EU’s Unicorns of Love proved no match for NA darlings Team SoloMid, as the first ever League of Legends Rift Rivals tournament between the two regions ended in a 3-0 for TSM. The Spring Split champions gave up only one game the entire tournament, and will return to North America to finish out the remainder of the Summer Split, where they are currently in second place.
League of Legends Rift Rivals NA vs. EU Finals
For the bo5 final match, Unicorns of Love decided to stick mostly to their patented play style, with the bot lane running Xayah and Rakan in two of the three games. Top laner Vizicsacsi also played his imposing Gnar two out of three times. But even though Unicorns of Love were occasionally able to take the gold lead away from TSM, the North American team proved too versatile and too good at controlling the map.
VICTORY! We are the Rift Rivals champions! #TSMWIN pic.twitter.com/vRPS3MHUyZ
— Team SoloMid (@TeamSoloMid) July 8, 2017
Rewards for winning Rift Rivals are small, with rumors circulating about generally insignificant sums of money, given the cash flow of top esports organizations. But North America’s win, and in such dominant fashion, does settle the long-standing question of which region reigns supreme, at least for now.
The MVP of the Group Stage at Rift Rivals, Phoenix1 jungler MikeYeung, did make an appearance to talk with the casters before the third and final match between TSM and UoL. His advice to the European team, which at that point had to reverse-sweep TSM to win, was to play their own style, and not try to match TSM’s.
The American Sniper #RiftRivals2017 pic.twitter.com/3ZNLEAo10J
— lolesports (@lolesports) July 8, 2017
But TSM throughout the tournament proved wily and adaptable. While other teams were pulling out comfort and pocket picks, they were playing Galio mid. Even if all they got from Rift Rivals were the bragging rights, they should be heading back to the remainder of the NA LCS Summer Split with renewed confidence in their strategy of widening their range of viable compositions.