In October, the League of Legends world will travel to Europe to fight for the Summoner’s Cup, and what will await them is the champion of champions. The best region in the world. Unchallenged in Europe and now victorious in Taipei, G2 Esports makes history by winning the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational after destroying Team Liquid 3-0. It is Europe’s first MSI win and first major international win since Worlds Season 1. This has been eight years in the making, and after suffering a crushing heartbreak at Worlds, Europe is, once again, king.

Since the dawn of time, NA and EU have been trading jabs at each other anywhere you turn — be it on social media or Twitch chat or in-game, they have relentlessly taunted each other. But the idea of them actually playing in a grand final seemed like the biggest joke of all. The international scene has been dominated by the LCK teams and more recently the LPL teams, but finally, as Kobe said at the start of Game 1, the paradigm has been shifted. They could settle the debate on the Summoner’s Rift.

Game 1 showcased the difference in experience on the big stage between these two teams. G2 was a Worlds Semifinalist last year and their biggest roster addition, LEC MVP Caps, was in the Finals. Liquid, led by Doublelift, is in their first knockout stage, period. And though they managed to defeat Invictus Gaming, it seems they were still affected by nerves. G2 managed to blow a couple early flashes from TL, including CoreJJ’s after his bewildering decision to overstay in a forward position.

Jankos, Europe’s first blood king, played Jarvan (the best early game jungler at MSI) and followed the Level 1 shenanigans with a successful gank onto bot lane. From there, the Liquid bot lane was repeatedly attacked and repeatedly killed. TL responded by pouring resources to help the lane, including from Impact, but those attempts were thwarted, which meant TL lost everywhere on the map. G2 converted the early wins into a 20 minute Baron and from there demolished Liquid.

And, well, it never really got much better for TL. A combination of tilt and mismatch in skill meant that G2 would just run away with the series. Even though Game 2 featured TL in the lead for the majority of the match, it was G2 that still held initiative throughout the game, and it felt like TL was merely responding. Eventually a single bad teamfight for G2 completely swung the game wide open, and skirmish after skirmish fell in G2’s favor.

Caps on Sylas in particular played maybe the single best of the tournament from anyone, and over and over he seemed to utilize the stolen ults from Kennen and Ashe better than they themselves did.