League Of Legends Worlds Groups Day 1: Results, Recaps, And Recommendations
The League of Legends World Championship kicked off with the Play-in stage of the tournament on Friday, September 25, and after a thrilling play-ins stage, the Groups are set to begin on October 3.
The best League teams from all around the world will be facing off against each other for the prestigious World Championship, immortalising themselves in League of Legends history.
With a scaling prize pool depending on the number of championship skins being bought (of which 25% go directly towards the teams), the overall amount will likely surpass $5,000,000 (~£4,000,000). In total 22 teams from eleven regions will be competing at the World Championship.
The main event begins on October 3, putting the remaining 16 teams in four separate groups. The first three competitors in each group have already been determined, with the play-in tournament victors slotting in as the fourth seed in each respective group.
Check out the everything you need from Groups Day 1 below, including all the info on schedules, teams, game recaps, and more!
Groups Day 1 (Saturday October 3) - Schedule
Click the links to jump to the recaps and results for that game!
9am BST/ 4am EST - FlyQuest VS Top Esports
10am BST / 5am EST - Unicorns of Love VS DRX
11am BST / 6am EST - Rogue VS PSG Talon
12pm BST / 7am EST - DAMWON Gaming VS JD Gaming
1pm BST / 8am EST - Gen.G VS LGD Gaming
2pm BST / 9am EST - TSM VS Fnatic
FlyQuest VS Top Esports (Rewatch Recommendation: 3 / 5 - An expected stomp, the LPL showed why they're the best region)
If you’re into one team dominating the other then this is the game for you. The game started by FlyQuest invading Hung "Karsa" Hao-Hsuan's red side jungle with Lucas "Santorin" Larsen taking his raptors, as you do with Lilia does. Karsa in response dashed over the Baron wall in an attempt to steal Santorin’s blue to even things up. Santorin caught hold of that and quickly made his way over to negate that — giving himself a one camp lead to begin the game.
The game was tame until the 5-minute mark where Top Esports decided it wasn’t. FlyQuest’s bottom lane went aggressive trading several summoners in their favour but that was it. The first First Blood of Worlds went to Top Esports' Bai "369" Jia-Hao as he solo killed Colin "Solo" Earnest in the top lane. Once the first kill happened, all bets were off. Top Esports exploded the game wide open giving themselves kill after kill, Dragons and Heralds. FlyQuest tried their hand at making plays to get back into the game but they didn’t work.
Flyquest did get one play to work though, they engaged into Top Esports in the bot lane as they thought they had an advantage in numbers but TES quickly pulled their teleport triggers. It ended in a 2-2, which considering the game’s state was good for FlyQuest.
Top Esports began to bleed out the map slowly but surely as their lead was too big — the gold gap grew bigger and bigger. All things considered, the few times FlyQUest tried their hand at a play or contesting an objective, they did as well as they could’ve done. Top Esports handled business, as usual, going to get Elder, FlyQuest went to contest and Top Esports turned — allowing them to end the game.
Unicorns of Love VS DRX (Rewatch Recommendation: 4 / 5 - Pyosik is legendary)
Another game where one team dominates the other, this time it felt even more dominant. This was the Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon show as he was absolutely dominant on the Nidalee finishing the game with a 13/1/5 scoreline. It all began with First Blood for Pyosik to start the game, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon ghosts to go for the initiation onto Lev “Nomanz” Yakshin. Due to him still having Flash he uses his W to chunk Nomanz forcing him to retreat. Pyosik was there for the counter gank leading to a kill onto Nomanz as he flashes and tries to run away.
That was just the tip of the iceberg that was DRX’s early game. Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok dominated Ilya “Gadget” Makavchul and Aleksandr “SaNTas” Lifeashin in the bot lane, with Deft having a constant 20-30 CS lead even getting up to 60 at the 11-minute mark.
Pyosik absolutely terrorized the map alongside engages by DRX's Ornn, Ashe with her arrows and Keria’s bloodthirstiness — netting himself a 6/3/8 scoreline on the Pantheon. For the majority of the game both Pyosik and Keria were the only two players with kills on DRX.
The rest was history as DRX translated their chokehold of a lead into the game’s finish.
Rogue VS PSG Talon (Rewatch Recommendation: 3 / 5 - Poor Tank)
A third game in a row where one team dominates the other, really? Yeah. PSG Talon’s Park “Tank” Dan-won got welcomed to Worlds with a 1:30 minute gank from Rogue’s Oskar “Vander” Bogdan and Steven “Hans Sama” Liv in the mid lane — giving Hans Sama First Blood. This wasn’t all though, Rogue’s bottom lane did a return gank shortly after, punishing his lack of flash.
Like the teams before them today, Rogue translated their lead across everywhere in the map. A team fight by Herald with a flash ultimate initiation by Finn “Finn” Wiestål was all Rogue needed to blow the game wide open and commence their chokehold. PSG Talon did try to put themselves back in the game though. An attempt at collapsing on Rogue was left at an attempt as Rogue were able to turn it all around getting themselves three kills — leaving PSG Talon’s bot lane running back to base. That was all PSG Talon could muster.
A near-perfect game for Rogue as they only lost one tower and one drake. Not a bad first game for Rogue’s first appearance at Worlds.
DAMWON Gaming VS JD Gaming (Rewatch Recommendation: 2.5 / 5 - Eep! No Raptors for Kanavi)
Okay seriously, this isn’t funny. Another stomp? DAMWON absolutely blitzed through JD Gaming. It all began with DAMWON reading the play of JDG invading their raptors —due to JD Gaming playing Lilia. DAMWON was ready and got the first blood onto Zuo “LvMao” Ming-Hao. A few minutes passed and down in the bot lane LvMAO and Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok dove Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee for a kill. DAMWON weren't gonna let them get away with it though as they were able to collapse and kill them both — Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun was 3/0/0 at seven minutes in.
Much like Pyosik in one of the matches prior, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu was an absolute beast running wild across the map on the Nidalee. DAMWON had the definitive lead but JD Gaming weren't gonna go down with a fight. For most of the early to mid-game JD Gaming had a few great engages led by Lilia sleeps. They keep having the right idea with their engages but can’t quite execute. JD Gaming didn’t have enough damage to finish DAMWON off which led to DAMWON getting overwhelming victories in their team fights.
Like clockwork — due to their massive lead — DAMWON finished off the game. This was a statement, letting everyone in the world know that they are the best team in their group. It was on JD Gaming to get ahead with the Lilia but they couldn’t execute. DAMWON’s pressure from their Nidalee and Twisted Fate were too much.
Gen.G VS LGD Gaming (Rewatch Recommendation: 4 / 5 - Can we get a decisive team fight, please?)
In the closest game of the day so far, Gen.G were one step ahead the whole match but LGD Gaming made sure they never got too far ahead. The game started with a flash engage from Kim “Life” Jeong-min onto Ha “Kramer'' Jong-hun, ultimately ending in a summoner trade. Han “Peanut” Wang-ho went to help his bot lane but Kim “Clid” Tae-min was trailing behind, GEN decided to pull the trigger and had Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee teleport bot — First Blood for Gen.G
What ensued in the next 30 minutes of the game were just trades on all fronts. With Gen.G always being a step ahead they were there for the objectives. Every time an objective happened, no team would land a decisive blow. It was just a kill or two and the objective take — sometimes no objective at all. This continued for minutes on end with no team budging. There were two key moments in the game. First it Gen.G took Baron but got heavily punished losing four and mid-lane inhibitor. The second key moment was when LGD Gaming picked up their third drake — they did a terrific job stalling soul — but got aced for it.
It all came to a close in the final fight of the game in the mid lane. Gen.G engaged onto LGD and slowly picked them off, they were relentlessly chasing them from the mid-lane to the top lane. While this happened Clid got Gen.G their soul and due to them having Baron they were finally able to end the game.
TSM VS Fnatic (Rewatch Recommendation: 2.5 / 5 - Fnatic showed an unexpected side)
Fnatic showed an unexpected side of out macroing and out rotating Team SoloMid. The game began with Team SoloMid invading Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek’s red side jungle in an attempt to slow him down. In response, Fnatic made a late invade into Team SoloMid’s red and got First Blood onto Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. This was followed with two more kills in a couple of minutes — Fnatic started the game with a quick 3-0 kill lead.
They had the jump from the get-go but Team SoloMid did their best to respond, making sure they didn’t lag too far behind. Come mid-game, the match slowed down as Fnatic had quite a bit of map pressure and Team SoloMid hadn’t really grouped up to combat it. Every time there was a team fight, Fnatic split the fights into two, having Selfmade utilize key flanks — Selfmade was the player of the match.
The LEC representatives were just too much for Team SoloMid, while Fnatic pushed themselves ahead, they kept Team SoloMid behind. It all came to a close in the final set of events of Dragon and Baron. A fight in the mid-lane where Sergen "Broken Blade" Çelik dies in the back of it due to diving into Fnatic’s backline was all Fnatic needed. They quickly turned to Baron, rushed it down and kill Team SoloMid. The first matchup between these two storied organisations goes to Fnatic.
Image via Riot Games