By Griffin LaMarche
From upset wins to massive outplays, from nail-biting tiebreakers to top teams dropping games, the League of Legends World Championships Group Stage was one to watch.
Group A started on a shocking note, as LMS’s Flash Wolves (FW) and Europe’s G2 Esports (G2) both took games off Korean team Afreeca Freecs (AFS). Stellar performances by Luka “Perkz” Perkovic and Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang put the group’s favorites at a 0-2 start. While Phong Vu Buffalo (PVB) placed last in groups, the lesser-known Vietnamese team held up a formidable 2-4 record, taking crucial games off both Flash Wolves and G2 Esports. Although Afreeca Freecs started the group 0-2, they would bounce back tremendously on the back of top laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-In to finish the group in first place with a 4-2 record. The second seed out of groups came down to a tiebreaker game between G2 Esports and Flash Wolves. The FW made a crucial mistake by banning Petter “Hjaranan” Freysch’s signature champion Heimerdinger, alongside picking off-meta champion Mordekaiser by Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung, which lead to the Flash Wolves’ early exit from the tournament.
Group B was by far the most exhilarating and unexpected group of the entire Group Stage. Going into the matches it was expected that the 2017 World Champions Generation Gaming (Gen.G) and tournament favorites Royal Never Give Up (RNG) would beat out North American team Cloud9 (C9) and European team Team Vitality (VIT) in a fairly easy group. However, the aggression from Team Viality crushed favorites Gen. G, eliminating them from the tournament. The team went 1-5, the worst performance ever by a Korean team in groups. RNG’s victory over Gen. G eliminated the Team Vitality, but the European second seed made a name for themselves by showing up unexpectedly against the Eastern powerhouses. RNG and C9 are the two teams leaving the group.
In Group C, all eyes were on who would best each other; Korean’s top seed KT Rolster (KT) easily took over the group, going 5-1, but crucially lost one game to China’s Edward Gaming (EDG). Team Liquid, unfortunately, could not find the success they had in the North American LCS, and star AD Carry Yillang “Doublelift” Peng was promptly shut down in almost every game played. Team Liquid finished the group 3-3, which was not enough to advance out of the group, as KT Rolster and EDG would advance to the Knockout Stage.
Finally, in Group D, all eyes were on Europe’s Fnatic and China’s Invictus Gaming. North American team 100 Thieves made a very controversial move by benching AD Carry Cody “Cody Sun” Sun in favor of substitute Richard “Rikara” Oh. This move did not pay off as 100 Thieves finished 2-4, only winning games against LMS’s G-Rex. Both Fnatic and Invictus Gaming finished their groups 5-1, only dropping one game to each other. In the tie-breaker match, although Song “Rookie” Eui-Jin was able to best Rasmus “Caps” Winther, it was Fnatic’s Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen on Lee Sin that stole the show and gave Fnatic the top seed out of the group.
