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For fans of North American League of Legends, this World Championship has been little more than a nightmare. For fans of other regions, however, the biggest international tournament of the year simply further highlights the strengths these teams have shown throughout the year in their respective regions.
Group B of this year’s Worlds group stage is a prime example of the volatility present within the competition. Among the four teams competing in the group—consisting of the LPL’s first seed JDG, the LCK’s third seed DWG KIA, the LEC’s second seed G2 Esports, and the LCS’ third seed Evil Geniuses—each showed clear strengths and weaknesses in the first half of the group stage, preventing any single team from running away with the lead.
Though JDG may currently be undefeated in the group, the second round-robin creates opportunities for any of the four teams to shake up the standings in their three games, ending the day with the top-two scoring teams advancing to quarterfinals. Here’s a look back at Group B’s first round-robin and what fans can expect from the second round-robin matches on Friday.
JDG do indeed have weaknesses
The No. 1 seed from the LPL and the team that many fans expect to go far in—and possibly even win—this year’s Worlds are not as untouchable as everyone once thought.
After handily defeating EG in their 2022 Worlds debut, JDG continued their group stage run against DWG KIA who, to the surprise of fans, were more than ready to open the game against the LPL representatives with aggression. Map-wide roaming from Showmaker’s Taliyah ensured none of the ganks from Kanavi would go unanswered, preventing JDG from snowballing another lead through the jungle as they’d done the day before.
Where DWG KIA faltered, however, was the Renekton pick in the top lane, which hindered the team’s damage potential when combined with Canyon’s Maokai, as all of the damage fell into the hands of the squishy carries. The longer the game went, the more burst nearly all of JDG had that completely negated the crowd control from the other side, ending a game that remained close throughout.
In the Oct. 10 opening match against G2, JDG struggled to advance their early gold lead as G2 sought to match them through kills of their own, keeping the game close and forcing both teams into late-game teamfight scenarios. In this unknown territory for JDG, they were forced to suffer further to find strategies that would work for them, which ultimately came in G2’s ignorance of the JDG ADC, Hope.
Though JDG enter the second round-robin of the group stage undefeated, these two close games show the “untouchable” LPL first seed can in fact be exploited when caught off-guard—though doing so requires near full-game synergy and a willingness to answer the tactics Kanavi and Yagao are willing to implement.
DWG KIA and G2 showing even a small sign of vulnerability created space for JDG to act and turn close games in their favor almost instantly, so how these teams draft in their final group stage games tomorrow will be crucial in seeing if they can stop the reign of the LPL in Group B.
Not much more room to live evil
The LCS is currently 0-9 at Worlds, with each of the three representatives of the region having lost all their games of the first round-robin, even against teams fans were certain would go in the LCS’ favor.
To say EG have struggled immensely thus far to perform in the way they had throughout nearly the entirety of the LCS regular season this year would be an understatement. Though the team’s early game remains crisp and has forced their group opponents to reevaluate their strategies mid-match, it’s the mid-to-late-game where the communication between the members of the team appears to dissolve as they recklessly seek any and all windows of opportunity for comebacks.
This sharply contrasts the playstyle EG showcased just a few weeks ago as they progressed through the play-ins. There, while the team similarly struggled against representatives of the LEC and LCK, the team played almost exclusively through their mid laner and LCS rookie of the year Jojopyun, partnering him with Inspired to ensure the team gained substantial leads through the mid lane.
Instead, strange draft picks accompanied by an increased priority on their bot lane took away from the strengths that had afforded EG their first title in the Spring, and nearly doing the same in the Summer. In doing so, Jojopyun appeared to be the recipient of a lot of his pressure to carry without having much additional help, placing himself in precarious positions as relatively immobile champions and becoming an easy target for all three other teams.
Many LCS fans have given up hope completely following the worst Worlds start for the region in history. But for the members of EG, they still have three games to go, one against each of the opponents that defeated them last weekend. If EG are unable to rediscover the communication and synergy that made this year, their first match tomorrow may be their last chance at moving on through the Worlds bracket.
