The European Masters League of Legends tournament continues into its final days as teams earn their spots in the semifinals. The final two teams claimed their positions April 28 as BT Excel and mouseports overcame Misfits Premier and Berlin International Gaming respectively. The rest of the field includes SuperLiga representative UCAM Esports Club and the French squad Karmine Corp.
The EU semifinal matches begin May 1 and the finals are the following day.
mouseports overcome BIG
Zed locked in by @LIDERlol! #EUMasters pic.twitter.com/6gPOSC3bZY
— EMEA Masters (@EMEAmasters) April 28, 2021
Mouseports came into the knockout bracket as one of the underdogs. They barely made it out of the group stage, forcing a tie breaker that ended in their favor. They ultimately had to face their German league counterparts BIG. The two split games in the regulars season, but BIG took the EU Masters top seed after besting them 3-1 in the playoff finals. In this matchup, mouseports took the series in two games. Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov led the team in both games on his patented melee carry champions from the mid lane. In game 1 he picked Sylas as his bot lane duo went with an off-meta Karthus carry pick. The two synergized well with 15 kills and 23 assists between them.
The next game, LIDER brought out the assassin Zed. He played two games of Zed this Split before this match, winning both. This game was no exception as he rolled over BIG in the mid game. He was down almost 1,000 gold in the early game due to Steven “Reeker” Chen’s lane presence on Lucian, but held on to win the game in under 30 minutes. LIDER finished the second game with the most damage done to champions with 26,800 total damage thanks to his ultra-aggressive build.
LIDER and the rest of mouseports will face BT Excel who overcame Misfits Premier to make the semifinal stage.
BT Excel defeat Misfits Premier
BT Excel took down the La Ligue Française second seed 2-1 thanks to better mid-game play and their top and bot lane performances. Andrei “Orome” Popa, the former MAD Lions top laner, was a carry for the team in game 1 and 3 as he only recorded one death across both games. He also played Aatrox and Camille in those games, outpacing his lane opponent in both clashes.
.@ShlatanLoL takes the Baron but BT @EXCEL take the fight! #EUMasters pic.twitter.com/PAyaFUPqnL
— EMEA Masters (@EMEAmasters) April 28, 2021
BT Excel’s bot laner Matthew “Deadly” Smith also had a great series, recording only three deaths and out-performing his LEC-level counterpart on Misfits Premier. All three games were fairly one-sided as BT Excel took both games convincingly, with a steady gold graph, and Misfits doing the same in their sole win.
The rest of the EU Masters semifinals field
UCAM Esports Club and Karmine Corp will face off in the other semifinal on May 1. UCAM took a convincing series over the Italian representative Mkers. The SuperLiga top seed took down Mkers 2-0 with one one-sided game and one back-and-forth battle. The second game was a bloody match that averaged one kill a minute.
Karmine Corp had a rougher path to the semifinals as they dropped their first game against Å AIM SE SuppUp. But, they turned the series around to win 2-1 off of a sub-22 minute game three.
EU Masters will continue May 1 as these four teams battle for regional supremacy in the Spring Split.
