The League of Legends World Championship is still running! Did you miss yesterday games? Wondering which team sprang a surprise? Here at Millenium, we got you covered with the complete recap of the third day of the Play-in phase!
Match 1 — Clutch Gaming vs Unicorns Of Love
Unicorns of Love sprang a surprise with Edward playing Fiddlesticks support, but it seemed at first a mistake — especially since the CIS veteran involuntarily stole a Krug from his Jungler.
As soon as the game started, Clutch Gaming took up a position into the UoL jungle — and secured AHaHACiK's red buff, leaving him in a really bad spot. Lira capitalized on that further, taking blue also.
Even with that incredible start, Clutch couldn't prevent UOL from getting back into the game. After securing four drakes, the LCL champions used brute force to take down CG once again.
Match 2 — Splyce vs DetonatioN FocusMe
After a pretty bad showing on the first day of competition, the LJL champions needed to show what they could do.
No team seemed able to seize the advantage in the early game. DFM had secured two drakes and had recorded two more kills, but Splyce were matching them on gold thanks to better farming.
Slowly but steadily, DFM started to build a lead, eventually crushing Splyce — who just couldn't survive the incredible engage power from DFM's Ashe-Nocturne-Galio wombo combo.
With the baron secured and a 6k gold lead, the LJL champions easily took down Splyce.
Match 3 — Unicorns of Love vs MAMMOTH
Several problems hinder the choice of Syndra in botlane: first, you lack AD damage to secure objectives; then, the champion eventually runs out of steam in the late game. That's precisely what happened to Unicorns of Love.
Despite securing four drakes, they seemed unable to take advantage of the raw power given and beat MAMMOTH during teamfights.
At one point, we thought the game was going to end in a base race, but UOL kept getting pushed back by MMM. The gold lead they had earned suddenly evaporated, and MAMMOTH started taking control of the game.
Thanks to the incredible work of k1ng on Xayah — he finished the game 8/0/2 — the outcome of teamfights was usually MAMMOTH obliterating most members of UOL.
Exhausted, undermined, and unable to keep pace with the rhythm imposed by MMM, UOL eventually capitulated to give MAMMOTH the win.
Match 4 — Isurus Gaming vs DetonatioN FocusMe
This game might just be the longest and most chaotic we've had in a good while. With an 82.1% winrate on Ziggs, Ceros entered the game with confidence — but it quickly turned into a nightmare.
After more than an hour of back-and-forth play, no team seemed able to seize the advantage. All players had full builds, with Buggax reaching 100% crit chance on Gangplank. The game had reached a point where gold meant nothing anymore.
From teamfight to skirmish, both teams were taking risks, but neither seemed able to actually end the game. Isurus Gaming eventually won out in scrappy teamfight, going on to win the game and seal their progression into the Main Event.
It was DFM's last chance to continue their journey in Worlds, but sadly it was just not meant to be.
Match 5 — Clutch Gaming vs MAMMOTH
Because of the rules regarding teams tied in the group being separated by win times, this game was a stomp of a speedrun. MAMMOTH never stood a chance.
Clutch Gaming quickly took the gold lead, securing two Ocean Drakes in the process. After 20 minutes, Huni and his teammates aced the SEA representatives — and we knew it was already over.
Damonte and Huni led their team to victory, racking up 14 kills to three and crushing MAMMOTH's Nexus.
Since MAMMOTH, Unicorns of Love and Clutch Gaming all ended with a 2-2 record, winner of the group needed to be determined by two tiebreaker games.
Match 6 — Isurus Gaming vs Splyce
Isurus fought at the start, but Splyce kept building their gold lead — securing an Infernal drake in the process.
While the early game was one-sided, Isurus woke up during the mid-game. Buggax started taking down Splyce players one-by-one in the sidelanes thanks to the incredible mobility of his Quinn.
Even though Splyce still had a 2k gold lead, the game looked incredibly close — until Xerxe and his teammates finally find an opportunity to close out the game.
With this victory, the LEC side secured qualification for the Main Event as top seed in Group B.
Tiebreaker Game 1 — MAMMOTH vs Unicorns of Love
Unicorns of Love started this game with an iron will, putting incredible pressure on the botlane and taking the second tower just before 14 minutes.
The LCL champions were surely filled the rage of winning, knowing for a fact that the outcome of this game would decide their future into Worlds.
At 20 minutes, they already had 10 kills against 1 for MAMMOTH, and they gave them no respite until they crushed their Nexus.
Tiebreaker Game 2 — Unicorns of Love vs Clutch Gaming
After less than 10 minutes, Clutch Gaming were already leading with a 3k gold advantage — 6k gold five minutes later. This huge advantage was the consequence of the incredible slaughter that was actually this game.
With twelve kills to two, they proceed to destroy all UOL lanes — applying the good old 'windshield wiper' strategy and taking down all first towers before attacking the second ones.
UOL seemed completely overwhelmed by CG's rotations, especially since Damonte, Huni and Lire were fed. Once again, Clutch Gaming played a one-sided game, and proved that being the third LCS seed wasn't something they had to be ashamed of.
Clutch's victory was almost written.
That's the end of the Worlds' journey for DetonatioN FocusMe and MAMMOTH, while Splyce, Isurus Gaming, Clutch Gaming, and Unicorns of Love continue their adventure to the Main Event.
Tomorrow will see the teams of Group C and D compete against each other — but who will prevail?!
It's D-Day! The League of Legends Worlds 2019 Grand Finals just ended with the win of FunPlus Phoenix. G2 Esports failed to achieve the Grand Slam, and lost 0-3 while facing the LPL champions.
