You could say it was a "fun" day at the League of Legends World Championship as FunPlus Phoenix and Splyce advanced to the quarterfinals. Here's some of the numbers behind how it went down.
FunPlus Phoenix and Splyce Advance from Group B
FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) and mid-laner Doinb kicked things off against GAM Esports with the surprising champion selection of Malphite, his first appearance at Worlds since 2015. Even when Malphite was picked more consistently in 2015, teams who picked him had lost their last 6 matches entering today. FPX only needed to destroy 7 towers to snap that streak, tied for the 2nd-fewest towers destroy by any winning team at this years Worlds (including play-in games). Doinb finished with a 12.0 KDA (3/1/9), the 4th-best among the 18 players to play him at Worlds (dating back to 2012).
After winning against GAM Esports, FPX had their 3-match win streak snapped by Splyce - their first loss since the opening match against J Team. FPX would go on to win their next 2 matches, including a tiebreaker against Splyce to win Group. FPX is the 6th team since 2016 to advance past the group stage in their first appearance at Worlds. The bad news, none of the 6 previous teams made it past the Quarterfinals.
After going 1-2 in their first 3 matches of the group stage, Splyce secured their spot in the knockout round by winning their first 3 matches on Thursday before losing the aforementioned tiebreak to FPX. In their first 3 matches, Splyce destroyed 20 more towers and slayed 4 more Barons than their opponents.
Splyce made it difficult in their opening match against GAM Esports by allowing them to get first blood and destroy the first tower. Splyce's coming back to win that match is just the 13th instance (out of 45) of a team winning a match at this years Worlds (including play-in games) after not getting either first blood or destroying the first tower. This is Splyce's first appearance in the knockout stage at Worlds, after going 1-5 in their Worlds debut in 2016.