IEM Gyeonggi Rundown
Like what I did with IEM Oakland, in case you're out of the loop or enjoying All Stars allow me to cover the upcoming international tournament held a few days following ASE. The tournament format will be as it was intended to be unlike Oakland but the teams attending is a rather surprising outlook on all accounts. The tournament will start as a double elimination group stage format with 2 groups of 4 teams. The teams in Group A are:
J Team (2nd LMS Summer) - The only team of the initial invited 6 (5?) that survived conditions, roster swaps, or just opting out. Samsung Galaxy (4th LCK Summer) - Attending in place of Summer Split and KeSPA Cup winners, ROX Tigers Vega Squadron (2nd IEM Gyeonggi Qualifier) - Competed for CIS as Albus Nox Luna has already qualified for IEM Katowice Immortals (3rd NALCS Summer) - Originally meant to attend IEM Oakland but did not have a roster then.
And the teams for Group B are:
Kongdoo Monster (1st CK Summer) - Attending as KeSPA Cup Finalist (2nd place, losing to ROX Tigers) Team Liquid (5th NALCS Summer/>>4th<< Regional Qualifier) - Attending in place of the Chinese Seed (both RNG and Snake opted out) GIANTS Gaming (5th EULCS Summer) - Attending in place of G2 eSports Dark Passage (1st IEM Gyeonggi Qualifier) - Representing Turkey (TCL) of the IWC
2 teams will emerge from each group and compete in a single elimination bracket to determine the champion and 7th entry into IEM Katowice, with the 8th entrant still unknown as to how it will be decided from the fallout of the LMS Worlds performance. Nonetheless, I look forward to this tournament due to a lot of factors; one being Samsung. Although they look like the heavy favorites to win with an unchanged roster, one can still wonder which version of the team shows up between "Worlds Finalists" or "Domestic Mid Table" Samsung. Another factor is that good half of the teams there will take part in their first international event under their name brand (because you know...TL/Curse, Kongdoo/Najin, JT/TPA). It feels like a testing ground for the teams participating which adds a bit of hype behind it. Just hoping for less pauses.