The stage is set in Toronto, Canada. The fans have converged on the Air Canada Center and the famous arena is decked out in League of Legends garb. At last, the two finalists, Team SoloMid and Cloud9, are ready to play for the North American League Championship Series (NA LCS) championship. Nine weeks of regular-season play and two playoff weekends have led us to this moment.
Historically, TSM has bested C9 twice in the NA LCS Finals before, and C9 in turn has taken two finals against TSM as well. Sunday's final in front of the electric Canadian crowd will be the tiebreak in the three year rivalry between the two most successful teams in NA LCS history.
Before they open the curtains, however, the arena must be reset after a third-place match that will be remembered as one of the longest best-of-fives in League of Legends history. In a five-match classic, Immortals repeated its successful bid for third place from the spring with a gutsy 3-2 victory over back-to-back domestic champion Counter Logic Gaming.
After the marathon best-of-five, all eyes have turned to TSM and C9. ESPN sat down with two of the biggest superstars in the NA LCS, Immortals' Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin and CLG's Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black, to hear who they thought would exit Toronto Sunday as the new kings of North America.
"I thought TSM was going to win, but recently we've been practicing [against] both teams," said Reignover. "And both teams are really good, but I think C9 seems really strong, so I think it'll [go to a] fifth game. I think C9 is going to win."
"I think it's going to go 3-2 TSM," stated Aphromoo, agreeing with Reignover's five-game prediction but not the projected winner. "We didn't really get to scrim TSM that much before we played them, so obviously I thought C9 was pretty damn good, and even after I played them I thought C9 was a little better. But TSM has picked it up the last week when we've been scrimming them and stuff like that, so they're just on top of their game. I really hope it goes five games because I think both teams definitely have [been pushing] the envelope a lot, especially with [Head Coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu] coming in for C9 and TSM having [coach Weldon Green] full-time this split, too. So both of those teams are definitely looking good."
An added extra wrinkle to the finals is how it affects fourth-place team CLG's eligibility for the World Championship for a second straight year. If TSM were to win the finals, CLG would automatically qualify for Worlds and avoid the gauntlet-style tournament that is the NA Regional Qualifiers next week; however, if Cloud9 is able to pull off the upset, it would grab CLG's assured spot to Worlds. Then CLG would most likely need to face Immortals again in the Regionals to qualify.
We asked if Aphromoo had any words of encouragement he'd like to offer TSM before Sunday's final.
"Good luck, TSM," he said. "If [you] win, thank you. If not, thank you again."