Evil Geniuses v. Determined Gaming

Velocity eSports, is no more. The last place team of the 2013 Summer Split were bought out by eSports giant Evil Geniuses and were replaced with a fresh roster. Well, mostly fresh. They brought along with them three players from their EU roster (and formerly CLG.EU) Snoopeh, Yellowpete, and Krepo. Joined by Top laner Innox and momentary prodigal son of Curse, Pobelter, the team looks to make a strong showing in their North American debut by qualifying for the NA LCS. This team is a bit of an unknown as there has been no access to their scrims and this is their first tournament showing. Some people question bringing over the former CLG.EU players as many fans consider them past their prime. That said, there is something to be said about the level of teamwork that can be achieved with three players that have played together for so long. This experience may very well be what could keep Determined Gaming out of the LCS

Their opponents are the newly christened Determined Gaming, formerly To Be Determined. This team is no slouch as they've certainly made a name for themselves in the amateur scene and have quite a few skilled players of their own. The were even recruiting EU players before it was cool with former Dragonborns Jungler Brokenshard. Despite some roster changes in the past few months, the team has recovered quite well. Arguably the most notable player on their team is ADC ROBERTxLEE. Despite never landing on a big name team, ROBERT has kept relevant in the scene and his proven his worth on more than one occasion. The old Evil Geniuses Bot lane was cited as one of their weakest links, so if ROBERT and Bubbadub can establish enough of lead, they could very well carry Determined into the LCS.

Team Coast v. The Walking Zed

Saturday's NA Promotion matchup is between Team Coast, one of Season 3's least consistent teams, and The Walking Zed, the squad composed of Gold Gaming LA's former roster. While Team Coast's last LCS showing put them near the bottom of the NA barrel, their recent first place finish in the NACL suggests they are once again ready to take on the challenge of the LCS. Team Coast was not exempt from the post-Worlds roster shuffle when their former ADC, DontMashMe, stepped down. Replacing him is WizFujiiN, a Challenger-level ADC who favored Caitlyn and Lucian throughout the NACL. With a 24-2 record throughout the tournament, it's clear that the same Team Coast who showed up to the S3 Spring Split Playoffs was at the NACL. However, it remains to be seen if Coast can repeat this spectacular feat now that they're on the cusp of returning to the LCS. On the other side of the Rift is The Walking Zed, an challenger team that's already overcome many challenges, though not all in game. The Walking Zed began as ggLA, a team hyped for containing noteworthy players such as Quas, Bischu, and NydusHerMain. However, ggLA's management dismissed the roster after they accrued a poor record in the NACL and lost who was possibly their best player in Quas to Curse Gaming (who was replaced by former Cloud 9 player, Yazuki). Luckily for the players, LCS rules allowed them to keep their spot in the Spring Promotions for maintaining most of their original roster, so they formed The Walking Zed to pursue their dream of reaching the LCS. With bobbyhankhill on ADC replacing otter, a member on ggLA, The Walking Zed has only had since November to practice for this critical match. Odds are that the on-fire Team Coast will take this match and return to their former spot, but it would not be surprising to see the underdogs of TWZ put up stiff resistance after all they've gone through to get to Promos.

Curse v. COGnitive Gaming

In a stark reminder of the volatility of the pro scene, the defending Team Curse has fallen precipitously since their showing in the Spring Split, where they placed 2nd in the regular season with a 19-9 record. A dismal summer performance notable for a sub-50% regular season win rate and dead last playoffs finish forced the team into relegations, where they selected the recently formed COGnitive Gaming as their opponents. The Team Curse roster that will compete in the promotional matches has been massively overhauled since the summer split, with only Voyboy (now a mid laner) and Cop staying on a team now featuring South American import Quas (poached from ggLA, now The Walking Zed), infamous former Dignitas jungler IWillDominate, and longtime amateur competitor Zekent. 4chan favorite and Challenger mid Lulu main Zamphira headlines COGnitive Gaming, backed by Cris (top, formerly of Team Velocity), Captain Ziploc (jungle), nothinghere (AD), and Zaineking (support). Considering their 6-20 record in the NACL, where Team Curse reversed their score to go 20-6 in the same group, COGnitive looks to be a far cry from LCS material - an assessment Curse appears to agree with, as they were the first to select their opponents from the field of COG, twz, and DTG (former TBD). While the Team Curse that will show up to play this weekend is a largely untested reboot of a once dominant squad, the safe money is squarely on them. The solo lanes will be the matchups to watch; despite being an LCS veteran, Cris will face a stiff challenge in the highly hyped marquee amateur Quas, and Zamphira will attempt to prove to Voyboy that the days of being able to blithely shift roles in the pro scene are long over.

Counter Logic Gamig v. ALTERNATE Attax

NA's portion of the Battle of the Atlantic begins with a match between the two fifth place LCS teams: NA's CLG and EU's ALTERNATE Attax. ALTERNATE is a long-running EU squad, dating back to 2011, and is best known for their long time mid-laner and Elo-overacheiver Forellenlord. In spite of his 3K Elo Shockwaves, ATN has always been on the cusp of relevance, just barely scraping by in tournament after tournament to remain in the forefront of the competitive scene for another tough season. This was certainly true of Season 3's Summer Split, in which only a close series against the now-relegated Ninjas in Pyjamas kept ATN from the possibility of dropping from the league. With the 2014 Season quickly approaching, ATN made an unexpected choice to release Forellenlord, moving top-laner Kerp to mid and acquiring former SK and NiP player kev1n to fill in the top lane gap. Without their eldest member, it's hard to say what ATN's performance will be like, but it's unlikely to be as polished as others due to the recent (only two weeks ago) switch up. Their opponents are the eldest NA organization and one of the most historically successful teams in the scene: CLG. Unfortunately for CLG and their devoted fanbase, CLG's past successes helped them little in the LCS, throughout which they consistently rose to the bare minimum to avoid relegation. Once again, CLG turned to roster changes after Worlds to attempt to surmount this problem as bigfatlp and Chauster stepped down from their starting positions and ceding them to the once-spurned Aphromoo and former Lemondogs jungle dexter1. It's difficult to imagine the two players as anything but an improvement over their predecessors, but both were long-time veterans who were especially experienced with CLG's inner workings. While new blood might reinvigorate the massive organization, it also might cause some growing pains as the roster gets used to the changes. Frankly, of all the Battle of the Atlantic matches, this one may be the toughest to call: a match between two squads who have each barely scraped by to remain LCS contenders. It's a 50:50 tossup for sure, which just might be some great matches for the fans.

XD.GG v. Gambit Gaming

The clash between the third place squads from EU and NA will be the first of the weekend's two World Championship rematches. On one side of the pond is XD.GG, a team better known to Season 3 LCS viewers as Team Vulcun. With the new season came a new name for the recently successful squad who ended up third in the NA Playoffs after taking second place over a dynamite regular season. If Cloud 9 set the gold standard for NA LoL in the Summer Split, Vulcun came closer than any other team to duplicating and innovating within that standard. In spite of their good results in the Summer, Vulcun took a beating during Worlds, only besting Mineski in their group (though their record was better than that of the NA runners up, TSM). After failing to live up to their dark horse hype during Worlds, Vulcun disappeared to prepare for their next LCS outing. They return to us now as XD.GG as they seek to take down one of their strongest foes at the World Championships: Gambit Gaming. Unlike Vulcun, the name "Gambit" (or "Moscow 5" to the old school fans) has long been synonymous with victory, particularly at LAN events. Though Gambit did not look as strong as either Fnatic or Lemondogs during the Summer Split (as their 3rd place in Summer Playoffs shows), their performance at Worlds was extremely impressive considering their competition in the deadly Samsung Galaxy Ozone and rival EU squad, Fnatic. As exciting as Worlds was for Gambit and their fans, the preseason may be even more exciting due to the return of their longtime support player, Edward. The "Thresh Prince" returns from his stint on Curse to his original team, replacing Voidle who struggled, like his predecessor Darker, to fill Edward's shoes during his absence. Their reformed roster showed considerable promise at IEM Cologne, where they stomped through the bracket to a Gold medal victory without dropping a single match, even against Cloud 9 and Fnatic. As strong as XD.GG may be in the NA scene, they will be hard-pressed to find wins against a fully-powered Gambit, the strength of which NA teams have been unable to threaten as far back as Season 2. Unfortunately for XD.GG, every player of theirs is matched by a superior one on Gambit: mandatorycloud and AlexIch, Xmithie and Diamondprox, Benny (formerly Sycho Sid) and Darien, and so forth. Expect a Gambit victory in this match unless XD.GG pulls out some new and powerful tricks.

C9 v. FNC

The top dogs of NA and EU meet again in this rematch of Season 3 Worlds quarterfinals, where an exciting 1-1 start to the Bo3 came to a disappointing conclusion as an unfortunate level 1 rotation by C9 led to a double kill on Cyanide’s Lee Sin and an absurdly lopsided 26-2 win. With TSM’s dominant 2-0 over LD last week fresh in mind, C9 will seek to avenge their trouncing at Worlds and make a statement early in Season 4 that NA’s best are, indeed, the best in the west. Although they stumbled mightily in a 2nd place finish behind Gambit Gaming in their first, and until now only, post-Worlds pro appearance at IEM Cologne, the return of Rekkles to Fnatic’s starting roster is widely regarded as a step up from Worlds temp puszu. C9 also participated in that tournament and also were knocked out by GMB, further evidencing the parity between C9 and FNC. While FNC’s marksman upgrade and victory at Worlds put them at a slight edge going into this weekend’s set, C9 is an undeniably strong team that is certainly capable of taking games off Fnatic - as one of the few teams to maintain their rosters through the preseason without any changes, C9 certainly seem confident of their chances against anyone. Whether that will happen twice in three games is a tough call to make - this match is perhaps the closest on paper in the BotA, and Season 4 changes further complicate matters by significantly impacting the key strategies in each team’s playbook. For example, Meteos’ famously farm-heavy style will be challenged by lower jungle income in the early game, and it remains to be seen whether the teleport summoner spell that both FNC solo laners are fond of running on occasion is still a successful strategy. Some trademarks, however, will remain reassuringly constant - Balls’ signature Rumble is still a compelling pick, and Bora ‘YolOStaR’ Kim’s crowd-pleasing Leona is stronger than ever with the massive boost to support gold. Even to those who don’t typically follow the EU or NA scenes, these games merit watching due to the quality of the competitors and the history between them. Given FNC’s penchant for turning games into slugfests, expect an energetic series full of teamfights in the longer games that have become common since patch 3.14.