Eight Teams Remain In The FACEIT Major London 2018
Published: Sep 22, 2018
After two weeks and two rounds of exciting tournament play, the 24 teams that had qualified for the FACEIT Major London 2018 have now been whittled down to the last eight, who will compete in the New Champions Stage from Sept. 20.
The eight qualifiers have already assured themselves of “Legend” status as the next Major event, the IEM Katowice Major 2019, which starts Feb. 14, 2019 and runs through until March 3. That assures these eight teams of a place in the New Legends Stage in that tournament, meaning they will not have to qualify or compete in the New Challengers Stage that precedes it.
We already knew the eight qualifiers from the New Challengers Stage at FACEIT London 2018 as well as the eight Legends that awaited them in the New Legends Stage. Now, let’s recap some classic encounters.
FACEIT 2018 – New Legends Stage
The New Legends stage was certainly an appropriate name for this part of the tournament. Of the eight current Legends, only three — Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, and MiBR — made it through into the New Champions Stage.
The two teams that went through as the top seeds into the New Champions Stage were Team Liquid, who repeated their 3-0 success of the first round in the second, and compLexity Gaming, who won all three of their opening games to secure a spot at the first time of asking.
They were then joined by two more qualifiers, Astralis and BIG, before the first Legend team made it through, Natus Vincere. After the final games in this section, FaZe Clan and MiBR ensured they would retain their Legend status for another tournament. Meanwhile, HellRaisers earned that accolade this time around, all three teams finishing with 3-2 records.
New Champions Stage
The final stage of the tournament is a straight knockout from the quarterfinals stage through to the final and it begins on Sept. 20. The top and bottom half of the draws panned out as follows:
Top Half
- compLexity Gaming v MiBR
- BIG v Natus Vincere
Bottom Half
- Team Liquid v HellRaisers
- Astralis v FaZe Clan
The team qualifying from each half of the draw will move on to the Grand Final on Sept. 23.
Betway is offering odds on all of the matches at FACEIT 2018. It’s updated the outright winner markets to reflect the eight teams remaining in the tournament.
Current outright betting for FACEIT 2018
- Astralis – 2/1
- Team Liquid – 11/5
- Natus Vincere – 9/2
- MiBR – 6/1
- FaZe Clan – 8/1
- BIG – 16/1
- complexity Gaming – 25/1
- HellRaisers – 40/1
Astralis remain the favourites to take the title. However, that’s surprising given the form of Team Liquid, who have won all six games so far in both rounds and have been without doubt the form team of the tournament. FaZe Clan’s odds have lengthened to 8/1 after they struggled to make it through the previous round. Then, the three of the new Legends are still rated the outsiders for the tournament at odds of between 16/1 and 40/1.
If I was looking to back a team, it’s Team Liquid at 11/5. Beyond them, I would also be interested in backing FaZe Clan as it is not often you’ll get 8/1 on this talented team to win any event.
It’s going to be a busy time for many of these teams as several are due to fly to New York shortly after the tournament is complete so that they can compete in the ESL One New York 2018. That takes place at the Barclays Center from Sept. 26-30 with a cash prize of $250,000 up for grabs, as well as an Intel Grand Slam victory.
LoL Worlds: Two places remain
Over the past few weeks, the many different qualifying competitions from around the globe for the League of Legends World Championships came to a head. Worlds begin Oct. 1 in South Korea.
The biggest surprise for most fans is that the three-time winners of the World Championship and last year’s runners up, SK Telecom T1, will not be one of the Korean LCK qualifiers this time around. SK struggled for most of the Spring and Summer Splits.
Instead, representing the very strong Korean LCK this year will be the LCK Summer Champions KT Rolster and the Regional Finals winner Gen.G, who acquired the current World Champions squad Samsung Galaxy. The third team to make it through due to the number of Championship Points accrued was Afreeca Freecs.
Twenty-two of the 24 finalists are known:
- LCK – KT Rolster, Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs
- EU LCS – Fnatic, Team Vitality, G2 Esports
- NA LCS – Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, Cloud 9
- LPL – Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming, Edward Gaming
- LMS – Flash Wolves, MAD Team (plus one of four teams in the Regional Finals)
- VCS – One of Adonis Esports or Phong Vu Buffalo
- LCL – Gambit Esports
- LLN – Infinity Esports
- CBLOL – KaBuM! E-Sports
- TCL – SuperMassive eSports
- Manila Champion – Ascension Gaming
- OPL Split 2 – Dire Wolves
- CLS – Kaos Latin Gamers
- LJL – DetonatioN FocusMe
This weekend
The LMS Regional Finals get underway in Taipei on Sept. 20 and run until Sept. 22. Four teams — G-Rex, Hong Kong Attitude, Machi Esports, and J-Team — are competing for the one available space across two semifinals and a final to decide the winner.
In the VCS Summer Championships, there is just the final game remaining. Adonis Esports, who have came through two rounds previously, take on the top seeds Phong Vu Buffalo in a best-of-five match on Saturday.
We will bring you a bigger preview of the tournament once the final teams and the draw have been made.
Since: August 10, 2015
