University of Illinois Wins League of Legends Big Ten Division
By Wyatt Fossett ·
After suffering their first taste of defeat on the season at the hands of their Grand Finals opponent, the University of Illinois defeated Michigan State to advance to the College League of Legends Championships.
During a very busy weekend in the competitive League of Legends world -- in which TSM dropped Echo Fox to advance to the LCS Semifinals -- the University of Illinois won the Big Ten Network Finals and earned a place in the College League of Legends Championship tournament this summer.
Through two rounds (and a bye), Illinois didn’t have a very hard time getting to the grand finals of the Big Ten tournament, but it wouldn't be smooth the whole way. In order to make it to the big match-up, Illinois had to go through Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin, and Purdue. They deserve full credit for being able to dismantle those teams the way that they did.
The University of Illinois was dominant in the regular season, and they continued that trend by not dropping a single game in any of their match-ups throughout the entire Big Ten Championship tournament. That was, until the finals.
Big Ten Showdown
The Western Conference leaders in Illinois wound up fighting the Eastern Conference leaders in Michigan State in the finals, where the winner would be invited to take part in the College League of Legends Championship tournament in front of the entire country.
In their best-of-five series, Illinois and Michigan State would go the distance. Both squads struggled at points and had to fight through adversity on the rift that they had yet to come across throughout the entire season so far.
It would all come down to the stellar play of Illinois’ top-laner Topopotamus, who went 5/1/7 on Vlad in the final and deciding game in the series. That Game 5 took place after both teams dropped two. Illinois overcame taking their first losses of the entire year up until this point and managed to secure themselves a golden ticket.
Hear from the champs themselves, the @Illini_Esports team! #BTNEsports pic.twitter.com/Q4T6Qd1F5U
— ESL Collegiate (@ESLCollegiate) April 1, 2019
College Esports Championships
The University of Illinois joins the already qualified teams from other divisions of collegiate play. Thus far, we’ve got Maryville University, UC Irvine, and Western University in the Championship tournament. Four slots remain undecided as of now.
Riot Games’ 2019 College Championship will take place over the course of three days, starting June 7th,