After Team Liquid won their 2nd straight split and an automatic berth into 2018 Worlds as the 1st seed for North America, 100 Thieves qualified as the 2nd seed based on Championship Points by finishing 2nd and 4th.
This setup the North American Regional Finals a.k.a. The Gauntlet to determine the 3rd seed for North America. Cloud9 were the 2nd and waiting in the Finals, next was Team SoloMid waiting in the Semifinals, and to start off The Gauntlet were Echo Fox and Clutch Gaming. Clutch Gaming did not have a very good summer split after their 4th place finish in spring; they ended up finishing 9th in summer. Echo Fox has had a very up and down year but off pure talent, Huni and Echo Fox were able to easily take out Clutch Gaming in a quick sweep.
The next day, Echo Fox faced off against Team SoloMid which was a rematch of Summer Quarterfinals which went to 5 games. Team SoloMid took that series and went on to push Cloud9 to 5 games in the Semifinals before beating 100 Thieves to claim 3rd place in the Summer Split. Team SoloMid were favourite but Echo Fox always had that potential to turn a series. Echo Fox looked lost, while Team SoloMid took full advantage of those mistakes and somewhat surprisingly swept the series. Bjergsen continued his hot streak with a KDA of 22.5 in the series.
Cloud9 were sitting back and waiting for their opponent and it was none other than Team SoloMid, who they had already played a few weeks earlier in the Semifinals. Cloud9 needed 5 games and all 7 players to beat Team SoloMid last time, but after getting swept in the Finals, some were doubting if they could regroup in time. Cloud9 went back to the lineup that got them 2nd place in the Summer Split with Blaber and Jense starting. Maybe it was the change in setting back to the NA LCS Studios, but Cloud9 looked unstoppable once again. This time they did not need their 7 man roster in a clean sweep to qualify for Worlds as the 3rd seed for North America.
And there you have it, your North American representatives for 2018 Worlds: Team Liquid, 100 Thieves and Cloud9!
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