The Champions Spring 2012 Finals

Written by Aman Parmar

Popular Korean TV channel and one of the recent entrants into the Blizzard agreement, OnGameNet is not a new name to gamers. Their recent announcement about a homegrown League of Legends tournament called League of Legends: The Champions Spring 2012 has been making waves of late. The game was doing well in Korea and the country had been catching up with LoL despite the love they have for Starcraft 2. What did actually surprise everyone was the total prize purse of 200 million won i.e., $178,000 which beats the Season 1 prize purse of $50,000!

Here's a rundown/recap of the whole concept this league was/is based on:

The whole thing was divided into 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Each season would last for about 3 months

The Round of 16 would have Bo1 format

Round of 8 would have Bo3 format

Semi-Finals, Bronze match (3rd Place) and Grand Finals would be Bo5

16 teams would be rostered for Spring, out of which 4 would be seeded teams. The rest would be chosen by holding a preliminary tournament

The tournament would be played on the latest available patch

The Stakes

Total Prize Purse: 200 million won

1st: 100 million won

2nd: 40 million won

3rd: 20 million won

4th: 10 million won

Once the stage was set, it was time to group the teams:

Group A

MiG Frost, Little Hoppo, MKZ, DDoL

Group B

CLG, Xenics Storm, NEL, XD

Group C

Najin e-mfire, NEB, Team OP, Super Star

Group D

Fnatic, StarTale, Team Hunters, MiG Blaze

Starting off with the Semi-Finals, onto the 3rd place match and then with the Seed Challenge here's what it all looked like:

SEMI-FINALS

The Semi Finals featured a single elimination bracket system with 2 teams per group. In a best of 5 series, whichever team, won advanced to the finals. The first four games featured a Draft Pick Mode while the 5th game featured a blind pick mode. Here's

Day 1 - May 2nd

Game 1

Bans

MiG Frost - Nocture, TF, Shen

Xenics Storm - FF, Janna, Urgot

Picks

MiG Frost - Kennen Graves, Lulu Amumu, Ahri

Xenics Storm - Mundo, Leona Corki, Anivia Jarvan

Game 2

Bans

MiG Frost - TF, Noct, Olaf

Xenics Storm - Ahri, Kennen, Shem

Picks

MiG Frost - Mundo, Urgot Alistar, Ezreal Anivia

Xenics Storm - LeeSin Kogmaw, Soraka Sivir, Vlad

Game 3

Bans

MiG Frost - Graves Soraka, Ahri Amumu, Ezreal

Xenics Storm - Olaf, Alistar Sivir, Galio, WW

Picks

MiG Frost - Noct, TF, Shen

Xenics Storm - Kennen, Ryze, Mundo

Game 4

Bans

MiG Frost - TF, Noct, Olaf

Xenics Storm - Kennen, Mundo, Shen

Picks

MiG Frost - Leesin, Janna KogMaw, Amumu Ryze

Xenics Storm - Soraka Graves, Ahri Skarner, Rumble

Game 5

Picks

MiG Frost - Graves, Sona, Olaf, Shen, Ryze

Xenics Storm - Kennen, Shen, Ahri, Graves, Soraka

Day 2 - May 4th

Game 1

Bans

MiG Blaze - Shen, Udyr, Skarner

Team OP - Urgot, Vladimir, Ryze

Picks

MiG Blaze - Lulu LeeSin, TF Wukong, Sivir

Team OP - Mundo, Graves Janna, Jarvan Kassadin

Game 2

Bans

MiG Blaze - Karthus, Kassadin, Urgot

Team OP - Shen, Mundo, Janna

Picks

MiG Blaze - Ryze, Lulu Olaf, Vladimir Graves

Team OP - Kennen Ashe, Nocturne Sona, Ahri

Game 3

Bans

MiG Blaze - Shen, Kassadin, Udyr

Team OP - Urgot, Lee Sin, Mundo

Picks

MiG Blaze - Graves Ryze, Vladimir Soraka, Amumu

Team OP - Janna, Nocturne Corki, Ahri Karthus

Game 4

Bans

MiG Blaze - Kassadin, Ahri, Ashe

Team OP - Shen, Amumu, Janna

Picks

MiG Blaze - Ryze, Soraka Kennen, Shyvana Sivir

Team OP - Urgot Mundo, Vladimir Taric, Olaf

Game 5

Not Needed

Semi-Finals Results

Day 1

MiG Frost vs. Xenics Storm

Winner: MiG Frost; Qualified for Final

Day 2

MiG Blaze vs. Team OP

Winner: MiG Blaze; Qualified for Final

Third Place Game

The 3rd place game was played with a single elimination bracket system in a best of 3 format, unlike the Semi Finals. The first 2 games featured the Draft Pick Mode while the last game (Game 3) was a Blind Pick. 3rd place and the winner of the seed challenge secured seeds for the next season – The Champions Summer 2012

3rd/4th Place - May 9th

Game 1

Bans

Xenics Storm - Ahri, Kassadin, Shen

Team OP - Janna, Soraka, Morgana

Picks

Xenics Storm - Corki Sona, Anivia Naut, Sivir

Team OP - Noct, Graves Alistar, Kennen Karthus

Game 2

Bans

Xenics Storm - Kassadin, Kennen, Nocture

Team OP - Ahri, Anivia, Shen

Picks

Xenics Storm - Graves, Soraka Morgana, Rumble Shyvana

Team OP - Corki Naut, Vlad Sona, Olaf

Game 3

Picks

Xenics Storm - Rumble, Shyvana, Ahri, Graves, Alistar

Team OP - Jarvan, Udyr, Kassadin, Soraka, Graves

Seed Challenge (4th vs. NLB 1st) - May 11th [NLB is a league run by OGN]

Team OP vs. Team Bubble

3rd Place & Seed Challenge Results

Xenics Storm vs. Team OP

Winner: Xenics Storm (3rd Place)

Team OP vs. Team Bubble

Winner: Team OP; Seeded for next season

Grand Final

It's all down to the Grand Finals now to be held on May 19th (Saturday) at 19:30 KST. The Grand Finals again will be a single elimination bracket with best of 5 format. The first four games will feature draft picks while Game 5 will be a blind pick. The winner will take away 100 million won (~US$ 90,000)!

Maximum Impact Gaming have had a great run in The Champions Spring 2012 league so far, fielding their killer lineups in the form of MiG Frost and MiG Blaze. MiG Blaze came into existence when MiG Frost won the OnGameNet LoL Invitational. It's a win-win situation for Maximum Impact Gaming and an achievement indeed with both their teams reaching the grand final. Here are the lineups:

MiG Frost

Jungler: CloudTemplar (Lee Hyung-woo)

Top Solo: Woong (Jang Gun-woong)

Middle: RapidStar (Jung Min-sung)

Bottom AD: Locodoco (Choi Yoon-sub)

Bottom Support: MadLife (Hong Min-gi)

MiG Blaze

Jungler: Helios (Shin Dong-jin)

Top Solo: FantasyStar (Bok Han-gyu)

Middle: Ambition (Kang Chan-yong)

Bottom AD: CaptainJack (Kang Hyung-woo)

Bottom Support: Lustboy (Ham Jang-sik)

The Grand Final on 19th will be an epic set of games any LoL fan should look forward to. Having said that, The Champions Summer 2012 will be a scorching season due to more intense competition and teams having secured seeds already. LoL keeps on dabbling with huge prize money and with the Koreans in the mix now, it will only get bigger and better.