Starting 5:30 PST on Friday the 18th of April 2014, six qualified teams will compete for the title of ESL Pro Series Champion North America in League of Legends. The games will be commentated by Alex "Malfusx" Manley, TJ "Azumoqt" Sanders and Nick "TastyNubbinz" Yaco, and you’ll be able to follow all the action at www.twitch.tv/nesl_lol

First, however, let us introduce you to the teams who’ll be duking it out to be named the ESL Pro Serious Champion - who will you be supporting?

The teams

Coming in as first seed are newcomers LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER, who boast a 7-0 record for the season. They are followed by second seed Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest, who went 6-1, and Curse Academy, who have a record of 5-2. Seeded fourth is Team LoLPro, who achieved a 4-3 record the previous season. Finally at fifth and six seed there are compLexity.Red and NoDice Gaming respectively. While the two first seeded teams have byes for the first round, it will be the third vs. sixth seed and fourth vs. fifth seeds who play first in order to decide who makes it into the semifinals.

LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER

The sister team of Royal Club, Chinese team LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER was born out of a combination of members from Team Livemore and Royal Club Tian Ci, achieving sixth place in the League of Legends Professional League. A few months later they gained sponsorship from iBUYPOWER and set their sights on North America, climbing the Ranked 5v5 ladder in order to qualify for Riot’s North American Challenger Series. After competing in several small tournaments, they were invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series, their subsequent undefeated streak earning them the well-deserved top seed in the playoffs. They seem to enjoy being at the top - LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER also earned the top seed in both the North American Challenger League and Challenger Series.

Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest

Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest started out as a Season 3 Gold Gaming LA Roster, although they were unfortunately dropped after competing in a number of small Challenger tournaments. Reforming as The Walking Zed, they competed against Team Coast at the Spring Promotion and, despite ultimately losing 2-3, managed to bring the fight to game 5. Unperturbed by their defeat, they went on to compete in the Coke League, replacing AD carry bobbyhankhill with Altec beforehand. Support NydusHerMain left less than a month later, the team being picked up by Cloud 9 and the empty spot now filled by Gleebglarbu. After competing in the North American Challenger Series the team went on to take part in the ESL Pro Series, ending the season as second seed with only one loss.

Curse Academy

Once known as Children of IWDominate, Curse Academy were picked up by Team Curse in late January 2013. They’ve gone from strength to strength from the beginning, coming first in the Season 1 Amateur League Championship Series and second in the International Pro League Summer Promotion Qualifier. Although they have seen a number of roster changes (including early February this year), Curse Academy still managed to place above fifth in 70% of their 2013 tournament standings. They’ve also proved themselves to be strong competitors in the National ESL Pro Series, averaging at third place in each season they’ve competed in.

CompLexity.Red

The sister team to CompLexity.Black, CompLexity.Red has a lineup that began with erstwhile Velocity eSports veterans Nk Inc and Evaniskus, who were briefly part of a team known as Skyline from November 2013 until being acquired by CompLexity. Currently competing in Riot’s North American Challenger Series, CompLexity.Red made quite an impression when they burst into the National ESL Pro Series Season 9. Currently using their sub midlaner Fragnat1c after the recent loss of Greyson "GoldenGlu" Gilmer, will they have what it takes to defeat Team LoLPro in the playoffs?

Team LoLPro

Reforming with a new roster in the Season 4 preseason, Team LoLPro debuted in the Amateur League Championship Series, ending the season with second place and a score of 15-6. After competing in the first North American Challenger Series split and losing to compLexity.Red - then Skyline - in the qualifying rounds, they were then invited to compete in the ESL Pro Series. Here they exacted their revenge on compLexity.Red by defeating them, although eventually lost to their sister team Curse Academy 2-1. Despite this, they managed to secure the fourth playoffs seed by the time the regular season drew to a close, during this time having also competed in the next Challenger Series and made it to the quarter finals before losing a best of three against vVv Gaming 2-1.

NoDice Gaming

NoDice Gaming traditionally focuses on MMOs, meaning their League of Legends team is a relatively recent venture for them. Their newness has meant there have been a fair few struggles this season while NoDice Gaming have attempted to find a solid roster, but after competing in a number of other tournaments they were invited to join the National ESL to replace and inherit their wins and losses. This has meant that NoDice Gaming have started with no wins, only managing to secure one in the following weeks. Now at the bottom of the standings, everything rests on them winning their game against the third place Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest.

The Schedule

Playoffs start today at 5:30pm PST, so make sure you tune in at www.twitch.tv/nesl_lol to see the cream of the Challenger team crop compete to be named North American ESL Pro Series Champion!