An upseting EMEA Masters Swiss Stage

This summer split of EMEA Masters has displayed a lot of major upsets and unexpected outcomes. Right before the start of the playoffs stage in the League of Legends competition assembling the best national teams of the region, here are some of the biggest unanticipated results so far.

One of the biggest surprises from the EMEA Swiss stage was the two Italian teams. Dsyre is one of only two teams that finished 4-0 to qualify for round 4 of the Swiss stage. The Italian second seed had easily beaten Team GO, BK ROG and BoostGate Esports and went into Round 4 against Dark Passage, one of the best performing Turkish teams in the tournament, beating them 2-1 to achieve a near perfect run through the Swiss stage losing only one match out of 6 played.

Macko Esports has been another of the surprises of the Swiss stage, the Italian first seed would have needed more rounds than their league mates but they would have also passed to round of 16s beating teams like Entropíq, Nigma Galaxy or NNO Prime along the way, thus securing the pass for the Italian team and being one of the only two leagues that keep all their teams from the Swiss to the round of 16s.

Some teams started the tournament as clear favourites on paper with names of players more than recognized and awarded in the European league of legends as it could be the case of Papara Supermassive. The first Turkish seed has old friends from the European scene: Armut, Skeanz, Unforgiven or even players who have been in the focus of the best teams in the LCK as could be the case of Fiesta with Nongshim Red Force.

Despite all the renown of the players and being one of the favourites on paper to easily get out of the Swiss stage, the Turkish team has needed 7 rounds to advance to the next phase, losing on the way against Los Heretics, NNO Prime and UOL Sexy Edition. And without a doubt a lesson we have learned this EMEA is to go into the games without a preconceived idea of how the games will go as any team could surprise you.

During this EMEA Masters we have seen the rise of several leagues and regions that were not so well known consolidating with strong teams and undoubtedly after the last EMEA Masters and this one the popularity of the Arabian League has skyrocketed. Geekay Esports is the first seed of the Arabian league and a team that does not stop impressing, without having extremely well known names (except for Han "Leo" Gyeo-re who has played in LCK three years ago and maybe Cho "Bong" Bo-woong that played in LLA), Geekay has made itself and has been the team that has been the most dominating this swiss stage.

3-0 in the first phase winning the second day against KCB, LFL champion in the summer and the favourite on paper to win the tournament. Geekay swept KCB and Macko Esports on the third day to get into the BO3 against an undefeated Team Vitality, beating the French team that has been the most solid and regular in the LFL during this EMEA and consolidating itself as the biggest threat with a team whose strengths lie in a strong laning phase and team fights led by their mid laner Giyuu who seems to be unrivalled coming out of the Swiss round with a 40/16/57.

If some knew that Arabian League has been fastly developing these last years, nobody could've imagine Entropiq being so high. The czech first seed reached the playoffs with the score of 4-1, the same as the top 3 of the LFL (BDSA, KCB and VITB). It still has to be said that Entropiq did not had the hardest path during the Swiss Stage, winning against 3 minor ERL teams : mCon, Back2TheGame and Anothorsis. They even lost to Macko, LIT first seed.

But on their last round, the Czech had to overcome Unicorn Of Love, the german first seed, in a BO3 to qualify and they did, despite losing the first game (2-1). It would be a bit overkilled to say that Entropiq is favourite for their next BO5 against the BK ROG's of Paweł "Czekolad" Szczepanik, a veteran of the competition, but they should not be underestimated as they already created surprises.