- The final score of the two leagues stands at 5-3 in favor of North America
- Europe’s biggest hope, Fnatic, failed to qualify for the quarterfinals
- Rogue is the only Western team to move to the knockout stage of Worlds 2022
LCS teams proved they are better than their European counterparts, but that was not enough for most of them to move to the tournament’s quarterfinals.
NA Proves to Be Better than EU
This year’s League of Legends World Championship has been full of unexpected twists and turns, from players testing positive for Covid-19 to unexpected performances from LCS and LEC teams. The squads from both leagues had difficulties in the tournament. They were slammed by Asian teams with the LCS arguably taking more damage.
It looked like the Worlds would soon be left without any representatives from North America as the LCS failed to qualify for the knockout stage. But as it seemed like the league would go home empty-handed, it surprised everyone by coming out on top in the head-to-head against the LEC.
LCS squads finished the tournament 5-3 against the LEC teams. The first victory was that of Evil Geniuses’ 3-0 win over MAD Lions in the play-ins. This was later followed by Cloud9 and EG’s victories in the second week of the group stage against Fnatic and G2 Esports, respectively.
Speaking of Fnatic, the team was Europe’s biggest hope, as the squad managed to beat Evil Geniuses early in the play-ins, as well as triumph over C9 in the first week of the group stage. However, the team could not keep this pace and later suffered subsequent defeats from C9 and T1, eventually leading to Fnatic falling out of Worlds 2022.
EU fans’ hopes then turned to G2 who by this point had managed to get a win during their first match against EG in the groups. However, that was the team’s only win and G2 eventually also dropped out of the tournament.
With G2’s failure to move forward, LCS teams officially performed better than LEC teams, proving that NA squads can not only compete but win against their European counterparts. But despite performing well against LEC teams, only Rogue advances to the knockout stage of the tournament. The 2022 LEC Summer Split champion finished second in Group C and is the only Western squad to continue to the Worlds’ next stage.
Rogue is going to meet JD Gaming, the winners of Group B, in the quarterfinals. If they defeat JD, Rogue will face either T1 or Royal Never Give Up in the semifinals. The LoL Worlds 2022 will come back on October 20 with the first quarterfinal of the event.
