURONICS Gaming 2-1 in the ESL Meisterschaft Summer 2017 final.
Fifth-seed PANTHERS, who entered the playoffs as replacement for second-seed BIG, ripped to a 16-4 start in Overpass before a hiccup allowed EURONICS to tie the series with a 16-12 win in Cache.
EURONICS could have had pulled the rug from under PANTHERS’ legs with a 9-6 advantage in the first half of Train, but the latter forced overtime and eventually won the extra period on the same map 4-2.
Overwatch
Blizzard says franchisees must re-brand exclusively to Overwatch
Activision-Blizzard stated that all organizations who bought franchises in the upcoming Overwatch League must make a new team name and team brand exclusive to the esport.
This means that organizations that already have teams in other esports – Cloud9, Immortals and NRG Esports – must use a different name for their Overwatch teams.
Reports say it is this policy that has drawn the support of big esports organizations away from Overwatch, as only a few endemic teams have remained in the sport.
