UK-based Verdant Esports win League of Legends NLC Aurora Cup 2023
19 November 2023
For some years now, the NLC Aurora Cup has been something to look forward to for League of Legends players and fans around the world. Yearly, the tournament brings us some of the best NLC Pro-Am League of Legends action of the year and this year’s edition ended up being a memorable one for UK League of Legends and esports in the UK in general. As you might know, the Aurora Cup is open for teams from divisions one to three from the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Nordics, and the UK-based teams dominated this year. On Saturday, November 11th, UK-based esports organisation Verdant crowned themselves champions after beating fellow British organisation Fourth Wall in the grand final.
Dominant from start to finish
Few times a victory was as deserved as it was for Verdant this year. The UK esports team did not make a single mistake in the Group Stage, winning both their games against Regem and Karolinerna by 2 to 0. No other team in the NLC Aurora Cup 2023 main event managed to match that flawless record, though Fourth Wall in Group B came close with just a single battle conceded. Looking back at this, it was perhaps no coincidence that both UK-based esports organisations met up for the grand final later.
Back to Verdant though, because their flawless Group Stage performance continued well into the quarterfinals of the NLC Aurora Cup 2023, where they faced Ruddy Esports. The latter were simply not capable of stopping the former as the battle ended in a 3-0 victory for Verdant. At this point, it was clear that they were one of the stand-out favourites for the title, as they had not lost a single game during their run so far.
Even though this flawless record came to an end in the subsequent semifinals against JLINGZ Esports, the esports team founded by former Manchester United and England national team footballer Jesse Lingard, Verdant remained on fire. They managed to win their first game against JLINGZ before conceding their first game of the entire tournament next. It turned out to be a stay of execution, because Verdant took home to the next two games to book their place in the grand final of the 2023 Aurora Cup.
All-British grand final
As we wrote before, the grand final of the Aurora Cup 2023 became an all-British affair, with the favourites from Verdant facing up against Fourth Wall. And while the latter had had a great tournament up to that point, losing just two games on their way to the final, Verdant was clearly a bridge too far for them. As a result, they went down 3-0 in what was a rather one-sided final that ended with a very deserved win for Verdant.
“We’re thrilled to be taking home the trophy”, said Sami Cunningham, owner of Verdant, after his team’s impressive victory, “All year we’ve been at the top of the league fighting for them, but never quite managed to close it out. It’s the perfect way to end the year”.