The best League of Legends game in 2014

After a week long poll on lolesports.com, the community has selected Kabum Esports vs Alliance as game of the year.

Game of the Year

Alliance looked to be among the strongest teams at Worlds on Singapore Day 3 after they defeated Korea's No. 3 seed Najin White Shield by winning a perfect game -- no deaths, no towers lost, no dragons given up. The dominant showing left Alliance elated, as Europe's top team turned its attention to the Quarterfinals. Kabum meanwhile was routed in their initial matches at Worlds but were quickly learning what League was all about. "What we learned the most [at Worlds] is that the game is about more than just laning phase," mid laner TinOwns said. The team had shown dramatic improvement game to game and going into the last day, though it wouldn't be expected, many analysts stated that they wouldn't have been surprised at a win over Cloud9 or Alliance -- both of whom they would play during the last day.

The perfect storm

After Champion Select, Alliance had an incongruous composition. They were partially a team fight composition in that there was Kayle and Twitch, but also had a non-synergistic Fizz. Meanwhile Kabum drafted a well-rounded pick composition revolving around Morgana, Elise, Ryze and Ahri. The Kabum comp also had great wave clear and late-game carry potential. The game began in a flurry of skirmishes that went relatively even, though the gold advantage went to Kabum by virtue of lane dominance in individual matchups. It often looked like Alliance's overconfidence cost them in the early brawls. There was a moment when fans could see Alliance's sinking hopes -- they could lose the game. In the mid game Kabum was able to use the map control, afforded to them by a very farmed TinOwns on Ahri, to take global objectives. Kabum took the first two towers of the game, and apart from some great roams by Froggen, Alliance looked lost; LEP smashed Wickd, TinOwns roamed all over the map, and Minerva's tower pressure went unanswered. While Alliance stayed in the game by taking advantage of Froggen's playmaking on Fizz, Kabum kept themselves objective oriented and managed to push Alliance's towers without losing nearly any of their own. Through superior team play, a great pick comp and sieging power, the combination of Ahri and Elise led to key catches down the stretch. The biggest upset of all time was complete. Kabum defeated Alliance.

Editors Choice -- OMG vs Fnatic

We would be remiss if we didn't at least discuss OMG vs Fnatic here, as it was one of the most epic matches in professional League of Legends history. Coming into this match, both OMG and Fnatic were 1-2 after two days in the group of death. While this match wasn't a mathematical do-or-die game for either team, going 1-3 in Group C would all but assure them elimination from Worlds. This game was close the entire way through. Some Fnatic mistakes by Soaz in the early game gave OMG an upper hand, but Fnatic's superior team fighting in the midgame brought the game back relatively even. No team managed an advantage until after 40 minutes into the game. Cool was able to get a lot done with his split pushing on Zed, while Fnatic was able to maintain control over OMG's inhibitors by repeatedly shoving as five. Teams traded inhibitors back and forth, and often it looked like super minions would end the game as the teams brawled over Baron. The game reached its climax in an insane sequence that initiated after Fnatic took OMG's top Inhibitor turret, which lead to a Fnatic Baron. Fnatic pushed to eliminate all three of OMG's Inhibitors, but as they pushed for the last one, they lost a 4:0 team fight. Miraculously xPeke managed to hold off all the members of OMG until his team respawned.

The backdoor that wasn't

And then it happened. Soaz immediately Teleported to the top lane and ran for the inhibitor. Realizing what was happening, OMG tried to recall. Loveling and Gogoing had to stop Soaz, xPeke and Cyanide from ending the game. Somehow the Nexus survived with one hit remaining. OMG was able to recover, take a Baron, and then aced Fnatic in the next team fight to win the game. OMG advanced from the Group and earned a Semifinals berth after defeating Najin White Shield, while Fnatic failed to advance. After the finals, Fnatic blew up the team -- releasing three members from their contracts (Rekkles, xPeke and Cyanide). Meanwhile, OMG recently signed two time Worlds finalist Uzi to their team. One has to wonder what might have happened if Fnatic had managed to get one more hit on the Nexus...

A new year with new opportunities

With the doors shutting on 2014, we look ahead to new changes; a new league in Taiwan, a new format in Korea, and a ten team LCS in North America and Europe. 2015 looks to be more exciting than any season before, so check out new rosters, league information and more on lolesports.com Frank Fields is a Senior Web Content Coordinator for Riot Games. You can find him Shock Blasting his way in Diamond, or on Twitter where he'd love to talk about Esports.