The next days are going to be very important for a couple of players – some might lose their spot in the highest league of their region, others may have a dream coming true by joining that league. Either way, there is a lot on the line for all the participants.
In order to give you a brief overview of the EU Challenger series, we'll quickly go through the playoffs. The squad of
Gamers2 had acquired the first seed and seemed very confident. Their first opponents, however, did not care about the seeding at all, as they overpowered G2 with a quick 2-0 strike. While
mousesports managed to advance to the finals,
Team Dignitas.EU took down
Denial with a 2:1 result. The finals between Dig.EU and mouz were a nailbiter, both teams gave their best, but in the end Dignitas managed to come out victorious. By doing so, they earned the 1st place and the auto promotion, while mouz had to take on an LCS team in the relegation match.
There was yet another chance to join the LCS for Gamers2 and Denial, but only one could do so by beating the other team in another best of 3 for the 3rd place. Denial had a very explosive start, but Gamers2 somehow managed to turn the tides, which gave them a proper momentum. That momentum carried on to game 2, where they overpowered Denial and eventually earned the last spot in the promotion tournament.
SK Gaming and Gambit Gaming are the LCS teams, that will be facing the 2nd and 3rd place of the EU Challenger Series playoffs. The matches will be played in the best of 5 format on Saturday, the 5th of September.
SK Gaming versus Gamers2 – The “grudge match”
The first match up will be a very special one. Gamers2 have a couple of members that were affiliated with SK in some way - their CEO Ocelote, who has announced that he is coaching the team during the relegation matches, their manager InnerFlame, the team's ADC Jesse (previously Jesiz), and their jungler Kikis already were contracted by SK Gaming, which spices up things. While there seems to be no bad blood, the history between the players and organization always add an emotional taste to it.
Although Gamers2 got into the EU CS playoffs as the first seed, they seemed to struggle against their opponents on different occasions. SK on the other hand picked up some slack in the last weeks of the LCS and looked like a threat as a team again. Our roster will have a small change for this Bo5 set as nRated will be replaced by Noxiak. The games will surely have a heavy focus on junglers. On one hand, there is Kikis, who previously played for UoL and did not fear any weird jungle picks – he actually embraced them and became a solid, somewhat hard to predict jungler. On the other hand, there is Svenskeren, who is still considered as one of the strongest junglers in the EU LCS. If Sven turns up in a game, he can very well decide it by himself and carry his team. The show will start at 14:00 CEST, make sure to tune in and cheer for our team!

Gambit Gaming versus mousesports – All or nothing
Mousesports was looking really good throughout the Challenger Series playoffs. Even though they fell against Dignitas.EU, they should not be counted out by any means. While watching them play, you somehow can see how bad they want to play in the LCS. This drive can turn out to be a threat for Gambit, who have to play the games without their star marksman Forgiven. Similar to SK Gaming, Gambit have stepped up their game during the last weeks of the LCS, however, they were allowed to use their full roster when they started to imrpove. With Forgiven being punished for toxic behaviour, it still is hard to predict the team's performance. But if they are not down in moral, they will still be a hard enemy to go up against. The game is set to be played on 19:00 CEST, however, the time is approximate, as it will be the follow up match to the first best of 5.
The winners of these matchups will qualify for the 2016 EU Spring Split, so make sure to not miss any of the action as everything is on the line. As usual you can do so by tuning in at twitch.tv/riotgames!
In order to give you a brief overview of the EU Challenger series, we'll quickly go through the playoffs. The squad of




There was yet another chance to join the LCS for Gamers2 and Denial, but only one could do so by beating the other team in another best of 3 for the 3rd place. Denial had a very explosive start, but Gamers2 somehow managed to turn the tides, which gave them a proper momentum. That momentum carried on to game 2, where they overpowered Denial and eventually earned the last spot in the promotion tournament.
SK Gaming and Gambit Gaming are the LCS teams, that will be facing the 2nd and 3rd place of the EU Challenger Series playoffs. The matches will be played in the best of 5 format on Saturday, the 5th of September.
SK Gaming versus Gamers2 – The “grudge match”
The first match up will be a very special one. Gamers2 have a couple of members that were affiliated with SK in some way - their CEO Ocelote, who has announced that he is coaching the team during the relegation matches, their manager InnerFlame, the team's ADC Jesse (previously Jesiz), and their jungler Kikis already were contracted by SK Gaming, which spices up things. While there seems to be no bad blood, the history between the players and organization always add an emotional taste to it.
Although Gamers2 got into the EU CS playoffs as the first seed, they seemed to struggle against their opponents on different occasions. SK on the other hand picked up some slack in the last weeks of the LCS and looked like a threat as a team again. Our roster will have a small change for this Bo5 set as nRated will be replaced by Noxiak. The games will surely have a heavy focus on junglers. On one hand, there is Kikis, who previously played for UoL and did not fear any weird jungle picks – he actually embraced them and became a solid, somewhat hard to predict jungler. On the other hand, there is Svenskeren, who is still considered as one of the strongest junglers in the EU LCS. If Sven turns up in a game, he can very well decide it by himself and carry his team. The show will start at 14:00 CEST, make sure to tune in and cheer for our team!

Gambit Gaming versus mousesports – All or nothing
Mousesports was looking really good throughout the Challenger Series playoffs. Even though they fell against Dignitas.EU, they should not be counted out by any means. While watching them play, you somehow can see how bad they want to play in the LCS. This drive can turn out to be a threat for Gambit, who have to play the games without their star marksman Forgiven. Similar to SK Gaming, Gambit have stepped up their game during the last weeks of the LCS, however, they were allowed to use their full roster when they started to imrpove. With Forgiven being punished for toxic behaviour, it still is hard to predict the team's performance. But if they are not down in moral, they will still be a hard enemy to go up against. The game is set to be played on 19:00 CEST, however, the time is approximate, as it will be the follow up match to the first best of 5.
The winners of these matchups will qualify for the 2016 EU Spring Split, so make sure to not miss any of the action as everything is on the line. As usual you can do so by tuning in at twitch.tv/riotgames!

Michael Ardelean
Got into eSports through CS and joined the SK LoL editorial staff in early 2013. His love for competitive League has only grown since then.


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