The final League of Legends ESL Premiership 2018 Spring Split is over – and four teams are preparing to face off in the finals.
Enclave Gaming, exceL Esports, Wind and Rain (WAR) and Misfits’ Academy side will be playing in the LAN finals at ESL Studio 1 in Leicester on the weekend of April 7th and 8th.
exceL and Enclave won in the playoffs yesterday, joining Misfits and WAR, who had already progressed to the finals after topping Group A and Group B respectively.
Enclave will play Misfits and exceL will play WAR in the semi-finals.
In the first playoff match, exceL defeated Diabolus 2-1. While exceL are the current ESL Prem champions (pictured), it’s also surprising Diabolus have not made it to the finals, considering the investment they’ve put into the team.
Diabolus’ CEO Nick Uttley was a good sport and interviewed exceL general manager Barnetto after the match, congratulating him in this Twitch VoD.
WHAT A SERIES!!!@excel defeat @DiabolusEsports 2-1 and advance to the Live Finals! ?#ESLPrem pic.twitter.com/XX33qG80dF
— ESL UK (@ESLUK) March 25, 2018
I respect the retweets but I still stand by my statement. I am satisfied with my individual performance this series, sad we couldn’t take it home. GG to Excel and wish them the best at playoff.
— XDSMILEY (@XDSMILEYs6) March 25, 2018
In the other playoff match, Enclave made the reverse sweep to knock Hyperion out:
After a highly convincing win, we take the series vs @HyperionAgency! Be proud guys, you had us on the ropes many, many times! ?
With this win, we will be pitted against @MisfitsGG in the Semifinals! ?
GGWP Hyperion! ?#TheEnclave #ESLPrem pic.twitter.com/bcDJLgD61E
— Enclave Gaming (@EnclaveGamingUK) March 25, 2018
Ahhh! The pain is real. To lose the quarterfinals in a reverse sweep and not make LAN.
Congrats to @EnclaveGamingUK for a great series. Good luck in the semis.
Well played to our lads, however that is the end of our Spring Split.
— Hyperion Esports (@HyperionAgency) March 25, 2018
The upcoming ESL Prem finals will be the last. Riot Games has announced a new UK tournament called Forge of Champions, which will be using LVP as a production partner, and has stepped back from ESL Prem and UK Masters LoL tournaments.
The ESL Prem Spring 2018 finals will take place on April 7th and 8th and will be streamed over on the ESL LoL Twitch channel.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
