Two more teams have been eliminated from Group Stage contention at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. TCL champions İstanbul Wildcats and LLA champions Isurus can no longer advance in the tournament. Both teams lost four games in a row in the Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage, making it impossible for them to reach the top four in their group.
İstanbul Wildcats had a steep uphill battle to fight coming into the third day of Worlds. They sat at an 0-3 score after losing to DRX, MAD Lions, and Saigon Buffalo. İstanbul Wildcats had to beat reigning MSI champions Royal Never Give Up to stay alive in the tournament.
The Turkish team decided they had to throw a curveball at RNG to stand a chance. Top laner Soner “StarScreen” Kaya picked Garen, a comfort champion for him, to test his opponents. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, RNG knew all too well how to deal with a Garen in the top lane. The LPL squad quickly jumped into the driver’s seat and made life difficult for their opponents. Although mid laner Tolga “Serin” Ölmez and support Berk “Farfetch” Badur popped off in a top lane fight, which resulted in Wildcats narrowly aceing RNG, the LPL team had too big of an advantage to overcome. RNG closed out the game and dropped İstanbul Wildcats to an 0-4 score in Play-In Group B.
Isurus’ impossible task
If İstanbul Wildcats’ chances of survival looked slim at the start of the day, those of Isurus were near-impossible. The Latin Americans also had to take on RNG, but had group leader DRX to deal with after that. Isurus went with a bold strategy: they locked in Teemo to fight against their LPL opponent. Sadly enough, Isurus top laner Kang “ADD” Geon-mo could not make it work. Without giving an inch, RNG wiped the LLA team from the map.
The game against DRX was even less fun for Isurus to play. They went with a more conventional draft this time but got stomped harder for it. DRX mid-laner Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo cut Isurus to pieces. DRX rushed the game so hard that they set a new record for fastest game played at Worlds 2022: 22 minutes and 32 seconds.
İstanbul Wildcats and Isurus find companionship in LCO champion Chiefs Esports Club, who was eliminated earlier in the day. With three teams eliminated from the competition, nine are still in the running for a ticket to the Worlds 2022 Group Stage. Day 4 will determine which two teams advance directly to the next stage and which four teams have to play in the Play-In Knockout phase. İstanbul Wildcats and Isurus play each other in a head-to-head for their final game at the Worlds 2022 stage, hoping to get a win to ease the pain of elimination.
