Unlikely pro scores first Pentakill at LoL Worlds 2023
Few have managed to climb back from retirement and yet one player at League of Legends World Championship has defied the odds.
Not only did LOUD's Moon "Route" Geom-su manage to make his way back to the top level of professional League, he's also scored the first pentakill of the event. Better yet, he did it on Day 1 of Worlds Play-Ins.
Making’em work for it
During the second match of the opening day of Worlds 2023, AD Carry Route put on a clinic of an opener, quickly gaining a size advantage for his team in the bottom lane.
Around the 25-minute mark, GAM Esports find themselves down six towers, more than 10k gold, and four dragons. Route's kills start ticking up as the Brazilian squad goes for the throat to decide this one-sided game.
With only GAM's Nguyễn "Slayder" Linh Vương alive, Route has secured the quadrakill and is looking for the opposing bot laner who is hiding in the fountain.
As LOUD moves in and has the game in the bag, they decide to assist Route in grabbing the achievement of the first pentakill of the event, diving the fountain.
While Slayder thinks on his feet and sells items to buy a stopwatch and possibly bait the opponent into overextending, the advantage for LOUD is too large and Route scores the last hit to the opponent's Xayah, scoring the pentakill and celebrates with the destruction of the enemy nexus right after.
LOUD went on to win the series in a clean 2-0 and is now facing PSG Talon in the next round of the Play-Ins.
An unlikely route
For Route, it was an unusual and challenging path to this achievement. Having started his career in 2016 with Virtuoso Gaming at the age of 16, he only eventually got his breakthrough playing in teams like Jin Air Green Wings and SANDBOX.
In April 2021, he retired from professional play only to be called back to fill an import slot for his North American team in December 2022.
Since then the team has qualified for MSI where they finished in 10th-12th place and are now in the Worlds Play-Ins, a preliminary event that allows teams to qualify for the main event in Seoul, South Korea.
