After a 2-day hiatus due to
the beginning of LEC Season finals, EMEA League of Legends gave us another stacked day of bo3 in order to advance into EMEA Master's swiss stage. The teams in 3-2 were playing each other for qualification while the 2-3 teams were fighting for survival and a chance to qualify after a tiebreaker, set to be played tomorrow.
A day without major upsets
So far, these EMEA Masters have given us frequent upsets - the best example being Dsyre 4-0 qualification who took everyone by surprise - however, today was a different day where the big names all managed to hold it together.
Barça Esports and BK ROG are finally starting to see the light after a 1-3 start, the Catalan team still has sweated a lot against Stéphane "Manaty" Dimier's Lilia who barely took the bo3 on her own and is far from being back in shape despite midlaner Jan "SAJATOR" Zítek's very strong performance.
Barça Esports are still barely alive in these EMEA Masters, a tournament the organization has failed multiple times
The LFL can be very happy and is still set to make an impressive final sprint after a disappointing start, alongside BK ROG's victory 2-0 against Nigma Galaxy, LFL fourth seed Team GO has beaten a very tough opponent in the name of NNO Prime 2-1, largely thanks to Eren "Lot" Yıldız's Rumble masterclass in game 3.
Spain, Turkey and Germany will be going through a tense last day
With LFL's success comes a stressful day for other major ERLs. Despite qualifying their number one team, Los Heretics, Superliga will see its two other seeds Ramboot and Barça play the last 3-3 match. Ramboot comes with as little guaranteed strength as Barça, having shown great performances against S04 and Ruddy, but also completely blundering against NGX and Venomcrest.
TCL will also watch two of its teams battle it out in the seventh round as Supermassive and Boostgate Esports will take part in the tiebreaker. TCL #1 seed and major favourite Papara Supermassive was humbled by USE, losing 2-0 without showing much good League of Legends. Boostgate and Dark Passage, the two other TCL teams, both won their games (respectively against Ruddy and Macko), allowing the latter to qualify will BGT will play in the tiebreakers. Only one team will make it through, since SUP has been drawn against BGT
TCL Summer split winners SUP are on the verge of early elimination
Prime league closes the list of major ERLs with numerous seeds still on the line with two representatives in 3-3 : NNO Prime and Schalke 04. NNO's worst ennemy, the LFL (they have lost their 3 games to LFL teams), is almost not present so they can be considered favourites to qualify, S04 however has seen mixed results so far, though their 2-0 victory over Backtothegame today was reassuring. Prime League still qualified two teams today : USE (2-0 v SUP) and SKP (2-0 v VNC)
Greece and NLC stay alive, Ultraliga is gone
As expected, one ERL was slain today : the polish Ultraliga, still in the shadow of its former glory days, was eliminated by their german neighbours S04. With no wins outside of against Blakans teams from EBL, B2TG has had a very disappointing EMEA Masters run. Same for Z10, UL's first seed who was already eliminated.
On the other hand, Greece has survived despite TP's close elimination by Barça, regular EMEA upsetters Anorthosis Famagusta are still very much alive after a very close series against MISA Esports. Albanese veteran support Besmir "iLEVI" Jakupi even had the occasion to pull out his signature Pyke to great success. NLC first seed Venomcrest is also still in the arena, in the trail of their star adc Hugo "Lindgarde" Lindgärde, the northern team will have the chance to keep NLC alive in the 7th day.
What to expect for the next matches ?
EMEA Masters' swiss stage last match draw
Only one intra-ERL match will take place for the 7th and last round of the swiss stage as TCL will have a guaranteed qualification between Supermassive and Boostgate.
Prime league seeds can consider themselves lucky with two on-paper easier draws. NNO Prime will face a Macko Esport that has struggled to find the pace during these EMEA Masters while S04 will play Greece's last hope ANO for a match that is everything of a trap.
The match of the day will be an LFLvSL rivalry new chapter : BK ROG Esports v Ramboot club, two teams that have shown the best and the worst during the swiss stage and that are very equivalent on paper.
Venomcrest will have one last test to show whether NLC deserves a top 16 appearence or not, being seeded against a shaken Barça esport who hasn't managed to show its best gameplay so far, the british team will have to reiterate the upset. They can count on a very proficient topside composed of Leny "Leny" Albertini and Theo "Theocacs" Sauda.
Header Photo Credit: Riot Games.
