Rivalries have been a mainstay in League of Legends since the very beginning, and some have been going for what seems like forever. We picked the five greatest rivalries in LoL history!
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All League of Legends footage courtesy of Riot Games.
#5: El Classico. One of League of Legends’ oldest rivalries goes all the way back to season 1. Every time SK Gaming and Fnatic faced off, it was referred to as “El Classico,” as the matchup featured two legendary spanish mid laners, xPeke and Ocelote, mimicking the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The only thing tempering this rivalry was its lopsided-ness. Their first official matchup was the season 1 qualifier in 2011. Edge… Fnatic. But Fast Forward to 2013 - SK appeared to close the gap on Fnatic and ran into them at IEM Katowice. SK held a lead but then xPeke changed everything. Since then, the two teams had close, back and forth matches, but they generally went in Fnatic's favour. The rivalry has since died off as SK found themselves relegated out of the LCS.
#4: Moscow 5 & CLG.EU. For Moscow 5 to gain recognition as one of Europe’s best teams of all-time, they first had to overcome CLG.EU.
Early in 2012, they met CLG.EU at the Kings of Europe tournament. M5 dominated the group stage but lost to CLG in the finals. In their first few meetings, CLG dominated M5 with a 6-1 record, highlighted by a huge CLG comeback at Dreamhack 2012 in which they at one point trailed by 27,000 gold. Finally, at ECC Poland, M5 took down CLG 2-0 to win the tournament. The rivalry wasn’t the longest lasting, but had several classic matchups between two of the world’s best at the time.
#3: TSM vs. C9. For a long-time, it was CLG and TSM battling it out in North America… that is, until Cloud9 made their splash onto the scene. After TSM won the 2013 Spring Split, C9 joined the LCS in the summer. They went 25-3 in their first ever split and brushed aside TSM to finish first. 2014 was much of the same. Cloud 9 went 24-4 and once again, they 3-0'd TSM in the finals. Finally in the summer split, Team SoloMid got their revenge. For a third straight season, the two teams met in the finals. Going all the way to game 5, TSM eventually shook off their rivals to grab back the NA crown. There have been 8 full splits in NA LCS history. TSM and C9 have met in the finals in 5 of them.
#2: TSM vs. CLG. TSM and CLG have been going at it since the very beginning. Originally on the same team, HotshotGG and Reginald went their separate ways and founded two of the oldest teams in League history. At the start, CLG was the more dominant team. Over time, NA became TSM's stomping ground as CLG and TSM constantly battled for top spot, along with C9, with no shortage of trash talk. It wasn't until the 2015 summer split when CLG finally got the best of TSM, sweeping them 3-0 in the finals. And just when you thought the rivalry was slowing down, Doublelift made the move to TSM, ditching his former team. Regardless, CLG went back-to-back, winning the 2016 Spring Split.
#1: SKT vs. KT Rolster. The number one league rivalry originates in the early days of StarCraft, but it's never been more intense than it is right now. After SKTelecom won their third World Championship, KT Rolster decided to load up with top talent. Although SKT won their first two matchups this season, these teams are the top two in Korea, and likely the World. But the two telecom companies have been duking it out on the rift since 2012. In the Champions 2013 Summer Finals, it was SKT who took down KT 3-2. One year later, KT Arrows took down SKT S on their way to the finals victory. The two teams have been battling for what seems like forever, and this year it’s likely they’ll once again meet in the LCK Finals, and likely the Worlds.
