Afreeca Freecs 1, Phong Vu Buffalo 2
The Afreeca Freecs kicked off Day 4 of the League of Legends 2018 World Championship group stage by picking up a much-needed win over Phong Vu Buffalo on Saturday in Busan, South Korea.
After dropping its first two games to G2 Esports (1-1) and Flash Wolves (2-0), respectively, Afreeca (1-2) finally won at worlds, much to the relief of League of Legends Champions Korea fans. The Freecs took important first steps in improving in the group stage, subbing jungler Lee "Mowgli" Jae-ha into the starting lineup and setting up constant pressure in the top lane for Kim "Kiin" Gi-in's Irelia to get rolling, which worked wonders for the Freecs. After only securing a paltry five kills through its first two games, Afreeca surged to 12 in this game, proving that it is a force to be reckoned with as it stayed alive in the Group A playoff hunt.
Once the snowball started for Afreeca, there was little that Phong Vu (1-2) could do to stop Kiin, who ended with a 2/2/9 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). The Buffalo got summarily run down after Mowgli had secured four kills for Afreeca by the 11-minute mark, en route to posting a 75 percent kill participation and MVP honors for the game. Afreeca demonstrated its superiority over Phong Vu unhampered by bad drafts, a common criticism of the Freecs' early group stage games, drafting a strong mid-game teamfighting lineup and executing on that win condition. A 22-minute teamfight for Afreeca led to a Baron secure, and from there it was all over for Phong Vu, which drops to 1-2 after picking up a win over G2 Esports on Thursday, setting Group A up for a potential mad dash for a spot in the playoffs.
-- Noah Waltzer
G2 Esports 1, Flash Wolves 0
G2 Esports cranked up the heat in Group A at the 2018 World Championship group stage on Saturday, taking down Flash Wolves and subsequently gaining control of first place in its group.
After dropping a game to Phong Vu Buffalo on Thursday, G2 Esports bounced back with an impressive macro-heavy win over Flash Wolves, becoming the first team in five years to win a game at worlds while picking up fewer than five kills. Flash Wolves got the ball rolling early on with its tank-heavy teamfighting composition, picking up its seventh-straight first blood at worlds when jungler Kim "Moojin" Moo-jin's Gragas killed G2 mid lane ace, Luka "Perkz" Perkovic just over four minutes in. G2 was unphased, though, as top laner Martin "Wunder" Hansen's Kleptomancy Camille earned a big gold lead in the early game, pushing G2 ahead in the economy game.
Flash Wolves just couldn't find a teamfight against G2's dive composition, getting picked apart by the plethora of ranged initiation options G2 had at its disposal. Despite giving up two Elemental Drakes, in which G2 had been 0-8 when doing so at worlds, G2's split-pushing game was on point with a fed Camille tearing through towers, building up its gold lead in a devastating 1-3-1 splitpush. With Flash Wolves unable to find any teamfights, it could do little more than watch as Wunder pushed through the bottom lane while the rest of G2 forced Flash Wolves out of its base with the threat of taking Baron Nashor. Flash Wolves tried to break its state of deadlock with a Baron rush at 31 minutes but Wunder had already done enough damage to Flash Wolves' base to swoop in and end the game in a dramatic back door. With the Flash Wolves loss, the LMS drops its seventh straight game to EU teams while G2 moves into first place in the Group A standings after the first round robin.
-- Noah Waltzer
Invictus Gaming 1, 100 Thieves 0
Invictus Gaming put on a terrifying display of aggression Saturday, dispatching 100 Thieves in the fastest game of the 2018 World Championships in Busan, South Korea.
Things looked good for 100 Thieves (1-2) for approximately three minutes, as the team sniffed out an attempted early skirmish from Invictus Gaming (3-0) and picked up two kills in the opening portion of the game. Unfortunately for the NA squad, IG's resident star AD carry, Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo, got rolling when jungler Gao "Ning" Zhen-Ning's Camille ganked for him at four minutes. Try as 100 Thieves might to get top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho's Irelia ahead, sending multiple members to the top lane at a time, it simply couldn't withstand Invictus Gaming's blisteringly aggressive playstyle, surrendering several more kills in the bottom half of the map and letting JackeyLove crack open the map with first tower gold at 12 minutes.
From that point onwards, IG did its best to speedrun its way through this game. 100 Thieves looked like the wind had been knocked out of it while Invictus Gaming did whatever it wanted, led by support Wang "Baolan" Liu-Yi, who had been accused of being too inconsistent entering this tournament. Using Thresh to set up picks, Baolan landed Death Sentence after Death Sentence in fights, en route to a 93.3 percent kill participation, and the rest of IG was more than happy to back him up. A full team ace at just 15 minutes all but broke 100T, giving IG all the momentum it needed to pick up a second ace in 100T's base before pushing through for a win in just 20:24.
-- Noah Waltzer
Fnatic 1, G-Rex 0
Fnatic put on a clinic against G-Rex on Saturday in Group D play at the 2018 World Championships in Busan, South Korea.
Fnatic (2-1) proved that it was simply a cut above G-Rex (0-3) consistently throughout this 24-minute win, even subbing in top laner Gabriel "Bwipo" Rau to get him experience on the big stage. Bwipo rose to the occasion early on, turning a two-man dive into first blood for Fnatic, but the ultimate star of the show was jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen's Lee Sin, which carried FNC through the early game. Broxah was seemingly everywhere on the map, leading the charge as Fnatic repeatedly sent multiple members to the bottom lane, picking up kills before eventually knocking down the first turret of the game at 12 minutes.
From that point on, Fnatic looked to push the tempo, allowing Broxah to shine as he stacked his Dark Harvest while posting a perfect KDA (kills/deaths/assists) of 7/0/8, and scoring the most kills by any jungler during the 2018 World Championships. Picking up a Baron buff shortly after the 21-minute mark, all Fnatic had to do was push with Baron-empowered minion waves and ace G-Rex in order to pick up the lightning fast win and sole possession of second place in Group D behind Invictus Gaming.
-- Noah Waltzer
Team Liquid 1, MAD Team 0
Team Liquid picked up a vital win over MAD Team on Saturday in Group C action at the 2018 LoL World Championship group stage in Busan, South Korea.
Finally, the No. 1 seed from North America has picked up a win at worlds, the first in the history of the organization. Team Liquid (1-2) overcame MAD Team (0-3) scoring first blood early on with jungler Jake "Xmithie" Puchero's Nocturne helping with solid Paranoia ganks in the mid game. Once Liquid had the lead, it did what Liquid does best: constrict the map and suffocate its opponents. Smothering vision control and fundamentally sound rotations set the path for Liquid to deliberately knock down turret after turret, using the threat of an Xmithie ultimate to keep MAD from contesting.
After a while, though, it became clear that Liquid needed to accelerate the game pace. With a gold lead exceeding 5,000 gold around 25 minutes, Liquid began dancing around Baron while top laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong's Shen splitpushed his way to MAD's bottom lane base turret. This back-and-forth motion lasted for approximately 10 minutes before Liquid finally felt comfortable enough to pull the trigger after finding a pick. MAD Team was utterly helpless in the face of Liquid's push and pull, being sufficiently out of its depth, but Liquid's lack of urgency could be a cause for concern going forward. Then again, Liquid's losses thus far at Worlds have featured plenty of instances when Liquid were too aggressive and got summarily punished, so perhaps this snail's pace gameplay was Liquid actively trying to fix those issues. If Liquid can find a balance between aggression and intelligent, methodical gameplay, then it might yet have a chance to take some games and claw its way back into the playoff picture, but the clock is ticking on NA's greatest hope.
-- Noah Waltzer
KT Rolster 1, EDG 0
KT Rolster picked up a big win on Saturday as it conquered EDG, coming out of the first 2018 World Championships on top of Group C with a 3-0 match record in Busan, South Korea.
Coming into this crucial matchup, both teams were vying for control of the group after sitting at 2-0, thanks in large part to legacy junglers. Players like EDG's Ming "Clearlove" Kai and KT's Go "Score" Dong-bin have both cemented their respective selves as some of the greatest junglers to ever play the game to not have a major international title, but, in th e end, Score would hold strong. KT pushed ahead early as Score'z Xin Zhao ganked the bottom lane at two minutes for first blood, setting the rest of KT up for success as the team would repeatedly send members to the bottom lane in order to pick up kills and, eventually, first tower gold. Often times, Clearlove would be reduced to playing a counter-gank heavy playstyle as Nocturne, unable to dictate the pace of the game without getting blown up.
Score's win in his matchup helped KT push ahead in the mid game, where the rest of KT's all-star roster shined. Mid laner Son "Ucal" Woo-hyeon was a rock as Galio, allowing his teammates to look for aggressive openings with which Ucal could follow up on, while support Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong's signature Alistar commanded respect from EDG, giving KT Rolster a psychological edge as EDG had to perpetually fear a sudden engage from Mata. EDG played as well as it could, only allowing KT to pick up nine kills, the lowest amount of kills KT has had in the team's Worlds history, but KT showed it was simply a cut above. Through an all-star lineup and clean teamplay, KT showed why it is the only team from the LCK so far to win more than one game as it took it splace on top of the Group C standings.