Following an explosive first day with a few surprises, let’s take a look at one of the most hyped matches of Worlds Swiss Stage Round 2: the Korean civil war between Gen.G and T1.
Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
Worlds 2023 Swiss Stage – Gen.G vs T1 – October 20, 10:00 CET
T1 and Gen.G both won their respective day 1 matches but the two teams’ performances were quite different. T1 managed to take a win against Team Liquid who delivered a strong game and forced T1 to a 36-minute game, much longer than what everyone would have expected.
If it wasn’t for the last teamfight botched by TL, T1 would’ve probably lost the game, showing that the team might still struggle a bit. Their team comp was also quite different from what the meta looks like, as they went for the Ashe-Renata bot lane combo. Maybe it was just a way to counter Aphelios but at the same time it felt like it didn’t really work out as intended.
Gen.G, on the other hand, dominated GAM Esports with a 22-minute game. Even though the VCS team stayed on par in the first few minutes of the game, Gen.G took the lead at the 10-minute mark and gave no chance for GAM to comeback. While it was an expected result, getting a good start is always a momentum boost.
Read more: LoL Worlds 2023 Power Rankings
The Korean Civil War – key elements of the match
On paper, this matchup should favor Gen.G, for two particular reasons. The first one is that T1 always struggled against Gen.G throughout the season, as they lost both splits. It’s not like Gen.G has better peak potential, but they are more consistent and don’t make that many mistakes. While it’s a Bo1, which means anything could happen, having more composure in the game does help Gen.G stabilize, especially in a scaling meta like the one right now.
Speaking of meta, I’m still concerned about T1’s meta read. We don’t really know what they have been training in scrims but their series against TL felt like they hid their cards somehow. They probably thought they could win by picking something not meta-adherent so they could use the right picks in the important matches. It might be a speculation, but otherwise, I can’t really explain why they went for Ashe when Xayah and Kai’Sa were open. You could argue that the team needed a long-range engager, but Kai’Sa and Jayce are great poke combos that are much scarier in this meta. We’ll see whether this is the case in the match later.
With that in mind, I’m expecting Gen.G to take the win. It won’t be a short game, though, so expect like over a 30-minute game for sure. If that doesn’t happen, then it would be quite a worrying sign for whoever loses.
Prediction: GEN 1 – 0 T1
Read more: LoL Worlds 2023 Meta – Picks and Bans
About Post Author
