The League of Legends World Championship action continues with Group Stage Day 4! It will be the last day before the two-day break for teams, as they will have to prepare for the second round robin.
On Day 3, we saw Rogue’s convincing victory against GAM, while Top Esports dropped unexpectedly to DRX, which raises questions about their last match of the round robin against RGE. Meanwhile, in group B, G2 are currently 1-1 and they will be facing the first place team JDG. The Chinese team are undefeated so far with two strong victories, showing that the LPL first seed is ready to fight at Worlds.
Worlds Day 4 Preview
G2 winning against JDG would puts them back into contention for a top two, so this series is going to be crucial. Will they pull the upset or will JDG assert their dominance in group B?
Can Rogue defeat TES and lead the second round robin of Group C?
JDG vs G2 Esports
JDG has been a dominant force in Group B, beating both Evil Geniuses and DWG Kia to secure a 2-0 score in the standings so far. Against the North American team, JDG held an even early game but gapped EG in the mid-game teamfights with better positioning and clean picks. JDG’s strong game sense allowed them to open up a lead after the 20th minute mark and close the game in less than 30 minutes.
The series against DK proved to be a tougher test than the team anticipated: the LCK team stole two dragons and picked up a Baron at 24 minutes. Having said that, the Chinese team was able to stay even in gold with DK and held until the carries reached their item spikes. By having a hard-scaling team composition, JDG knew they just had to slow the game down and they would end up winning. Despite DK’s best efforts to shut down Yagao’s Azir, Hope was always able to deal DPS untouched in teamfights, turning the game in their favor and ultimately prevailing over the 2020 World Champions.
JDG will now face G2 in the last game of the first round robin, and the stakes for both teams are high. On one hand, JDG is looking to go 3-0 and likely lock a top two finish. On the other, G2 wants to beat JDG to go 2-1 and tie them in the standings.
G2 had a brutal awakening in their opeer against DK, as the Korean players dismantled them in the early game. Canyon gapped Jankos in the jungle and the early game for the EU team was overall disastrous: in less than 10 minutes, DK found an incredible skirmish that allowed them to build a 3k gold lead. Their win condition was hoping for a perfect teamfight which never came since DK always looked one step ahead of them. In 32 minutes, DK broke into G2’s base and destroyed the nexus with a monstrous 18k gold lead. If the first game was a bad sign for G2, they were able to recover with a convincing win against EG.
Not only did they have the better draft, but it was the “most G2 draft” the team has had in recent times. By having Targamas on roaming support like Rell, he and Jankos were able to constantly help Caps build his lead, as he became unstoppable. He wasn’t the only one performing well, though, as Flakked carried teamfights and BrokenBlade was untouchable in the side lanes.
These kinds of drafts are the best for G2’s playstyle so if they can manage to get a similar one against JDG, there might be a chance of winning. That being said, JDG are coming into the series as the favorites since they are the kings of the mid and late game. Knowing that G2 doesn’t have a stellar early phase, the LEC team will struggle to keep up. Below are some of the best odds for the series (courtesy of GG.BET):
Race to 10 kills: JDG (1.45x)
First Blood: JDG (1.58x)
Total Towers: over 11.5 (1.63x)
Total kills: over 27.5 (1.87x)
Dragons Slain: over 4.5 (3.09x)
RGE vs TES
This match will determine who is the number one team of Group C. As the first seed from EU, the team is actually exceeding fans’ expectations. Malrang is pulling off the greatest year of his career, with impactful ganks and actions during the early game and the rest of the team is playing with composure and making very few mistakes. Draft preparation has been on point and despite not playing the best picks, they always know how they should play and what they should be doing to push their lead further.
Top Esports, on the other hand, lost to DRX in a very one-sided game. Aside from the first dragon, DRX dominated TES from the beginning to the very end. JackeyLove’s early Draven pick proved to be a useless pick and with the bot lane going behind, it became impossible for Tian and Knight to roam to side lanes.
With a 4k gold deficit before the 15th minute mark, DRX played the game slowly to extend their lead, bringing the gold gap to 14k as they broke TES’ nexus in 30 minutes.
This loss proves that the Chinese team might not be as strong as anticipated and ultimately gives RGE hope to close out the first round robin undefeated, putting a mark on a potential qualification in the top 8 at Worlds. If TES disrespects the enemies in the draft as they did against DRX, RGE should be able to prevail.
Winner: RGE (2.9x)
Race to 5 kills: RGE (2.19x)
First Blood: RGE (2.25x)
Total towers: over 11.5 (1.58x)
Map Duration: over 31.5 (1.99x)
Total dragons slain: over 4.5 (2.21x)
None of the pre-tournament LoL Worlds Power Rankings align with the results we saw in the opening round. There is plenty of meta development going on, and we are in for a very even Worlds ’22 thus far.
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