Riot Games has crowned Misfits Academy as the champions of the first Forge of Champions (FoC) tournament.
After two days of matches between the UK’s best League of Legends teams, Misfits Academy eventually proved too much for Diabolus Esports in the grand final by beating them 3-2.
Misfits took home the winner’s share of the £50,000 prize pool and secured a spot at Season 2 of the EU Masters, which starts this month.
The other UK team to qualify for EU Masters is Enclave Gaming, who racked up the most points in Forge of Champions.
Riot UK selected LVP to handle production of this tournament, as part of a three-year partnership, following Riot’s prior agreement with ESL UK and the ESL Premiership. With LVP’s own UK studio still in the works, the grand finals of this FoC took place at LVP’s existing studios in Barcelona, Spain.
Misfits Academy beat exceL Esports in one semi-final, with Diabolus defeating Enclave in the other.
In the final, Misfits started strong, winning the first two consecutive games and taking the second in just 24 minutes, before Diabolus clawed their way back into the competition with wins in games three and four. Misfits finally claimed the victory in game five.
We did it congrats guys!!! Our LoL Academy teams are Champs !! pic.twitter.com/GSmsjB0Wsb
— Ben Spoont (@benspoont) September 6, 2018
GGWP to @MisfitsGG Academy, you guys played amazing. We fall short but it’s been an incredible series from both teams and we hope we did the UK proud!
Until next time ?#ForgeOfChampions #GiveEmHell pic.twitter.com/jD2SfX5itu
— Diabolus (@DiabolusEsports) September 6, 2018
Riot says over 3,000 players registered and 64 new teams were created for FoC. Over the course of four qualifying tournaments, new teams competed against the top eight professional teams from the former ESL Premiership.
“Forge of Champions really shows the strength of the UK League of Legends esports scene,” said Mo Fadl, Head of Esports at Riot Games UK.
“The tournament marks the start of an exciting three years as we look to create a structure that will see hundreds of new teams rise through the ranks. Every country is different in terms of player needs and we’ve learnt a lot over the last few months and have taken onboard all feedback for 2019.
“We’ll continue to work closely with our players to develop something meaningful that helps the UK to thrive.”
“We’ll continue to work closely with our players to develop something meaningful that helps the UK to thrive.”
Mo Fadl, Riot UK
There were some controversies in the first FoC, including some internal miscommunications from Riot which led to some confusion around player rulings/rosters, but it seemed to be largely drama-free.
Esports News UK has been contacted by a few angered members of the community following Riot’s decision to allow Diabolus ‘special dispensation’ for additional roster changes. There was also a bizarre situation that saw Riot Games ban an account masquerading as Enclave Gaming team manager Richard “Froomie” Froom, though this wasn’t to do with FoC as such.
There seemed to be a lack of buzz and interest around the tournament for whatever reason, though Riot has been working with Capital XTRA (and Westwood!) to promote the game, and we’re told Riot UK has big plans for 2019, so onwards and upwards.
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.
