Maryville University vs University of Illinois; University of Texas, Dallas vs Columbia College
Day 1 begins of the 2018 League of Legends College Championships. The top eight teams will face off against each other in bracket format to become champions. All games are a best of three format. The teams are as follows:
Seed 1 – Maryville University
Seed 2 – University of California, Irvine
Seed 3 – University of Western Ontario
Seed 4 – University of Texas, Dallas
Seed 5 – Columbia College
Seed 6 – University of Maryland
Seed 7 – University of Ottawa
Seed 8 – University of Illinois
In typical bracket format, Seed 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, and 4 vs 5
Game 1
The first game began at 6:00 pm EST. This pitched first seed Maryville University against the University of Illinois. Maryville were the clear favourites being the defending champions and having notable players in bot-laner Marko “Prototype” Sosnicki and jungler Cody “Walrus” Altman. The two were unsuccessful in carrying their team to victory as Maryville University would fall in a 2-0 sweep from seed eight University of Illinois. After the game University of Illinois’s bot-laner Sunghyun “KoreanDanny” Yoon had this to say:
“So basically our whole week schedule was play to win on Thursday and if we lose just have fun in L.A., but now that schedule is out of the way. We still have to practice for the Saturday game. In the last game against Maryville we had a lot of nerves and tension against us because they were the champions and favoured teams in this league. We just have to practice and keep our mentality and I think having the right mindset was very important for us and not just playing right. We thought of them as the better team and better players but we just tried to think of it as same player, same skill match up and we can play better as individual players and a team.”
– KoreanDanny
Game 2
The second game pitched fourth seed University of Texas, Dallas against fifth seed Columbia College. This would be the second upset of the day as Columbia College would sweep University of Texas, Dallas in two straight games. Although, the difference in skill between fourth and fifth seed isn’t much Columbia College put up a dominant game one performance leading 18-4 in kills and finishing the game in just 21 minutes. After the game Columbia College’s top-laner Ian “Stumpey” Alexander had this to say:
I think if we play as well as we did today, and we just focus on our core concepts that our coach has been teaching us and having us go over, then I think we will have a good shot at making it to finals, if not beating UCI.
– Stumpey
University of California, Irvine is yet to qualify as they have not played yet, but are the favourites to win in their bracket.
Stumpey is an inspiration to a lot of people. Peaking at rank 12 on the North American solo queue ladder, Stumpey was born with a single finger on his left hand. Throughout playing with a disability, he claims he has learned a lot about discipline and passion over the years.
Missed the League of Legends MSI Tournament? Recap: HERE