Game 1: flash wolves vs team solo mid

No one expected Flash Wolves to go down easy, but no one also expected TSM to be on the ropes for so much of this match and that they would only barely eke out a victory. Both of these teams showed the kind of resiliency that marks world champions, which is an ability never to give in and to always be searching for the slightest advantage or edge. That’s how TSM came back from a 5K deficit at thirty minutes and how Doublelift was never deterred from engaging harder than anyone on the Rift.

Ultimately, it was the individual plays that decided this match. Hauntzer was playing amazingly well. He dove into FW’s frontline hurled out abilities and jumped away time and again with no health. He also got what might be the greatest Gnar ult of all time as he hurled the entire Flash Wolves team into the wall of their base during a push, causing the crowd to lose control in excitement. But it was Doublelift that was the hero. On Tristana, he is completely fearless, and he dove FW again and again, escaping with fractions of life and decimating their team. It was also his pick onto ADC Betty that caused the entire team of TSM to push in and take the game.

game 2: Team WE vs Misfits

If anyone should have been paying attention to how Team WE plays, it is Misfits, but they fell right into playing them at their own game, and they lost in a crushing defeat because of it. Team WE took Misfits in a 9-0 game, only losing one turret (so close to a perfect game), and rather humiliatingly putting them down.

Misfits problem was they made no attempt to challenge WE in the early game when they were weakest. Instead, Misfits drafted a late game team that never got the chance to scale up. This was especially confusing because Misfits draft looked like a team designed for trouble. Few people are courageous enough to pick a Lulu with Thunderlords and ignite (and no flash), but Misfits did it. Then they seemed to simply sit back and let WE pick them apart.

This was especially true for Xiye, who chose the first assassin mid of Worlds in Leblanc and showed that the meta still has a lot of shaking up to do. He absolutely demolished PowerofEvil and went on to be a constant thorn in the side of all of Misfits. WE has shown that even in this Ardent Censer meta, assassin mids can still make or break the game. Here’s hoping we see some more.

game 3: immortals vs fnatic

Fnatic looked good this game – better than we thought considering their last performance – but it wasn’t enough to beat out Immortals. This is largely due to Pobelter and Flame, who were playing absolutely fantastically, but also because Fnatic seems to be unable to shore up small mistakes across their roster. It always seems like at least one member of Fnatic is making huge mistakes, and this game it came from the most unlikely place in Rekkles.

The game might have been an IMT win without Rekkles playing too aggressively and getting caught out – Pobelter’s Taliyah walls were constantly zoning out FNC to get objectives – but FNC also made the final, tragic call to push a base race at the last moment, and it was a race they could obviously not win. If they hadn’t pushed it, they could have possibly defended and pushed the game a few more precious moments. But the good news for Europe is that FNC is still finding their feet. Next week might see a very different outcome if IM T doesn’t keep pace in improving.

game 4: Longzhu gaming vs GIGABYTE MArines

When you hear the first seed of Korea is competing, this the type of game you imagine playing out. Even more so than C9’s game against SKT, this was a match where GAM simply could not compare to LZ. The GIGABYTE Marines had previously said they had a very specific strategy just for Longzhu – and the theory of this strategy was sound. Mordekaiser was going to lane swap and split his experience with GAM’s jungler. Because of Mordekaiser’s passive, GAM would be getting full experience and try to get Mordekaiser a lead which translated into stealing dragons using his ult. But that wasn’t how it played out.

The first problem was that the lane swap not only didn’t surprise LZ, it didn’t seem to faze them. They played completely confidently and aggressively in the face of the swap and ended up collapsing bot lane to get two kills and first turret gold. LZ’s Gorilla also played Rakan perfectly – the way the champion was designed – by getting early mobi boots and roaming around to assist his team across the entire map. It was simply a matter of being outplayed and out-strategized, and once LZ recognized and crushed GAM’s strategy early on in the game, there was nothing for GAM to do but wait for LZ to finish them off.

game 5: ahq e-sports vs cloud9

If there’s one things a team needs to do in Worlds, it is adapt to the competition. Contractz learned his lesson about aggression against SKT, but he didn’t give up on the idea. All the things C9 did wrong against SKT, they did right against AHQ, beating them soundly and quickly.

Like C9 against SKT, AHQ seemed far too eager to get a lead against their opponent, and whether it was Ziv pushing too hard in top lane and getting himself and Mountain killed or Mountain’s failed Maokai ults, AHQ was simply sloppy and overeager. This sloppiness translated into kill after kill for C9, but it also clouded AHQ’s judgement.

The team seemed unable to respond to Jensen’s Realm Warps on Ryze but were also easily corralled into baited team attacks, like when C9 spawned a Rift Herald and then looped behind AHQ to get the drop on them. It’s obvious that Worlds is as much about skill as it is keeping your head level and in the game, and in this game, AHQ failed at that.

game 6: edward gaming vs sk telecom

There must be something the pro teams have identified as a weakness in SKT’s early game, because EDG looked like a much more polished version of C9 in this game. They went for early ganks on Faker with Rek’Sai – just like C9 did – but all the places C9 failed, EDG succeeded. Clearlove showed restraint and patience, always waiting for the perfect moment to dive and get kills. Unfortunately, this patience and restraint faltered as the game went on, and it cost EDG the game.

It was a cruel loss for EDG, a team that is now 0-3 when everyone expected so much for them, and against SKT, they did nearly everything perfect. Xayah was a great pick against Faker’s Orianna as he could negate the Ori ult, and EDG’s Scout was constantly diving and dashing for kills and damage. The real problem was that with Rakan, Cho’Gath, Jarvan and Orianna, SKT was designed to CC EDG and let Bang decimate them on Twitch, and all SKT really needed was one solid CC from any of those four members to start it off, and that was exactly what happened.

Despite having no kills, SKT baited EDG towards the Baron, and EDG grouped perfectly in mid-lane, allowing Rakan to knock up the entire team, followed by Cho’Gath, and followed by Bang, which led to four kills and a Baron. SKT was online at this point, and the giant tankline of SKT was just better at working from a deficit, especially because all they needed was one CC to land to begin an avalanche of CC and damage.