Michael “Asiangamer5” Cheng has been on the cusp of making it into the final lobby of a LGQ for weeks. Barely missing the cut with a 10th and 17th place respectively in his last two tries. Going into Week 7 of the LGQ, Asiangamer5 couldn’t have decided a better time to play his best TFT of the season.
The current Grandmaster piloted the Riven Sorcerer comp to victory in order to earn the seventh spot in the eight player LGQ finals. Even though his rank doesn’t separate himself from the other qualifiers, his in-tournament performance sure does.
Asiangamer5 dominated from start to finish in week six, setting a record in the process. He became the first player to reach 70 points in a LGQ. Not only did he set the record, he did so in what seems to be the most stacked LGQ yet.
Day 1 of the event went almost perfect for Asiangamer5. In Round 1, he started off with a win. He followed his Round 1 win with a first place in Round 2 as well. In fact, Asiangamer5 won four of his first five rounds in day one. He said his success was due to his mastery of Riven both in TFT and in League of Legends.
“Ive played sorcerer Riven for pretty much all of set 3.5.” Asiangamer5 said. “Its because I was a master ranked Riven main on Summoner’s Rift and also she was pretty much uncontested despite being a meta comp.”
Asiangamer5 wasn’t the only player on fire in Day 1. Cloud9’s Michael “k3Soju” Zhang also began the event with a slew of first place finishes. After five rounds, k3Soju was on fire, until his power allegedly went out. The final round of day one matched Asiangamer5 and k3Soju into the same lobby. But since k3Soju’s power was out, he didn’t show up. This meant that there were only seven players instead of eight in the final round before the top eight cutoff. Asiangamer5 said the situation was odd. He also speculated that k3Soju’s power might of not been the reason why he didn’t play in the final round.
“He wasn’t logged in when he was supposed to be in my lobby during Round 6 of Day 1.” Asiangamer said. “I have a theory that his girlfriend asked him to do something otherwise he would have been raging on Twitter.”
k3Soju is all but assured a spot at the OCENA qualifiers through ladder ranking, so the LGQ isn’t very important to him. But for many other Challenger players, making it through ladder might not be possible anymore. The final lobby of this weeks LGQ was filled with a couple of players who are in limbo. Michael “Octogonal” Zhou is one of the players barely on the outside of the top 16 in points looking in. Even though making the OCENA qualifers is still possible through ladder ranking, Octogonal never wanted to leave that opportunity to chance.
“Knowing that I’m pretty close on the ladder and only fell short just a it for the TL tournament, I am definitely joining for week eight and winning it.” Octogonal said. “Well, I’m going to at least try to.”
Octogonal did say that his priority of late has been on the LGQ’s and for good reason. In his first two events, Octogonal has made it into the final lobby both times. In Week 6, he finished third, and he finished fourth in Week 7. With only one week remaining, Octogonal is taking extra steps to ensure victory but is also staying calm.
“I’ve been practicing scouting and positioning to help me prepare for the competition,” Octogonal said. “I’m telling myself to do my best and that whatever happens happens.”
Week eight of the LGQ will be the last chance chance players have to qualify. That event will crown the eighth and final player who will join Asiangamer5 and the other qualifiers at the LGQ finals. Asiangamer5 isnt worried about who stands in his way between himself and a spot at the OCENA regional finals.
“If I can a 512 person tournament I can definitely win an eight man tournament.” Asiangamer5 said. “I think the average rank in the LGQ finals might even be lower than the final lobby I played in.”
Signups for the last LGQ begin on Wednesday. Check out liquidtactics.gg for more details.
Follow The Game Haus on Twitter as well for more esports coverage