Top start for the 2021 Worlds of League of Legends, which take place in Iceland, with the first day of the Play-In, which will allow four teams to join the 12 others already qualified for the Main Event of Worlds 2021. Let's take an update on the classification of groups A and B at the end of that first day.
Which teams will join the LoL Worlds 2021 groups? We will find out on Saturday, at the end of the Play-In, after three days of group matches in the BO1 format (one winning round), then two days of finals in the BO5 format (three winning rounds) to obtain the two best teams from each band. Let's see what happened today.
Worlds 2021: LNG Esport dominates Group A of the Play-In
The first four matches of this first day of Play-In of the 2021 League of Legends Worlds opposed the teams of Group A, namely:
- Hanwha Life Esports, fourth best team in the League of South Korea (LCK)
- LNG Esports, fourth best team in the Chinese League (LPL)
- Infinity, the best team in the Latin American League (LLA)
- RED Kalunga, the best team in the Brazilian League (CBLoL)
- PEACE, the best team in the Oceania League (OCE)
The first confrontation of the day opposed the two favorites of group A of the Play-In which are the Korean and Chinese teams. LNG Esports finally snatched victory from Hanwha Life Esports after 40 minutes of high-tension play. If the Korean team manages to defeat Infinity, in order to end the day with a score of 1-1, the Chinese team obtains the first place of the classification.
Indeed, it ends the day with a score of 2-0 after beating PEACE, the team of the Oceania region in which we find Vizicsacsi, former top-laner in the European League (LEC), who nevertheless played Gangplank. Note that the RED Kalunga and PEACE teams only played one match today. They can therefore have surprises in store for us tomorrow, in particular the first which has already secured a victory.
The classification of Group A at the end of this first day of Play-In of the League of Legends Worlds 2021 is therefore as follows:
- LNG Sports : 2 wins, 0 losses
- RED Kalunga : 1 win, 0 loss
- Hanwha Life Sports : 1 win, 1 loss
- PEACE : 0 win, 1 loss
- Infinity : 0 win, 2 losses
Cloud9 and Galatasaray surprise in Group B
The last four matches of the day opposed this time the teams of Group B, namely:
- Cloud9, the third best team in the North American League (LCS NA)
- Unicorns of Love, the best team in the Russian League (LCL)
- Galatasaray Esports, the best team in the Turkish League (TCL)
- DetonatioN FocusMe, the best team in the Japanese League (LJL)
- Beyong Gaming, the second best team in the Taiwanese League (PCS)
Here, the two favorites are Beyond Gaming, who previously shook their region's number one seed, PSG Talon, and Cloud1, the North American team in which we can see Perkz playing again, former mid-laner (then bot -laner) of the European structure G9 Esports - which we will not see during these 2 League of Legends Worlds.
And against all odds, Beyond Gaming lost their match against the excellent players of Galatasaray Esports, who mastered the flow of the match throughout. As for Cloud9, they easily beat - or almost - the Japanese team that had stood up to them at MSI 2021, with a final score of 8/0/2 for Perkz, who wielded the chains of Sylas.
Here is the Group B ranking at the end of the first day of the Play-In of the 2021 LoL Worlds:
- Galatasaray Esports : 2 wins, 0 losses
- Cloud9 : 1 win, 0 loss
- DetonatioN FocusMe : 1 win, 1 loss
- Beyond Gaming : 0 win, 1 loss
- unicorns of love : 0 win, 2 losses
The second day of Play-In will look the same, with eight games to be played from 13 p.m. Among the most anticipated and decisive meetings, we can mention the two matches of the Brazilian team RED Kalunga. First against LNG Esports, who will confirm or not the Chinese team's lead over the rest of the group, then against the Koreans of Hanwha Life Esport, to potentially secure second place in the ranking. And on the side of group B, we can note the meeting between the two favorites: Beyond Gaming and Cloud9.
