Team Whales secured their spot at Worlds 2023 with an impressive 3-1 victory over Team Secret in the VCS lower bracket final.

WELCOME TO #WORLDS2023:

Congratulations to Team Whales on reaching the #VCS Final and qualifying for the 2023 World Championship! pic.twitter.com/9W05r85VUz

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 3, 2023

This is a significant moment for Vietnamese League of Legends, as it marks the first time since 2019 that a team other than GAM or Saigon Buffalo will proudly represent the region on the global stage.

For Team Whales, this triumph is the result of years of hard work and unwavering dedication.

Team Whales was founded in 2020 and has rapidly climbed the ranks of the VCS.

In 2022, they achieved a second-place finish in the VCS Summer Split, and in the current year, they reached the semifinals of the VCS Spring Split.

With their ticket to Worlds 2023 now secured, Team Whales is set to embark on an exhilarating journey where they will compete against some of the world’s top teams.

The tournament is scheduled to take place in South Korea, from October 10 to November 19.

Team Whales, as an esports organization established in 2020, is involved in various games, including League of Legends, VALORANT, and PUBG Mobile.

The League of Legends team, in particular, has established itself as one of the top teams in the VCS, with two VCS championships under their belt.

They have also had the honour of representing Vietnam at both the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship.

Team Whales’ roster consists of talented players in key positions, including Nguyen “Nagiya” Vo Anh Hoang in the top lane, Tran “BeanJ” Van Chinh in the jungle, Le “Glory” Ngoc Vinh in the mid lane, Tran “Artemis” Quoc Hung in the bot lane, and Tran “Bie” Duc Hieu as support.

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The franchise took to their official Twitter page to make the revelation, calling for interested parties who believe in the team’s potential to reach out.

“SGB, the youngest team at #Worlds22, is looking for a new owner, or investors in an exciting e-sport journey,” the announcement read.

“If you are interested and believe in the young buffaloes, please email: [email protected] for further details & offers.”

Most fans have recommended the franchise consider a sale to Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who recently stated his interest in acquiring an esports team. The internet sensation made this revelation during the pre-show for the 2022 World Championship Grand Final match-up between T1 and DRX. The Vietnamese franchise promised to try to reach out to the American YouTuber.

Saigon Buffalo had previously participated in the just-concluded 2022 League of Legends World Championship. The franchise went into the tournament as the second-seeded Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) team and featured in the play-in stage.

They had a decent run in the Worlds, finishing fourth on the group stage standings with a 2-3 record, having secured wins over Instability Wildcats and Isurus. Their 2022 Worlds campaign, however, ended in their round 1 fixture against LEC’s MAD Lions. The Spanish esports franchise won with a 3-1 record in the best-of-five series but were eventually knocked out with a clean sweep by the Evil Genuises.

This was Saigon Buffalo’s third appearance at the Worlds tournament, having made previous appearances in 2017 and 2018. The franchise, who have been crowned the VCS Champions twice since their inception in 2016, have also made their way to two Mid-Season Invitational tournaments in 2019 and 2022.

Saigon Buffalo recently played at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship, joining the tournament as the VCS’ second seed and participating in the play-in stage. Despite decent results in the group stage, where they ended fourth with a 2-3 record, the team were eliminated by the LEC’s MAD Lions.

With their campaign at the 2022 Worlds coming to an abrupt end, the franchise have resorted to the addition of fresh investor(s) to help propel their growth in the esports scene.

The franchise started out as “Young Generation” and made their way into the VCS in 2017 via the Spring Promotion. Despite being a new entry into the top-tier Vietnamese league, the team put up good performances and finished the season as the second-best team in the league, with GAM Esports (formerly Marines Esports) claiming the top seed position.

They made their first appearance at the Worlds that year and finished second in the play-in group stage, recording a 2-2 record. They were, however, eliminated in the knockout stage by LPL’s Team WE.

In 2018, the franchise went through a rebrand and became the Phong V? Buffalo. They continued their presence on the international scene as they appeared in yet another Worlds tournament. Phong V? Buffalo also made their first appearance at the Mid-Season Invitational in 2019 and finished in the top six spot in the tournament.

Thereafter, the franchise hit a brick wall after failing to qualify for the Worlds in 2019, followed by disappointing outings for the entirety of the 2020 season.

After another rebrand to Saigon Buffalo, the Vietnamese franchise bounced back to glory, finishing in second place in the 2021 VCS league. The homegrown roster proceeded to make it to the Worlds and MSI, shocking doubters and fans likewise. The influx of new investors could see a refreshed version of the franchise in the 2023 LoL season.

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The tournament will be the first time fans will have the opportunity to watch teams from Vietnam compete on the Worlds’ stage since 2019. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the region could not participate in the Worlds 2020 and 2021.

The issue of visa issuance has plagued several Southeast Asian teams and stopped the squads from traveling and participating in the World Championship. The COVID-19 restrictions only worsened the situation, preventing squads in the Vietnam region from attending the international tournament for two consecutive years.

The unreliability of visa issuance made several viewers skeptical about the Vietnam Championship Series, fearing that the VCS representative would have to compete in the League of Legends World Championship without their entire lineup.

Saigon Buffalo were able to put a lid on the skepticism after announcing that their complete lineup was issued visas right on time for the tournament, which is set to kick off on September 29. Over the past few days, the team has religiously given updates concerning the players who have gotten their visas for the tournament. As of September 22, Froggy and Ren were the only ones without visas.

Saigon Buffalo gave an official announcement on Twitter, revealing that the two players would be given an attendance visa and thanked Riot Games for their input.

“Froggy just had a successful interview this morning at the US consulate and will be granted a CKTG attendance visa,” the post read via machine translation. Thank you, Riot Games, and your strong encouragement.”

The entire squad of the Saigon Buffalo is now set and ready to make their move for the Worlds 2022, which will take place in Mexico.

The team previously took the place of GAM Esports as the VCS representative during MSI 2022. At the time, GAM Esports reportedly left the competition to participate in the Southeast Asian Games. At the MSI 2022, Saigon Buffalo reached the Rumble Stage and finished the tournament in sixth place.

Saigon Buffalo will be representing the VCS region once again in an international tournament and will start their Worlds 2022 run in the tournament’s Play-In Stage. Besides Saigon Buffalo, GAM Esports also qualified to represent VCS on the Worlds’ stage.

Saigon Buffalo was placed in Group B of the tournament and will face off Istanbul Wildcats in their first game on September 29. The match will enable the Vietnamese team to move past the Play-In Stage of the event and enter the competition’s Group Stage.

The 24 teams set to participate in the League of Legends Worlds 2022 will face each other in the different phases of the tournament in order to reach the Worlds 2022 grand final. The grand final will be held at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, on November 5.

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??But after losing both of their Day 3 outings, G2 relinquished first place to the only online team in the tournament, Royal Never Give Up. The European giants took on PSG Talon in their first game of the day and were outplayed by the Hong Kong-based team, averaging only 0.8 kills per player.

Now at 4-1, G2 went into their second game of the day against RNG as they looked to get back to winning ways. To their disbelief, RNG claimed their revenge having suffered a defeat by G2’s hands on Day 1 of the Rumble Stage. RNG returned the favor securing 15 kills as opposed to G2’s six.

Chen “Gala” Wei led the team to victory with a record of 8/0/2, and captain Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao was also key to RNG’s win with a record of 3/2/7. As they had already beaten Saigon Buffalo earlier in the day, the win against G2 saw RNG vault to the top of the table with a 5-1 record.

READ: MSI 2022 Rumble Stage Day 4 betting picks

Having defeated G2 in their first game of the day, PSG Talon took on T1 in their second fixture. The Korean team got the better of Talon, but it was a close game as both teams went for the jugular. Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang had a good outing, posting up a record of 4/4/6, but Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s performance was inspirational as he finished with a 4/4/9 record. ??With PSG Talon ending the day with a 2-4 record, they are currently placed fifth, while T1 – who started Day 3 with a win against Evil Geniuses – finished the day tied with G2 Esports in a share of third place.??

After falling to both RNG and Evil Geniuses, Saigon Buffalo ended Day 3 with no wins from six attempts. The Vietnamese team will face RNG on Monday for their final game of the Rumble Stage.??

Evil Geniuses could only claim one win for the day. While they could not overpower T1, they decimated Buffalo for their third win of the stage, putting the North American side in fourth place with nine points. They will battle T1 on Monday to solidify their spot in the knockout stage.

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G2 sits at the top of the Rumble Stage standings with a perfect 4-0 record, at the time of writing, with their spot in the Knockout Stage just about secured with only four games to play on the last two days. The European champions have extended their win streak to 24 games over the end of their EU Spring split and their first 12 games at MSI, which sits as the second longest win streak in professional League of Legends history.

T1 were the heavy pre-tournament favourites at $1.57 but since the Rumble Stage has started the Korean champions look anything but the odds-on favourite that they were before MSI had begun. They currently sit in third place in the Rumble Stage with a 3-2 record, at the time of writing, after losing to G2 and RNG who sit in the two places above them in the standings. They will still make the Knockout Stage but they won’t want to lose to G2 and RNG twice before potentially facing one of them in the Knockout Stage first round.

The difference in the odds that we are being offered are too far apart in our opinion and we think that this will be a close contest. Therefore we will be taking G2 at the kill handicap of +5.5, currently $1.90 with BetOnline.

Saigon Buffalo are currently on the bottom of the standings for the Rumble Stage with a no wins from four games, at the time of writing. The VCS champions looked quite good in their Group Stage matches but since going through to the Rumble Stage they have struggled against the better opposition they have had to face every game.

PSG Talon are sitting in fifth place, at the time of writing, in the Rumble Stage standings with a 1-4 record with a chance to still make the Knockout Stage. PSG Talon will need to win the games they play against Saigon Buffalo and Evil Geniuses, who sits just above them, to keep their Knockout Stage chances alive.

Even though PSG Talon are short favourites here, we think that they will be winning this match over the bottom placed Saigon Buffalo, so we will be taking the $1.66 on offer with BetOnline.

Royal Never Give Up are sitting in second place in the Rumble Stage standings with a 3-1 record, at the time of writing, with their only loss coming from G2. The reigning MSI and Chinese champions have been very impressive in this year’s edition of MSI, going undefeated at 6-0 throughout the Group Stage adding to their 3-1 record in the Rumble Stage. RNG will be looking to keep up the winning with another comprehensive win over Evil Geniuses.

Evil Geniuses currently sit in fourth place in the Rumble Stage standings, at the time of writing, which is the last qualifying spot for the Knockout Stage. With a 2-3 record, the North American champions will have to keep winning against the two teams below them, PSG Talon and Saigon Buffalo to hold onto that fourth spot.

RNG will be very, very short in this match and we cannot suggest backing them at $1.07, but we will suggest taking the favourites at the kill handicap of -12.5 at $1.83 with BetOnline.

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Evil Geniuses might be one of the most exciting teams LoL Championship Series (LCS) has sent to an international tournament in years. They were phenomenal in the playoffs, and who could forget Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki’s individual performances?

But while Danny is the shining star of the team, EG biggest strength is their teamwork. They will take scrappy fights and almost always come out on top, and they’re excellent in getting objectives, but most of all, EG excel in funnelling resources into Danny to do his magic.

As an Oceanic team, ORDER are very easy to underestimate, knowing that they’re from a wildcard league that further dissolved into an even minor region in 2020. However, Oceanic LoL esports teams never fail to put up a fight and make their region proud, so with some luck and a lot of grit; they might surprise.

Still, ORDER are individually outmatched by Evil Geniuses and unless they cook up a unique strategy or an unconventional draft that will catch EG off guard, which should be a fairly straightforward win for the North American representatives.

Saigon Buffalo shouldn’t even be travelling to Korea because they did not initially qualify for the event. But because GAM Esports are participating in SEA Games instead, the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) sent Buffalo to carry the region’s flag in Busan.

Buffalo might be the second-best team from the VCS, but they’re a steep drop from GAM Esports. Admittedly, Vietnamese teams are always scary in international events, but we would tame our expectations about Saigon Buffalo.

DetonatioN FocusMe made a splash at the 2021 LoL World Championship, where they won Group B Play-In, and even though they ended up going 0-6 in the group stage, they proved that they could compete with the best. Since these two teams have never met before, it’s tough to say how this match will go, but if we go purely off what we’ve seen from them during the regular season, DetonatioN FocusMe are rightly priced as the favourites with the top betting sites.

Turkish Championship League (TCL) is viewed as a powerful region, but Turkish LoL esports teams have failed to achieve much in international events over the last few years. However, on a more positive note, Istanbul Wildcats dominated their playoffs this year and enter the 2022 MSI as the best team from their region.

Wildcats averaged 100% First Blood rate, win rate, and Baron control. Moreover, they averaged a 2.9 K/D and held a + 3.2k gold advantage at 15 minutes. With such numbers, it’s tough to ignore the Turkish champions, even though their chances of winning the trophy are slim.

RED Canids made it to Korea, but they had to drag themselves through the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) 2022 Spring playoffs. Moreover, Brazil has not shown much in international events for years.

They have a very low damage per minute (1889 DPM), a horrendous gold difference at 15 minutes (-455) and a fairly concerning first turret percentage (38.1%). We don’t have a problem with esports betting sites pricing RED Canids as underdogs, but we would argue that $2.10 is too low.

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