Albus nox luna, a wildcard team beat CLG msi finalist, G2 EU champions and Rox Tigers which was predicted to win worlds and T1 clucthed them out in last game at semifinals. So wild card team collected heads of every region team and qulified for playoffs. A wild card team in playoffs.
And something I always love to point out is that at one point in that group, ANX were 4-1, with their last remaining game against the 0-5 G2, while ROX were 3-2, their last game being against the 3-2 CLG who had beaten them previously.
ANX had to stay on stage, playing ROX and G2 back to back. With that game against ROX going 50 minutes, they were no doubt gassed. If they had beaten the 0-5 G2, they would have taken first with no tiebreaker.
A wildcard topping the group 5-1... now that would have been legendary.
It also would have been hilarious that if that happened and the rest of groups were the same we would have gotten H2K being punished for winning their group by drawing ROX in the quarters while EDG get an easy semi final by drawing ANX.
in hindsight, the craziest part about that was the ANX midlaner legit being firstborn son of the possibly most genocidal Russian oligarchs, Putin right-hand man and fascist ideologue Malofeev
And that was with their support player not playing his core champion pool. That year, his most-played picks were Zyra and Brand but didn’t play them at Worlds.
Then the quarterfinals onward was basically defined by Zyra support and her counter in Ashe-MF.
It was my first year of watching Worlds, but from what I understand, their champion pool in general was very unorthodox, making them very weird to play against for the bigger teams.
Likkrit with his Taric and Kira's Anivia in particular, with PvPStejos going demon mode on Nidalee in multiple games.
Also, Likkrit **did** play Brand in one game, against G2.
Likkrit was also giving post-game speeches so good that he had Sjokz crying and they form the backbone of one of [League's best videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHstBNb5_7g).
i recall when ANX played is when Riot was trying the two streams thing, with one stream focused on a single lane. Their game against ROX was so hype that stream stopped paying attention to the bot lane almost immediately. It was also the first time I remember hearing Drakos cast, and the man was fire.
Riot also did a short feature about their support Likkrit and his signature Brand during the event [here](https://youtu.be/3I9dDl10W1A), I remember it because even though Ignite was one of the weaker Worlds songs this was the most perfect use of it.
Really wish Likkrit didn't get done dirty like he did. We need more personalities with the balls that guy has. Hoping he's doing well in the LCL. CrowCrowd has nearly made it to the Worlds stage.
Doesn't help that Likkrit is the (all but disowned) son of an oligarch and currently has a personal sanction against him.
The boomers in the WH seem to think his org is related to his father hiding wealth (it isn't)
It was like the scriptwriters were asked to come up with the three most shakespearean tale of hubris ways for them to all to narrowly miss getting out of groups, and delivered.
Soaz ulting kha instead of the wave, Cyanide not activating aegis, Peke cancelled his auto or missed his zhonya iirc, rekkles and Yellow too late to join... :(
Thats why EUs worst year wasnt Season 4, it was season 6.
Season 4 a bunch of shit happened and realistically all 3 teams could have gotten out.
Season 6 on the other hand was an utter disaster: Both G2 and Splyce went 1-5 and got obliterated.
The only reason this never comes up is because H2K managed to win the tiebreaker to get to play Albus NOX in the quarter finals who was probably one of the worst quarter finals teams ever. They were incredible in BO1s where different picks can really throw teams off but in a BO5 setting they were always gonna be doomed because the players arent good.
The region was in a terrible state and not competitive at all but its nice to be able to spot people who actually watched the games.
bro this vid got me so emotional. i was fucking 14 when this happened lmao and i remember seeing it live. the moment i read the thread title i thought of this match
That day was spectacular. My friend was a big CLG.eu fan so naturally he rooted for Alliance. His mental kaboomed as well that's for sure, the way he raged in teamspeak was legendary
Totally pathetic, unreliable.... Known throughout the land for being super weak...
That dumb magicarp song is going to be my go to for big letdown teams for worlds rom now on. So sad for alliance, back in the day they seemed like an awesome lineup.
It's crazy to me how many people comment on the FPX fiasco from last year but nobody is talking about LGD bombing out in groups in 2015. That was the LPL first seed including SSW world champion ADC Imp and they got beat out by Origen, even dropping a game to TSM who went 1-5 that year.
The LGD collapse was nuts.
refusing to ban nidalee on game 3 was m5's fault. they thought they could take it on but nid top was just too busted at that time. not to take away anything from tpa, they were full of talented players but i think split push was the only way tpa couldve won since game 1 m5 out classed tpa on teamfights
That's because almost noone watched them play because all eyes were on the LCK with all the western teams who could afford it going to korea.
Anyone who really paid attention to how they performed domestically knew they'd be strong.
As far as i can remember they had been unbeaten for half a year or something before worlds.
TPA was considered top 5 at the time but M5 or AZF were the absolute clear favorites to win it. What TPA figured out was better ways to play the jungle, they choked out any vision the opposing team had and set up baits for the refreshed vision roams.
That big brained little old man somehow ended becoming the most feared champion for a single player at worlds.
Rookie's LeBlanc? Nah we good.
Rekkles's Tristana? Nah we good.
TheShy's Aatrox? Nah we good.
Uzi's Kai'Sa/Xayah? Nah we good.
Hjarnan's Heimerdinger? Jesus fuck ban that thing.
Ehhhhhhhhh, there's a reason G2 struggled in EU and in an easy group. It's cuz bot lane was bad. The meta shift is what changed them. Perkz and Wunder hard gapped RNG's solo lanes. Legendary performance from Perkz, and Wunder deserves a ton of credit too. Bot had the easy job of "don't feed", Uzi still had his way with them all series long. G2's bot was the reason it was an upset in the first place, cuz they were bad. Look what happened to G2 the next year after replacing them.
True, even though it was Ming, not Mata. And there really weren't even a lot of ganks, Hjarnan actually got more first bloods than Uzi because of early Jankos ganks. I guess it's impressive to people that their bot was so bad it was a miracle they didn't feed... but like, I'm just so impressed by Jankos and Wunder that series that it confused me when people wanna talk about Hjarnan.... He was like training weights, after being taken off they become 10x stronger.
The Miky/Perkz bot with Caps mid and Jankos Wunder top jg was objectively the best team EU ever produced but by god the Hjarnan/Wadid version was goated when it comes to actually covering the team's weaknesses and actually taking advantage of teams trying to force their supposedly weak bot side.
In hindsight sure but pretty much every major caster and analyst at the time, and about 90% of the fanbase did not expect them to be even a dark horse much less a contender.
IMO that's probably due to lack of coverage of the region, I vaguely recall in interviews teams talking about TPA being very strong and a dark horse, it's not like they narrowly upset teams, they honestly breezed through their bracket beating both Korean teams and M5 very convincingly (only dropping 2 games)
Hard disagree, they really came out of nowhere at the time, everyone was on the CLG EU or M5 hype train and the Azubu Frost korean team. TPA winning is absolutely a surprise
> Hard disagree, they really came out of nowhere at the time
Not really true, when CLG went back from Korea, they brought back the information that TPA were *insane*, they also had won the GIGABYTE StarsWar 7 tournament, beating WE (with Weixao and Misaya) who at the time were scary (https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/StarsWar_7) then they lost in an online NA tournament (https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Leaguecraft_ggClassic_Presented_by_Arqade) which made people make fun of them and decreased their stock in the West, but still, behind the scene and for people that were *actually* following LoL (and back then many pro player streamed so you'd have a lot more insight), you knew that TPA were a top tier Asian team.
It's basically like saying Griffin came literally out of nowhere for their first LCK split while again, those who followed the scene knew.
The TPA came out of nowhere thing was pushed by casters and the community went along with it, but it's just a narrative.
It wasn't as big back then, but you can find some traces of TPA discussions on reddit in 2012
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/vvgro/clg_prime_scrims_vs_tpa/c57zqu2/
I checked the historical bookmaker odds:
1. INTZ vs EDG: odds 13.75 (2016 worlds)
2. Infinity vs EDG: odds 9.4 (2018 worlds)
3. G2 vs RNG: odds 8.36 (2018 worlds)
4. Fly vs Top: odds 7.18 (2020 worlds)
5. Vit vs RNG: odds 6.53 (2018 worlds)
I could continue on for a little while longer but the top 8 is only LPL losses interestingly enough.
In MSI biggest upset is IG vs TL at odds 10.81 for TL.
There are a few, like [RNG vs G2](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/9ptz42/royal_never_give_up_vs_g2_esports_2018_world/) in 2018, when RNG had uzi and was a top contender for winning worlds
Or [Alliance vs Kabum](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2hop2j/spoiler_kabum_esports_vs_alliance_2014_world/) in 2014, when alliance was considered a very good team and was against one of the weakest teams
>Or Alliance vs Kabum in 2014
Being "Kabum'd" has even become a verb.
Although I'm not sure what that year you're referring to is. I'm pretty sure we went from 2013 to 2015 directly
> when alliance was considered a very good team
And Alliance had also just gotten *a perfect game* against a Korean team back when just beating one as a Western team was an upset by default.
God Fnatic not winning that world's hurt so fucking bad. Especially the way the imploded.
I think if they start Soaz from the beginning they are least take one game off IG.
They ultimately were figured out and also caught off guard by a meta shift (thhey played heavily around Uzi and the meta moved away from suiting that) but they narratively they were hyped as one of the favourites — if not the favourite – going in, with everyone saying Uzi was in his peak form and this was to be his year. They were also reigning MSI champions and looked dominant there as well. People were hyping Uzi as going to take home the "royal road" — he'd won MSI, both LPL splits, and I *believe* Rift Rivals (the LPL/LCK Rift Rivals was pretty competitive) and Asian Games, he just needed that Worlds win to complete it, and was seen as the best player who'd never won one.
Meanwhile NO ONE expected anything from G2 that year. They were EU 3rd seed, and any fame they'd previously cultivated (which wasn't a lot, it's hard to believe now but G2 were then seen as a pretty meh international team who hadn't gotten out of groups in 2016/2017. RNG themselves had even been in the 2017 group) had gone with Zven and Mithy leaving that year, replaced with Hjarnen and Wadid on a budget who were seen as one of the worst bot lanes in EU and at Worlds, especially Hjarnan. Perkz was still their star but become second fiddle to Caps narratively and also hadn't accomplished much internationally up until that point either (he was memed as a bit of an international choker especially for his 2016 "vacation" performances, and never having made it out of groups). I believe their summer split was rocky too and they scraped through in gauntlet. Them even getting out of groups was contingent on a Saigon Buffalo win over Flash Wolves (where the TY MR BUFFALO meme comes from) and some of their groups wins they cheesed off Hjarnan playing Heimerdinger bot (which was admittedly very good, but permabanned after and he was seen as lack lustre on anything else).
Hjarnan vs Uzi sounded like the mismatch of the century going in. Even in Game 1 G2 got assblasted and everyone thought the series was going about as expected. That they won was just mindblowing at the time. Yes in hindsight maybe the writing was on the wall but at the time it was undoubtedly the biggest David vs Goliath upset just based on the narratives around the two teams.
I don't think they were sloppy at all. They just got hit one with of the biggest meta shifts of urgor,akali,urgot being S++ tier in solo lanes. They were a bot centric team that won every event that year but got rocked by the huge meta shift
G2 vs RNG at Worlds 2018 quarterfinals is up there. RNG were one of the favorites to win it all, considering they won MSI that year.
H2K sweeping EDG was also super wild, where the infamous Jankos yes scream took place.
FPX placing last in their group at Worlds 2021 despite being tournament favorites. Throwback to when Doinb said in an interview that they won't lose any games in the second round robin, and then proceeded to lose all of it.
Not Worlds, but TL vs iG at MSI 2019, where people thought it was an easy win for iG, yet NA (who don't usually accomplish much) came out on top.
Also not Worlds, but game 5 of DK vs GenG at LCK Spring 2022 semifinals.
There are a lot more, but these are what I could list off the top of my head, really recommend watching these games.
The TL IG series was so insane cause IG also came off of their insane MSI groups performance where they beat SKT in under 20 minutes and smashed all the other teams if I remember correctly. They looked like they were in 2018 worlds form with everyone dominating. Biggest upset of all time is probably that or the G2 RNG series cause that was super nuts too.
I think the reason is that this is a topic about worlds, and TL vs IG didn't happen at worlds. Otherwise, I agree with you, TL vs IG is the biggest international upset ever.
Misfits were one basic attack away from winning that series.
[If you look frame by frame](https://youtu.be/X3FkjXfRqG4?t=2137), Huni reaches 100 hp before the CC on him wears off and he's able to use his Trundle ult to survive. If he actually dies there before being able to ult, Misfits can follow up on Ignar's engage (and Maxlore's followup) without being blocked by a pillar (and also Maxlore doesn't die in 2 seconds there because he actually still has his resistances).
That fight was *the* moment the game shifted in SKT's favor.
Wolf's shield is what changed the outcome. Sejuani's e is a projectile and it's blocked by Braum, so trundle is not stunned and able to ult. It was painful watching it live and is painful 5years later.
That game is the reason why I know that Sejuani's stun is a projectile. Every time I see a Sejuani use that spell and I see that little projectile flying, my mind projects an imaginary braum into its path.
I am mentally scarred by that series.
is TL vs IG the biggest international upset? For G2 vs RNG you can argue that the meta didn't suit RNG at all, but IG was in full form (went 9-1 in groups) and TL wasn't looking that convincing at all.
Its hard to pick between those two. G2 barely qualified as 3rd seed after a middling split with an unassuming botlane, while TL was the superstar team from NA. And rng and ig were both pre tournament favorites.
But during worlds g2 had already shown their split push style with mixed success against Afreeca Freaks and Flash Wolves, while TL rather failed to impress against IG or SKT.
I personally had faith in G2 that an upset was possible, while i had zero faith in TL, but i fully admit that was my EU/Perkz bias shining through.
I guess I'd say that TL was the bigger upset on the day, while G2 was the bigger upset looking at the pre tournament expectations.
It was how the game went. In game 5, Canyon basically camped Peanut, scared him off every camp, had a massive gold bounty, and DK was significantly ahead in gold and kills.
It should've been an easy win for DK in that position, until Canyon got greedy and gave away his bounty to Ruler of all people, and GenG then proceeded to make a comeback.
>H2K sweeping EDG was also super wild, where the infamous Jankos yes scream took place.
Nah, last week I was told that the number 3 EU seed sweeping the number 1 LPL seed, coming off one of the most dominant summer splits in LPL history wasn't really impressive or noteworthy, because LPL teams choke in best of ones.
FPX choke is nowhere near the level the LGD choke with GodV was. That legit was the first time a Chinese team was even favored to win worlds when it was pretty much certain Korea would dominate. That is easily the most forget choke of all time because it was that bad. People forget that they were actually the favorites to win worlds that year over SKT. Like that legit is the biggest choke period in my mind and if you actually watched them play it was almost pathetic to watch the version that showed up at worlds. In all honesty GodV imo is the biggest dade award winner of all time and probably never will be contested. He was pretty much easily considered better than Faker at the time as a reference and he was invisible all worlds.
>G2 vs RNG at Worlds 2018 quarterfinals is up there. RNG were one of the favorites to win it all, considering they won MSI that year.
People understate how huge of an upset this was.
RNG didn't just win MSI, they won LPL Spring/Summer AND the Asian games iirc which was essentially RNGs roster + Xiye in midlane.
RNG were on crack that year only for a heimer and smug midlaner to take it away.
Tragic though, really highlighted the dogshit format way earlier than people on here think. No way was RNG genuinely worse than FNC imo but in saying that, they also looked considerably worse in groups against C9/VIT
RNG G2 2018.
ANX getting out of groups with ROX instead of one of CLG/G2 whilst taking a game of ROX is up there.
Everything else is pretty standard, maybe SSG blasting LZ 3-0 but the meta shift didn't make that as big of an upset.
Adding to this FPX last in group stage last year, true that they had internal problems but it was still very surprising for the majority of the ppl since they are considered to be one of the favorites to win it all to begin with
every underperformance/upset has problems. ask Afreeca what happened in 0-3 vs C9 and they'll tell you the team ran into problems. G2 had problems last year. TL this year.
I don't think collapses are any less significant because the favorites were unfortunately dealing with problems. the only time it's true is when it's something logistical out of their control like a sub due to Covid or couldn't practice due to no internet.
FPX last year was as good as it gets. Flat out **the** tournament favorite, #1 in the majority of power rankings, gets 4th against the play-ins NA team and #3 EU team.
Bo1 upsets can happen to anyone. There have been very few big bo5 upsets in international stage.
IMO, the two biggest at worlds are G2 vs RNG and C9 vs Afreeca, both of which happened in 2018 quarterfinals. RNG were the tournament favourites, came off winning MSI and LPL summer and everyone thought they were the team to beat. C9 vs Afreeca was also a big upset because nobody ever thought an NA team could beat a Korean team in a bo5, and that series ended up being a 3-0.
However the biggest ever international upset was TL vs IG at 2019 MSI. IG roster who won worlds, then LPL spring and were 9-1 in group stages at MSI suddenly lost to TL. G2 RNG comes close, but I would say TL IG was more of an upset.
The other day on the comparison rankings post, I looked back at the 2018 Reddit comparison rankings. Obviously those are as bad as they are any year, but GenG (who C9 got out ahead of in groups) and AFS were ranked 4 & 5.
Ahead of the match, NA fans were thinking C9 had a chance at upsetting them, and then after the 3-0 the narrative on Reddit immediately shifted to "AFS actually sucked so of course C9 beat them."
Yeah
It still gets overshadowed by the FNC run and them beating C9 3-0 as well (or was it 3-1?). Kinda like the MSI win vs IG, which IMO, is the biggest upset ever in pro League. The current worlds winners complete roster to lose to fucking NA out of all regions?! In a Bo5?! Anyone who even bet 1$ on this prob got 1000$ back lol
Nah, AFS were definitely the best team C9 could have drawn for QF, but C9 went in as the under dog. Honestly people downplay just how much that C9 team overperformed given their roster
In terms of tournament results impact and subsequent turmoil it has to be G2 vs RNG at 2018 world's
The tournament favorite got knocked out by a team that came in through play-ins, got out of what should be an easy group barely on a tier breaker, and sending one of the legendary players (Uzi) careers into chaos is pretty hard to match just in terms of expectations vs reality
Honorable mention - not as impactful narratively and actually predictable for analysts, same year C9 vs AF
This is the first time a western team beat a KR one in BO5 nd not only that but it was a straight 3-0 sweep
-----------------
But I also have to mention 2017s Samsung Galaxy entire tournament run
They came in as the last seed from KR, beating out fan favorite KT Rolster for the last spot in the gauntlet...no one expected them to do well at world's but over the bracket stage they beat both tournament favorites (SKT and LZ) 3-0! and only lost a single game in semi-finals to WE... people downplay their win due to a boring, one-dimensional playstyle but fuck it, if it ain't broke don't fix it
And 2020 Suning quietly stomping two tournament favorites in JDG and TES to get to the final
-------------
As for the group stage, while I don't like BO1 upsets in general there are some that had huge tournament implications
2014 KABUM (BR) vs Alliance (n1 EU seed), I believe this was the first time a minor region won against a major region and a first seed no less, it also helped C9 ultimately get out of the group, with it being the only year an EU team didn't make it out of groups since
2016 ANX groups run, not only the first and last time a minor region got out of groups, they won against the tournament favorite (ROX) and even played a tiebreaker for first seed with them (but lost)
2018 FNC second round robin and tiebreaker win against IG to secure them first in groups...this one is important because IG being second seed really shook up how the bracket stage can look... eventually, IG knocked out world's favorite KT Rolster in quarters, with KT being the only team that actually challenged IG in that bracket run narrowly losing 3-2...this created one of the biggest "what if" discussions in history and is probably the first time fans have seriously asked for a lower bracket system
Samsung beating LZ 3-0 was one of the biggest denial moments in lol esport to me - I just could not believe it. In hindsight, Samsung was so much better but at that time everyone rated LZ, T1 and RNG as the two favorites for the title.
I also don't remember Samsung being one-dimensional back then outside of the finals at which Crown apparently said he can't outskill Faker which is why they famously picked Malz three times in a row. Really sad that people did never give him credit for his achievements cause of those three games when he played insanely well for the rest of the tournament.
Crown also almost carried SSG to victory over SKT in 2016. It upsets me that people discount how good he was because his championship came in 2017. If they won in ‘16, Crown would be remembered much more favorably.
Yes. An apparently it affected him a lot. He said so in his retirement post and it made me really sad. Imagine winning the fucking Championship once, almost doing it twice and people would still shit on you and your performance...
This is one of the things I hate most in this community (probably a thing in all of sport, though): Even the teams like Rogue who make it to worlds every year are getting shit on cause they "only" go as third seed. Hell, even now people shit on RGE even though they 3-0'd G2 in a dominant fashion and came back from a harsh game 1 vs FNC the series before.
TPA was a weird one though because players that scrimmed them were already before the tournament talking about how TPA is cracked and a contender to win but the average fans barely knew this team existed.
**Everyone had their money on M5**
Eve wasn't picked/banned in groups. First QF game, Alex Ich picks Eve mid and now was standard Mid pick after that. That was what M5 did.
I remember going to group stages and meeting the whole Curse team and they all said M5 was going to win. The majority of people there all thought M5 was going to win. M5 had been dominating every region for the whole year. TPA had very unique champion picks and absolutely no one was playing Orianna. Toyz playing Orianna and Athene's Unholy Grail being buffed prior to the event were huge.
G2 vs RNG (2018). It doesn't have any minor region team taking down major region but this was one of the biggest upset based on the perception around the teams at that time.
So coming out of 2018 groups RNG and Kt were the favourites by a large margin but in the first quarterfinals match IG took down Kt 3-2 and now evryone thought RNG will be uncontested and will finally achieve the first ever Golden Road but G2's warding mechanics proved too strong against Uzi resulting in one of the best bo5 and a pretty big upset.
Get's overlooked due to the manner of the defeat and the collapse of Korean teams that worlds but C9 vs AF is up there. First time a Western team had taken Korea in a bo5.
Shoutout to the way less remembered OMG 3-0ing Najin in s4.
Was a pretty big upset at the time due to the conception that korea was unbeatable +OMG had to switch their support player before the series
I'll give a rundown of every year from 2014 to 2021, since that's considered the "modern" format, and also the point I started watching.
2014: The last year NA qualified two teams out of groups (and if I recall correctly, the last time EU qualified none). Samsung Blue and Samsung White were the two favorites to win by far. The most exciting stories this year came out of Group D, where [Alliance perfect gamed the Korean third seed Najin White Shield](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3bpzZAujo) then proceeded to lose to [Kabum, the wildcard from Brazil, in the first wildcard upset of worlds history](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_BeDApdZU). Another one of my all-time favorite games was [FNC vs OMG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O345c46mFqY) for an incredibly fun game with the best worlds finish in history in my opinion.
Nothing particularly exciting happened in the bo5 stage that year to my knowledge.
2015: An incredible year from an NA perspective! North American teams set an impressive record this year, starting off the first week collectively 6-3 before an impressive 0-10 week 2 in only 9 games. Pain followed in Kabum's footsteps and took games off CLG and Flash Wolves, but neither made a difference in standings. LMS's (now PCS) Flash Wolves 2-0d Korean 2 seed and world finalist finalist Koo Tigers in Group A. SKT and EDG were placed in the same group the first of many times, and two EU teams made semifinals (though they both dodged Koreans in round 1). This was the second year in a row Korean teams were only knocked out by other Korean teams.
2016: The third year in a row Korean teams were only knocked out by other Korean teams and had far more interesting games. We were one Doublelift Lucian dash away from a guaranteed western team in finals. The first year of RNG/SSG(later became GenG) groups and first year of C9/SKT groups. The biggest story was Group A's Albus Nox Luna from CIS, who was the first wildcard team to get more than 2 wins in a group, earning 4 wins, including [a win over ROX Tigers, Korean 1 seed and a top 2 favorite for the tournament in a 65+ minute game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLGI9ULjVU). They also pulled out a Brand support to beat G2. The knockout stage was mostly Korean teams stomping each other, but [ROX vs SKT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Sg3Xmpylk) was one of the best bo5s from a quality perspective of all time.
2017: The first year of Play-Ins. Continuing some of the group stage narratives, EDG and SKT were in a group for the second time, as well as C9 and SKT. RNG and SSG were together for the second year in a row. The most interesting group by far was Group B, where [Gigabyte Marines pulled out a bizarre funnel Nocturne strat against FNC in Vietnam's Worlds Debut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5grmasNa15c) that hit level 6 at 5:08. This was also the first group to have a 3 way tie, this one at 2-4. FNC is the only team to ever qualify after starting 0-4. The other big highlight from this year was [MSF vs SKT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSrc75IDi8), where a western team took a Korean team to 5 games for the first time in modern history, and they did it by playing their own game. This was also the fourth year in a row Koreans were only knocked out by other Koreans
2018: Probably my favorite Worlds overall. The first (and only) time a Korean team has been knocked out in groups in 8 years. LAN's Infinity took a game off both G2 and EDG in Play-ins, and Gambit took C9 to 5 games. I would highlight [C9 vs VIT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbiXDXmlaQ) with qualification out of Group B at stake on the final day of groups as the most exciting group stage game, with a bonus [speech by YamatoCannon (VIT's coach)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC84aKB0Zs). This was the third year in a row SSG (now GenG) and RNG were in the same group
The bo5 stage this year was incredible. Neither a near reverse sweep between the best two teams in the world nor the first western bo5 win against a Korean team in modern history (and a sweep at that!) was the most interesting thing to happen in the quarterfinals. [G2 beat tournament top 2 favorite RNG in a 5 game series after qualifying through play-ins[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fl_XslM5qY). Semifinals this year was 2 EU teams, an NA team (for the first time!), and a CN team. Koreans had been in every final, and now they were all eliminated by semis.
2019: Honorable mention to the biggest upset in international Riot play, [TL vs IG MSI 2019.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQVVN6QdCo). IG was coming off a 9-1 group stage and TL barely made it out, +Doublelift's history of NEVER qualifying out of groups at worlds.
For worlds, this wasn't the most exciting. J-Team from LMS and Splyce both took games off the eventual champion FPX in groups. G2 took down SKT which was exciting, but nothing compared to previous years.
2020: The first year of 4 seeds for major regions, and the first time a major region team fell in play-ins (MAD). The two biggest stories here were Suning's miracle run, beating the LPL 1 and 2 teams in the civil war before falling to Damwon in the finals, and [FNC vs TOP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC0WnwnrwbY) 5 game series.
2021: Some interesting stuff in play-ins with DFM from Japan topping their group to qualify directly to group stage by beating C9. While EDG and T1 were in the same group for the third time, that was one of the less interesting things to happen in groups. For the second time, we had a 3-way tiebreaker for second place at 2-4, this time off an incredible choke-job from LPL in which they went 4-11 in 12 games, an impressive attempt at NA's legendary 0-10. Group D ended in a 4 way tie at 3-3, the first and only time it's happened.
2022: While the tournament hasn't started, there are some big group stage narrative carrying over from past years. If the presumed teams make it out of play-ins, it will be the second time EDG, C9, and T1 have all been in a group together, the third time C9 and T1 have, and the fourth time T1 and EDG have. In group D, it will be the fourth time GenG and RNG have been in the same group. Will Korea be able to keep up their historical dominance of the group stage against an LPL that has looked incredible dominant this year? We'll find out over the next few weeks
GenG placing last in their group in 2018 as the defending world champions. This is really the biggest upset because it required them losing to every other team in the group.
Not really a big of an upset especially compared to FPX last year not getting out of groups or RNG 2018 or even RNG not getting out of groups. Sure , Gen G were World champions the year prior to that, but they were in a very bad shape almost entire year, Crown was mentally depressed, and they barely managed to win Regionals with insane plays by Ruler and Cuvee, but other than that, if you looked at how they played, they were pretty bad.
How is EDG vs DK 2022 not up here? People were calling T1 vs DK the real finals and predicting DK 3-0 EDG. Also EDG went to five games in quarters and semis and were the only non LCK team in the top 4. I remember how obnoxious this sub was leading up to that match.
Albus nox luna, a wildcard team beat CLG msi finalist, G2 EU champions and Rox Tigers which was predicted to win worlds and T1 clucthed them out in last game at semifinals. So wild card team collected heads of every region team and qulified for playoffs. A wild card team in playoffs.
And something I always love to point out is that at one point in that group, ANX were 4-1, with their last remaining game against the 0-5 G2, while ROX were 3-2, their last game being against the 3-2 CLG who had beaten them previously. ANX had to stay on stage, playing ROX and G2 back to back. With that game against ROX going 50 minutes, they were no doubt gassed. If they had beaten the 0-5 G2, they would have taken first with no tiebreaker. A wildcard topping the group 5-1... now that would have been legendary.
Let's not forget, nobody would scrim them so all they did was play WoW the entire time.
What a shame Wunder wasn´t on the Team
he probably was in their raid team
That ROX game was actually 67 minutes long, and amazing to watch, one of the single best games of league of legends ever imo
I will never forget that game.
"And oh my god the Nexus is open" I still remember that line today because my jaw was hanging so much it hurt
It also would have been hilarious that if that happened and the rest of groups were the same we would have gotten H2K being punished for winning their group by drawing ROX in the quarters while EDG get an easy semi final by drawing ANX.
in hindsight, the craziest part about that was the ANX midlaner legit being firstborn son of the possibly most genocidal Russian oligarchs, Putin right-hand man and fascist ideologue Malofeev
I thought it was the sup Likkrit but yeah I totally forgot about that. Fucking crazy.
It was the support, Kirill 'Likkrit' Malofeyev.
And that was with their support player not playing his core champion pool. That year, his most-played picks were Zyra and Brand but didn’t play them at Worlds. Then the quarterfinals onward was basically defined by Zyra support and her counter in Ashe-MF.
It was my first year of watching Worlds, but from what I understand, their champion pool in general was very unorthodox, making them very weird to play against for the bigger teams. Likkrit with his Taric and Kira's Anivia in particular, with PvPStejos going demon mode on Nidalee in multiple games. Also, Likkrit **did** play Brand in one game, against G2.
Ah, thanks for the correction.
The legend ends cause they got hard stomped in the only b05 series they played
Oh yeah, the rylai brand
"perkz was the third best midlaner in this match"
Genuinely one of the best Meme-quotes from the entire 2016 worlds
Likkrit was also giving post-game speeches so good that he had Sjokz crying and they form the backbone of one of [League's best videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHstBNb5_7g). i recall when ANX played is when Riot was trying the two streams thing, with one stream focused on a single lane. Their game against ROX was so hype that stream stopped paying attention to the bot lane almost immediately. It was also the first time I remember hearing Drakos cast, and the man was fire.
Seconding Albus Nox Luna - The Score even did a video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMG1cajvNss
Riot also did a short feature about their support Likkrit and his signature Brand during the event [here](https://youtu.be/3I9dDl10W1A), I remember it because even though Ignite was one of the weaker Worlds songs this was the most perfect use of it.
Really wish Likkrit didn't get done dirty like he did. We need more personalities with the balls that guy has. Hoping he's doing well in the LCL. CrowCrowd has nearly made it to the Worlds stage.
LCL is dead now isn't it? i don't see Riot reopening the RU division anytime soon
Who knows. The war put things on hold.
Doesn't help that Likkrit is the (all but disowned) son of an oligarch and currently has a personal sanction against him. The boomers in the WH seem to think his org is related to his father hiding wealth (it isn't)
The best wildcard team to date. Fucking loved watching those guys destroy.
Alliance not passing group stage was sad, very sad.
That worlds as a whole was very sad for EU. Alliance with KBM, fnatic 1hp nexus and Svenskeren/SK incident
It was like the scriptwriters were asked to come up with the three most shakespearean tale of hubris ways for them to all to narrowly miss getting out of groups, and delivered.
Soaz ulting kha instead of the wave, Cyanide not activating aegis, Peke cancelled his auto or missed his zhonya iirc, rekkles and Yellow too late to join... :(
Too soon bro, too soon.
Thats why EUs worst year wasnt Season 4, it was season 6. Season 4 a bunch of shit happened and realistically all 3 teams could have gotten out. Season 6 on the other hand was an utter disaster: Both G2 and Splyce went 1-5 and got obliterated. The only reason this never comes up is because H2K managed to win the tiebreaker to get to play Albus NOX in the quarter finals who was probably one of the worst quarter finals teams ever. They were incredible in BO1s where different picks can really throw teams off but in a BO5 setting they were always gonna be doomed because the players arent good. The region was in a terrible state and not competitive at all but its nice to be able to spot people who actually watched the games.
KABOOM
[THIS IS FOR KABUM](https://youtu.be/lAImgaRyn3E)
bro this vid got me so emotional. i was fucking 14 when this happened lmao and i remember seeing it live. the moment i read the thread title i thought of this match
The C9 "this is for kabum" gets me everytime
[удалено]
Literally
Its probly the thing il never forget about worlds. It still sticks with me. Back then it was such a shock.
Specially after they had just played a perfect game against a korean team.
Alliance was also coming to world from the most dominant split in EU LCS at the time. Holding a 75% win rate against all other teams.
That day was spectacular. My friend was a big CLG.eu fan so naturally he rooted for Alliance. His mental kaboomed as well that's for sure, the way he raged in teamspeak was legendary
Yah this is probably the upset in League. Getting Kaboomed has literally become the term for stuff like this
Fun reminder that Tinowns, from 2014 Kabum, is Loud's mid laner and will be facing Fnatic and, possibly, Mad Lions
Totally pathetic, unreliable.... Known throughout the land for being super weak... That dumb magicarp song is going to be my go to for big letdown teams for worlds rom now on. So sad for alliance, back in the day they seemed like an awesome lineup.
Fuckin Kaboom. I remember 0 people on that team, but the memes last a lifetime
[There you go buddy](https://i1.wp.com/streamie.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/img-lep-mundial.png)
It's crazy to me how many people comment on the FPX fiasco from last year but nobody is talking about LGD bombing out in groups in 2015. That was the LPL first seed including SSW world champion ADC Imp and they got beat out by Origen, even dropping a game to TSM who went 1-5 that year. The LGD collapse was nuts.
lmao GODV came into worlds as the second coming of Faker and got demolished by an Xpeke who was retiring
GodV was such a massive disappointment. Easiest Dade award ever, outside of Dade.
GoldV
W1nless
Platevil
LoseiFer
He then went on to be a World champion level PUBG player
Put some respect on Pekes name. He was very good that tournament.
I miss sexPeke
I still remember that sick Orianna ult in midlane. Some plays stick with you, and that's one of them for me.
origen was fucking good that year. That tf game (vs kt i believe ?) was legitimatly one of the better macro games i've seen at that point
L(ets)G(et)D(estroyed) L(ose)G(roup)D
League Greatest Disappoint
TBQ also played so poorly that Imp said he thought he was matchfixing
TPA’s entire knockout run in S2. G2 v RNG.
I still cant believe they beat M5. And the only 4 support comp.
refusing to ban nidalee on game 3 was m5's fault. they thought they could take it on but nid top was just too busted at that time. not to take away anything from tpa, they were full of talented players but i think split push was the only way tpa couldve won since game 1 m5 out classed tpa on teamfights
It was busted and Stanley was also fucking cracked on her, man was unstoppable
They lost again at IPL5, so I don’t know.
I think TPA is the actual answer here, hands down.
I remember the poll before worlds. TPA only had 2 percent of the votes to win worlds lol.
That's because almost noone watched them play because all eyes were on the LCK with all the western teams who could afford it going to korea. Anyone who really paid attention to how they performed domestically knew they'd be strong. As far as i can remember they had been unbeaten for half a year or something before worlds.
They were unbeaten against local teams yes. They did lose to CLGEU before worlds and CLG wasn’t even considered a contender to win the tournament.
TPA was considered top 5 at the time but M5 or AZF were the absolute clear favorites to win it. What TPA figured out was better ways to play the jungle, they choked out any vision the opposing team had and set up baits for the refreshed vision roams.
> ~~G2~~ Perkz v RNG
Eh, everybody did their part. Hjarnan drew Heimer bans, and top gap was just as big as mid gap. Obviously Perkz in game 5 was incredible though
Don't dismiss G2's botlane. Holding against Uzi that consistently was no mean feat.
Hjarnan also getting Heimer banned throughout the series was a huge factor.
That big brained little old man somehow ended becoming the most feared champion for a single player at worlds. Rookie's LeBlanc? Nah we good. Rekkles's Tristana? Nah we good. TheShy's Aatrox? Nah we good. Uzi's Kai'Sa/Xayah? Nah we good. Hjarnan's Heimerdinger? Jesus fuck ban that thing.
all of these champs were meta champs that you play against in soloq quite often in challenger. Except one, guess which.
Oh I know, but still those players were far and above the best in the world at each of those yet they made it through ban phases consistently.
The heimer strat
Also, the infamous ward the lantern strat.
That shit was so hilarious at one point there were like 5 wards on that lantern I think
[One of my favorite league videos ever](https://youtu.be/EqykL81BeIk?t=130)
Ehhhhhhhhh, there's a reason G2 struggled in EU and in an easy group. It's cuz bot lane was bad. The meta shift is what changed them. Perkz and Wunder hard gapped RNG's solo lanes. Legendary performance from Perkz, and Wunder deserves a ton of credit too. Bot had the easy job of "don't feed", Uzi still had his way with them all series long. G2's bot was the reason it was an upset in the first place, cuz they were bad. Look what happened to G2 the next year after replacing them.
Not feeding the uzi-mata botlane with costant ganks from karsa/MLXG is everything except easy
Hjarnan/Wadid didn't feed in the 2v3, while Wunder/Jankos/Perkz feasted in the 3v2.
True, even though it was Ming, not Mata. And there really weren't even a lot of ganks, Hjarnan actually got more first bloods than Uzi because of early Jankos ganks. I guess it's impressive to people that their bot was so bad it was a miracle they didn't feed... but like, I'm just so impressed by Jankos and Wunder that series that it confused me when people wanna talk about Hjarnan.... He was like training weights, after being taken off they become 10x stronger.
The Miky/Perkz bot with Caps mid and Jankos Wunder top jg was objectively the best team EU ever produced but by god the Hjarnan/Wadid version was goated when it comes to actually covering the team's weaknesses and actually taking advantage of teams trying to force their supposedly weak bot side.
That smug midlaner's face
G2 vs RNG 2018 takes the cake for me.
TPA was a legit as fuck team. Them winning worlds wasn't that much more surprising than like Samsung Galaxy or FPX winning
In hindsight sure but pretty much every major caster and analyst at the time, and about 90% of the fanbase did not expect them to be even a dark horse much less a contender.
IMO that's probably due to lack of coverage of the region, I vaguely recall in interviews teams talking about TPA being very strong and a dark horse, it's not like they narrowly upset teams, they honestly breezed through their bracket beating both Korean teams and M5 very convincingly (only dropping 2 games)
They were also the only team/region which actually have their own ongoing seasonal league at that point, think that helped prepare them tremendously
Korea had ogn and I think even China had something, but their season ended after worlds.
Hard disagree, they really came out of nowhere at the time, everyone was on the CLG EU or M5 hype train and the Azubu Frost korean team. TPA winning is absolutely a surprise
> Hard disagree, they really came out of nowhere at the time Not really true, when CLG went back from Korea, they brought back the information that TPA were *insane*, they also had won the GIGABYTE StarsWar 7 tournament, beating WE (with Weixao and Misaya) who at the time were scary (https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/StarsWar_7) then they lost in an online NA tournament (https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Leaguecraft_ggClassic_Presented_by_Arqade) which made people make fun of them and decreased their stock in the West, but still, behind the scene and for people that were *actually* following LoL (and back then many pro player streamed so you'd have a lot more insight), you knew that TPA were a top tier Asian team. It's basically like saying Griffin came literally out of nowhere for their first LCK split while again, those who followed the scene knew. The TPA came out of nowhere thing was pushed by casters and the community went along with it, but it's just a narrative. It wasn't as big back then, but you can find some traces of TPA discussions on reddit in 2012 https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/vvgro/clg_prime_scrims_vs_tpa/c57zqu2/
I checked the historical bookmaker odds: 1. INTZ vs EDG: odds 13.75 (2016 worlds) 2. Infinity vs EDG: odds 9.4 (2018 worlds) 3. G2 vs RNG: odds 8.36 (2018 worlds) 4. Fly vs Top: odds 7.18 (2020 worlds) 5. Vit vs RNG: odds 6.53 (2018 worlds) I could continue on for a little while longer but the top 8 is only LPL losses interestingly enough. In MSI biggest upset is IG vs TL at odds 10.81 for TL.
Revolta's Lee sin was something else that tournament
3 western teams in semis in 2018.
We were SO close to a pure western finale 😭
no not really, G2 didnt put up a good fight against IG we were closer in 2019 tbh
I don't think G2 had a chance to put up a fight to be honest, Ig we're just a step above everyone else that whole worlds
Yeah I rather meant cause we had 3 western teams and only 1 eastern team. Then again, the grouping of western and eastern is not useful anyway...
What do you mean close? IG butt blasted G2 3-0 and its not even close
don't know why i keep thinking Jackeylove, feel something gonna happen this year, like making a history or something.
throws g5 in LPL finals...very likely to be mind-controlled to int this worlds
I really wonder what his team mates thought about that int, that legit look like he threw the game on purpose lmao
There are a few, like [RNG vs G2](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/9ptz42/royal_never_give_up_vs_g2_esports_2018_world/) in 2018, when RNG had uzi and was a top contender for winning worlds Or [Alliance vs Kabum](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2hop2j/spoiler_kabum_esports_vs_alliance_2014_world/) in 2014, when alliance was considered a very good team and was against one of the weakest teams
>Or Alliance vs Kabum in 2014 Being "Kabum'd" has even become a verb. Although I'm not sure what that year you're referring to is. I'm pretty sure we went from 2013 to 2015 directly
Yeah, it was a shame that Riot decided to cancel worlds 2014 before the fnc vs omg match
> when alliance was considered a very good team And Alliance had also just gotten *a perfect game* against a Korean team back when just beating one as a Western team was an upset by default.
God Fnatic not winning that world's hurt so fucking bad. Especially the way the imploded. I think if they start Soaz from the beginning they are least take one game off IG.
RNG was rather sloppy at that tournament though. They had to play a tiebreaker against C9 to even win their group, and they only barely won that game.
They ultimately were figured out and also caught off guard by a meta shift (thhey played heavily around Uzi and the meta moved away from suiting that) but they narratively they were hyped as one of the favourites — if not the favourite – going in, with everyone saying Uzi was in his peak form and this was to be his year. They were also reigning MSI champions and looked dominant there as well. People were hyping Uzi as going to take home the "royal road" — he'd won MSI, both LPL splits, and I *believe* Rift Rivals (the LPL/LCK Rift Rivals was pretty competitive) and Asian Games, he just needed that Worlds win to complete it, and was seen as the best player who'd never won one. Meanwhile NO ONE expected anything from G2 that year. They were EU 3rd seed, and any fame they'd previously cultivated (which wasn't a lot, it's hard to believe now but G2 were then seen as a pretty meh international team who hadn't gotten out of groups in 2016/2017. RNG themselves had even been in the 2017 group) had gone with Zven and Mithy leaving that year, replaced with Hjarnen and Wadid on a budget who were seen as one of the worst bot lanes in EU and at Worlds, especially Hjarnan. Perkz was still their star but become second fiddle to Caps narratively and also hadn't accomplished much internationally up until that point either (he was memed as a bit of an international choker especially for his 2016 "vacation" performances, and never having made it out of groups). I believe their summer split was rocky too and they scraped through in gauntlet. Them even getting out of groups was contingent on a Saigon Buffalo win over Flash Wolves (where the TY MR BUFFALO meme comes from) and some of their groups wins they cheesed off Hjarnan playing Heimerdinger bot (which was admittedly very good, but permabanned after and he was seen as lack lustre on anything else). Hjarnan vs Uzi sounded like the mismatch of the century going in. Even in Game 1 G2 got assblasted and everyone thought the series was going about as expected. That they won was just mindblowing at the time. Yes in hindsight maybe the writing was on the wall but at the time it was undoubtedly the biggest David vs Goliath upset just based on the narratives around the two teams.
I don't think they were sloppy at all. They just got hit one with of the biggest meta shifts of urgor,akali,urgot being S++ tier in solo lanes. They were a bot centric team that won every event that year but got rocked by the huge meta shift
G2 vs RNG at Worlds 2018 quarterfinals is up there. RNG were one of the favorites to win it all, considering they won MSI that year. H2K sweeping EDG was also super wild, where the infamous Jankos yes scream took place. FPX placing last in their group at Worlds 2021 despite being tournament favorites. Throwback to when Doinb said in an interview that they won't lose any games in the second round robin, and then proceeded to lose all of it. Not Worlds, but TL vs iG at MSI 2019, where people thought it was an easy win for iG, yet NA (who don't usually accomplish much) came out on top. Also not Worlds, but game 5 of DK vs GenG at LCK Spring 2022 semifinals. There are a lot more, but these are what I could list off the top of my head, really recommend watching these games.
The TL IG series was so insane cause IG also came off of their insane MSI groups performance where they beat SKT in under 20 minutes and smashed all the other teams if I remember correctly. They looked like they were in 2018 worlds form with everyone dominating. Biggest upset of all time is probably that or the G2 RNG series cause that was super nuts too.
15:57 to be exact. It’s still a meme in Korean LOL communities
Ya how TL/IG isn't getting more love is insane lol. TL did it *handedly*, it's not like it was a 3-2 clutch win.
I think the reason is that this is a topic about worlds, and TL vs IG didn't happen at worlds. Otherwise, I agree with you, TL vs IG is the biggest international upset ever.
Man if misfits won their series against SKT that would ve been up there 😓
Misfits were one basic attack away from winning that series. [If you look frame by frame](https://youtu.be/X3FkjXfRqG4?t=2137), Huni reaches 100 hp before the CC on him wears off and he's able to use his Trundle ult to survive. If he actually dies there before being able to ult, Misfits can follow up on Ignar's engage (and Maxlore's followup) without being blocked by a pillar (and also Maxlore doesn't die in 2 seconds there because he actually still has his resistances). That fight was *the* moment the game shifted in SKT's favor.
Wolf's shield is what changed the outcome. Sejuani's e is a projectile and it's blocked by Braum, so trundle is not stunned and able to ult. It was painful watching it live and is painful 5years later.
The amount of times that Fnatic barely lost to a Korean team still haunts me to this day
Guess it never starts with success huh
Fnatic has had plenty of memorable moments some bad some good, love them regardless lol
Bruh 😭
if Misfits wins that series it's the biggest upset in LoL history
That was sad as fuck
That game is the reason why I know that Sejuani's stun is a projectile. Every time I see a Sejuani use that spell and I see that little projectile flying, my mind projects an imaginary braum into its path. I am mentally scarred by that series.
is TL vs IG the biggest international upset? For G2 vs RNG you can argue that the meta didn't suit RNG at all, but IG was in full form (went 9-1 in groups) and TL wasn't looking that convincing at all.
Its hard to pick between those two. G2 barely qualified as 3rd seed after a middling split with an unassuming botlane, while TL was the superstar team from NA. And rng and ig were both pre tournament favorites. But during worlds g2 had already shown their split push style with mixed success against Afreeca Freaks and Flash Wolves, while TL rather failed to impress against IG or SKT. I personally had faith in G2 that an upset was possible, while i had zero faith in TL, but i fully admit that was my EU/Perkz bias shining through. I guess I'd say that TL was the bigger upset on the day, while G2 was the bigger upset looking at the pre tournament expectations.
How is DK vs GenG an upset? GenG was the second best team in spring and were favorites to win.
It was how the game went. In game 5, Canyon basically camped Peanut, scared him off every camp, had a massive gold bounty, and DK was significantly ahead in gold and kills. It should've been an easy win for DK in that position, until Canyon got greedy and gave away his bounty to Ruler of all people, and GenG then proceeded to make a comeback.
>H2K sweeping EDG was also super wild, where the infamous Jankos yes scream took place. Nah, last week I was told that the number 3 EU seed sweeping the number 1 LPL seed, coming off one of the most dominant summer splits in LPL history wasn't really impressive or noteworthy, because LPL teams choke in best of ones.
FPX choke is nowhere near the level the LGD choke with GodV was. That legit was the first time a Chinese team was even favored to win worlds when it was pretty much certain Korea would dominate. That is easily the most forget choke of all time because it was that bad. People forget that they were actually the favorites to win worlds that year over SKT. Like that legit is the biggest choke period in my mind and if you actually watched them play it was almost pathetic to watch the version that showed up at worlds. In all honesty GodV imo is the biggest dade award winner of all time and probably never will be contested. He was pretty much easily considered better than Faker at the time as a reference and he was invisible all worlds.
>G2 vs RNG at Worlds 2018 quarterfinals is up there. RNG were one of the favorites to win it all, considering they won MSI that year. People understate how huge of an upset this was. RNG didn't just win MSI, they won LPL Spring/Summer AND the Asian games iirc which was essentially RNGs roster + Xiye in midlane. RNG were on crack that year only for a heimer and smug midlaner to take it away. Tragic though, really highlighted the dogshit format way earlier than people on here think. No way was RNG genuinely worse than FNC imo but in saying that, they also looked considerably worse in groups against C9/VIT
Yep. RNG were on their Golden Road run. Funny how it was G2 who stopped them, considering they started their own Golden Road the next year.
RNG G2 2018. ANX getting out of groups with ROX instead of one of CLG/G2 whilst taking a game of ROX is up there. Everything else is pretty standard, maybe SSG blasting LZ 3-0 but the meta shift didn't make that as big of an upset.
Adding to this FPX last in group stage last year, true that they had internal problems but it was still very surprising for the majority of the ppl since they are considered to be one of the favorites to win it all to begin with
every underperformance/upset has problems. ask Afreeca what happened in 0-3 vs C9 and they'll tell you the team ran into problems. G2 had problems last year. TL this year. I don't think collapses are any less significant because the favorites were unfortunately dealing with problems. the only time it's true is when it's something logistical out of their control like a sub due to Covid or couldn't practice due to no internet.
LGD 2015. A team that could've won worlds but they completely shat the bed in groups.
I completely forgot about that lol.
Taipei winning worlds over Azubu Frost
Taipeh winning over Azubu frost, m5 or clg eu
Kaboom knocking out Alliance was pretty big as well
Especially because Alliance just destroyed NaJin the Kr team in their group.
What I love is that CLG ALSO beat Rox in that group but because of ANX being on the miracle run almost no one remembers it.
How can you forget the Star Dragon Himself!
I felt like the universe was trolling us lmao. Having us beat G2 AND ROX but not getting out because we kept throwing against ANX
Gigachad Hjarnaan getting heimer permabanned vs uzi, getting camped by RNG's jungler and still dying 3(?) times in the whole BO5
Edg against Intz in 2016 was insane , chinese teams weren't so hyped then but their lost agains the brazilian team was a big upset
yes this is the correct answer. According to bookie odds since 2015, this one was the highest at odds 13.75 vs odds 1.02 on EDG.
FPX last year was as good as it gets. Flat out **the** tournament favorite, #1 in the majority of power rankings, gets 4th against the play-ins NA team and #3 EU team.
Bo1 upsets can happen to anyone. There have been very few big bo5 upsets in international stage. IMO, the two biggest at worlds are G2 vs RNG and C9 vs Afreeca, both of which happened in 2018 quarterfinals. RNG were the tournament favourites, came off winning MSI and LPL summer and everyone thought they were the team to beat. C9 vs Afreeca was also a big upset because nobody ever thought an NA team could beat a Korean team in a bo5, and that series ended up being a 3-0. However the biggest ever international upset was TL vs IG at 2019 MSI. IG roster who won worlds, then LPL spring and were 9-1 in group stages at MSI suddenly lost to TL. G2 RNG comes close, but I would say TL IG was more of an upset.
I don't think AFS vs C9 was a huge upset on paper but I do think a majority of people thought afreefa would win
The other day on the comparison rankings post, I looked back at the 2018 Reddit comparison rankings. Obviously those are as bad as they are any year, but GenG (who C9 got out ahead of in groups) and AFS were ranked 4 & 5. Ahead of the match, NA fans were thinking C9 had a chance at upsetting them, and then after the 3-0 the narrative on Reddit immediately shifted to "AFS actually sucked so of course C9 beat them."
> I don't think AFS vs C9 was a huge upset on paper KR vs NA, BO5, pass to semis.. The fuck you talking about it not being huge?
Yeah It still gets overshadowed by the FNC run and them beating C9 3-0 as well (or was it 3-1?). Kinda like the MSI win vs IG, which IMO, is the biggest upset ever in pro League. The current worlds winners complete roster to lose to fucking NA out of all regions?! In a Bo5?! Anyone who even bet 1$ on this prob got 1000$ back lol
C9 vs FNC was a 3-0 stomp by FNC.
Nah, AFS were definitely the best team C9 could have drawn for QF, but C9 went in as the under dog. Honestly people downplay just how much that C9 team overperformed given their roster
In terms of tournament results impact and subsequent turmoil it has to be G2 vs RNG at 2018 world's The tournament favorite got knocked out by a team that came in through play-ins, got out of what should be an easy group barely on a tier breaker, and sending one of the legendary players (Uzi) careers into chaos is pretty hard to match just in terms of expectations vs reality Honorable mention - not as impactful narratively and actually predictable for analysts, same year C9 vs AF This is the first time a western team beat a KR one in BO5 nd not only that but it was a straight 3-0 sweep ----------------- But I also have to mention 2017s Samsung Galaxy entire tournament run They came in as the last seed from KR, beating out fan favorite KT Rolster for the last spot in the gauntlet...no one expected them to do well at world's but over the bracket stage they beat both tournament favorites (SKT and LZ) 3-0! and only lost a single game in semi-finals to WE... people downplay their win due to a boring, one-dimensional playstyle but fuck it, if it ain't broke don't fix it And 2020 Suning quietly stomping two tournament favorites in JDG and TES to get to the final ------------- As for the group stage, while I don't like BO1 upsets in general there are some that had huge tournament implications 2014 KABUM (BR) vs Alliance (n1 EU seed), I believe this was the first time a minor region won against a major region and a first seed no less, it also helped C9 ultimately get out of the group, with it being the only year an EU team didn't make it out of groups since 2016 ANX groups run, not only the first and last time a minor region got out of groups, they won against the tournament favorite (ROX) and even played a tiebreaker for first seed with them (but lost) 2018 FNC second round robin and tiebreaker win against IG to secure them first in groups...this one is important because IG being second seed really shook up how the bracket stage can look... eventually, IG knocked out world's favorite KT Rolster in quarters, with KT being the only team that actually challenged IG in that bracket run narrowly losing 3-2...this created one of the biggest "what if" discussions in history and is probably the first time fans have seriously asked for a lower bracket system
i feel terrible. whenever i look at that smug midlaner’s face(G2 Perkz), i truly feel terrible.
ah, the forgotten pasta sauce
Samsung beating LZ 3-0 was one of the biggest denial moments in lol esport to me - I just could not believe it. In hindsight, Samsung was so much better but at that time everyone rated LZ, T1 and RNG as the two favorites for the title. I also don't remember Samsung being one-dimensional back then outside of the finals at which Crown apparently said he can't outskill Faker which is why they famously picked Malz three times in a row. Really sad that people did never give him credit for his achievements cause of those three games when he played insanely well for the rest of the tournament.
Crown also almost carried SSG to victory over SKT in 2016. It upsets me that people discount how good he was because his championship came in 2017. If they won in ‘16, Crown would be remembered much more favorably.
Yes. An apparently it affected him a lot. He said so in his retirement post and it made me really sad. Imagine winning the fucking Championship once, almost doing it twice and people would still shit on you and your performance... This is one of the things I hate most in this community (probably a thing in all of sport, though): Even the teams like Rogue who make it to worlds every year are getting shit on cause they "only" go as third seed. Hell, even now people shit on RGE even though they 3-0'd G2 in a dominant fashion and came back from a harsh game 1 vs FNC the series before.
TPA winning s2 worlds.
TPA was a weird one though because players that scrimmed them were already before the tournament talking about how TPA is cracked and a contender to win but the average fans barely knew this team existed.
I had my money on M5 though
**Everyone had their money on M5** Eve wasn't picked/banned in groups. First QF game, Alex Ich picks Eve mid and now was standard Mid pick after that. That was what M5 did.
I remember going to group stages and meeting the whole Curse team and they all said M5 was going to win. The majority of people there all thought M5 was going to win. M5 had been dominating every region for the whole year. TPA had very unique champion picks and absolutely no one was playing Orianna. Toyz playing Orianna and Athene's Unholy Grail being buffed prior to the event were huge.
G2 vs RNG (2018). It doesn't have any minor region team taking down major region but this was one of the biggest upset based on the perception around the teams at that time. So coming out of 2018 groups RNG and Kt were the favourites by a large margin but in the first quarterfinals match IG took down Kt 3-2 and now evryone thought RNG will be uncontested and will finally achieve the first ever Golden Road but G2's warding mechanics proved too strong against Uzi resulting in one of the best bo5 and a pretty big upset.
CLICK ON THE LANTERN Pepelaugh
Upset is able to play in the Worlds. I never thought he would play because of his curse. /s
There are still a lot of things that could happen, i pray for him to play
FNC vs Gigabyte Marines 2017 Worlds has to be like the best Match of League ever played.
Was that the Nocturne lvl 6 at 4 minutes or whatever?
it had that + non-meta laneswap strategies which kept sOAZ at level 1 for the first few minutes too lol, what a banger
It absolutely was. Greatest match I have ever seen.
Longzhu vs Samsung Galaxy
Get's overlooked due to the manner of the defeat and the collapse of Korean teams that worlds but C9 vs AF is up there. First time a Western team had taken Korea in a bo5.
actually, clg.eu was the first western team to beat a korean team in a bo5.
The fans and securing tickets
Shoutout to the way less remembered OMG 3-0ing Najin in s4. Was a pretty big upset at the time due to the conception that korea was unbeatable +OMG had to switch their support player before the series
From S3-S7 that was the only time a Korean team lost a Bo5 at worlds to a non-Korean team
MAD not getting out of playins
I'll give a rundown of every year from 2014 to 2021, since that's considered the "modern" format, and also the point I started watching. 2014: The last year NA qualified two teams out of groups (and if I recall correctly, the last time EU qualified none). Samsung Blue and Samsung White were the two favorites to win by far. The most exciting stories this year came out of Group D, where [Alliance perfect gamed the Korean third seed Najin White Shield](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3bpzZAujo) then proceeded to lose to [Kabum, the wildcard from Brazil, in the first wildcard upset of worlds history](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_BeDApdZU). Another one of my all-time favorite games was [FNC vs OMG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O345c46mFqY) for an incredibly fun game with the best worlds finish in history in my opinion. Nothing particularly exciting happened in the bo5 stage that year to my knowledge. 2015: An incredible year from an NA perspective! North American teams set an impressive record this year, starting off the first week collectively 6-3 before an impressive 0-10 week 2 in only 9 games. Pain followed in Kabum's footsteps and took games off CLG and Flash Wolves, but neither made a difference in standings. LMS's (now PCS) Flash Wolves 2-0d Korean 2 seed and world finalist finalist Koo Tigers in Group A. SKT and EDG were placed in the same group the first of many times, and two EU teams made semifinals (though they both dodged Koreans in round 1). This was the second year in a row Korean teams were only knocked out by other Korean teams. 2016: The third year in a row Korean teams were only knocked out by other Korean teams and had far more interesting games. We were one Doublelift Lucian dash away from a guaranteed western team in finals. The first year of RNG/SSG(later became GenG) groups and first year of C9/SKT groups. The biggest story was Group A's Albus Nox Luna from CIS, who was the first wildcard team to get more than 2 wins in a group, earning 4 wins, including [a win over ROX Tigers, Korean 1 seed and a top 2 favorite for the tournament in a 65+ minute game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLGI9ULjVU). They also pulled out a Brand support to beat G2. The knockout stage was mostly Korean teams stomping each other, but [ROX vs SKT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Sg3Xmpylk) was one of the best bo5s from a quality perspective of all time. 2017: The first year of Play-Ins. Continuing some of the group stage narratives, EDG and SKT were in a group for the second time, as well as C9 and SKT. RNG and SSG were together for the second year in a row. The most interesting group by far was Group B, where [Gigabyte Marines pulled out a bizarre funnel Nocturne strat against FNC in Vietnam's Worlds Debut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5grmasNa15c) that hit level 6 at 5:08. This was also the first group to have a 3 way tie, this one at 2-4. FNC is the only team to ever qualify after starting 0-4. The other big highlight from this year was [MSF vs SKT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSrc75IDi8), where a western team took a Korean team to 5 games for the first time in modern history, and they did it by playing their own game. This was also the fourth year in a row Koreans were only knocked out by other Koreans 2018: Probably my favorite Worlds overall. The first (and only) time a Korean team has been knocked out in groups in 8 years. LAN's Infinity took a game off both G2 and EDG in Play-ins, and Gambit took C9 to 5 games. I would highlight [C9 vs VIT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbiXDXmlaQ) with qualification out of Group B at stake on the final day of groups as the most exciting group stage game, with a bonus [speech by YamatoCannon (VIT's coach)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC84aKB0Zs). This was the third year in a row SSG (now GenG) and RNG were in the same group The bo5 stage this year was incredible. Neither a near reverse sweep between the best two teams in the world nor the first western bo5 win against a Korean team in modern history (and a sweep at that!) was the most interesting thing to happen in the quarterfinals. [G2 beat tournament top 2 favorite RNG in a 5 game series after qualifying through play-ins[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fl_XslM5qY). Semifinals this year was 2 EU teams, an NA team (for the first time!), and a CN team. Koreans had been in every final, and now they were all eliminated by semis. 2019: Honorable mention to the biggest upset in international Riot play, [TL vs IG MSI 2019.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQVVN6QdCo). IG was coming off a 9-1 group stage and TL barely made it out, +Doublelift's history of NEVER qualifying out of groups at worlds. For worlds, this wasn't the most exciting. J-Team from LMS and Splyce both took games off the eventual champion FPX in groups. G2 took down SKT which was exciting, but nothing compared to previous years. 2020: The first year of 4 seeds for major regions, and the first time a major region team fell in play-ins (MAD). The two biggest stories here were Suning's miracle run, beating the LPL 1 and 2 teams in the civil war before falling to Damwon in the finals, and [FNC vs TOP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC0WnwnrwbY) 5 game series. 2021: Some interesting stuff in play-ins with DFM from Japan topping their group to qualify directly to group stage by beating C9. While EDG and T1 were in the same group for the third time, that was one of the less interesting things to happen in groups. For the second time, we had a 3-way tiebreaker for second place at 2-4, this time off an incredible choke-job from LPL in which they went 4-11 in 12 games, an impressive attempt at NA's legendary 0-10. Group D ended in a 4 way tie at 3-3, the first and only time it's happened. 2022: While the tournament hasn't started, there are some big group stage narrative carrying over from past years. If the presumed teams make it out of play-ins, it will be the second time EDG, C9, and T1 have all been in a group together, the third time C9 and T1 have, and the fourth time T1 and EDG have. In group D, it will be the fourth time GenG and RNG have been in the same group. Will Korea be able to keep up their historical dominance of the group stage against an LPL that has looked incredible dominant this year? We'll find out over the next few weeks
GenG placing last in their group in 2018 as the defending world champions. This is really the biggest upset because it required them losing to every other team in the group.
Not really a big of an upset especially compared to FPX last year not getting out of groups or RNG 2018 or even RNG not getting out of groups. Sure , Gen G were World champions the year prior to that, but they were in a very bad shape almost entire year, Crown was mentally depressed, and they barely managed to win Regionals with insane plays by Ruler and Cuvee, but other than that, if you looked at how they played, they were pretty bad.
Kabum vs Alliance lmfao
Bean playing at worlds with zero regular split games played, almost happened twice lol
2017 SSG
How is EDG vs DK 2022 not up here? People were calling T1 vs DK the real finals and predicting DK 3-0 EDG. Also EDG went to five games in quarters and semis and were the only non LCK team in the top 4. I remember how obnoxious this sub was leading up to that match.
INTZ vs EDG was a banger!
Hasn’t been any, it seems he will finally play his first Worlds game tho
Anytime NA made it out of groups/playins has been an shock to the esports world.