Top 20 LoL streaks in esports history: 10-1 (Part 2 of 2)
With more than three years of League of Legends history in the books and now spanning all the significant esports regions, there have been lots of impressive runs of wins by the great and the good teams of their eras. In this two part series I'll count down the 20 most impressive streaks in LoL history. A small clarification I should add is that in general I've only looked streaks based purely on consecutive wins and such, other impressive feats like always placing top four have not been taken into consideration for this list.
Top 20 LoL streaks in esports history
Part 2: 11-1
10. OMG's 10 game win streak in the 2013 LPL Summer regular season
OMG came into the 2013 LPL Summer season as the reigning champions, having risen up in the regular season and then convincingly won the playoffs, they were looked to as the new name at the top of Chinese LoL. In the Summer season they did not disappoint, recording a 10 game win streak early on. From the last game of week 1 through to the last game of week 4, OMG would not be beaten. In this run they defeated WE and Royal both twice and recorded a win over every team in the league.
China had a new king and their reign didn't seem to be over just yet, this was the era of OMG.
9. OMG's 13 game win streak in the 2013 LPL Spring regular season
After World Elite's unparalleled domination of the Chinese scene, it appeared as if that perennial top team's fall would usher in an era of either domination by iG, their usurpers and long the second best team in China, or an era of parity amongst top teams would descend upon the kingdom between heaven and Earth. Instead, the seeds had already been sown for the rise of a new power in Chinese LoL.
In Mid April, a couple of weeks before WE were finally deposed at the StarsWar League Season 2 final, OMG began what would end up as a 13 game win streak in the 2013 LPL Spring season. The new top Chinese team was able to defeat iG, WE and Royal twice each. In total, they defeated every team in the league at least once. That season would be no fluke, OMG went on to establish themselves as the next dominant team in China.
8. Cloud 9's 13 game win streak in the 2013 LCS Summer split
When Cloud 9 came bursting onto the scene with talk of 90% win rates in scrims against the best LCS teams, many expected they had the potential to be one of the top teams. What could not have been predicted was that they would become both the best team and one of the most dominant in NA LoL history. Over the first part of the split, their results had been very impressive but also in line with those of teams like Curse and Dignitas the previous split. From the start of week 4 to the third game of week 8, Cloud 9 would win 13 games in a row.
Not only had they broken the record set by Dignitas for an LCS win streak, but they had beaten every single team in the league. Curse were beaten three times in that stretch and both TSM and Dignitas fell twice. The new kings of North America were here and everyone would bend the knee.
7. Moscow Five's 9:0 IEM VI World Championship undefeated run
In January of 2012 Moscow Five had shown the level of their talent, winning IEM VI Kiev with a 7:1 game score, beating top NA team TSM in the final. Less than two months later, at the IEM VI World Championship, they would show just how far ahead of the other Western teams they were. Winning the tournament without dropping a single game, they were able to win games off many of the West's best teams. TSM, CLG and Dignitas were the top three NA teams and yet went a combined 0:5 against the might of the Russia maestros. PDD's EHOME could not stand against them and European teams like SK and Sypher were little challenge.
This was the monster Moscow Five who counter-jungled you, smashed your Mid lane and ended games at 20 minutes. In taking the IEM title, they secured themselves as the world's best team.
6. TSM's 15 Bo3/Bo5 series win streak vs. North America teams
This one may sound like a little funky, but hear me out. From the GIGABYE Esports LAN in June of 2012 through to the LCS Summer split semi-final, TSM won 15 straight Bo3 or Bo5 series against North American competition. Sure, in between some of those wins they lost the tournament and/or fell to teams from Europe or Asia, but against NA competition they simply did not lose any series for around 15 months. That unbelievable streak began when TSM were in their run of winning all the North American LANs, minus the MLG Summer Arena at which they were embarrassed by Azubu Blaze.
After adding Dyrus to their team, replacing the departed TheRainMan, TSM never looked back and would firmly cement themselves as the best NA team by far. No other team from the region would win an NA title at an event TSM were in attendance at for a span of around six months. TSM were the first true dynasty in NA LoL. Not just taking the crown, but defending it and ruling the land.
5. Azubu Blaze's 8 Bo3/5 series win streak in 2012
When MiG Frost picked up a sister team, named Blaze, the pecking order was supposed to be set with Frost at the top and Blaze as the second best. Indeed, the initial approach the team used was to send Blaze out to practice other teams, then have Blaze emulate those teams so Frost could get good practice against a variety of styles, but without giving up anything about their own style of play. It seemed like a fiendishly devious approach. The only problem is that in the first full OGN Champions season, Spring of 2012, both MiG teams reached the final and where Frost was supposed to win, Blaze won and by a 3:0 margin.
From there, Reapered and company went to America for the MLG Summer Arena and smashed the opposition, including reigning NA dominant force TSM, winning four straight Bo3/Bo5 series. Back in Korea for the Summer season, Blaze defeated Storm and then lost to Frost in the semi-final, finally seeing Frost begin the path of superceding them again. In total, Blaze had managed eight straight series wins, spanning two continents.
4. Cloud 9's 18 game win streak in the 2014 LCS Spring split
Cloud 9's 13 game win streak and eventual 30:3 total finish for the 2013 LCS Summer split had been mind-boggling to say the least. Yet it was so impressive that it seemed there was no way the team could even live up to that feat or come close to another of similar magnitude. While they would finish the Spring split at 29:4, one win shy of their overall record, the gang were able to actually improve upon their previous win streak record and by no small margin.
After spending the whole season chasing TSM, who seemed destined to steal their LCS crown, Cloud 9 put together an epic run to close the season out, going from game two of week 7 through to the final game of the championship without suffering a loss. They were able to beat six of the LCS teams twice in this time span, XDG once and rivals TSM on three occasions. TSM's series win streak, mentioned earlier, had come with losses to other teams in between and over more than a year, while Cloud 9 had gone unbeaten for a ludicrous amount of consecutive games.
There was so much attention surrounding their 13 game win streak in the Summer split, but it feels as if this 18 game streak doesn't get as much notice due to them seeming to have fallen slightly behind TSM for so much of the split beforehand.
3. CJ Entus Blaze's 13 game win streak in the 2013 OGN Champions Spring
Blaze had been the kings of South Korean LoL, but that reign had ended back in the Summer of 2012, as Frost took the mantle from them. After Frost's OGN title, it had been a battle between Frost and NaJin Sword for the next, with the latter taking the OGN Winter title. In the Spring season, both Sword and Frost began to fall off, to differing degrees, and Blaze rose against to the top. Having now fully integrated new star Top laner Flame, Blaze had transformed themselves into the masters of the late game win. Farming up Flame and Ambition, they soon became unstoppable.
From the second game of their group stage match against KT A on they would record 13 straight victories. Beat KT A, MVP Ozone, MVP Blue and NaJin Sword, they went into the playoffs in fearsome form. There they faced Reapered's SKT T1, slaying them in a clean 3:0, pushing their win streak to 10 in a row. Meeting sister team Frost in the semi-final, they showed that it was the Blaze era again, dismissing their brothers 3:0 and reaching 13 straight wins. In the final, Blaze went in as the heaviest favourite for the title in OGN history, only to fall to the very same MVP Ozone team they had beaten cleanly in the group stage.
The streak ended up not culiminating in an OGN title, but it still stood as the most impressive streak in Korean LoL history, at that point in time.
2. World Elite's 48 matches without a loss
World Elite are famous in the West for their amazing run at IPL5 in late November of 2012, not dropping a series and winning the tournament outright. With all the best teams in the world attending, minus some of the Koreans, it effectively set WE as the new best team in the world. What is less well known, especially in terms of the specific details, is that the IPL5 win came in the midst of World Elite's utter domination of the domestic scene in China.
From the 10th of October 2012 to the 23rd of April 2013, World Elite went 48 matches without a loss. As in they could lose a game in a series but not the series or an individual game in a structure in which only a game counts as a match.That figure counts both online and offline competition, as well as IPL5. Of the 48 matches, 33 of those were series and WE drew two of those. In offline series they racked up 14 without a loss. Over this time span they won eight events, two online and six offline. It was arguably the most dominant period by any team in the history of League of Legends, lasting approximately six and a half months.
1. SK Telecom T1 K's 12 game OGN Champions Winter 2013 undefeated run
SKT came into the Winter season of OGN Champions as both the reigning champions of the Summer season and the World Champions. The only knocks on them were their loss to Samsung Blue at the WCG qualifier and the historical pattern weighing on them that no team had ever won two OGN Champions titles, nevermind two in a row. As it was, SKT had more than that never before accomplished feat in mind. SKT put together the greatest run in OGN history, sweeping the entire competition with a perfect 12:0. They had even drawn the hardest side of the bracket, having to face KT B, widely considered the second best team in Korea, in the semi-final.
It's very unlikely any team will ever go back-to-back as OGN champions, but it's almost certain that no team will ever go undefeated again. For contrast: this season there was not a single Bo5 series that was swept 3:0 by any team. To duplicate what SKT did, a team would need to win three such Bo5 series in a row, with no game losses.
Photo credit: Riot Games, MLG, OnGameNet, inven, G-League
