KeSPA Semifinals and IEM Oakland

Coming up this weekend will be the two tournaments mentioned in the title. Once again, I feel like throwing a rundown for those unaware of anything League eSports as of late. I'll start with the one coming up in...about 16 hours from now.

KeSPA Cup semis consists of clashes between two teams at the top of the world (literally) and two teams at the bottom of the LCK ladder (also literally...probably; I'm not sure right now). Both matches are BO3.

The first matchup features last year's KeSPA Cup Champions ESC Ever (9th place Summer LCK) facing off against recently promoted Kongdoo Monster (1st place Summer CK). After both teams pulled out surprising upsets against heavy match favorites in Samsung Galaxy and KT Rolster respectively, most would believe this match to have very little meaning as they would just get run over by the other side of the bracket in the Finals. However, because the other side of the bracket features two teams already qualified for IEM tournaments already (ROX for the first spot in Gyeonggi, SKT for Katowice), this match in clarity be for the second spot at IEM Gyeonggi regardless of the outcome of the Finals.

The second matchup is a runback from this year's epic clash at Worlds between ROX Tigers (1st place Summer LCK) and 3 time World Champions SK Telecom T1 (3rd Place Summer LCK). There's no idea how this could turn out being back on domestic soil where SKT always seems to come out victorious unless they lose to someone else. Eyes are sharply focused on whether or not SKT will utilize their subs, specifically top laner Profit who has been raising eye since the start of the tournament against KeG Chungnam. Either way, I'm sure most are hoping it won't be a 2-0 blowout.

IEM Oakland finally arrives after what has been a rather saddening situation involving the team pool dropping from 8 to 6. The bracket was released a few days ago. Unlike usual IEM fashion, the tournament will be single elimination throughout. A better way to think of it is like an LCS standard Playoff bracket with no 3rd place match. TSM and Flash Wolves (1st place in their regions) received byes into the semifinals. The matches are:

INTZ eSports (1st IEM Challenger) vs Unicorns of Love (4th EULCS Summer) - Winner faces TSM The Chiefs (2nd IEM Challenger) vs Longzhu Gaming (8th LCK Summer) - Winner faces Flash Wolves

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