March 13th, 2014 marked the beginning of a very intense weekend in eSports. Held in Poland, this years Intel Extreme Masters World Championships consisted of $250,000 o prize money and two games–League of Legends and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
With over 50,000 attendees and over 5,000,000 unique visitors watching from home, saying IEM 2014 was a considerable event would be an understatament. It was even quoted as “the most successful European eSports event in history.”
It’s no secret that South Korea brings fierce competition when it comes to StarCraft. Making up 100% of the top four last year, and placing the highest in each playstyle (Protoss, Zerg, and Terran), the South Korean hype-train continued this year with flying colors.
Through fierce competition and outstanding rivalries, Asia once again dominated the ladder and took all four positions:
StarCraft II
1. sOs
2. herO
3-4. Polt
3-4. Taeja
Although the StarCraft results weren’t too surprising, League of Legends had everyone on the edge of their seat. With Europe holding the record for 6 gold medals, Asia with 4, and America with 1, it was no surprise that Europe’s Fnatic was fighting for the championship.
However, in a heated 3-0 upset, South Korea’s KT Rolster Bullets took the 1st place seat.
League of Legends
1. KT Rolster Bullets
2. Fnatic
3-4. Cloud 9 HyperX
3-4. Gambit Gaming
It seems like South Korea brought their “A game” this year with sOs and KT Rolster Bullets taking first place in both categories, earning $160,000 in prize money, and (my personal favorite) the badass trophies.
Although IEM 2014 was a bit of an upset, it just paved the way for harsher and more relentless competition next year. A year of training could bring anything to the table in 2015, and who knows, maybe America might even bring home the trophy next year.
