Ginger Turmeric spice up League of Legends Summer Championship

Sixteen teams marched into the League of Legends Summer Championships ready to compete for the $10,000 prize pot and the bragging rights of being the best amateur team in North America. Among those teams were collegiate teams, Proving Grounds qualifiers and even last minute teams formed from solo queue scratch. At the end of the day, it was the spicy Ginger Turmeric who rose above the rest and dominated the tournament with a solo queue flavor that was unrelenting and unstoppable.

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The field of play was filled with powerhouses like Maryville University, who placed second in Riot Games’ CLoL 2021 Championship earlier this year, and Supernova, who recently qualified for Riot Games’ Proving Grounds by placing top six in the Unified Grand Prix 2021 Summer. Their names were near the top of the list for most fans, and they showed up in the final top eight bracket, but it was Last Chance Qualifier Ginger Turmeric that stomped the entire bracket while only dropping a single game to Maryville in the final.

For the most part, Ginger Turmeric’s games were fast and decisive. In their quarterfinal matches against Team Rapid, Sheiden took the lead on both Olaf and Viego, running through the jungle like he owned it as he completely outpaced opposing jungler, Nathan “Kind” Mosby, in a swift 2-0 victory. Sheiden still has yet to make his debut in competitive play, but with 1,356 LP in Challenger, he had something to prove as the 21st best player on the North American server.

Team Rapid was a strong team, but ultimately a team on a similar level as Ginger Turmeric. Neither team had any official backing and were largely units made up of promising solo queue players. Ginger Turmeric’s next challenge on the other hand was the aforementioned Supernova, who directly qualified for the League of Legends Summer Championship by winning Nerd Street’s May 2021 qualifier earlier this year.

Read more: Meet the teams that have qualified for League of Legends Worlds 2021

Clearly, though, that didn’t faze Ginger Turmeric and their neverending aggression. Supernova were a strong team, but Ginger Turmeric only appeared to grow stronger after defeating Team Rapid. Not only did Ginger Turmeric blank Supernova 2-0 in their semifinal series, but they nearly ended the second game at the 19-minute mark, before Baron Nashor could even spawn. Sheiden didn’t have the same level of dominance that he displayed against Team Rapid, but top laner, Michael “Concept” Su, showed up big against Jung “Cozy” Sun-woo and made the top side of the map nearly uncontestable for Supernova during the series.

Concept’s aggressive play top lane was just another piece of the smackdown puzzle that Ginger Turmeric put together Sunday. James “Duoking” Stephenson played Leona masterfully during most of the team’s games and put together perfect engage after perfect engage without so much as a second thought. Once Ginger Turmeric cleared Supernova for their final opponent, Maryville University, that decisiveness led them to a well-earned title.

Maryville University successfully ousted rival university program, Winthrop University, leading up to the final day of the League of Legends Summer Championship, but Ginger Turmeric were a different beast. Maryville University’s jungler, Nathan “TheOddOrange” Ryan, attempted to counter Sheiden’s Olaf with jungle Karthus -- one of the only champions with a faster jungle clear time than the Berserker -- but it only worked for the first half of the game.

Ginger Turmeric were initially stunted by Karthus’ damage output, but once Duoking focused his crowd control on TheOddOrange alongside Daniel “CptShrimps” Yang’s Rumble Equalizer, it was all over. Ginger Turmeric managed to sweep every fight before it even started and Karthus’ impact on the game became negligible. Ginger Turmeric might not have had the same experience or pedigree as Maryville University, but they proved that they didn’t need to stomp their opponents to win games -- making adaptations was well within their comfort zone.

At the end of the day, that’s what separated Ginger Turmeric from an intimidating Maryville University that answered a Game 1 loss with a win of their own in Game 2. After having their engages foiled in Game 2, Ginger Turmeric whipped out a surprise pick in Malphite top that vastly changed the scope of the game. Maryville once again showed off their experience with a measured early game and strong macro play to boot, but Malphite’s Unstoppable Forces combined with Ginger Turmeric’s no-nonsense engage-focused mindset brought it home. Maryville gave it their best, but Ginger Turmeric showed up better and took the series 2-1, finishing the tournament with a dominant 6-1 record on the day.

More than a fancy name, branding, or all the experience in the world, Ginger Turmeric proved that talent and a measured offense can catch even the best teams off guard. With a sweet first-place prize and some well-earned street cred among the North American community, the sky’s the limit for this group of solo queue all-stars. Whether that means the players will find themselves continuing to compete in amateur tournaments, joining LCS Academy teams or even winning a future Nerd Street event, they’ll surely be back at it on Summoner’s Rift.