Group Stage Day 3: What’s Up With China?
Curiouser and curiouser. Welcome to the Twilight Zone that is the 2015 World Championships, where predictions are thrown on their heads and logic doesn’t apply. If you thought the upsets in the first two days of the tournament were shocking, then get ready to have your face melted by Malzahar.
The LPL Gets Rekt
China. The region that bought out nearly all of Korea’s top talent. The region that won the Mid-Season Invitational. The region that was slated to make 2015 their year with the growth of their local circuit.
And now, the region that lost all their games during Day 3.
The first defeat was Edward Gaming’s as their rivals SK Telecom T1 got revenge for MSI. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok stared down his eternal nemesis and came out victorious with a Ryze pick against Heo “PawN” Won-seok’s Ekko.
It was the same across the board as even the #1 pound-for-pound AD Carry of the world in Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu was trounced by SKT’s rising carry threat, Bae “Bang” Jun-sik. The top lane was a complete route for EDG as well with Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-Hwan bringing his feared Renekton pick back onto the Rift for a truly monstrous 10/0/6 finish.
Still, this was one tournament frontrunner beating another, which is well within the realm of possibility. But then LGD, China’s #1 seed, fell to KT Rolster, Korea’s #3. After drafting a composition with 3 physical damage threats, LGD ran into one problem after another.
The first was Malphite. Choi “Acorn” Cheon-ju had to eat some humble pie as Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho gave him a lesson on how to use Unstoppable Force to take control of a game (after Acorn’s non-factor performance against Origen).
LGD’s star-studded roster looked confused, constantly stumbling over each other in the face of KT’s unassuming yet coordinated squad. Coordination reigned supreme as shot caller Lee “Piccaboo” Jong-Beom bade his team stand behind him as he blocked Varus arrows on a heroic 0/0/18 Braum support performance.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for China, Invictus Gaming also fell to North America’s surprise contender: a revitalized Cloud 9.
It wasn’t a clean victory, but eventually C9 punished IG’s ineffective Bard pick and opened the map with the peerles pushing power of Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen’s Azir and Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi’s Tristana.
What was doubly impressive was that Cloud 9 were able to employ their out-rotation style on a formidable Chinese team, running their opponents around while they swiped turret kills wherever they could. Even Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon, hailed as one of the greatest junglers in the world today, was actually matched by C9’s Hai “Hai” Du Lam, who just moved to the jungle from the mid lane a few months ago.
Incarnati0n has been steadily showing more and more star power under Hai’s leadership.
If China are to salvage their reputation as one of the top 2 regions in the world, then they better win all of their games from here on out, because it looks like the other regions are all too ready to pass them by.
The Faith Age is Weird
With their win over Invictus Gaming, Cloud 9 are now 2 wins and 0 losses in their group. A group, mind you, that that many analysts predicted they’d be dead last in. It seems that the Faith Age that Counter Logic Gaming started is having some very bizarre side effects.
Not only are the faith benefits spilling over to C9, it seems that CLG also managed to take away the faith of their rivals, Team SoloMid. The golden boys in black were handed their second straight loss by Origen and Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez‘s surprise Anivia pick.
Though TSM started off with a gold lead, it was Origen’s superior map control and pressure that led to them turning the tides without even needing to fight. Things seemed to be looking up for Europe, along with such shenanigans as H2k-Gaming picking up the meme-powered Mordekaiser for an unorthodox duo bot.
And then ahq happened.
Fnatic was perhaps the only team out of the west that didn’t need any faith to help them along in this tournament. With a 21-win streak under their belts, the best in the west took on the best of Taiwan and to everyone’s shock, they fell short.
Though the European powerhouse held the gold lead for most of the match, it would be the late game team fighting where ahq would wrest control. A harmless looking Tahm Kench support pick turned out to be a boon for protecting Chou “AN” Chun-An’s Jinx, while Chen “Ziv” Yi’s Gnar slammed everyone into walls left and right to start off engages.
ahq is a team normally hyped up because of the mid lane, but Ziv’s top lane play is what got them the win over Fnatic.
What’s happening right now? I have no idea. Even Riot’s analysts are a little perplexed at this point. All I know is these matches have been amazing to watch, and I can’t wait to see more of Worlds.
At this point, it’s safe to say that all bets are off, and that this could very well be the most exciting World Championship the League of Legends community will have witnessed. Keep up with all the action on our results page, and stay tuned for more Worlds recaps.
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