X7 Esports win Spring 2022 NLC and qualify for EU Masters main event, runners-up Bifrost head to play-ins

Update (March 30th 2022): X7 Esports have this evening beaten Bifrost 3-0 in the grand final of the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) Spring 2022 playoffs.

Both teams had already qualified for the EU Masters before tonight, but the result means that X7 will head to the main event while Bifrost will go to the play-ins stage.

Original article (March 19th 2022):

X7 Esports have made history tonight by becoming the first esports organisation from the Isle of Man to stand among some of Europe’s best League of Legends sides in the Amazon European (EU) Masters.

They beat Bifrost 3-2 in a full five-game series this evening in the Spring 2022 playoffs of the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC), the European Regional League (ERL) for the UK, Ireland and Nordics.

It was a close series and a turning point for X7, who had found themselves in a tricky spot after finishing the NLC 2022 spring season in second place to Bifrost, a team that had beaten X7 twice in the regular season. And X7 had to turn things around, having suffered three losses in their most recent four games.

Bifrost took the first game, but X7 swung the match by winning the next two games. Bifrost took the fourth, before X7 took the W in the fifth and final game to take revenge over Bifrost and reach the EU Masters.

X7 support player Kasing experienced internet issues during the match, and thanked Bifrost for allowing X7 to use their pause time to reconnect.

League of Legends coach Nias also said on the NLC broadcast after the match: “Today was pretty close. I want to say a massive thank you to Bifrost for allowing us to use their pause time – they showed incredible sportsmanship today.

“It’s a big relief [to reach EU Masters] for all of us. This was the most important match of the season for us – the fact that this stress factor is gone will help us a lot going into the finals. We are ready for EU Masters – NLC teams failed in the two EU Masters finals last year, there’s no way we’ll fail a third time, right?”

X7 founder and CEO Josh Kingett told Esports News UK: “We’ll do our best to break the NLC curse and bring the EUM title back with us.”

Earlier this week, Excel academy side JDXL and Vanir were eliminated from the NLC playoffs, as Riddle and Dusty progressed.

Riddle will now play Dusty on March 21st, the winner of which will face Bifrost on March 23rd in the semi-final (update – Dusty beat Riddle to face Bifrost). Bifrost then defeated Dusty to also qualify for the EU Masters. Bifrost will now go head-to-head with X7 in the NLC grand final on March 30th.

The grand final result will determine which team reaches the EU Masters main stage (winner) and the play-ins (runner-up).

Last week, the LoL community questioned the number of NLC slots in the EU Masters again, in comparison to other regions that have more slots.

X7 have an all-star League of Legends roster, featuring German top-laner Jaeger, South Korean duo Haru (jungle) and Tempt (mid), Danish ADC Nata and UK support player Kasing. Read our in-depth interviews with X7 Esports here.

Dom Sacco

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.