Fnatic is among the most well-known teams and League of Legends is one of the biggest names in the eSports scene. The world tournaments for the game have prizes worth millions. League of Legends World 2023 represents the holy grail of League of Legends championships worldwide.
The finest League of Legends eSports teams engage in a battle to determine one true champion of the world. The trophy for the tournament is the prestigious Summoner’s Cup. This year, the competition is being held in South Korea. South Korea hosted the latter stages of the event in 2014 and the complete event in 2018.
Team G2 eSports was supposedly the favourite and was meant to be the team that would win it in 2023. Out of all the 22 teams participating in the contest from nine regions, seven were from the West. In a surprising turn of events, the dark horse, team NRG from North America, is the only team from the West still standing in the tournament.
This happened when LPL (China) teams knocked out both G2 and Fnatic at the Swiss tournament stage. Weibo Gaming knocked out Fnatic, and BLG defeated G2 eSports on the Swiss Stage.
All Eyes on Team NRG as the Dark Horse Emerges as the West’s Last Hope at Lifting the Summoner’s Cup
After Fnatic and G2 eSports faced defeat in Swiss Round 4, NRG will gather more eyeballs as the West’s last hope. Recently, the format for the Worlds was changed by Riot Games, which replaced the Round Robin group stage with a Swiss group stage.
As per the format, unlike a round-robin tournament, not every team will face every other team in the game. The actual design for Worlds 2023 is divided into a play-in stage and a Swiss stage. The Swiss Stage meant that each team faced another with the same win-loss record.
It is debatable if things were a tad easier for team NRG as it didn’t have to face any Eastern teams on its path to the Quarterfinals. Since it will probably meet one in the later stages, it is uncertain whether it will emerge victorious.
But on the other hand, NRG also beat G2 eSports by 2-0 to emerge victorious; it cannot be argued that it earned its spot in the tournament. The other teams from North America also disappointed their fans and had to face defeat.
NRG is the apparent exception in that scenario. Fnatic and G2 eSports, along with MAD Lions and Team BDS, formed the LEC (Europe) region. Unfortunately for them, no team from the area managed to cross the Swiss stage.
If NRG manages to move ahead and win the tournament, it would be a shocker and make for an incredible underdog story.
NRG’s Unexpected Run at Worlds 2023: Standing Tall After G2 and Fnatic Get Knocked Out
NRG was not the favourite at Worlds 2023, as people expected Team G2 to be the best team in Europe. Fnatic was also recognized as one of the better teams in the tournament. However, NRG turned things around and wrote its destiny in gold by being the only Western team to remain standing.
In the past few years, North America’s teams have been performing well at the Worlds. NRG’s run in this year’s tournament is undoubtedly an exception. At the same time, it doesn’t make up for North American teams not performing well consistently. It is a sign that there may be hope for North America in the League’s biggest stages.
Also, it is worth noting that, after a long time, North America will finish better than Europe. American live streamer Trainwreck also took to X/Twitter and expressed his disappointment with North America’s overall performance in this and previous tournaments.
Now that the West and its residents will collectively support NRG, it is not an understatement to say that it is the West’s last and final hope.
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