Kiedys Mialem Team joins Copenhagen Wolves and SK Gaming in qualifying for the EU League Championship Series, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas in the only 3-0 series of the Promotion Tournament.
Kiedys Mialem Team, a team that struggled to enter the Promotion Stage of the EU LCS Promotion Tournament, defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas, a team containing three member of the successful summer split Lemondogs squad, in three games. Ninjas in Pyjamas had the first choice of Challenger teams to face in relegation, and few expected them to lose. Largely, they fell prey to scaling picks of KMT and their own inactivity in the early game, which allowed KMT to stall out their matches.
In Game One, hyrqBot chose Amumu to go up against KMT's side. Meanwhile, KMT chose Kayle and Vayne. Largely, KMT's team outscaled NiP's, and NiP would need to win around mid game. Instead, however, they chose to farm. hyrqBot spent most of his time in the jungle while Jankos' Elise put pressure around the map. While his ganks weren't always successful, they kept farm even in lanes, and Overpow's Kayle and Celaver's Vayne became unstoppable forces in separate lanes. In the end, Kiedys Mialem Team were simply able to outdamage Ninjas in Pyjamas in all respects, and the hour long game went into KMT's pocket.
For Game Two, Ninjas in Pyjamas had slightly more aggressive picks, choosing to place Mithy on Annie and Zorozero on Renekton. KMT adopted the same strategy for the second game, this time picking up Jax instead of Vayne, most likely because Freeze went for a stronger early game pick with Lucian. Despite an expected shift in strategy, NiP continued to farm passively and play as if they were afraid to make the wrong move. Jax and Kayle easily outscaled NiP's team, perhaps to an even greater extent because of their choice to go with early game champions.
For the final game of the series, Ninjas in Pyjamas banned out Kayle and Elise. They pulled out another early game composition with Lee Sin, Thresh, and Renekton, but KMT opted for a siege and dive composition with Nidalee, Fiddlesticks, and Vi. NiP continued to struggle to make plays, however, and likely due to shaken confidence, Overpow's Nidalee was able to ramp up and single out squishy members of the opposition. After a fight mid, KMT was able to take home the third win and the spot in the LCS in the most decisive game in the series.
Having forfeited their gauranteed spots in the LCS to join the Ninjas in Pyjamas, one can only expect that Mithy, Zorozero, and Nukeduck are devastated by the outcome of the series. Whether this team will stay together and attempt to qualify for the next split or its members will be consumed by other teams remains to be seen.
