MnM Gaming sweeped Team XENEX 3-0 in the ESL League of Legends UK & Ireland Spring 2017 Premiership on Sunday.
It was their second ESL Prem title win in a row, having beaten Epiphany Bolt 3-1 during the summer 2016 split.
While XENEX had topped the table in the group stages, it could’ve been fair to call them the favourites going into this final, which took place at ESL UK’s Leicester studio.
However, part of MnM’s roster chopped and changed during the group stages, so they didn’t have the consistency that XENEX did throughout the split. But in the finals, MnM had solid cohesion and teamwork – and former coach Will “FrozenDawn” Burgess stepped in to offer his assistance once again.
Back to back #ESLPrem @loleu Champions – @MnMGamingUK!!! pic.twitter.com/PqiwJf4Qsg
— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) 19 March 2017
So it will be MnM who secure the title and progress to the EU Challenger Series qualifiers – here’s hoping they have a better shot this time round following the series of unfortunate events that plagued MnM ahead of the CS qualifiers last year.
You can watch the full Twitch ESL LoL final VoD here.
The rosters
MnM:
- Teimpo – top
- Candyfloss – jungle
- Larssen – mid
- Luddehz – ADC
- Hadow – support
XENEX:
- Shikari – top
- Sancus – jungle
- Backlund – mid
- Innaxe – ADC
- Prosfair – support
The games
MnM won the first game of the day in a close fight, winning 18-15 after 37 minutes.
While XENEX had the most kills in the first half of the game (leading 14-8 after 27 minutes), they failed to establish a solid gold lead, with MnM actually leading at that point 46.3k to 45.8k.
The likes of top-laner Teimpo (Poppy) and mid-laner Larssen (Vladimir) were too much for XENEX to handle in game one, going 6/1/2 and 7/2/7 respectively.
Game two saw MnM take the early lead, establishing an 8-2 scoreline and an 11k gold lead at the 22-minute mark.
It was a more one-sided affair, with MnM winning 16-4 on the half-hour mark – every member of the team stepped up to put in an impressive performance. MnM didn’t give XENEX an inch in this game – in fact XENEX failed to take a single tower, such was MnM’s dominance across the map.
MnM even got a cheeky baron steal in:
BARON STEAL BOYS!!!!! #ESLPrem pic.twitter.com/UWTgPQPQej
— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) 19 March 2017
Game three proved to be another dominant game, with MnM winning 32-14 on the 25-minute mark.
It’s also worth highlighting the quality of ESL UK’s production during this final.
You can check out the initial host announcement and broadcast line-up here.
The MVP: Ashley “Teimpo” Mayes (aka Rifty)
Photo credit: Sammy Lam
He might have joked in his final predictions with Esports News UK, saying that MnM would lose 3-0 in the final, but Teimpo (aka Rifty) really stepped up in the final series to give MnM that killer edge.
He’d been playing well all split to be fair, so his performances here were no huge surprise, but his ruthlessness, decision making, duel potential, creep score and kill-death ratios proved he can step up and make a difference on the LAN stage when needed too.
He only died a couple of times in the series, where he played as Poppy, Camille and Renekton.
He went 11/1/8 as Renekton in the final game, though calling him a carry would be somewhat disrespectful to MnM’s other players, who once again all stepped up to bury XENEX and claim their second Prem title in a row.
It’s hard to pick a single MVP, as all of MnM were outstanding, and mid-laner Larssen also played his heart out in the final, but if we had to pick one, it would have to be Mr Rifty.
Well, that escalated quickly O.o#ESLPrem https://t.co/QrQ6nDbWJt pic.twitter.com/suFlybGXeu
— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) 19 March 2017
Post-match comments
MnM jungler Candyfloss spoke to ESL UK after the final, saying that he thought Larssen was MVP thanks to his Vladimir play in game one, and that the CS Qualifiers will be hard, as there’s a lot of Koreans playing in it, though MnM will do the best they can to progress.
“I think for us the season was hard as we had a lost of roster issues, but we really buckled down coming into the final and our hard work really paid off,” Candyfloss said.
He also made a bit of a sly dig at XENEX support player Prosfair following his coaching by LS.
.@CandyflossLoL had some words for @Prosfair after @MnMGamingUK beat @teamxenex in the #ESLPrem LoL final https://t.co/4jfpdxX5kb
— Esports News UK (@Esports_News_UK) March 19, 2017
Further reading: Check out our CSGO ESL Prem Spring 2017 final report from this weekend here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
