Who: H2K Gaming (Europe, 5-2) vs. Albus Nox Luna (CIS/Wildcard, 4-3)
When: Sunday, Oct. 16 at 6:00 PM Eastern/3:00 PM Pacific
Where: Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois
What's at stake
How long can the fairy tale of Albus Nox Luna last before it's closed for good?
The CIS champion made history by becoming the first Wild Card team to not only have a .500 record at the World Championships but actually make the bracket stage.
It took a game off the odds-on favorite to win it all, ROX Tigers, after an amazing 60-minute game that pushed both teams to their limits. ANX isn't using small tricks or cheese to win games; it's winning through better coordination and slick, timely teamfights around objectives that let them snowball across the map.
The villain -- or hero, depending on how you view the match's narrative -- is Europe's H2K Gaming.
Europe was the running joke of Week 1 at the World Championships, and H2K made sure to win back some regional pride by going an undefeated 4-0 in the second week to take the first seed in Group C. H2K -- a team that revolves around the laning phase -- was able to get together its macro play in Week 2 to defeat Edward Gaming twice and qualify for the quarterfinals.
On a surface level, H2K are huge favorites. The team should win in every lane during the opening minutes of the game if it keeps up its form from Week 2. However, this is Albus Nox Luna, the team that somehow beat ROX in a marathon macro-centric game, and it'd be foolish to count them out now.
These are two teams that respect each other, and at the same time, both teams know this is their best chance of making it to the semifinals with a shot at making the Summoner's Cup Finals. H2K was criticized for not getting to the final of either European split this year, and Albus Nox was written off before the players even boarded the plane to America.
But by Sunday's end, one of them will be a single match away -- one night of stars aligning -- from the Summoner's Cup Final in Los Angeles, California at the Staples Center.
Matchup to Watch: Konstantinos-Napoleon "Forg1ven" Tzortziou and Oskar "Vander" Bogdan (H2K) vs. Vladislav "aMiracle" Scherbyna and Kirill "Likkrit" Malofeyev
The finger wagging of Forg1ven, and the inspirational speeches of Likkrit. You could call those two the main characters of the tournament so far, and one of them will make it to the semifinal while the other sees its campaign end in Chicago.
On paper, this is where things could get ugly for ANX. Forg1ven is one of, if not the best laning AD carry in the entire tournament, and aMiracle is the exact opposite, averaging 13 less CS than his opponent at 10 minutes. Forgiven was able to bully EDG's Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu by the third game they played against each other, and the Greek marksmen is the type of player who can pick up things fast to use to his advantage. If Likkrit can't put the pressure on early with his aggressive champion picks and slow down Forg1ven, it could be a long night for aMiracle in the bottom lane.