North America Kicked from LoL World Championship, Dyrus's Goodbye Video

Week two of the League of Legends World Championship was this weekend, and like many League of Legends fans, I was watching the whole thing, glued to my seat. And while I recognize this is not normally the place to get your e-sports fix, there were two irregular things worth note that occurred over the weekend that I feel is worth drawing attention towards.  Also I just want to write about it, so what are you gonna do about it?

The first, and the one that has me in an irrational rage, is that the North American region is already out of the competition, all three of our teams knocked out during the group stage. Which is bullshit. We had a great year this year, and during the qualifiers C9 and TSM and CLG were kicking ass--but then they hit their heads too hard on their Mountain Dew cans and suddenly they’re playing like they’re in their promo match for Gold Tier. We got raked over the coals by Europe. EUROPE. They’re the region that’s even weaker than we are, and they destroyed us.

Now North America has no running in the worlds, and it’s all Europe and China and Korea from here on out. Which forces me to root for Europe, because at least it would be a western team winning the finals, but it’s still craptacular.

The second, and arguably most important, is that LCS mainstay and TSM top-laner Dyrus has officially retired from professional League of Legends following his team’s rather mediocre performance in this year’s Worlds. Check out this kind of heart-breaking farewell interview:



Dyrus and TSM (which he’s been with since 2012) have been to the World's Championship several times, but has never been able to hold the famous Summoner’s Cup themselves. It’s sad he has to retire on such a down note, but at least he’s still young--he’s got plenty of potential still inside him. Godspeed, you beautiful sir.