Team West take victory at 'League of Legends' tournament at Hong Kong's e-Sports & Music Festival
Ten retired professionals did battle in a 'Best of 5' series
Team West won 3-2 in a close best of 5 series. At the ICBC (Asia) e-Sports & Music Festival Hong Kong “Return of the Legends 2018” League of Legends tournament on Friday night, 10 retired professionals were brought back to play in a “Best of 5” series pitting East against West.
Team West, comprised of Marcus “Dyrus” Hill, Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin, Hai “Hai” Du Lam, Erik “Tabzz” van Helvert and Daerek “LemonNation” Hart took home the prize money of HK$100,000 with a 3-2 victory in a closely-fought series.
Despite being able to pull back a win after each loss, starting from an action-packed and high-kill first game, Team East, with members Gao “Gogoing” Di-Ping, Choi “inSec” In-seok, Zeng “U” Long, Chang “BeBe” Bo-Wei and Wong “Tabe” Pak Kan, were outmatched.
The games continued neck and neck, with Hai’s Talon, a high-damage assassin champion, Dyrus’s Dr Mundo - who he played to become a nearly unkillable tank - and inSec on the jungle champion Lee Sin, his signature champion and a fan-favourite, all making appearances.
Speaking after the tournament, Hai credited their victory to their simpler strategy which worked for players who haven’t played much together and were not training regularly. “We went for team comps that were easier to execute,” he said. Alex Ich added that “good solo queue picks, like Leblanc and Noc[turne]” helped them, referring to a mode of play where you play with randomly drawn strangers on your team instead of people you know and practise with.
Asked to predict winners for world tournament coming in October, the answers were as expected. “The Koreans,” Hai said, adding that he expected the second place also to be won by players from that country.