JDG top Group B as G2 match Fnatic’s demise

In a sad deja vu for European fans, their hopes of multiple LEC teams advancing came crashing down with the first game of the day.

G2 managed to outdo Fnatic in their collapse, Damwon looks like a serious threat for the title and JDG rolled a nine in the top lane to claim the first seed.

G2 flame out in spectacular fashion

G2 Esports saw the failure that Fnatic pulled off yesterday and decided they would best them in it as well. After a 7-0 record in 2022 against Evil Geniuses, dating back to MSI, G2 lost all chances of advancing in the first game of the day. G2 came out looking flat in every single aspect, managing to get just one kill, drake, and tower in a 30-minute blowout. 

The Western Fiora meme continues to live on as G2’s top laner got solo killed two times in a counter matchup favoring him. To cap the night off, G2 managed to throw the wildest game in five minutes. After securing the gold lead and 7-1 kill score in 15 minutes, G2 were down 6000 gold and a Baron buff by the 21-minute mark. JDG did their best to gift G2 this win, but G2’s 3-0 Tristana was somehow more useless than JDG’s 0-2 Kalista.

On the other side of the coin, massive kudos to the Evil Geniuses organization. Despite finishing with the same 1-5 record as Cloud9 and G2, EG looked like the best Western team not named Rogue at this tournament. Considering they lost their star bot laner heading into the LCS Finals weekend, managing to be this competitive with a substitute is amazing.

While Western teams were getting rolled over and looked like they weren’t even trying to win, Evil Geniuses gave every Eastern team a run for their money. These guys blocked off distractions coming from the LCS finals and MSI performances, battled through the Play-In stage, and looked like the second-best Western team at the tournament. Adversity builds winners and EG proved that despite the record.

DWG look like World Champions

We already mentioned that mid-lane play and mechanical champions will decide this World Championship. And right on time, the best mid-jungle duo from 2020 is hitting their stride. Heo “ShowMaker” Su did his best to salvage this roster the entire year, barely taking them to the Korean regional qualifiers.

But ever since the Championship winning top side from 2020 reunited, with Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon returning after a disappointing 2021 campaign with FPX, DWG have looked unstoppable. With Graves replacing the tanks falling out of the jungle meta, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu is once again looking like the best jungler in the world. If yesterday’s performance against the LPL first seed JDG is any indication, the rest of the world is in big trouble.

The LPL champions, on the other hand, showed remarkable poise and championship-worthy composure. Heading into the tiebreaker rematch after getting destroyed by Canyon’s Graves, tied with a 5-1 record, JDG put on a show. Their top laner, Bai “369” Jia-Hao, rolled out a nine performance at the most important time, proving to everyone why he is the best top laner in the world at the moment.

After falling down by 5000 gold in 17 minutes and facing a 3-0 Aphelios from DWG, JDG turned it up. A single teamfight win at the third drake, securing the objective, and two outer towers with objective bounties on them, was all it took for the game to even out. 369 finished the game with an absurd 10-1-11 score line, on Aatrox of all champions, giving JDG the first seed with the biggest top lane gap ever recorded on the Worlds stage.

Header: Riot Games