SERIES 1: PHOENIX 1 VS GOLD COIN UNITED

P1 has once again fallen below expectations. Ever since Rift Rivals, P1 has been in a downhill slide, and promotions should have been their time to shine, but this series shows that they need to do some serious reformation to climb to the heights they once dominated.

Games 1 and 2 fell in P1’s favor, though the first game could very easily have been a crushing defeat with GCU leading by nine kills. However, Ryu proved he is once again one of the best players in the LCS when he almost casually slipped past all of GCU’s team and single-highhandedly took the nexus and the game on Corki. Ryu continued strong in Game 2 with eight kills and no deaths as well as a pentakill around the Baron pit (Ryu seems to be amassing quite a few of those).

But pentakills were in surplus this series as GCU immediately followed their two-game loss with a two-game victory when mid-laner Fly’s Orianna gave P1 a taste of their own medicine with his pentakill.

Perhaps out of fury, P1 closed the series out with a perfect game, amassing eleven kills and zero deaths. Ryu and Arrow in particular seemed on a warpath to send a message. We hear you loud and clear; you won Rift Rivals – we all remember – which is why it’s so confusing that P1 ended with a 3 – 2 victory that should have been a landslide.

SERIES 2: TEAM LIQUID VS eUNITED

Where Series 1 was exciting back and forth, pentakills, and perfect games, Series 2 was a return to form for Promotions. TL handed down a quick and dirty three game defeat to EUN and barely left them time to breathe between.

Despite sometimes falling behind in kills or turrets, TL rarely saw deficit in gold against EUL and never seemed in much fear of the Challenger team. It was some of the prowess in simple fundamentals that often separates Challenger teams from LCS.

EUN also made several key mistakes, not just in underestimating TL but in not respecting their opponents skills. A bottom tier LCS team is still an LCS team, and Game 2 saw EUN failing to respect or understand that their draft and mechanics needed to center around the simple truth that they were not going to beat Piglet’s Tristana in lane. A world class ADC and champion from Korea, Piglet made quick work of EUN in every game, though he did have to take a small back seat to Dardoch’s 7-2-15 score in Game 3.

SERIES 3: PHOENIX 1 VS TEAM LIQUID

Though TL beat P1 with a 3 – 2 victory, it was a wild ride. Ryu once again casually, almost expressionlessly, strolled into the enemy base with everyone left alive and stole the Game 1 nexus and victory – this time, on LeBlanc. As if in response to Ryu’s sudden star power and his own waning hype, Mike Yeung came through in spades in Game 2 with the most damage done and a handy lead in kills with nine of the fifteen kills for his team.

However, the sweet victories of the two early games would not last. The same aggression that served P1 well against GCU served them crushing defeat against TL. A bold Jayce top lane pick panned out poorly for P1 in Game 3, and Game 4 saw P1 trying to aggress too hard on Baron and on team fights, ultimately costing them the game.

Game 5 should have been closer, but a standout performance by Matt – including a clutch two-person stun at Baron on Arrow and Ryu which was immediately chained into a Tempered Fate stun – saw TL pushing a small game lead into an unbeatable team comp. Piglet and Mickey stepped up to the plate and dealt a crushing 13 – 6 defeat to P1, keeping them at the bottom of the LCS totem pole.

SERIES 4: GOLD COIN UNITED VS eUNITED

Anyone that has followed the Challenger series knows that GCU and EUN have had a long and entirely one-sided rivalry. Generally, EUN climbs the ranks alongside GCU, and then GCU hands down several crushing defeats and sits comfortably at the top of the Challenger ranking.

Perhaps it was GCU’s loss to P1 that threw them off their game, but this Series 4 turned out very different from their normal match-ups, with EUN giving an impressive and stunning three-game sweep against GCU.

The scores were close – never straying more than four points apart, but EUN’s Deftly hammered relentlessly on GCU with GBM giving his consistent, impressive pressure plays to exert more force than GCU could handle.

In Game 1 it was out-rotating that defeated GCU. In Game 2, it was out-frontlining GCU with a Poppy and Shen, and in Game 3 GCU was out-drafted. Even before the match started, EUN built a late-game scaling team to combat GCU’s famous late-game stalling tendencies. While many of the fights were close, and the entire game was a hard back and forth, GCU simply could not handle the scaling prowess of EUN and eventually fell to their consistent strategies.

SERIES 5: PHOENIX 1 VS eUNITED

This Series 5 saw the final Promotions match in League history, and it delivered strong. Though it ended as many Promotions have in the past – P1 secured a swift three-game sweep against EUN – it was the emotions and meaning of the matches that dominated Series 5 on this day.

Like many teams before them, P1 faced relegation – the final battle before being dethroned from the LCS for an up-and-coming Challenger team, but there was far more on the line than just relegation.

Next year sees the franchisement of League of Legends, and many fans have to wonder which teams will make it through the competitive buy-in and application process. For P1, to have done so well in Rift Rivals and to have fallen so far, it was a stark look at the future ahead of them.

A strong performance in Promotions might help them secure a spot for next year, but the future is too uncertain for many of them. Though Ryu delivered some of his best performances to date, consistently crushing every mid-laner that stood before him, including EUN camping him in a Game 1 that he pushed to an 8-7-8 victory on, he was oddly dispassionate about their victory. This could be seen in the faces of Zig and the rest of the team as well.

This culminated in an after Series interview with Xpecial where the seasoned support broke down into tears discussing P1’s journey, hardships, and ultimately disappointing final standing. For Teams and Players alike, this final Promotions marks the end of many careers. The fates of every team in Promotions are unknown, but we can only take a moment to respect the outstanding skill and performance they put forward this tournament and hope that we see them next year.