The two League of Legends representatives from the NLC, the European Regional League for the UK, Ireland and Nordics, got through to the top eight at the Amazon European (EU) Masters.
X7 Esports, from the Isle of Man, fell 3-0 to LDLC from the French LFL yesterday in their quarter final, while Nordics org Bifrost also lost 3-0 to AGO Rogue from the Polish Ultraliga in the other.
This means LDLC and Rogue will play in the first semi-final, while the other semi will feature the winner of Karmine Corp vs Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition and Vitality.Bee vs Fnatic TQ.
It was a tale of two forms for the NLC teams, who enjoyed a stellar group stage, but failed to show what they’re capable of in the quarter finals.
All three quarter finals matches were convincing wins for Rogue, though X7’s series was arguably closer. Game one was pretty even until LDLC’s final push, and in game two, X7 were ahead for large parts of the match until the late-game team fights. However, the third game was a stomp for LDLC.
On the positives, the NLC as a region can be proud of their teams’ group stage performances.
X7 finished second in Group B, with five wins and one loss to Karmine Corp, and were second to them only on a tie-breaker game. GamerLegion and Team Phantasma finished third and fourth in that group respectively.
Bifrost finished top of Group C also with five wins and one loss, ahead of Fnatic TQ, Team BDS Academy and Team ESCA Gaming.
It was X7’s destruction of KC in their earlier group stage game that put NLC fans on a real high, however. This wasn’t just a win, it was a slaughter, with X7 picking up 13 kills, 28 assists, 0 deaths and 53.9k gold to KC’s 41.1k.
It’s a shame, then, that the NLC’s exploits in EU Masters may be remembered for this combined 0-6 quarter finals scoreline, and not their impressive display in the group stages.
Time, now, for the region to regroup, finalise rosters for Summer 2022 and have another crack at European glory. We’ll get ’em next time.
Here’s a selection of tweets to peruse while we definitely won’t be crying ourselves to sleep tonight.
Related content: Eintracht Spandau top-laner Pride on playing at EU Masters, comparing Prime League to NLC – and the best moment of his League of Legends esports career so far
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.
