The League of Legends World Championships finished up at the weekend, and the round between South Korea's Samsung Galaxy White and China's Star Horn Royal Club can be viewed in full below. Resident LoL expert James Chen had a few predictions regarding the round last week, but if you're wanting to watch the match free of spoilers I'd suggest not reading the final paragraph in this story.

Samsung Galaxy White ended up taking the championship, continuing South Korea's dominance for the sixth year. The prize was US $1 million, while Star Horn Royal Club took home $250,000 to share among them.

Written by James Chen, photos from lolesports.com

The all-China semifinals between team OMG and Star Horn Royal Club commanded the full duration of the best-of-five set a back-and-forth trade of triumphs as Royal Club wrestled for a means to keep OMG's top laner and captain Gogoing from building to ominous strength, and OMG in turn struggled in the face of Korean expatriate and jungler InSec's maverick picks and plays, never knowing what he was going to choose or how he was going to play.

In the end, only one team advanced and only one player got to claim the title of back-to-back world championship finalist.

Uzi the Kid

Jian "Uzi" Zihao might be suffering from a bad case of deja vu right now. His team's changed sponsors and swapped out four players since last year, but here he is again: standing over a defeated OMG, headed to a world championship grand finals against a heavily favored Korean team. But last time, the dream ended in a nightmare.

For most teams and players, being able to stand as finalists at the most prestigious tournament of the year would've been a victory in itself—a career highlight to round out a year of hard work. Royal Club's humiliation from a total defeat in the finals, however, outweighed those sentiments and lead to the dramatic dissolution of the prior squad. In their place, a new team was formed around Uzi, with the high-profile recruitment of former Korean KT Rolster star InSec playing a significant role. While the language barrier would make for a rough start—as evidenced by Star Horn Royal Club's dismal regular season performance—their potential growth promised to be a lot higher with InSec, once known as the most dominant jungler in the world.

It played out much like it did the year before: a perfectly timed peak coinciding with OMG's plateauing and struggles to maintain a lead. Uzi almost didn't have to show up for work—though his multi-kills throughout the series against OMG were crucial in breaking their will, they were effectively hand-fed to him by InSec's unorthodox Champion mastery and dominance, playing champions that were considered irrelevant to the global metagame for months, if not years.

But the question remains: is it enough this time? Though the non-Korean teams appear to have improved this year, the evidence of Korean dominance still remains. White's clean 3-0 sweep against sibling team Samsung Blue ominously threatens a repeat of last year's anticlimatic finish for Star Horn.

White-Out

Unfortunately for them, Star Horn Royal Club might have preferred to face any other Korean team in the finals: Star Horn's strengths are largely shared, and thus neutralized, by their counterparts on Samsung White. The clearest example would be in the jungle: InSec, former ace for the KT Rolster Bullets, was once known as the single most dominant player in the position, but lost that title a year ago when he decided to switch to top lane, and subsequently fell out of relevance.

To his favor, this year's semifinal set against OMG demonstrated a return to strength, showing the same combination of outright skill and unexpected plays that made him famous in the first place. Unlike his prior career as a Korean jungler, however, he has peers this time. His contemporary, DanDy, might be less willing to surprise his own team with a Fiddlesticks pick out of nowhere, but is as adroit as InSec was at his prime, and has an unmatched understanding of the map-wide pressure his position is capable of exerting.

Meanwhile, Uzi has found a true peer in Imp, White's mad dog of the bottom lane. While it'll take a head-to-head match to see which of the two infamously hot-headed AD carries truly reigns supreme, what is known is that Mata, Imp's support, needs to be nerfed. He's continued the legacy of play-making Korean supports like CJ Entus's Madlife—an incredibly strong play-maker with a talent for exploiting his opponent's slightest mistakes and forcing through even the best-laid defenses.

The games will ultimately be decided by a single position: mid lane, where PawN seems to be unstoppable. As nominal successor and historical kryptonite to last year's mid lane world champion, Faker, PawN has been yet unmatched by his world rivals. Corn has been a competent piece in Star Horn's strategies, but he's lacked that certain grace and dominance that PawN so easily exerted over the course of the preceding weeks. The man that's taken up the mantle of Samsung Blue's leader, Dade, is White's ace in the hole.

Amid the Spotlights

Seoul's World Cup stadium—host of the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the subsequent home for South Korea's biggest concerts—has space for over 66,000 attendees, and it will be jammed to capacity as China and Korea once again butt heads on their quest for the world title. It looks to be another record-setter for League of Legends, but the community is loudly worried about a repeat of the 2013 finals, which were held in Los Angeles's Staples Center.

While it's not uncommon for the grand finals of any competitive event to be a disappointment, the Korean dominance in League of Legends is contextualized by their predecessors in the StarCraft scene, where "foreigner" is now commonly used as a term for all competitors not originating from Korea itself. Another 3-0 victory over their Chinese rivals, commonly considered the second-strongest region in the world, would cement this sentiment for the young League of Legends community as well—a prospect that sits poorly with Uzi and company. As tens of thousands settle upon the World Cup stadium and the spotlights light up the field, the pressure mounts on the 17 year old savant and his team to realize the hopes and wishes of China's massive player base—and stop the South Korean juggernaut in its tracks.

A refer-a-friend system seems like an obvious boon for all involved. In League of Legends, it should reward referring players with bonus skins and Riot with additional players. And, of course, it gives the referred a chance at a lifetime addiction to the complex tactical interplay between an angry crocodile and a purple sadomasochist. Unfortunately, the system as it currently stands is being heavily abused by botters and account sellers.

Riot is well aware of the situation, and has laid out plans to make refer-a-friend less open to misuse.

"We started RAF to reward players for their part in growing League," write Riot. "Refer-a-Friend has quite the history at this point, with multiple incarnations dating back to the original launch of the game, and it s been a rewarding experience for lots of players.

"Any rewards program like RAF runs the risk of some participants trying to game the system, and ordinarily we might tolerate low levels of fringe misuse if it meant we were still doing right by the vast majority of players. However, RAF abuse was increasingly degrading the average players' experience, forcing us to contemplate changes."

Riot is planning to focus on account selling and botting; things that, as bots continue to load into new player games, are directly harming the new player experience.

The trouble, Riot says, is that Grey Warwick and Medieval Twitch skins require more effort than the average player can achieve—needing 25 and 50 referrals, respectively. That makes them valuable, and so attracts account resellers.

The imminent update will reduce the amount of referrals needed to achieve these skins. "With the new update," write Riot, "for every friend you refer who reaches level 10, you ll earn 1000 IP. You can refer a total of five friends, and with three successful referrals, you ll unlock the Grey Warwick skin. Recruit five friends and you ll unlock Medieval Twitch."

While Riot doesn't think the plan will eliminate botting, they do hope it'll make the RAF a more stable and abuse-free system.

Article by James Chen

League of Legends' 2014 World Championship resumes after a quarterfinals amid the sand and tides of Busan, South Korea. The pan-Asiatic journey of this year's tournament finds its final stop amid the skyscrapers of Seoul, where both the semifinals and finals will take place.

Only four teams remain—two from China and the two expected Korean representatives from Samsung. The storylines of either semifinal matches are notable—in many ways, the end results of the tournament couldn't have been better scripted, in light of the rivalries and past encounters of each pairing. The top four teams in the world head into their matches with a lot more than just prize money to fight for.

Battle of the Brothers — Samsung White vs Samsung Blue

In many ways, this was to be expected. The Samsung teams were the strongest of their respective groups, considered the two strongest teams in all of South Korea, and command some of the most well-respected players of 2014. On paper, White's the stronger of the two—PawN is the only man alive to consistently take points off of legendary mid laner Faker, while jungler DanDy is by general acclaim the most respected of his role on the world stage. Their one loss to Team Solomid was characterized more by a lackadaisical approach to champion picks and bans after a decisive 2-0 start—a marring error to an otherwise dominant performance.

In contrast, even though Blue's 3-1 record over America's Cloud 9 was a victory by any definition, their quarterfinal set seemed a lot closer overall. The guerrilla warfare campaign waged by the Cloud 9, highlighted by mid laner Hai's Metal Gear Solid-esque stealth approach to the enemy base, pressured Blue a lot harder than many would have expected from the top-ranked Korean team. The ending records for White and Blue might be the same, but the way Blue got to 3-1 would be hard to describe as "dominant" in any form.

On paper this suggests a White victory in the upcoming semifinals, unless you count for historical trends. Blue might look like the weaker team, Mata might be the stronger support, DanDy might be tiers above Spirit, but White still consistently loses to Blue, regardless of all of that. White suffers habitual arrogance—TSM was not the first team to turn a sweep on them—and it's led to their downfall before. But more importantly, individually better players don't always lead to collectively better results.

"General" Dade's orders to his troops have turned a fledgling low-tier rookie team into an OnGameNet Champions powerhouse. He is extremely eager to prove that last year's humiliating defeat on the world stage, being denied playoff contention by Russia's Gambit Gaming, was nothing more than a fluke of circumstances. It might take an unkind civil war among Samsung's ranks to do it, and the sacrifice of his former teammates, but his personal mission likely trumps any lingering goodwill towards them.

The Samsung siblings' showdown will be on Saturday, October 11.

Wash, Rinse, Revenge — Star Horn Royal Club vs OMG

Last year, when Korean dominance was more assured, the Chinese teams nonetheless left a mark. Team OMG, the "gangsters" of the LPL by way of Gogoing's chiseled chin, was the only non-Korean team to take a game off of eventual world champions SKT T1 K. They were considered China's strongest overall team, overseeing a year-long reign of terror that effectively buried former superstar teams iG and WE under increasing irrelevance.

Yet, for a team so strong and dominant, they were only the second seed, forced to prove their merit through the group stages. Ultimately, they showed that dominance can be its own weakness. Though it took most of 2013 for Royal Club Huang Zu to get a fix on them, they proved to have OMG's number. Royal Club triumphed over OMG in that year's Chinese regionals and took them out in the Season 3 playoffs—only to then collapse in the face of SKT T1 K in a humiliatingly thorough 0-3 defeat.

The situation for OMG leading into the quarterfinals didn't look much better. Weak group stage games, defined mostly by pratfalls from support player Dada777, left them looking even weaker than last year—certainly not the Chinese behemoths that made even Faker bleed. The total anti-synergy between San and his support was the despair of the region's circuit—and it was to both surprise and relief when the organization made the call in the quarterfinals to rotate him out for substitute player Hu "Cloud" Zhen-Wei.

Cloud's personal impact was relatively minor, especially as other supports had already demonstrated a high level of proficiency with Janna, the single champion he played against NaJin White Shield to a 3-0 finish. Yet the effect he had on the team was profound: they no longer needed to shore up a weak bottom lane, allowing the rest of the team to flourish.

Of course, whether that is enough to take down Star Horn Royal Club's Uzi is another matter entirely. The San and Cloud lane isn't actually a strong point, just less weak than it was weeks prior. Uzi and Zero, however, have carved out a reputation for stellar plays over the course of two World Championships, and the temperamental AD carry was key to the last time OMG was pushed off the world stage. The Sinocentric showdown is quickly becoming a legendary rivalry.

The Chinese rivalry resolves on Sunday, October 12.

By Jem Alexander.

The League of Legends World Championship continues to impress this week with some stellar games. Eight hard-working teams fought to proceed in the competition, but sadly only four could continue to the quarterfinals. Let's take a look at the most spectacular moments of week two, featuring two of the most enjoyable games of League of Legends I've ever seen.

If you're not caught up, check out our highlights of week one's group A and B matches for the story so far.

If you only watch one game


Picking just one game for this category wasn t easy, but in the end this mammoth match between Europe s Fnatic and China s OMG had to take the spotlight. The death knell for Fnatic s tournament dreams and an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved, this 71 minute long marathon is tense from beginning to end.

Things take a serious turn at around the 60 minute mark, when OMG s Nexus turrets are destroyed by minions. OMG fights back by assaulting Fnatic s base head on, but a great 1v5 play by mid-laner xPeke sends them packing while top-laner sOAZ teleports into OMG s towerless base, and it looks like it might finally all be over.

Then, heartbreak for Fnatic, as their attack on OMG s Nexus leaves it with the tiniest sliver of health before the team gets beaten back. All it would have taken is one last hit and the game would have belonged to Fnatic, but OMG soon crowned themselves the victors with a final push against their opponent s Nexus. Never before have two pixels meant so much to so many.



Biggest play



Despite a humiliatingly close defeat at the hands of OMG earlier in the day, Fnatic didn t allow it to affect their performance. Their next game against America s LMQ was impeccably played, with Fnatic s ADC Rekkles at the top of his game. Between him and mid-laner xPeke the team ended the match with 26 kills versus LMQ s 8.

Five of Fnatic s kills came from the second penta kill of the World Championships, with Rekkles team mates setting up kills for him during a late game team fight. Rekkles ended the game with 18 kills, zero deaths and 4 assists, raising hopes of a Fnatic comeback leading to a quarterfinals spot. Sadly, it wasn t to be, but that doesn t negate the fact that this is the biggest play of Groups C & D of the World Championships.

The perfect game


Europe s Alliance may be out of the competition, but that isn t to say that they aren t an incredibly skilled team. The calibre of play shown during this week s group stages has been wonderful, and Alliance more than demonstrated their abilities during this match against Korea s Najin White Shield.

Watch as Alliance pulls out a super-rare perfect game. That is to say that during the 40-minute match, Najin White Shield weren t able to score a single kill, tower, dragon or baron. Alliance waltzed through the game completely untouchable, scoring the first win in the competition against the Korean team. It s a sight to behold and certainly not something I'm expecting to see again in the run up to the finals.

Biggest surprise



Surprises aplenty this week, but none more shocking than Brazil s Kabum taking a victory over Europe s Alliance on the final day. Much like Group A s wildcard entry, Turkey s Dark Passage, Kabum battled valiantly but seemed unlikely to collect any wins against the bigger boys from Korea, Europe and America. Many viewed their upcoming match against Alliance as a definite loss on a day when every win counted, but Kabum managed to pull off a surprise victory and score one for the underdogs.

This was especially shocking as Alliance came fresh from winning their perfect game against Korea s Najin White Shield. Perhaps complacency got the better of them. Whatever it was, Kabum s win caused quite an upset in the standings and ultimately led to the removal of Alliance from the competition. Kabum s impact on the standings ended up being huge.



Equally surprising was Fnatic s first match against Korean powerhouse Samsung Blue. After Samsung White s perfect record last week, it seemed like their Blue cousins would sail through with similar results. They almost did, but Fnatic were able to score a win. So far they remain the only ones able to do so.

Bonus fun: We called it. The return of jungle Rammus! Alliance s Shook brought back the roly-poly armadillo for one last fight in a match against Cloud 9. Could this spark some Rammus copycats in the quarterfinals and beyond? Probably not, to be honest, but we can dream.

The ace that shook the standings


America s Cloud 9 came into the last day of Groups with the daunting prospect of having to defeat two worthy opponents in order to secure their quarterfinals spot. The standings were such that there was a very real possibility of a three-way tie for first place. Luckily for Cloud 9, Europe s Alliance unexpectedly lost to Brazil s Kabum, making Cloud 9 s path to finals that little bit smoother.

Their match against Korea s Najin White Shield was guaranteed to result in an additional tiebreaker game at the end of the day. A win here meant C9 and NWS would later battle for first place, while a loss would lead to a tiebreaker against Alliance to secure second place. Which just goes to show how closely matched the teams have been this week.

Najin White Shield had Cloud 9 on the ropes for a lot of the early game, but the American team managed to fight back and demonstrate the wonderful team synergy they re known for. A skillfully fought team fight resulted in an ace that allowed C9 to walk into NWS s base and take the game. Meanwhile, Alliance watched backstage as their hopes for a quarterfinal spot crumbled around them.

Samsung Blue s Spirit is MVP


My MVP is a member of the almost-undefeated Korean team Samsung Blue. Jungler Spirit has the highest KDA of groups C & D and has a consistency across his games that almost makes him unremarkable compared to the likes of Rekkles, xPeke and Shook. The high highs of those players are counterbalanced by their low lows, which may help to explain why they have all now left the competition.



But KDA isn t everything and it s Spirit s (ahem) spirit after Samsung Blue s defeat against Fnatic that really won me over. I ll never let you cry again , he said to a tearful Deft after the match. Just follow me . Such camaraderie is endearing. So too is Rekkles decision to approach Deft with a hug and words of encouragement. League of Legends may have the cuddliest professional scene on the planet. I wouldn t have it any other way.



This week we move into the quarterfinals, with one best-of-five match taking place per day between Friday and Monday. The brackets have been decided, with American teams Team Solo Mid and Cloud 9 each facing off against one of the Korean giants Samsung White and Blue. Next up is a Chinese showdown, with Star Horn Royal Club taking on Edward Gaming, before Korea s Najin White Shield goes head to head with China s OMG.

These matches won t just be a test of skill, but one of endurance as each day is likely to take upwards of five hours. That s a lot of quality League of Legends to look forward to.

By Jem Alexander.

The League of Legends World Championship continues to impress this week with some stellar games. Eight hard-working teams fought to proceed in the competition, but sadly only four could continue to the quarterfinals. Let's take a look at the most spectacular moments of week two, featuring two of the most enjoyable games of League of Legends I've ever seen.

If you're not caught up, check out our highlights of week one's group A and B matches for the story so far.

If you only watch one game


Picking just one game for this category wasn t easy, but in the end this mammoth match between Europe s Fnatic and China s OMG had to take the spotlight. The death knell for Fnatic s tournament dreams and an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved, this 71 minute long marathon is tense from beginning to end.

Things take a serious turn at around the 60 minute mark, when OMG s Nexus turrets are destroyed by minions. OMG fights back by assaulting Fnatic s base head on, but a great 1v5 play by mid-laner xPeke sends them packing while top-laner sOAZ teleports into OMG s towerless base, and it looks like it might finally all be over.

Then, heartbreak for Fnatic, as their attack on OMG s Nexus leaves it with the tiniest sliver of health before the team gets beaten back. All it would have taken is one last hit and the game would have belonged to Fnatic, but OMG soon crowned themselves the victors with a final push against their opponent s Nexus. Never before have two pixels meant so much to so many.



Biggest play



Despite a humiliatingly close defeat at the hands of OMG earlier in the day, Fnatic didn t allow it to affect their performance. Their next game against America s LMQ was impeccably played, with Fnatic s ADC Rekkles at the top of his game. Between him and mid-laner xPeke the team ended the match with 26 kills versus LMQ s 8.

Five of Fnatic s kills came from the second penta kill of the World Championships, with Rekkles team mates setting up kills for him during a late game team fight. Rekkles ended the game with 18 kills, zero deaths and 4 assists, raising hopes of a Fnatic comeback leading to a quarterfinals spot. Sadly, it wasn t to be, but that doesn t negate the fact that this is the biggest play of Groups C & D of the World Championships.

The perfect game


Europe s Alliance may be out of the competition, but that isn t to say that they aren t an incredibly skilled team. The calibre of play shown during this week s group stages has been wonderful, and Alliance more than demonstrated their abilities during this match against Korea s Najin White Shield.

Watch as Alliance pulls out a super-rare perfect game. That is to say that during the 40-minute match, Najin White Shield weren t able to score a single kill, tower, dragon or baron. Alliance waltzed through the game completely untouchable, scoring the first win in the competition against the Korean team. It s a sight to behold and certainly not something I'm expecting to see again in the run up to the finals.

Biggest surprise



Surprises aplenty this week, but none more shocking than Brazil s Kabum taking a victory over Europe s Alliance on the final day. Much like Group A s wildcard entry, Turkey s Dark Passage, Kabum battled valiantly but seemed unlikely to collect any wins against the bigger boys from Korea, Europe and America. Many viewed their upcoming match against Alliance as a definite loss on a day when every win counted, but Kabum managed to pull off a surprise victory and score one for the underdogs.

This was especially shocking as Alliance came fresh from winning their perfect game against Korea s Najin White Shield. Perhaps complacency got the better of them. Whatever it was, Kabum s win caused quite an upset in the standings and ultimately led to the removal of Alliance from the competition. Kabum s impact on the standings ended up being huge.



Equally surprising was Fnatic s first match against Korean powerhouse Samsung Blue. After Samsung White s perfect record last week, it seemed like their Blue cousins would sail through with similar results. They almost did, but Fnatic were able to score a win. So far they remain the only ones able to do so.

Bonus fun: We called it. The return of jungle Rammus! Alliance s Shook brought back the roly-poly armadillo for one last fight in a match against Cloud 9. Could this spark some Rammus copycats in the quarterfinals and beyond? Probably not, to be honest, but we can dream.

The ace that shook the standings


America s Cloud 9 came into the last day of Groups with the daunting prospect of having to defeat two worthy opponents in order to secure their quarterfinals spot. The standings were such that there was a very real possibility of a three-way tie for first place. Luckily for Cloud 9, Europe s Alliance unexpectedly lost to Brazil s Kabum, making Cloud 9 s path to finals that little bit smoother.

Their match against Korea s Najin White Shield was guaranteed to result in an additional tiebreaker game at the end of the day. A win here meant C9 and NWS would later battle for first place, while a loss would lead to a tiebreaker against Alliance to secure second place. Which just goes to show how closely matched the teams have been this week.

Najin White Shield had Cloud 9 on the ropes for a lot of the early game, but the American team managed to fight back and demonstrate the wonderful team synergy they re known for. A skillfully fought team fight resulted in an ace that allowed C9 to walk into NWS s base and take the game. Meanwhile, Alliance watched backstage as their hopes for a quarterfinal spot crumbled around them.

Samsung Blue s Spirit is MVP


My MVP is a member of the almost-undefeated Korean team Samsung Blue. Jungler Spirit has the highest KDA of groups C & D and has a consistency across his games that almost makes him unremarkable compared to the likes of Rekkles, xPeke and Shook. The high highs of those players are counterbalanced by their low lows, which may help to explain why they have all now left the competition.



But KDA isn t everything and it s Spirit s (ahem) spirit after Samsung Blue s defeat against Fnatic that really won me over. I ll never let you cry again , he said to a tearful Deft after the match. Just follow me . Such camaraderie is endearing. So too is Rekkles decision to approach Deft with a hug and words of encouragement. League of Legends may have the cuddliest professional scene on the planet. I wouldn t have it any other way.



This week we move into the quarterfinals, with one best-of-five match taking place per day between Friday and Monday. The brackets have been decided, with American teams Team Solo Mid and Cloud 9 each facing off against one of the Korean giants Samsung White and Blue. Next up is a Chinese showdown, with Star Horn Royal Club taking on Edward Gaming, before Korea s Najin White Shield goes head to head with China s OMG.

These matches won t just be a test of skill, but one of endurance as each day is likely to take upwards of five hours. That s a lot of quality League of Legends to look forward to.

By Jem Alexander.

The League of Legends World Championship continues to impress this week with some stellar games. Eight hard-working teams fought to proceed in the competition, but sadly only four could continue to the quarterfinals. Let's take a look at the most spectacular moments of week two, featuring two of the most enjoyable games of League of Legends I've ever seen.

If you're not caught up, check out our highlights of week one's group A and B matches for the story so far.

If you only watch one game

Picking just one game for this category wasn t easy, but in the end this mammoth match between Europe s Fnatic and China s OMG had to take the spotlight. The death knell for Fnatic s tournament dreams and an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved, this 71 minute long marathon is tense from beginning to end.

Things take a serious turn at around the 60 minute mark, when OMG s Nexus turrets are destroyed by minions. OMG fights back by assaulting Fnatic s base head on, but a great 1v5 play by mid-laner xPeke sends them packing while top-laner sOAZ teleports into OMG s towerless base, and it looks like it might finally all be over.

Then, heartbreak for Fnatic, as their attack on OMG s Nexus leaves it with the tiniest sliver of health before the team gets beaten back. All it would have taken is one last hit and the game would have belonged to Fnatic, but OMG soon crowned themselves the victors with a final push against their opponent s Nexus. Never before have two pixels meant so much to so many.

Biggest play

Despite a humiliatingly close defeat at the hands of OMG earlier in the day, Fnatic didn t allow it to affect their performance. Their next game against America s LMQ was impeccably played, with Fnatic s ADC Rekkles at the top of his game. Between him and mid-laner xPeke the team ended the match with 26 kills versus LMQ s 8.

Five of Fnatic s kills came from the second penta kill of the World Championships, with Rekkles team mates setting up kills for him during a late game team fight. Rekkles ended the game with 18 kills, zero deaths and 4 assists, raising hopes of a Fnatic comeback leading to a quarterfinals spot. Sadly, it wasn t to be, but that doesn t negate the fact that this is the biggest play of Groups C & D of the World Championships.

The perfect game

Europe s Alliance may be out of the competition, but that isn t to say that they aren t an incredibly skilled team. The calibre of play shown during this week s group stages has been wonderful, and Alliance more than demonstrated their abilities during this match against Korea s Najin White Shield.

Watch as Alliance pulls out a super-rare perfect game. That is to say that during the 40-minute match, Najin White Shield weren t able to score a single kill, tower, dragon or baron. Alliance waltzed through the game completely untouchable, scoring the first win in the competition against the Korean team. It s a sight to behold and certainly not something I'm expecting to see again in the run up to the finals.

Biggest surprise

Surprises aplenty this week, but none more shocking than Brazil s Kabum taking a victory over Europe s Alliance on the final day. Much like Group A s wildcard entry, Turkey s Dark Passage, Kabum battled valiantly but seemed unlikely to collect any wins against the bigger boys from Korea, Europe and America. Many viewed their upcoming match against Alliance as a definite loss on a day when every win counted, but Kabum managed to pull off a surprise victory and score one for the underdogs.

This was especially shocking as Alliance came fresh from winning their perfect game against Korea s Najin White Shield. Perhaps complacency got the better of them. Whatever it was, Kabum s win caused quite an upset in the standings and ultimately led to the removal of Alliance from the competition. Kabum s impact on the standings ended up being huge.

Equally surprising was Fnatic s first match against Korean powerhouse Samsung Blue. After Samsung White s perfect record last week, it seemed like their Blue cousins would sail through with similar results. They almost did, but Fnatic were able to score a win. So far they remain the only ones able to do so.

Bonus fun: We called it. The return of jungle Rammus! Alliance s Shook brought back the roly-poly armadillo for one last fight in a match against Cloud 9. Could this spark some Rammus copycats in the quarterfinals and beyond? Probably not, to be honest, but we can dream.

The ace that shook the standings

America s Cloud 9 came into the last day of Groups with the daunting prospect of having to defeat two worthy opponents in order to secure their quarterfinals spot. The standings were such that there was a very real possibility of a three-way tie for first place. Luckily for Cloud 9, Europe s Alliance unexpectedly lost to Brazil s Kabum, making Cloud 9 s path to finals that little bit smoother.

Their match against Korea s Najin White Shield was guaranteed to result in an additional tiebreaker game at the end of the day. A win here meant C9 and NWS would later battle for first place, while a loss would lead to a tiebreaker against Alliance to secure second place. Which just goes to show how closely matched the teams have been this week.

Najin White Shield had Cloud 9 on the ropes for a lot of the early game, but the American team managed to fight back and demonstrate the wonderful team synergy they re known for. A skillfully fought team fight resulted in an ace that allowed C9 to walk into NWS s base and take the game. Meanwhile, Alliance watched backstage as their hopes for a quarterfinal spot crumbled around them.

Samsung Blue s Spirit is MVP

My MVP is a member of the almost-undefeated Korean team Samsung Blue. Jungler Spirit has the highest KDA of groups C & D and has a consistency across his games that almost makes him unremarkable compared to the likes of Rekkles, xPeke and Shook. The high highs of those players are counterbalanced by their low lows, which may help to explain why they have all now left the competition.

But KDA isn t everything and it s Spirit s (ahem) spirit after Samsung Blue s defeat against Fnatic that really won me over. I ll never let you cry again , he said to a tearful Deft after the match. Just follow me . Such camaraderie is endearing. So too is Rekkles decision to approach Deft with a hug and words of encouragement. League of Legends may have the cuddliest professional scene on the planet. I wouldn t have it any other way.

This week we move into the quarterfinals, with one best-of-five match taking place per day between Friday and Monday. The brackets have been decided, with American teams Team Solo Mid and Cloud 9 each facing off against one of the Korean giants Samsung White and Blue. Next up is a Chinese showdown, with Star Horn Royal Club taking on Edward Gaming, before Korea s Najin White Shield goes head to head with China s OMG.

These matches won t just be a test of skill, but one of endurance as each day is likely to take upwards of five hours. That s a lot of quality League of Legends to look forward to.

Last year's

League of Legends

North American Collegiate Championship drew 540 teams from more than 300 schools across the US and Canada, which may well be what convinced Riot Games to break things down a bit for the 2014-15 season. This year's competition will be divided amongst four continental regions, creatively named North, South, East, and West, and will span the entire academic year.

Riot has

announced

that this season's NACC qualifying events will be run by four "community partners":

Ivy League of Legends

(IvyLOL),

Collegiate StarLeague

(CSL),

TeSPA

, and

WellPlayed Productions

. Each of them will run league-format qualifiers to award one playoff spot per region—16 in total—who will then battle for regional titles. Once the final four are settled, they'll duke it out for the NACC crown in front of a live audience at an event in Los Angeles, currently expected to take place in April or May of 2015.

There's more on the line than just fame and glory, too: Each member of the first place team will earn $30,000 in scholarship money, the second-place finishers will each take home $15,000, while the third and fourth place team members will get $7500 each. Riot is looking into covering other educational expenses for winners who are on full-ride scholarships or have already paid for college.

IvyLOL and CSL are taking registrations now and will continue to do so until October 16, TeSPA registrations will begin on January 15, 2015 and will run until February 13, and WellPlayed will open its doors on February 23 and continue taking sign-ups until March 5. Details, regional breakdowns and other such information is up now at the

League of Legends NACC FAQ

; this is also probably a good time to remind everyone that Riot recently announced that "toxic players" will be

banned from ranked queues

and earning end-of-season rewards. So do your school proud: Play hard, but play nice, too.

Last year's League of Legends North American Collegiate Championship drew 540 teams from more than 300 schools across the US and Canada, which may well be what convinced Riot Games to break things down a bit for the 2014-15 season. This year's competition will be divided amongst four continental regions, creatively named North, South, East, and West, and will span the entire academic year.

Riot has announced that this season's NACC qualifying events will be run by four "community partners": Ivy League of Legends (IvyLOL), Collegiate StarLeague (CSL), TeSPA, and WellPlayed Productions. Each of them will run league-format qualifiers to award one playoff spot per region 16 in total who will then battle for regional titles. Once the final four are settled, they'll duke it out for the NACC crown in front of a live audience at an event in Los Angeles, currently expected to take place in April or May of 2015.

There's more on the line than just fame and glory, too: Each member of the first place team will earn $30,000 in scholarship money, the second-place finishers will each take home $15,000, while the third and fourth place team members will get $7500 each. Riot is looking into covering other educational expenses for winners who are on full-ride scholarships or have already paid for college.

IvyLOL and CSL are taking registrations now and will continue to do so until October 16, TeSPA registrations will begin on January 15, 2015 and will run until February 13, and WellPlayed will open its doors on February 23 and continue taking sign-ups until March 5. Details, regional breakdowns and other such information is up now at the League of Legends NACC FAQ; this is also probably a good time to remind everyone that Riot recently announced that "toxic players" will be banned from ranked queues and earning end-of-season rewards. So do your school proud: Play hard, but play nice, too.

For as long as League of Legends players are mean, Riot Games will continue to punish them. Following its

clamp down on player toxicity

back in July, the studio has been testing

a new disciplinary system

which denies offenders access to ranked play. Dubbed Ranked Restrictions, the new measures are currently being rolled out to North America and European test servers.

What does this mean to you? Well, nothing if you're a polite and friendly sort of person. But if you're not and have demonstrated this in League of Legends, then you'll be blocked from queuing for ranked matches until you've proven how reformed you are in a certain number of Normal Draft games.

Not only that, but if you're a Ranked Restricted player then your use of chat will be restricted in any other queue. Again, this will last for as long as your restriction to Normal Draft games is enforced, the length of which Riot hasn't specified. There will be a final evaluation for players, though.

To really drive the point home, player toxicity will result in longer term effects than simply not being able to play for a period of time. "We've determined that Ranked Rewards should reward positive sportsmanship just as much as they reward great play," the announcement read. "so the most negative players who are Ranked Restricted at the end of the season will be ineligible to earn ranked end of season rewards such as the loading screen borders or Victorious Morgana champion skin."

So there you go. Be nice or else. While you're here, you might as well check out our extensive coverage of the

League of Legends 2014 World Championship

.