The ROX Tigers survived a difficult early game thanks to a pair of world-class plays to defeat G2 Esports in a 44-minute, roller-coaster contest in Group A.
The Tigers were considered by many to be the tournament favorites coming into the 2016 League of Legends World Championships, and the team's top laner, Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, was deemed by many to be the best player at the tournament. But the team and the top laner weren't living up to that reputation early in this contest.
Around 14 minutes into the match, G2 -- who already held an advantage in kills -- caught out the Tigers in the mid-lane, and G2 top laner Ki "Expect" Dae-han landed an impactful ultimate on Gnar to win a team fight. The European champions rotated to the bottom lane and took the first turret of the game to open up a lead of over 4,000 gold. That start placed the stalwart Tigers in an unfamiliar position, as the squad faced its biggest gold deficit of the summer at 15 minutes. And things almost got even worse for them.
G2 Esports baited ROX at Baron Nashor around the 25th minute and won a clean teamfight to take a 5 vs. 2 advantage in players. They then turned back to the Baron to earn the buff, but the two remaining Tigers stuck around, and jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho smite-stole the buff away for the Tigers. Had G2 earned the buff, it might have been too big of a deficit for ROX to overcome.
The Europeans won another teamfight and things swung back in their favor, and then they pressed for a big fight in the mid lane that would have won the game. But Smeb on Kennen proto-belted into the middle of the opposing team and popped his ultimate, completely turning around the fight, earning himself a double kill and a triple kill for his ADC, Kim "PraY" Jong-in.
That resulted in an ace for the Tigers, a Baron buff, an Elder Dragon buff and lots of pressure on the G2 base. The South Koreans needed a few more successful team fights to put away the victory, picking up another Baron buff for good measure to eventually destroy the nexus.
ROX Tigers move to 2-0 on the tournament and lead Group A, while the European Champions fall to 0-2 and are alone in last place in the group. ROX will face Counter Logic Gaming on Sunday, while G2 will take on surprising wild-card foes Albus Nox Luna.