The NA LCS Expansion Tournament Has Finished

Published: December 15, 2014 4:19 PM /

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NALCSExpansion

The NA LCS Expansion tournament ended this weekend with Team Coast and Curse Academy qualifying for this year's NA LCS.  This tournament marked the NA LCS's growth from eight teams to ten taking teams from the Promotion Tournament, the Challenger Series, and the Ranked 5's Ladder to compete for two team spots in the 2015 NA LCS.

Wrapping up this week, we had Team Fusion against Final Five and Curse Academy against Team Coast in round 3 of the tournament.  The matches were explosive with Team Fusion and Final Five making it to the fifth match in their best of five series.  Curse Academy was much more ruthless than Fusion taking Coast down 3-1.

For a while, it looked like Final Five was going to take the spot in the winners bracket when, despite a peak deficit of 15k gold against Team Fusion, they pulled through with an amazing victory in the first game.  The second game went much smoother for Final Five as they took an early lead.  Fusion didn't let them keep that lead pulling ahead towards the late game but they just couldn't hold onto that, the couldn't push hard enough, and Final Five took the second game as well.  After that, Team Fusion seemed to really wake up, taking three sweeping victories over Final Five.  Nientonsoh really showed his skill on Lucian and Corki scoring double digit kills in three of the five games and even having a perfect game on Corki in game five taking home that 15/0/6 score to hang on the refrigerator.

Curse Academy had a much easier time with Team Coast.  The first game ultimately went to Coast but not without a massive struggle from Curse Academy.  Curse Academy hit the ground running in game two getting and securing a gold lead at five minutes and delivering pressure that just never let up.  There were no stops on this  train as they blasted Team Coast into the sky with two more wins and a 14k gold lead in a 26 minute game in the final game.  Keane really shined, winning lane against Jesiz in three of the four games and proving that even if he was behind he could still be useful with that Emperor's Divide and a triple kill late in the third game.

Now in the winner's bracket for the fourth round, Curse Academy took two victories on Team Fusion before Fusion answered back, crushing Curse Academy in game 3.  Team Fusion definitely pulled ahead again, despite the odds, in game 4 but it wasn't enough as Keane's legendary Hecarim mid really destroyed Huhi and everyone else on his team.  There just is no running away from Hecarim.  Despite Fusion's best efforts, they just couldn't beat Curse Academy in game 4 and got dropped to the losing bracket.

Final Five and Team Coast played in the round 4 losing bracket, and game one showed incredible team fight control by Rule 18 on Janna and by Gate on Azir.  But that one game won't take the series as Coast comes back with a vengeance melting Prototype and Gate to nothing at all for three consecutive victories.  Their whole team really shined but Mash and Jesiz especially showed their prowess each taking home a perfect game.  Sheep really did push their team along, providing the utility that their team needed to emerge victorious.

In the last match of the Expansion, Team Coast took on Team Fusion, the community votes were exactly 50/50 for these fan favourites.  Fusion took the first two games absolutely decimating Team Coast with some amazing plays by Huhi and NintendudeX, but in a mirror of Team Fusion's  Round 3 victory, Team Coast came back taking three wins and the series.  Impaler really showed his skill on Jarvan IV and in reminiscent shadow of his first few games in the series he crushed Team Fusion under his paw on Rengar.  Just a great series to watch.

If you missed the games they are going up as we speak on the LCS Website here!  Make sure you check them out as we head out of the pre-season and into Season 5! Lastly, congratulations Team Coast and Curse Academy and good luck in the 2015 NA LCS!

 

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