It was a super exciting day at the Riot Games LCS Arena in California as the four collegiate League of Legends teams that survived yesterday played the Semifinals.
With the creation of a whole new association dedicated to the growth and commitment to collegiate Esports systems across North America, Riot Games has put on quite a show with the 2019 College Championship.
In the first matchup of the day, the 4th-seeded University of Illinois lost a keyboard-clenching best-of-five to the #1 overall seed Maryville University. The games were close, but in the end, it was Maryville and their “smurf” top-laner Niles that just stole the entire show.
? @NilesLol is insane ?#MUWIN pic.twitter.com/Cxd8WZal2y
— Maryville Esports (@MaryvilleGG) May 25, 2019
They might have dropped one game to the University of Illinois, but Maryville University definitely looks like the team to beat as they punch their ticket to the College Championship Grand Finals to be played on Sunday, May 26th.
After that, the University of Western Ontario had the unfortunate task of attempting to defeat the reigning College League of Legends Champions in the University of California, Irvine. After the first three hotly-contested games, it was match-point for UCI the rest of the way out the door.
WE DID IT!! An incredibly hard-fought 3-2 series win in the semifinals against @UCIEsports!
— WEGA League of Legends eSports (@WegaCLoL) May 26, 2019
On to the @collegelol championship final tomorrow against @MaryvilleGG!#lolcc #esports #westernu @WesternU @WesternMustangs pic.twitter.com/RGggDULG7j
Magically, the boys from Ontario, Canada, came back with a furious vengeance and took both Game 4 and Game 5 to steal the series away from their opponents, and summon their tickets to Sunday’s Grand Finals match.
Championship Sunday
The Championship match will be played between the University of Western Ontario, and Maryville University.
Had anyone chosen these two teams to wind up in the Grand Finals on Sunday, it would easily have been UWO set as the underdogs, but after that dominant resurgence in their matchup against defending champs UCI on Saturday, it’s hard to say that they aren’t fully capable of winning it all.
Maryville University, on the other hand, was always expected to play on Sunday, and they showed the world of League of Legends why against Illinois on Saturday. It’s going to take a whole lot from any team to knock out Maryville, and in a best-of-five scenario, it gets even harder.
The Grand Finals of the 2019 League of Legends College Championship will kick-off at 1:00 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, May 26th.
