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The North American LCS Summer Relegation tournament concluded this past weekend with some amazing games. There were two challenger teams that made their way into the LCS, while two of the more noticeable and popular LCS teams remained in the summer split. Quantic Gaming, Velocity eSports, Counter Logic Gaming, and Team Dignitas will all be in the LCS Summer Split along with Team Solo Mid, Good Game University, Vulcan Techbargains, and Curse Gaming. Here is a recap of this past weekends exciting results. Quantic Gaming Quantic Gaming came out on fire and they never cooled down throughout the entire weekend. Quantic showed up in the Challenger round beating a well rounded Team Astral Poke handily giving them a quick 2-0 loss and their dreams dashed in games that lasted no more than 25 minutes. In the Promotion round Quantic did not let up, beating a compLexity team that had been coming on strong towards the end of the Spring split, 3-0 in 3 games that again were quick and ended under 30 minutes. The most impressive part about Quantic Gaming was how dominant they looked as a team, even better than some of the LCS teams that were not bottom four. Quantic Gaming's jungler was the only person the entire weekend that did not have a single death in 5 games. William "Meteos" Hartman had a mind blowing KDA of 45 at the end of the weekend, playing junglers such as Zac and Elise (he played Zac 4 times that weekend) made his presence known in the lanes early and often with ganks that led his team to victory. It was not all Meteos though, the entire Quantic squad played amazingly. The squad boasted an average combined KDA of 15.3, while Spring Split Champions TSM only had a combined KDA of 4.7. The team gathered an average of 1.8k gold per min with an average gold total of 44k per game. Quantic Gaming looks to be one of the more fierce competitors going into the Summer Split, and I sure look forward to seeing what they can bring to the table next split. Velocity eSports Velocity eSports did not have as commanding of a weekend as Quantic had, but they definitely showed they are going to be a tough competitor going into the next split. In the Challenger round, Velocity started off shaky, losing their first game to Team Salad Bar. The team bounced back though, dominating the next two games against TSB to secure their spot in the promotional round. In the only series in the promotion round to go to 5 games, Velocity vs Team MRN proved to be an instant classic. The wins went back and forth, Team MRN securing the first game win behind impressive play by Nientonsoh boasting a 15/1/3 KDA at the end of the game. Velocity fired right back in game one as they threw the meta book and everything you have ever known about League of Legends out the window as Velocity played Ezreal jungle, with a Janna mid lane. The "double support, double ADC" push comp proved to be too much to handle for Team MRN as Velocity jungler Nk Inc showed that Ezreal's utility can be used for more than just laning as he pulled off an ever so smooth Arcane Shift, Smite Dragon steal, Flash out on an early dragon attempt by Team MRN. Split pushing with Janna and good team fighting secured Velocity eSports the game two victory. Game 3 was an epic clash of two teams not wanting to see their last moments of LCS promise be dashed before them as this game would thrust the losing team one loss away from the dream ending. Team MRN started off winning most of the team fights but a Baron grab by Velocity secured the next fight for them an inhibitor. Velocity secured a second Baron attempt rather easily as Super Minions were rushing towards MRN's base, forcing them to defend. As Velocity went for the next fight Nientonsoh had other plans picking up a double kill to that forced Velocity out of the base, relinquishing an inhibitor in MRN's favor. As MRN was looking for the killing blow Velocity's support, Evaniskus, held off a seemingly impossible push from MRN by getting a kill and forcing the team to fall back as Velocity respawned and immediately shot down mid lane for victory. However, Nientonsoh had other plans as he cancelled his recall and went in for the last nexus turret and the nexus itself in a thrilling base race that Team MRN has been known for. With 75hp left, Nientonsoh secured the victory for Team MRN and in the words of LCS caster "Kobe" put it, "Velocity just got MRNed". Despite the heart wrenching loss for Velocity they never gave up the passion, having their dreams be so close within their grasp, taking the next two games off of Team MRN and making their way into the LCS Summer Split. Team Dignitas One of the story lines that everyone wanted to see happened as Team Summon faced off against Team Dignitas in the promotion round of the LCS tournament Locust went up against his former team, but unfortunately could not pull it through and was relegated out of the tournament. Dignitas was a team that had extremely high expectations in the Spring Split. Not only that though, but they were number two in the standings up until the last week when they dropped down to number three. Losing in the first round of the Spring Split playoffs to GGU forced them into the Summer LCS Relegation tournament. Facing a very strong Team Summon squad, Dignitas looked to be back to their old form. Using such champions such as Rammus and Evelynn secured them the series in four games. Alberto "Crumbzz" Rengifo played brilliantly in the four games as he brought out the jungle Rammus and played it to perfection, securing the match MVP with his stellar played that through Team Summon into a tilt after game three. William "Scarra" Li also had an amazing performance on his Evelynn, going 11/1/12 in the first game of the series. Dignitas played like the team they showed they were throughout the first 9 weeks of the Spring Split. Counter Logic Gaming The other story line that everyone wanted to see, bigfatlp and Azure Cats going up against CLG, the team that he was on since the creation. CLG swept Azure Cats with a 3-0 series score that put CLG back into the LCS. Austin "Link" Shin boasted an almost Meteos-like KDA, having a very impressive 34 KDA, which helped propel his team in the series. Strong play by Aphromoo's Blitzcrank in game two set the tone for a very convincing CLG victory, as well as Doublelift displaying that he is meant to be the NA All-Star pick. HotShotGG went to his old standby as he brought back out his top lane Nidalee which proved to be useful in game one, and playing another non-tank champion in Diana in game two, getting rid of their old "protect the Doublelift" comp. All in all CLG had a very solid display against Azure Cats and it looks like CLG will stay together for a long time, so no worries CLG fans, your team is safe. The teams for the Summer Split are as follows: - TSM - Curse Gaming - GGU - Vulcan - Dignitas - CLG - Quantic Gaming - Velocity eSports So there you have it folks, your North American Summer LCS Split! It is looking to be an exciting set up for the next split, I know that I am really excited for it!

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We now know seven of the eight teams that have qualified for Season 3 and will play in the North American League of Legends Championship Series. Four teams still remain in the offline qualifier, but only one can receive a contract from Riot Games this Sunday. Three of these teams will have their dreams denied for at LEAST the next six months. Unfortunately, for the majority of players remaining, the harsh realization is that this might be their last chance to become a professional League of Legends player. Let’s take a look at the competitors facing off later today and what the keys to success are for each team. Dirtnap Gaming Overall record this weekend: 3-2 Champions Selected: Important Champions to Watch For: Jayce - 100% (2-0) Maokai - 66% (2-1) Sona - 66% (2-1) Graves - 60% (3-2) Olaf - 50% (2-2) Keys to Success for DNG against Azure: Dirt Nap has excelled this weekend when Cris is able to make plays. Get Cris early kills against Azure and apply early pressure. PR0LLY succeeded with Jayce in early matches. Expect him to pull out AD Casters instead of picks like Kassadin or Kayle. Graves has been played in all five DNG matches. As that ecKo feels most comfortable with Graves, expect him to stick with what works. - Azure Gaming Overall record this weekend: 2-3 Champions Selected: Important Champions to Watch For: Katarina 100% (1-0) Nunu - 66% (2-1) Cho'Gath - 50% (1-1) Keys to Success for Azure against DNG: Azure was shut down vs. Curse Gaming. Azure needs to pick champions they are comfortable with and play safe and standard. There is a lot of momentum against them. Wait for the opponent to make a mistake and capitalize to gain momentum back on their side. Shut down Cris. DNG rocked through the group stage when Cris was able to make early plays. Never allow him to get to that point. While it might seem like an odd move, a ban of Graves against DNG could potentially throw them off their game. ecKo has only played Graves at this event and it could remove him from his comfort zone. - Meat Playground Overall record this weekend: 2-3 Champions Selected: Important Champions to Watch For: Sona - 66% (2-1) Vladimir - 50% (1-1) Malphite - 33% (1-2) Keys to Success for Meat Playground against MRN: If xHazzard gets his hands on Malphite, make sure to land those Unstopable Forces! We saw just how much of a game changer he could be when Meat Playground eliminated 1 Trick Ponies. xHazzard hasn't had the same luck since. If Malphite is banned, xHazzard is also comfortable on Nidalee. Pick her up and split push to a win. Make Team MRN uncomfortable and never underestimate them. MRN was able to base race a win already this weekend. Meat Playground needs to contain any potential tricks that MRN could have up their sleeves. - Team MRN Overall record this weekend: 2-2 Champions Selected: Important Champions to Watch For: ? Keys to Success for Meat Playground against MRN: Stay unpredictable! Team MRN has played four games this weekend and they have chosen 19 different champions. The only champion that has been played twice was Cho'Gath. With this spread of champions, the team cannot be banned out. Keep using a variety of champs and keep MP guessing as to what they will do. Use nonstandard play to throw Meat Playground off their game. The base race vs. Cloud9 took everyone by surprise. Pulling out Urgot, the only time in the tournament thus far, was a shock against Azure. If MP cannot react to the off the wall strategies of MRN, this team could be one step closer to a Season 3 contract. Tune in live at 2:00pm EST as the final day of action unfolds! The last remaining of these four teams will become the 8th and final team added into the North American League of Legends Championship Series! Which of these four teams will receive the final Season 3 Contract? Leave your predictions in the comments below! If you predict the overall winning team correctly, you'll be entered to win an out of print League of Legends Riot Nasus skin! Enjoy the final day of the Season 3 Offline Qualifiers! Predictions must be entered before the end of the first game today between Azure and DNG! Credit for graphs to reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends user Polarclaw.