The Intel Extreme Masters Tournaments are the only non-Riot international events and have culminated in the World Championships in Katowice, Poland. Eight teams battled in a double elimination group stage featuring TSM and CLG from NA, Fnatic and Origen from EU, QG Reapers and Royal Never Give Up from LPL, and ESC Ever and SKTelecom T1 from LCK.
Day 1: Group A
Photo Credit: ESL
On Day 1, Group A began with a dominating performance by TSM against ESC Ever that somehow ended with a horrific throw. Origen vs Royal Never Give Up demonstrated Origen's persistent weaknesses and PowerOfEvil's continuing struggles. In the Winner's Final's, Royal Never Give Up demonstrated their ability to teamfight and finished as the first seed of Group A. The three remaining teams then played in best of threes with an unbearably sloppy series between TSM and Origen, with TSM beginning to find some of the synergy they have been searching for for months. This growth continued in the Loser's Final with TSM sweeping ESC Ever with a strong performance from Bjergsen.
Day 2: Group B
Photo Credit: ESL
The story of Group B were domination from SKT T1, CLG's failure, and Fnatic's incredible growth through this tournament. Despite a loss to Qiao Gu Reapers and a sloppy series against CLG, Fnatic found the playstyle they were looking for as they beat both CLG and QG to become the second seed of Group B.
Day 3: Playoffs
Photo Credit: ESL
The Playoffs featured the best League of Legends play with a fantastic series between Fnatic and Royal Never Give Up. Gamsu and Spirit delivered critical performances, having previously been under-performing all split. SK Telecom T1 demonstrated why Korea is the best region with a clean sweep against TSM. While TSM had moments of hope, SKT bulldozed through them to reach the Grand Finals against Fnatic.
Photo Credit: ESL
In the Grand Finals SK Telecom T1 swept the series 3-0, becoming the IEM Season X World Champions. By winning IEM Katowice, SKT won $50,000 and, more importantly, appeared to have fixed many of their issues that plagued them in the LCK.
NA LCS Week 8 Preview
Next week, the match to watch is CLG vs TL on Saturday. CLG just had a huge week beating Immortals and Cloud9. However, Team Liquid will be sure to have a strategy to counter CLG's splitpush. This game will be a test of whether or not CLG's success is based off a single composition or if it's genuine strength. Given CLG's performance at IEM, this match-up could go either way.
EU LCS Week 8 Preview
Week 8 features a battle for first place between Team Vitality and G2 Esports on Day 1. Demonstrating very different styles of play, this game not only has a lot on the line but should be extremely close and competitive.
LCK Week 8 Preview
The series to watch in week 8 is going to be ROX Tigers vs Longzhu Gaming. While ROX is expected to win, Longzhu has the potential to make an upset.
LPL Week 6 Preview
Next week, the series to watch is EDG vs QG on Day 3. While EDG is not on the top of the standings, this series should be competitive and a test of QG's real strength.
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Intel Extreme Master Season X World Championship Katowice
Photo Credit: ESL
Teams from around the world fought over a $280,000 prize pool in the 10th IEM World Championship in Katowice, Poland. In the group stages, Luminosity Gaming, Fnatic, and Natus Vincere came out ahead in Group A and Astralis, Tempo Storm, and Virtus.
Photo Credit: ESL
As seen from the image above, Luminosity and Fnatic rose through the semi-finals meeting in the Grand Finals. Fnatic's road to victory demonstrated their impressive resilience in winning multiple rounds in overtime. The Grand Finals started with LG going 13-3 on Overpass. However, Fnatic made a thrilling comeback winning the map 19-18 giving them the momentum to take Cache 3-16. In the last map, LG took an early lead again in Inferno 12-3. However, Fnatic made yet another comeback winning 15-19 to sweep the series. Fnatic has now won their sixth straight LAN championship, winning FACIT 2015 Stage 3, Fragbite Masters Season 5, ESL Pro League Season 2, SL I-League, and ESL Expo Barcelona. As the IEM Season X World Champions, Fnatic won $104,000 and look unstoppable.
IEM Katowice Highlights
With so many good moments, here's a playlist of highlights that you won't want to miss.
Olofmeister 1vs2 Fnatic vs Luminosity IEM Katowice 2016 Final
Going to all three games against both OG and Evil Geniuses, Team Secret met Team Liquid in both the Winner's Finals and the Grand Finals beating them 2-0 in the first best of 3 and 3-1 in the last best of 5. With a truly dominating victory, Team Secret won $1,110,000 and their second Major Grand Final.
Puppey Makes a Huge Play on Winter Wyvern
Secret.w33 Styling on Involker
Grand Final Highlights
SECRET Liquid - SUPREME Shanghai Major Grand Final - Dota 2
My first MMOs included Ragnarok Online, Gunbound, Diablo II, and World of Warcraft. Nowadays, my wife (also a writer on MMOs) and I play League of Legends and any other MMOs we can get our hands on. I also love following eSports and attending eSports events.
