Last-place Oceanic squad Gravitas are the first team to be knocked out of the running for this year’s League of Legends World Championship. Following their loss to PEACE earlier today, Gravitas are mathematically unable to qualify for the LCO Split Two playoffs, meaning they won’t have the chance to represent the region at Worlds later this year.
Gravitas have not won a game throughout the entirety of the LCO’s second split this year and currently sit with a record of 0-14 with seven more games to play on the schedule. The team finished the first split of the season with a record of 3-18. Gravitas will play one more game against each of the teams in the LCO since the league’s regular season schedule is anchored by a triple round robin each split.
The LCO, which is an eight-team league, will have its top five teams battle it out in the postseason for a chance to represent Oceania at the World Championship. Traditionally, the region has only sent one representative to Worlds throughout League’s history.
Last year, Pentanet.GG became the first Oceanic team to advance beyond the first round of an international League event when they made it past the group stage at last year’s Mid-Season Invitational. Since Pentanet’s run through the MSI 2021 group stage, though, Oceanic teams have posted a combined match record of 3-11 at international events.
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This season, Chiefs Esports Club are the clear frontrunners to serve as the LCO’s representative at Worlds. The Chiefs currently sit at the top of the LCO standings with an undefeated record of 14-0, and dating back to the start of the season, they hold a match record of 34-3. Of those three losses, the most consequential of all came at the hands of ORDER, who defeated the Chiefs in the Split One grand finals to qualify for this year’s MSI. Should Chiefs maintain their current pace, they’d have the chance to be the eighth different team to represent Oceania across the last eight international League events.
As for Gravitas, their season is effectively over. They’ll play out their schedule with seven more games in the regular season, with one against each of their LCO opponents. None of those matches will have any mathematical weight on their own standing in the playoff race, although they will have the chance to play spoiler for other teams in the league. They’ll begin their third round robin run tomorrow against defending LCO champions ORDER.
Published: Jul 18, 2022 12:48 pm