The final week of Autumn Vainglory8 play brought high stakes to the Halcyon Fold. Four teams: Cloud9, Rogue, Tribe, and TSM were all still in contention to win Split 2, with increased stakes for the three teams who battled to qualify for the World Championship. Both TSM and Tribe have become big Cloud9 fans this week, as a victory in the first round for Cloud9 made both of the former two teams’ road to Worlds much easier. This week was sure to bring several great series to close out this season of Vainglory8.
Day 1
This weekend dropped viewers directly into the action with Cloud9 taking on Rogue. The series was won by Cloud9 2-1. Rogue being defeated in this match put their fate for the split into the hands of both TSM and Tribe. In the second series of the day, Tribe took down GankStars in 2-0 fashion, advancing them to the semi-finals. Nova, in the offline series, took down Hammers 2-0. Tempo Storm was able to claim the first game off of TSM this week. However, TSM rebounded to take the next two games, winning the series 2-1. This split, Tempo Storm had started to perform better, but it was too little too late to keep them out of the Challenger Battles.
Day 2
Day 2 of action would be vital in determining which team would claim the last guaranteed spot for NA going into Worlds. Cloud9, after looking somewhat flat the past few weeks, seems to have woken up as they were able to take down Nova 2-0. Nova also welcomed back their starting captain, starboi, after several weeks of break from competitive play. The second semi-final of the week pitted Tribe against TSM in a battle to make Worlds. TSM was able to take the anticipated series 2-1. This victory not only secured them a spot in this week’s finals, but also a locked in a spot for the World Championship! Tribe was able to take the third place match against Nova 2-1. After their victory in the semi-finals, TSM had nothing more to play for this week and subsequently lost to Cloud9 2-0, who was able to claim second place with the victory.
Series of the Week: Tribe Gaming Vs. TSM (Semi-Final)
This week’s semi-finals would almost certainly determine the winner of Split 2 and claim the final NA Worlds spot. Tribe dominated the first game of the series on the backs of ttigers and DNZio playing Reim and Adagio, respectively. They finished game one up 9 kills and 8,000 gold. In game two, TSM reversed the result, dominating Tribe on the way to tie up the series. In a much slower paced and conservative game three, TSM took key objectives, including two Krakens, to claim a victory in 21 minutes — pulling their spot at the World Championship!
Picks and Bans
Still on patch 2.9, this week Lyra made a strong reemergence, winning 6 games out of 10 times being picked. Another hero that has danced around the meta recently is Vox, who put up an 80% win percentage. As usual on the 2.9 meta, both Reim and Blackfeather saw a high pick/ban percentage. To wrap up the season, the overall leaders are:
- Picks: Ardan (71)
- Bans: Reim (61)
- Win Percentage: Celeste (78.3%)
This week also saw the first Taka pick, who was the last hero that had not seen any play yet this season. There were also only 6 heros that received no bans this season: Flicker, Grumpjaw, Gwen, Ozo, Ringo, and Taka.
*This does not include statistics from offline quarterfinals match.
This season provided a variety of matches that were jam-packed full of action. This was the last week of Vainglory8 action until the beginning of Spring Season 2018. In the meantime, viewers will be treated to the Challenger Battles. These will showcase some of the top VIS talent, taking on GankStars and Tempo Storm for the bottom two spots in NA’s Vainglory8. Thursday marked the beginning of the madness, which will continue this Saturday at 5PM PST (8PM EST). Through Winter Season, we will also see the pinnacle of 2017’s Vainglory competition at the World Championship in Singapore from December 14-17, and will showcase the unveiling of 5v5! Broken Myth is here to cover the news and tournament when it arrives.