UC Irvine won the 2018 League of Legends College Championship on Sunday with a dominating victory over Columbia College.
This year’s tournament was filled with upsets, starting with first seed and defending champions, Maryville University, getting eliminated in two straight games on the first day of competition. But the ending was pure chalk as second-seeded Irvine showed its dominance in the 3-0 victory over fifth-seeded Columbia.
Both teams had proven to be the best at the event during their impressive runs throughout the rest of the tournament field. They combined to go 10-1 in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament to set up a highly-anticipated final.
For most of the first game, the match seemed pretty even. The two teams stayed close in kills, but UC Irvine edged ahead in the objective control department. Led by jungler Jung “Youngbin” Young-bin, who has previously played for LCS organization Team Liquid, they got every drake and built a big lead in towers. Youngbin achieved a double Flame horizon by the end of the game and UCI was off to the races.
There was little that Columbia could do in the rest of the match against Youngbin’s pressure. Even when he wasn’t on high-damage junglers like Graves, he was in their faces and setting up his team for success. UCI even relaxed some and worked together to get the tournament’s only Pentakill.
Three games went by in a flash, and at the end, UCI lifted their first League College Championship.
The dominating victory showed the world what a new generation of North American talent can accomplish. Who knows—maybe you’ll see one of the UCI players on an LCS roster in the near future. The 2018 NA LCS Summer Split starts next week on June 16.
