On Friday, Oct. 19, and spanning over the rest of the weekend, teams in the quarterfinals of the League of Legends 2018 World Championship duked it out in a fight for their spots in the semifinals.

The matches kicked off with KT Rolster and Invictus Gaming facing off. KT Rolster seemed like the much stronger team, and nobody thought Invictus would be able to take the five match series. Invictus won the first two matches, but KT Rolster was able to hit back in the third match after an extremely intense base race.

KT Rolster had pushed into Invictus’ base and were attacking the nexus, all while Invictus’ top laner, Kang ‘TheShy’ Seung-lok, was pushing into KT Rolster’s base. TheShy was one hit on the nexus away from ending the series right then and there when KT Rolster destroyed Invictus’ nexus, winning the game and staying in the tournament.

KT Rolster went on to win match four, meaning whoever won the next match would advance. To many people’s surprise, Invictus was able to clinch the last match to send KT Rolster home, meaning Invictus advances to the semifinals.

“With Invictus beating KT Rolster in the fifth match I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say it was a surprise,” senior Ean France Coleman said.

The next two teams to battle each other were Cloud9 and Afreeca Freecs on Oct. 20. While many people thought it would be a very close series, Cloud9 swept the Freecs in three matches. This is the first time since the first season back in 2011 that a North American team has made it into the semifinals, and it’s also the first time since 2011 that a Korean team did not make it into the semifinals.

“My thoughts on Cloud9 sweeping the Freecs?” Mr. Mark Novotny said. “Good game, boys.”

In that same night, G2 faced the titans of the tournament, Royal Never Give Up (RNG). It was vastly expected to be a complete landslide in favor of RNG, but that wasn’t the case. RNG took the first game, and G2 took the second. RNG then took the third game, fans thought the next match would be the end of the series, but G2 had other plans. G2 managed to take the fourth match, then the fifth as well. This series is being regarded as one of the biggest upsets in recent League of Legends history.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting G2 to be able to take down RNG,” senior Damian Smith said. “I figured RNG would just sweep them.”

For the last quarterfinals match, Fnatic faced Edward Gaming (EDG) on Oct. 21. In the first round, EDG was able to take a victory over Fnatic. Fnatic came back to take the second match, leaving the series tied up. The third match was very even, both teams played well but in the end Fnatic took the win. Fnatic went on to seal their spot in the semifinals and send EDG home by winning the fourth match.