eSports Weekly 10/10/16

2016 League of Legends World Championship

The biggest international tournament for the biggest eSport is finally here: the 2016 League of Legends World Championship. With over $4 million on the line and eternal glory, six different regions and sixteen teams will come together across the United States.

The first event is the Group Stage which just finished in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA from September 29 - October 2 and October 6-9.

Next, the Quarterfinals is coming up in The Chicago Theater in Chicago, IL from October 13-16.

After that, the Semifinals takes place in iconic Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.

Finally, the Finals are set to come back to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA. Notably, the same location as the 2013 Worlds Finals.

The second week has come to a close.

Here's the group results after the second week:

The story of this week is Korean teams are still the best. Each of the three seeds from the LCK finished first in their groups. Nevertheless, the week was full of exciting moments and games.

If you're short on time, here's the key games to watch and the gist of what happened.

Day 1: Thursday included all of games for Group A. This was probably one of the most exciting groups with the incredible performance of the Russian wild card team Albus NoX Luna. The key games to watch are all of the Albus NoX Luna games. Sadly for western fans, both CLG and G2 have been knocked out. If you're going to watch any one game of the week, watch ANX vs ROX.

Day 2: Friday's games were for Group C. The narrative for this day was H2K's incredible 4-0 run to go from 1-2 to 5-2 and reach the top of the group. The game to watch is H2k's victories over EDG, the second seed.

Day 3: Saturday's games were for Group D. While many had high hopes for TSM, the real performer of this group was Samsung Galaxy who swept all of their games for the first seed. With this sweep, RNG and TSM contended for the second seed in their final match which RNG won. The game to watch is SSG vs RNG.

Day 4: The last day's games involved Group B. With Cloud9 being NA's last hope, many watched in anticipation. SKT played with dominance as they dismantled every opponent with team compositions that were extremely difficult to execute. Because of C9's loss to FW, the last match between FW and SKT determined C9's fate. Thankfully for NA, SKT defeated Flash Wolves, their own kryptonite, and sent Cloud9 to the Quarterfinals. The game to watch is SKT vs FW.

Next week, the Quarterfinals begin in Chicago, IL.

Here's how the Group Draws went:

Overwatch APEX Season 1

Overwatch APEX is Overwatch's first major tournament in Korea. With about $178,000 USD on the line, sixteen teams from around the world will be competing from October 7 to December 3. The format involves a Round Robin where all matches are best-of-five with the top two teams advancing to the Playoffs. The Playoffs have best-of-five Quarterfinals and Semifinals and a best-of-seven Final.