Starting on April 18th at 5:30pm PST, the Playoffs of EPS Season IX will begin! We’ve had a long season building up to this point, so let’s take a look at the playoff seeds determined by the regular season’s standings.



LMQ iBUYPOWER

From the beginning of the season it seemed the most hyped teams by fans were LMQ, the Chinese team who had moved to North America a few weeks previously, and Cloud 9 Tempest who were formerly known as The Walking Zed before being picked up by the Cloud 9 brand.



LMQ Tian Ci was a Chinese team whose sister team is Royal Club. LMQ was formed by the merging of parts of Team Livemore and Royal Club Tian Ci, who then competed in the League of Legends Professional League (LPL), though they ended the season at sixth place.



A few months later, LMQ partnered with their new title sponsor iBUYPOWER and moved to North America to climb the Ranked 5v5 ladder in order to qualify for the North American Challenger Series, hosted by Riot. From there they competed in several small tournaments before being invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series and went on an impressive undefeated streak to earn the top seed for playoffs. Meanwhile, they competed in the North American Challenger League and the North American Challenger Series, where they earned the top seed overall in both tournaments.



Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest

Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest has also had quite a journey on their way to the ESL Pro Series. The team originally started out as a Gold Gaming LA roster in Season 3 and competed in small tournaments around the Challenger scene before being dropped by the organization. The roster came back together as The Walking Zed and competed at the Spring Promotion tournament against Team Coast, managing to take them to a game 5 before losing 2-3. With their stunning defeat, they announced they would continue on to compete in the Coke League after picking up Altec as AD Carry to replace bobbyhankhill.



Less than a month later their support, NydusHerMain, left and three days later the rest of the roster was picked up by the Cloud 9 brand with Gleebglarbu joining them. They went on to compete in the North American Challenger Series and League and were then invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series where they ended the regular season as the second seed coming in to playoffs with only one loss under their belts.



Curse Academy

Curse Academy, formerly known as 'Children of IWDominate', were picked up by team Curse in late January of 2013. Since their creation, Curse Academy has gained high expectations from their fanbase after placing 1st in the Season 1 Amateur League Championship Series and 2nd in the IPL Summer Promotion Qualifier. Despite the team suffering a large amount of roster changes, the team found consistent success in 2013 as we saw Curse Academy place above Fifth in 70% of their Tournament Standings.



Curse Academy have proven themselves as strong competitors in the National ESL Pro Series since the start. They have played consistently throughout EPS, standing at an average of 3rd place in each season they have competed. It's important to note that even with their recent roster changes in early February of this year, Curse Academy are a top contender for the first place spot this season.



Previous Esports Veterans, Nk Inc and Evaniskus were released by Velocity eSports and quickly formed a team known as 'Skyline' in November of 2013. Soon after the team arrived on the scene, their roster was absorbed in Early February by CompLexity under a new name. CompLexity.Red would be the new sister team to CompLexity.Black. CompLexity.Red are currently competing in the North American Challenger Series hosted by Riot, with the recent loss of their original Mid Laner Greyson 'GoldenGlue' Gilmer to Team Dignitas, they are currently subbing in Fragnat1c.



CompLexity.Red

CompLexity.Red came into the National ESL Pro Series Season 9 with force. This would be their first season competing in EPS but that has not slowed them down, they have proven to be a force to be reckoned with so far and have rallied together a strong fan base. The loss of GoldenGlue came late in the season and have left CompLexity.Red to face the Playoffs against Team LoLPro with their sub Mid Laner. It is safe to say that CompLexity.Red have their work cut out for them.



Team LoLPro

In the Pre-Season 4, Team LoLPro reformed with a new roster and debuted in the Amateur League Championship Series where they ended the season in second place with a score of 15-6. From there they competed in the first North American Challenger Series split where they lost in the qualifying rounds against Skyline, who would later change their name to compLexity.Red after being picked up by compLexity.



They were then invited to compete here in the ESL Pro Series where they started off strong by defeating the team who knocked them out of the first NACS, coL.Red. After defeating coL.Red, LoLPro went on to face their sister team, Curse Academy, and eventually lost 2-1. Despite their rocky start, they went on to secure the fourth playoffs seed by the end of the regular season. During the EPS season, they competed in the next Challenger Series and made it to the Quarterfinals where they lost a best of 3 against vVv Gaming 2-1. Team LoLPro will be facing compLexity.Red in the first round of the EPS playoffs on April 18th.



NoDice Gaming

NoDice Gaming’s League of Legends team is part of a major gaming company that focuses mostly on MMO’s and has only recently delved into the world of esports. Being very new to the scene, NoDice Gaming has had many struggles this season with finding a solid roster. After being in quite a few other tournaments, NoDice Gaming was invited to join in the NESL to replace Crossover eSports and inherit their wins/losses.



Unfortunately, this means that NoDice was put into a losing situation, starting with no wins. In the following weeks, NoDice managed to take one win for themselves. Being at the bottom of the standings, it will be a challenge for NoDice to win their game against the third place Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest.



Playoffs schedule

Day Date Time Week Teams Friday April 18 8:30 PM EST Match #1 Team LoLPro vs. compLexity.Red Friday April 18 Following Match #1 Match #2 Curse Academy vs. NoDice Gaming Saturday April 19 8:30 PM EST Match #3 LMQ vs. Winner Match #1 Saturday April 19 Following Match #3 Match #4 Cloud9 HyperX Tempest vs. Winner Match #2 Sunday April 20 3 PM EST 3rd Place Match TBA vs. TBA Sunday April 20 6 PM EST Finals TBA vs. TBA



Playoffs start this Friday April 18th at 5:30pm PST so be sure to tune into Nesl LoL to see the very best challenger teams duke it out as Season IX of the National ESL Pro Series comes to a close!



By

Michal Kucharz Sitting at a comfortable 1st seed are the newcomers LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER with a perfect 7-0 record for the season, followed up by 2nd seed Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest at 6-1. Curse Academy is sitting at the 3rd seed with a record of 5-2, one seed above Team LoLPro at 4th with 4-3. Our 5th seed team is compLexity.Red at 3-4, and our 6th and final seed went to NoDice Gaming. The season started out with 8 teams being invited to compete in the 7-week regular season, and with the season coming to a close with playoffs, let’s take a look at the journey these teams went on to make it to playoffs.From the beginning of the season it seemed the most hyped teams by fans were LMQ, the Chinese team who had moved to North America a few weeks previously, and Cloud 9 Tempest who were formerly known as The Walking Zed before being picked up by the Cloud 9 brand.LMQ Tian Ci was a Chinese team whose sister team is Royal Club. LMQ was formed by the merging of parts of Team Livemore and Royal Club Tian Ci, who then competed in the League of Legends Professional League (LPL), though they ended the season at sixth place.A few months later, LMQ partnered with their new title sponsor iBUYPOWER and moved to North America to climb the Ranked 5v5 ladder in order to qualify for the North American Challenger Series, hosted by Riot. From there they competed in several small tournaments before being invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series and went on an impressive undefeated streak to earn the top seed for playoffs. Meanwhile, they competed in the North American Challenger League and the North American Challenger Series, where they earned the top seed overall in both tournaments.Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest has also had quite a journey on their way to the ESL Pro Series. The team originally started out as a Gold Gaming LA roster in Season 3 and competed in small tournaments around the Challenger scene before being dropped by the organization. The roster came back together as The Walking Zed and competed at the Spring Promotion tournament against Team Coast, managing to take them to a game 5 before losing 2-3. With their stunning defeat, they announced they would continue on to compete in the Coke League after picking up Altec as AD Carry to replace bobbyhankhill.Less than a month later their support, NydusHerMain, left and three days later the rest of the roster was picked up by the Cloud 9 brand with Gleebglarbu joining them. They went on to compete in the North American Challenger Series and League and were then invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series where they ended the regular season as the second seed coming in to playoffs with only one loss under their belts.Curse Academy, formerly known as 'Children of IWDominate', were picked up by team Curse in late January of 2013. Since their creation, Curse Academy has gained high expectations from their fanbase after placing 1st in the Season 1 Amateur League Championship Series and 2nd in the IPL Summer Promotion Qualifier. Despite the team suffering a large amount of roster changes, the team found consistent success in 2013 as we saw Curse Academy place above Fifth in 70% of their Tournament Standings.Curse Academy have proven themselves as strong competitors in the National ESL Pro Series since the start. They have played consistently throughout EPS, standing at an average of 3rd place in each season they have competed. It's important to note that even with their recent roster changes in early February of this year, Curse Academy are a top contender for the first place spot this season.Previous Esports Veterans, Nk Inc and Evaniskus were released by Velocity eSports and quickly formed a team known as 'Skyline' in November of 2013. Soon after the team arrived on the scene, their roster was absorbed in Early February by CompLexity under a new name. CompLexity.Red would be the new sister team to CompLexity.Black. CompLexity.Red are currently competing in the North American Challenger Series hosted by Riot, with the recent loss of their original Mid Laner Greyson 'GoldenGlue' Gilmer to Team Dignitas, they are currently subbing in Fragnat1c.CompLexity.Red came into the National ESL Pro Series Season 9 with force. This would be their first season competing in EPS but that has not slowed them down, they have proven to be a force to be reckoned with so far and have rallied together a strong fan base. The loss of GoldenGlue came late in the season and have left CompLexity.Red to face the Playoffs against Team LoLPro with their sub Mid Laner. It is safe to say that CompLexity.Red have their work cut out for them.In the Pre-Season 4, Team LoLPro reformed with a new roster and debuted in the Amateur League Championship Series where they ended the season in second place with a score of 15-6. From there they competed in the first North American Challenger Series split where they lost in the qualifying rounds against Skyline, who would later change their name to compLexity.Red after being picked up by compLexity.They were then invited to compete here in the ESL Pro Series where they started off strong by defeating the team who knocked them out of the first NACS, coL.Red. After defeating coL.Red, LoLPro went on to face their sister team, Curse Academy, and eventually lost 2-1. Despite their rocky start, they went on to secure the fourth playoffs seed by the end of the regular season. During the EPS season, they competed in the next Challenger Series and made it to the Quarterfinals where they lost a best of 3 against vVv Gaming 2-1. Team LoLPro will be facing compLexity.Red in the first round of the EPS playoffs on April 18th.NoDice Gaming’s League of Legends team is part of a major gaming company that focuses mostly on MMO’s and has only recently delved into the world of esports. Being very new to the scene, NoDice Gaming has had many struggles this season with finding a solid roster. After being in quite a few other tournaments, NoDice Gaming was invited to join in the NESL to replace Crossover eSports and inherit their wins/losses.Unfortunately, this means that NoDice was put into a losing situation, starting with no wins. In the following weeks, NoDice managed to take one win for themselves. Being at the bottom of the standings, it will be a challenge for NoDice to win their game against the third place Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest.Playoffs start this Friday April 18th at 5:30pm PST so be sure to tune intoto see the very best challenger teams duke it out as Season IX of the National ESL Pro Series comes to a close!ByMichal Kucharz 8196851 , Tuesday, 15/04/14 19:16