(Image credit: LoL Esports)
The League of Champions Korea (LCK)’s top-seeded DAMWON Gaming and League of Legends Pro League (LPL) second seed JD Gaming havev advanced to the 2020 World Championship quarterfinals after beating the Pacific Championship Series (PCS)’s PSG Talon and the League of Legends European Championship (LEC)’s Rogue on Friday, Oct. 9.
Although PSG Talon and Rogue (1W-4L) have yet to finish playing their games, the two teams are eliminated from the World Championship. However, PSG (0W-4L) can alter the standings at the top as their game against JDG (3W-1L), which has yet to be played at the time of writing, can derail their chances at contending for first place, where DAMWON (5W-0L) sits comfortably.
Despite starting strong against JD Gaming, Rogue’s balanced teamfight composition faltered during the mid-to-late game transitions – Rogue doing so despite fronting a balanced team fighting composition against JD’s dive-heavy one, with JD’s flanks around objectives proving decisive. A Mountain Drake Soul claim (26-minute mark) and a Baron Nashor takedown (28:30) followed two lopsided teamfights where the European team stood helpless against Zhang "Zoom" Xing-Ran’s Camille (6/2/7 KDA) and Lee "LokeN" Dong-wook’s Jhin (7/1/11), the latter taking over the game.
As for PSG Talon, they showed improvement despite their loss to DAMWON Gaming, days after being outmatched during a 0W-3L start. However, sloppy execution across the board plagued them against the LCK team, losing too many objectives in the follow-up to contend.
Although their seeding is undetermined, JD Gaming and DAMWON Gaming join Suning and G2 Esports in the quarterfinals. The four teams are currently awaiting the results of Groups C and D, set to play on Oct. 10 and 11.
