5. Alliance, 2014 - The first “superteam” in EU LCS history, Alliance was designed from the get-go to be a star-studded lineup built against prodigal mid laner Henrik "Froggen" Hansen. In the summer of 2014, Alliance was the first team to snatch the EU LCS cup away from Fnatic and, until 2021, was the only team other than them and G2 to have won a championship in Europe. In a group against Cloud9 and Najin White Shield, Alliance looked to be holding their own, even delivering an amazing perfect game against the LCK representatives. All they needed to do was take a win against Brazilian wildcards Kabum and they were set for playoffs. Instead, they dropped the ball and a C9 upset win against Najin eliminated them from playoff contention. 2014 was a pretty bad year for all European teams, none of which made it past the group stage, but for champions Alliance this was an especially bitter pill to swallow (Credit: LoLesports via Flickr).
4. Royal Never Give Up, 2018: 2018 was shaping up to be Royal Never Give Up’s year. In the summer, Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao finally lifted the LPL cup that had eluded him for so long. RNG dominated the Mid-season Invitational, took the LPL summer title and came to Worlds as the big favorites. However they already showed cracks in the group, dropping games to inspired games by Team Vitality and Cloud9. In the quarterfinals, the LPL champion faced G2 Esports, then Europe’s third seed. It was G2’s first time past the Worlds groups, but in a five-game series, they upset RNG and brought what was supposed to be their perfect run to a screeching halt (Credit: LoLesports via Flickr).
3. TSM, 2020: TSM’s history at Worlds is a long and often disappointing. However, after the team regained the LCS title in the summer of 2020, fans dared to have hope. It was TSM’s first championship since 2017, and its two iconic stars Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Yiliang "Peter" "Doublelift" Peng were back together. However, TSM ended up 0-6, looking absolutely hapless against three cutthroat opponents in LGD Gaming, Fnatic and Gen.G. The team won the dubious honor of being the first NA champion to not score a single win at Worlds (Credit: LoLesports via Flickr).
2. G2 Esports, 2016: After a long and at times embarrassing performance in the European Challenger series, Gamers2 - rebranded to G2 Esports - qualified to the EU LCS in 2016 and took the league by storm, winning both in spring and in summer. Despite a poor showing at MSI, they went to Worlds with a lot of hopes - and a group featuring NA runner up CLG and Russian wildcard team Albus Nox Luna promised success. Yet G2 was dismantled in the group, losing five consecutive games and scoring only one win - against ANL, whose miraculous run made G2 even more hated for beating them. G2 were mocked mercilessly, and memes about their vacations or Luka "Perkz" Perković’s lack of ability on certain champions took years to fade away.
Honorable Mention: LGD Gaming, 2015: While the team has had their ups and downs in their storied LPL history, in 2015 LGD exploded to prominence with an amazing summer playoff series, where they smashed regular season powerhouse EDward Gaming and defeated Qiao Gu Reapers in a five-game final.Yet by Worlds, the magic was gone. LGD faced a group with two third seeds - LCK’s KT Rolster and Europe’s Origen - and the LCS runner-up TSM and only managed to get two wins, ending their Worlds run in disappointment. The anger of Chinese fans, who had grown to expect deep playoff runs, was palpable (Credit: LoLesports via Flickr).
1. Gen.G, 2018: To be fair to Gen.G, they had been an above average squad who came up clutch when it mattered and won the regional qualifiers and with them, South Korea’s third seed for Worlds. Many fans expected a rough time against RNG, which had had an incredible year, but at least there were two middling European teams - a Team Vitality few had expected to see at Worlds and a Cloud9 that barely made it past play-ins - to get some easy wins over. It was 2018 and being a South Korean team at Worlds still meant a ton. However, a loss to Vitality in the opening game sent Gen.G into a tailspin and they ended the tournament with a 1-5 record - the worst of any LCK team in history (Credit: LoLesports via Flickr).
Every Worlds has its dark horses and breakout stars - that’s half the fun! The other half, however, is seeing a favorite crash and burn, or a team that was happily talking trash end up on the receiving end of a humiliating series of losses. Sure, it sucks if it’s a team you were rooting for, but when you play on the biggest stage in professional LoL, mess-ups are not tolerated. Here is our list of the biggest Worlds chokes, finely curated for your reading pleasure.
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