This has been quite the exciting weekend for the eSports league IPL, who held the IPL Faceoff 2012 in San Fransico California. The TAC 3 for Starcraft 2 was held, on Friday and Saturday, as well as a three day long League of Legends tournament. Attending this tournament were some of the best League of Legends teams, including Team SoloMid, Curse, and Team Dynamic, along with a handful of up and coming teams; Orbit, Singapore Sentinels, Team WE, mTw, and Team Legion. With so many unique players on all these teams, this tournament promised to a great one.
Team SoloMid is often considered the best League of Legends team in North America, winning almost every major tournament. TSM showed that they are still one of the best, only losing one game as they cruised through the Winners Bracket, defeating Orbit two games to one and then besting both Singapore Sentinels and Team Legion in two straight games. The only question was who would be able to fight through the loser’s bracket to face them in the finals, and would they be enough to defeat the great Team SoloMid?
Challenging TSM in the finals was the Team Curse. Though this was not an unexpected match up for the finals, Curse did not have such an easy journey to the finals as their opponent. In fact, it looked as if they would be eliminated early after losing in the first round, two games to one against Singapore Sentinels. Curse continued fighting from the losers bracket however, defeating Orbit 2-0; Team WE 2-1; mTw 2-0; and finally Team Legion 2-1 to complete the long journey through the Losers Bracket in order to face the heavily favored TSM.
For all the excitement that was built up around Curse’s journey through the Losers Bracket, the finals were the exact opposite. Team SoloMid showed why they are often considered the best North American League of Legends team, defeating Curse easily in three games without losing a single one. As the victors, TSM claimed the $20,000 prize pool. Curse gaming was still able to walk away with $7,500 for their great effort. Team Legion who finished third earned $5,000 and mTw got $2,500 for their fourth place finished. The last four teams were still rewarded with $1,250 for their participation in the tournament.
The IPL Faceoff 2012 League of Legends tournament ended much as people expected. Though TSM had trouble with the Korean team Azubu in the MLG League of Legends Arena earlier this month, they still show that they are the premier League of Legends team in North America with their impressive and dominating performance in this tournament.
