It's Monday once more, and that means that it's that it's time for another weekly Esports recap! This past week had a couple really big majors, as well as two upper and lower bracket matches for the LCS Summer Split! There's a lot to talk about so let's dive right in.
IEM Cologne 2023
Last week, we touched upon IEM Cologne, which was in the middle of the event last week. It concluded over the weekend, with the group stages and playoff bracket. After a long week of play ins and group stages, the playoff bracket was filled with incredible teams.
Team Vitality
Cloud 9
Heroic
Astralis
ENCE
G2 Esports
The quarter finals were stomps, with Team Vitality taking down C9 in 2, and Astralis beating Heroic in a similar fashion. The semis saw ENCE taking down Vitality in 3, but G2 smash Astralis in 2 games. The finals was a best of 5 between G2 and ENCE, and it was not close. Games one a two, ENCE struggled to find their footing, only winning 14 rounds out of the 46 total rounds in those games. They did rally back to take a closer game 3 10-16, but it was very clear the G2 were in the driver seat. The final game of the set had G2 putting the screws to ENCE, and with a 16-9 score, G2 Esports is the winners of IEM Cologne 2023.
LCS Summer 2023 Playoffs Week 2
Next up, let's talk through the LCS Summer 2023 Playoffs. Last week, we saw both Team Liquid and TSM fall into the losers bracket, with NRG advancing to face Golden Guardians, and Evil Geniuses moving on to take on Cloud9.
This week's games were incredible to say the very least. Thursday's loser's bracket match was between TSM and Dignitas, and while the games were close, Dignitas came out on top. This match is important for a couple reasons. First off, with TSM being knocked out of playoffs, this could be their last split in the LCS. We don't know 100% if this is the case, but it's possible. Secondly, this match keeps Jensen's streak of making consecutive Worlds since 2015 alive. Dig and Jensen have a lot of work ahead of them to make sure that streak stays hot, but this match was a good start.
Friday's game was between Team Liquid and 100 Thieves. Unfortunately for the Thieves, they really didn't have a good showing throughout the series, and they end up falling to TL 3-1. The performance leaves the Thieves with a lot of time to iron out their strategies and play to hopefully make a strong return next year.
Saturday's first winner's bracket match was between Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses. This match was highly speculative, as EG had fallen a bit from grace towards the end of the regular season, so they needed to make a big statement with a win against C9. Unfortunately for them, Cloud9 were on a different level, taking the set in 3 convincing matches. They shut down Jojopyun at every turn, and the rest of the team crumbled. This win made C9 the first NA team to qualify for Worlds.
Sunday's match between Golden Guardians and NRG also did not disappoint. Coming out of the regular season, GG was comfortably seated as the 2nd best team in the league, with all five members making all-pro this split. But NRG had been on a bit of a hot streak coming into play offs, and in a shocking set, NRG send GG to the loser's bracket and qualify for Worlds. It's safe to say that NRG are the dark horse of this tournament, and I'm excited to see how far they can make it.
As for my predictions heading into this week's games, I have a couple spicy takes. For the Evil Geniuses vs Team Liquid game on Thursday, I think that Team Liquid have a real chance. If Pyosik and APA can catch Jojopyun out a few times, and Summit doesn't have too many isolated side lane deaths, TL have a very real shot a winning the set.
For GG vs DIG, I'm a Dignitas believer. While yes, I don't think that Dig is nearly as good of a team as Golden Guardians individually, I think that there's a lot on the line for Jensen and Dignitas, and Jensen is a playoff's player, and I fully expect him to give 150% to winning the set to keep his Worlds dreams alive.
For the Winner's Bracket Finals, I think that NRG are going to take the set, and this is for a few reasons. First off, NRG served C9 two of their losses during the regular season. Secondly C9 chose to start playoffs on the opposite side of the bracket from NRG. C9 can beat TL and GG pretty handedly, so the only real reason is because they were hoping that NRG would be knocked out early in playoffs and not have to face them later down the line. On top of that, the NRG squad have a lot to prove, with non of the squad making all-pro, and a lot of doubters questioning the team's skill. They've been playing out of their minds, and I think that they're going to take that all the way to finals night.
EVO 2023
The last thing we'll cover this week was the big show for the Fighting Game Community, EVO 2023. This EVO was a really big one for a lot of reasons, a few of them being that this was the first time the public could play Project L, and this was the first EVO for Street Fighter 6. This EVO was a massive record breaking event, as they had multiple titles breaking the entrants for an in-person FGC event of all time.
That's right, over 7000 people entered to play Street Fighter 6, which is absolutely insane. That being said, we'll only detail the top 6 for each game, since there's 8 games total.
Street Fighter 6
NASR | AngryBird
Bandits MenaRD
Fly Punk
Rohto Z! Tokido
IBUSHIGIN Kakeru
RC HAITANI
Guilty Gear Strive
TSM Leffen
ONi NBNHRM
Daru_I-No
M.RAGE | UMISHO
IBSG Tyurara
SOlo Verix
Tekken 7
TM | RB Arslan Ash
GyoGun AO
KDF ULSAN
TUE Genghis DOn
KDF Meo-IL
RB Anakin
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Jibrill
HB Evasion
KBR Kane Blueriver
JNGL LiberalTerminator
Mundan
Spartan Throne
Dragon Ball FighterZ
HIKARI
Solary Yasha
Nitro
Gropis
STG Garlic Bread
Kite
King of Fighters XV
Qanba X Douyu Xiaohai
X Gear E.T.
Shinwa Promotion mok
CN/Gema WeroAsamiya
(Kor) Lacid
Madkof
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Big-One 2nd Moai
GS DAI
jimmyjtran
Aporia Jing
Mom<3 ScrawtVermillion
AGIT KR_Wrestlingman
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
Ninjakilla_212
TMM/T7G Nicolas
TMM/T7G Scorpionprocs
A FOxy Grampa
TheMightyUnjust
Xombat
There was a LOT of FGC to take in, and I'd recommend going back and watching some of it, especially the Street Fighter 6 Top 6 bracket. There was some incredible sets played, and there's so much to be learned from watching them.
If you're keeping up with any of these, drop us a comment in our Discord and let us know some of your favorite matches from the last week!
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