Two groups down, two to go, and if you bet that Griffin would stomp G2 Esports not once, but twice, we need some lottery numbers from you.
Griffin and G2 Esports advance from Group A
Griffin joins Splyce as the 6th and 7th teams to make the knockout stage in their first trip to worlds in the last 4 years (since 2016). Griffin started their run to the quarterfinals by losing their opening match to G2 Esports, but went on to win their next 6 matches including back-to-back wins against G2 Esports (including the tiebreaker for the top spot in the group). Griffin is the first team to beat G2 Esports in consecutive matches during a major international event (worlds or MSI) since they were swept 3-0 by Invictus Gaming in the 2018 worlds semifinals (G2 was 16-7 at MSI and worlds between those streak). During Griffin's 6-match win streak, they have +48 tower's destroyed differential and a +18 dragon's slain differential. Additionally, they have 108 teams kills to just 27 deaths in that span.
Mid laner Chovy finished the group stage with a 10.8 K/D/A ratio (22/6/43), the 3rd-best K/D/A ratio by any mid laner in a single group stage at worlds (since 2012); only Xiaohu (24.0) and Bdd (16.5) in 2017 were better. Chovy played 6 different champions across those 7 matches, the only champion he played twice was Camille (combined 8/0/9 in those games).
Not to be outdone, ADC Viper has not had a death in five straight matches, helping lead to one of the best K/D/A ratios by any ADC player in any worlds group stage (min. 2 matches). Viper's last death was in Griffin's 2nd match of the stage against Hong Kong Attitude. Also, Jungler Tarzan drew first blood in 4 of their 7 matches, 2 more than any other player so far -- Griffin is 4-0 in those games.
G2 Esports entered the tournament with a 19-30 all-time record in the group stage at worlds, however they had not lost a match at a major international event since the third game of their semifinals series victory against SK Telecom T1 at MSI earlier this year. G2 would go on to extend that winning streak at major international events (MSI and worlds) to a franchise best 10 straight games before having it snapped by Griffin in the last match of the day. With G2 advancing to the knockout round, they are looking to join SK T1 in 2016 as the only teams to win the MSI and World Championship in the same season.
After becoming the first NA LCS team to make it to the semifinals at worlds, Cloud9 failed to make it out of the group stage for the first time since 2015. While it was G2's win over Honk Kong Attitude in the following match that officially eliminated Cloud9, their poor showing against Griffin in today's opening match set the tone for their day.
Cloud9 only had 1 kill against Griffin, the fewest in their then 74 matches at worlds (including play-ins) and the loss in 23 minutes and 55 seconds is their 2nd-fastest loss at worlds (longest is loss vs Fnatic in 2015 worlds - 22:03). Upon being eliminated, Cloud9 had lost 6 of their last 7 games (dating back to last years semifinals loss to Fnatic), their worst 6-game span at worlds.
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