The Play-In winds to a close
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The teams continue to give it their all in the final matches of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship Play-In Stage. Eight teams are left vying for any of the four slots for the main event, bringing them that much closer to the Summoner’s Cup.
It was an exciting first day for the Play-In Knockout Stage as four teams clashed in two best-of-five series. The outcomes were mostly as predicted but not in the way that the analysts and fans would have hoped, with the mighty exception of EDG’s dominant win over Japan’s Detonation FocusMe.
C9’s Struggle
It’s hard to imagine the rut Cloud9 found themselves in at the beginning of the Summer Split given their amazing performance in the Play-In stage so far. Their true challenge came in the way of a best-of-five series against Russia’s Gambit Esports. One misstep could mean the difference between making it back to the main event of Worlds or booking early tickets back home before getting a shot at the best League teams across the globe.
The analyst desk all predicted Cloud9 to come out on top of the series with a minimum 3-1 victory. Gambit Esports defied expectations when they beat out C9’s draft and game plan on two separate instances. The chiefest example being a masterful game 4 to force the series into a final game 5.
Cloud9 had to sub out their rookie Jungler Blaber, fielding in the more experienced Svenskeren to handle their jungle. C9 field in a more aggressive composition with a Graves jungler while having Jensen and Sneaky pick up their comfort picks in Ryze and Kai’sa respectively. It would take extra effort on Cloud9’s side bujt they would eventually nail down the series win over Gambit Esports to book their spot in the coming main event of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship.
EDG’s Swift Match
EDward Gaming’s qualifier match was a completely different story compared to Cloud9’s struggles against the Russian squad. EDG’s dominance over Japan’s DFM was never put into question through any of the pre-game analysis and group stage matches. It was only a matter of what margin EDG would win the series by.
It only took EDG three games in the series to prove their prowess against their opponents as they almost effortlessly cruise towards the main event with their qualification slot safely in tow. To their credit, Detonation FocusMe reached further than any other Japanese representative and should be proud of their efforts at the grandest League of Legends tournament. DFM even made the final third game a close one to call before EDG ultimately squeaked out a win to end the series with a 3-0 victory. EDG will be joining the rest of the Chinese delegation in the main event.
The Play-In Knockout Stage continues tomorrow with the four remaining teams fighting for the final two slots in the main event. Which teams will be joining Cloud9 and EDward Gaming in the next stage of the grandest international tournament of League of Legends?
