Worlds 2018 is over, the champions have been crowned, and the MVP of the finals has been awarded. But the fun isn’t quite over just yet. There are still a few awards left to be given out for players and teams. Some are nice awards to receive as an acknowledgement of what they accomplished this year, other awards, not so much.
Regardless of which award it is, for one last time this year, let’s look back on Worlds 2018 and hand out some awards!
Courtesy of: LoL Esports Flickr
The Dade award is a classic within the community. Named after mid laner Bae “dade” Eo-jin, then on Samsung Ozone, for his huge underperformance at Worlds in season three. This not-so-prestigious award has gone to the likes of mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, jungler Ming “Clearlove” Kai, and ADC Zhu “NaMei” Jia-Wen. This year, the award once again goes to another legendary Chinese ADC in Uzi.
While Uzi had some solid performances through the tournament, his biggest offense and the reason he deserves this award is his performance in the quarterfinals. Despite the shift in meta, RNG continued to feed Uzi resources, so a lot was expected. However, his overall performance was unlike the godlike player fans expect Uzi to be. Constantly out of position and getting picked off, RNG ended up losing 2-3 against G2. Just like that, the tournament favorite ended up dropping out much earlier than expected. While the whole team underperformed, Uzi definitely underperformed the most considering the circumstances.
Courtesy of: LoL Esports Flickr
The Fight Forever award is given to the best and most entertaining series of the tournament. Some past series that could’ve won this award are the likes of SK Telecom T1 against Rox Tigers in season six or, more recently, SK Telecom T1 against Misfits Gaming in season seven. This season, however, the Fight Forever award goes to KT Rolster against Invictus Gaming in the quarterfinals.
On paper, this series was already going to be an amazing matchup. Both teams had the ability to win the game from any role, and we had some great solo lane matchups. Going into the game it was clear that the winner of the series would have a great shot at winning it all at the end of the day.
As such, all the players had some of their best performances of the tournament. From Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok dominating game one to the thrilling end of game three to the heartbreaking final game, this was the most entertaining series of the whole tournament. It truly felt like you could watch the two teams fight forever. As a result, this series is the winner of the Fight Forever award.
Courtesy of: LoL Esports Flickr
This award should be pretty self-explanatory. But for those who need an explanation, the TSM “Maybe Next Year” Award goes to a team that came into the tournament looking strong, but ends up usually disappointing and barely misses out on playoffs. As a result, fans begin hoping for a better performance next season (usually ending in a repeat situation). Some other winners of this award are AHQ e-Sports Club and G2 Esports. This year, the award goes to another European team in Team Vitality.
While they didn’t disappoint with their performance, they did barely miss the playoffs in their group. Overall, the team was exciting to watch as their pure aggression throughout their games allowed for entertaining matches for spectators. Along with playing a huge role in developing the solo lane focused meta that was prevalent through the rest of the tournament, Team Vitality genuinely looked like a solid team. Going into the next season, if the team is able to keep their roster together, fans will definitely be aspiring for more out of the team. Hopefully, Vitality will get an easier group to make things easier for them too.
Courtesy of: LoL Esports Flickr
While most fans consider mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin the MVP of the entire tournament, I personally have his teammate, top laner TheShy instead. Although Rookie had a great tournament in his own right, TheShy just had an even better tournament.
While both players were able to dominate the game, TheShy has played a huge role in Invictus Gaming’s victories throughout the tournament. Notably. his amazing performances in the quarterfinals against KT Rolster that helped them get the 3-2 victory. Considering the disappointing year TheShy had, most fans doubted his abilities as a player coming into Worlds. But with his amazing performance that led the team to the Summoner’s Cup, it showed how talented he is. For this, TheShy gets our MVP award.
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Featured image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr.
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