GenG and RNG advance to the knockout stage

The Lucian Nami combo still looks strong in the hands of world-class bot laners, as GenG defeats the Covid-ridden RNG in the tiebreaker.

Covid is spreading at an alarming pace among League of Legends World Championship participants. Luckily, the Group stage concluded with last night’s matches in Group D and now players will get a few days of rest.

GenG secure the first seed

If A was the group of death, then D was definitely the group of life. This was probably the only group where all predictions came true, apart from the first seed. The LCK champions GenG had no issue in the Group Stage, showing everyone in the World that Lucian Nami is still good.

The Electrocute changes for Nami might have persuaded Western teams to find an alternative, but Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk will always find a way. The PCS first seed, CFO, were the first victim, quickly followed by 100 Thieves. Ruler went a combined 13-2-10 in the first two games as Lucian before switching to Aphelios for the last two games against RNG.

The 2017 Worlds Finals MVP is back in the Knockout stage at League’s most significant international event, looking for his second title. Everyone is familiar with the struggles GenG have had at this stage of the circuit, but this is the first time their mid-jungle duo is considered not just good but world-class. 

Covid outbreak at Worlds 2022

Covid is still very much a real issue, despite continued efforts to make it go away. The roster of MSI Champions and LPL’s third seed, RNG, tested positive two days ago. Looking at the player cameras during yesterday’s matches that they played remotely, you could see how it was affecting them. They managed to scrape two wins against teams that were objectively not on their level, but they looked lifeless in the tie-breaker matches against GenG. 

RNG aren’t the only one struggling, with reports coming out that the entire EDG roster has contracted Covid as well. Damwon’s starting bot laner and substitute top laner, Seo “deokdam” Dae-gil and Noh “Burdol” Tae-yoon, have also tested positive.

With the quarter-finals kicking off in less than three days and more than a quarter of the players left at the tournament struggling with illness, we are yet to see a response from Riot. Without a doubt, the integrity of the competition would be put into question if teams were forced to play the most important matches of the year in that condition. 

Knockout stage draws

The gaming gods finally blessed us, as this World Championship looks to be one for the ages. T1 and RNG will have an MSI Finals rematch, giving us our first LPL-LCK five game series of the World Championship. Reigning World Champions EDG will start their title defense in the Knockout stage against DRX while LPL champions JDG face off against Europe’s last hope, Rogue.

GenG and Damwon form the final quarterfinals pairing as we head into the final two weeks of the tournament. Since 2018, the LPL holds a 7-1 record versus the LCK in best-of-five series. On the other hand, this is the strongest the LCK has looked in years.

Header: Riot Games