With so many matches occurring during the workweek, and on west coast time, it was hard to catch all of the action at the League of Legends World Championship. It’s not always the easiest game to watch, either: with single games routinely stretching well beyond 40 minutes, few viewers can book the time to watch a whole tournament.
So if you didn’t see all the great games from the playoffs, we’ve gone through and linked some of the very best for your enjoyment.
Group Play
SK Gaming v. CLG North America – Neither of these teams would move on to the playoffs, but they fought to the death in what might still be the single best game from the playoffs. Its finale features an unbelievable series of reversals as the two teams swing from certain-defeat to certain-victory in just moments. Watch here, play begins at 18:00.
Quarterfinal Round
Moscow 5 v. Invictus Gaming, Game 1 – IG get off to a strong start and look to be firmly in control of the match until M5 are ready to start engaging in teamfights. All hell breaks loose after twenty minutes, with the two teams trading aces and M5 making insane dives right and left. Watch here, play begins at 32:00.
Taipei Assassins v. NaJin Sword, Game 2 – In retrospect, this game almost reads like a statement of intent from Taipei Assassins. They demonstrate their ability to come back from a rocky start through perfect farming, and then flip the entire game in their favor in the blink of an eye.
CLG EU v. World Elite, Game 2 – This was CLG’s match of the tournament. World Elite were in control of this match and were off to a great start in Game 2 when the first of several connection problems caused the game to crash. The regame still looked dire for CLG, however, with World Elite getting out to a narrow but persistent lead over CLG. CLG did the only thing they could: go on the defensive, and hope they could survive to their endgame. It’s a great game that shows how resilient and patient CLG can be. Watch here, play begins at around 7:00.
Semifinal Round
CLG EU v. Azubu Frost, Game 3 – This may be the only really good game the semifinals coughed up. While both series were 2-1, this is really the only contested game of the six. The rest were blowouts for one side or the other. But here, at least, CLG and Azubu Frost stayed relatively close for much of the match, with AZF gaining a narrow advantage and CLG managing to nearly turn the game around at several points. Watch here, play begins at 16:00.
Finals
Taipei Assassins v. Azubu Frost, Game 1 – A terrific game that promised a hard-fought series. TPA looked to be in control of the game, but AZF shocked them with an improbable teamfight victory at the dragon. Watch here, and just to be safe, the game starts at 1:00:00.
Taipei Assassins v. Azubu Frost, Game 2 – Taipei Assassins’ most dominant performance of the tournament, with early-game aggression that set the tone for everything that would follow. Watch here.