Photo: naekranie.pl
Starting March 12, the IEM WEC will finish off the 9th season of the circuit after stops in major cities such as San Jose, Toronto and Cologne. It will once again take place in the sold out Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland featuring some of the best League of Legends teams of every major League across the globe.
World Elite were the first to lock down their spot in the world championship after they triumphed on home soil in Shenzhen in July, beating Edward Gaming in the finals. Since then they have gone through significant roster changes, most notably their legendary AD Carry Gao "WeiXiao" Xue-Cheng retiring. The team currently sits at the very bottom of the Chinese LPL, despite best efforts from their star jungler and ex-Samsung Blue player Lee "Spirit" Da-yoon.
The next team to join the competition was Cloud 9 after their win at IEM San Jose in early December last year, after a close semifinal against Alliance (now Elements) who had just acquired superstar AD Carry Martin "Rekkles" Larsson. They proceeded to crush Unicorns of Love 3:0 in the final after their upset win against TSM. Only two weeks later IEM Cologne was upon us and Gambit Gaming, the organization that seemingly refuses to ever lose at an IEM (except the WEC) grabbed yet another trophy to add to their collection by defeating CLG 3:1 in a final that will probably be remembered as one of the messiest series of recent times. And finally there are the yoe Flash Wolves, who edged out in a very close 3:2 win over runner-ups Taipei Assassins and who currently sit at second place in the LMS with an impressive 9-1 record, only topped - ironically - by the very team they beat at IEM.
At last weekends epic showdown between CLG and TSM in the North American LCS not only a trip to the hairdresser was on the line, but also the sole possession of Rank 1 in the standings, and with that an invitation to the IEM World Championship. With TSM taking the win, they locked in their slot and will travel to Poland. There TSM will join the leaders of the European LCS "SK Gaming" who deserved their spot with their impressive 8-0 run through the LCS, as well as the number 1 team in LCK "GE Tigers", latter being the heavy favourites to win the event having utterly dominated the LCK.
It is yet to be announced how the 8th and last spot will be filled to complete the group stage.
