The 2022 Wild Rift Icons Global Championship was held in Singapore and concluded with the Grand Final today on July 9th.
The tournament hosted 24 teams from around the world in the Suntec Exhibition Center in Singapore. While eight qualified directly through their regional competitions, the remaining 16 battled through the play-in stage. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place in Europe, but Covid-related complications forced Riot Games to move it to Singapore to ensure better competition.
With a combined prize pool of over $2 million including 25% of the revenues from the Majestic Morgana skin sales, Riot Games seems to be heavily invested in the Wild Rift development.
The play-in and group stage matches were in a best-of-three format, while the quarterfinals and the semifinals were a best-of-five series. Today’s Grand Final was a best of seven series from which the Chinese team Nova Esports emerged victorious. They faced off against the Taiwanese gaming organization called J Team, which they swept in a short but competitive 4-0 series.
Game 1 breakdown
Game one ended in dramatic fashion after Nova Esports slew the Elder Mountain Dragon and won the following team fights to close out the game in 22 minutes. Superstar jungler An “Long” Xulong had a massive game on his Jax, finishing with a 6/1/5 scoreline. Jax proved to be a direct counter to the full mele and a Karma composition on the side of the J Team.
Game 2 breakdown
Game two was another highly competitive game in which J Team held the lead for most of the game, but didn’t manage to secure any of the dragons. This led to the game being decided in later stages by a single team fight, which Nova Esports won and secured the Baron after that. They ended the game using the Baron buff to push the lanes, while the super-fed Lucian with 17 thousand gold on the side of J Team felt useless after another bad draft.
Game 3 breakdown
Game three was a lot less close, finishing with a convincing 18-minute win for Nova Esports. J Team drafted another team composition filled with single target damage dealers. This allowed Nova Esports mid-laner Wei “Nian” Haojin to have a monster performance on his Diana, which greatly benefited from the Yuumi pick in the support role.
Game 4 breakdown
Game four started a bit slower with a minor lead for J Team who again drafted a team composition without any AOE damage. Nova Esports abused this and blew the game open in the mid-game with a strong performance from their topside en route to winning the Championship. Their superstar jungler Long won MVP of the tournament for his consistent and strong showing, helping his team secure $640,000 in prize money for taking the number one spot.
Header: Riot Games