The 2022 League of Legends World Championship Play-In Stage has eliminated the first teams from Group Stage contention. Here is our recap of Worlds 2022 Day 3.
LOUD 1-0 Fnatic
LOUD kicked off the day by hitting the ground running. The team had found their successes so far by playing aggressively and against Fnatic the Brazilians followed the same recipe. LOUD’s bot lane duo preyed on Fnatic’s Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov and fed his deaths to Diego “Brance” Amaral’s Miss Fortune. Fnatic looked completely disjointed in their plays. Although they stelped the bleeding in the mid game, desperation kicked in a short while later and LOUD shut them down decisively.
MAD Lions 1-0 Saigon Buffalo
The second game of the day was a crucial one for both competitors. MAD Lions and Saigon Buffalo both sat at a 2-1 score. A win would put either team in strong contention for a second-place finish—perhaps even a first-place finish—in Group B. Saigon Buffalo went at it with their trademark aggression and made MAD Lions sweat. Although MAD Lions had struggled in the mid game so far at Worlds 2022, this time they found advantages. Using their composition better in teamfights, albeit messy at times, the LEC team ticked off their third win at the tournament.
Beyond Gaming 0-1 DetonatioN FocusMe
Beyond Gaming and DetonatioN FocusMe continued on the tense and bloody pace MAD Lions and Saigon Buffalo had set. Just sixteen minutes into the game, the kill scoreboard read 7-5 in favor of Beyond Gaming. The PCS team split the kills between jungler Huang “HuSha” Tzu-Wei and mid laner Lu “Minji” Po-Wei, while DFM once again made Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura the beneficiary of their plays. The game devolved into a true tug-of-war. DFM stacked up drakes while Beyond Gaming tried to find an edge through the top side of the map. Ultimately, aided by some fancy prancing from Shunsuke “Evi” Murase with his top lane Lillia pick, DFM picked up their second win of the Play-In Stage and kept themselves in the running for a Group Stage spot.
Evil Geniuses 1-0 Chiefs Esports Club
Evil Geniuses had seen direct first-place competitor Fnatic stumble earlier in the day and were determined to ascend to a shared first place. The first ten minutes of the game against Chiefs were quiet from EG, but then they opened the floodgates. Birthday boy Joseph “Jojopyun” Pyun sliced through his opponents after Kacper “Inspired” Słoma split them up. Evil Geniuses dominantly defeated their Australian enemies and jumped to a 3-1 score in the standings.
Royal Never Give Up 1-0 Isurus
As sad as it sounds, this game was over in the draft phase. Isurus, down 0-2 in Group B, went for a Teemo top into Chen “Breathe” Chen’s Aatrox. It was a cheesy pick: Teemo has only been locked in four times in Worlds history. The pick fell flat and RNG wiped the floor with Isurus.
Chiefs Esports Club 0-1 Beyond Gaming
Both Chiefs Esports Club and Beyond Gaming stood with their backs against the wall. For the Chiefs, a loss would mean guaranteed elimination from Group Stage contention. Beyond Gaming wouldn’t be out yet, but they would be at the mercy of other teams to stay in the running. It wasn’t a close game. Worlds debutant Minji once again had a stellar performance, this time on Sylas. Together with top laner Wu “Liang” Liang-Te on the Aatrox, Minji dissected the Chiefs once the in-game timer ticked to thirteen minutes. Beyond Gaming won the game in just 25 minutes and eliminated the Chiefs from Group Stage contention.
Royal Never Give Up 1-0 İstanbul Wildcats
İstanbul Wildcats had to win their game against RNG in order to keep their horse in the Worlds 2022 race. They decided that comfort was the way to go. Veteran bot laner Anıl “HolyPhoenix” Işık locked in Samira, an off-meta pick already, but top laner Soner “StarScreen” Kaya took it a step further and chose Garen. It had only slightly more success than Isurus’ decision to pick Teemo against RNG. There was one fight in the top lane that İstanbul Wildcats won impressively—they aced RNG—but it was a moot accomplishment. Besides making RNG shift into a higher gear a few times, the TCL team had little to say in the game. İstanbul Wildcats dropped to an 0-4 score and were also eliminated from Worlds 2022.
Isurus 0-1 DRX
To round out Day 3 of the Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage, DRX played a speedrun event. Isurus had learned their lesson from earlier and decided to avoid Teemo in the draft phase, but it did not make much of a difference. DRX, undefeated at Worlds, blasted through Isurus’ defenses. The LCK team used the Rift Herald to rush into Isurus’ base and set a new Worlds 2022 record for the fastest game: 22 minutes and 32 seconds. Isurus’ loss meant that they too were out of Worlds contention.
Standings
| Group A | Group B |
| Fnatic (3-1) | DRX (4-0) |
| Evil Geniuses (3-1) | Royal Never Give Up (3-1) |
| Beyond Gaming (2-2) | MAD Lions (3-1) |
| DetonatioN FocusMe (2-2) | Saigon Buffalo (2-2) |
| LOUD (2-2) | İstanbul Wildcats (0-4) |
| Chiefs Esports Club (0-4) | Isurus (0-4) |
Missed Worlds 2022 Day 2? Here is our recap. For the full schedule of the Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage, click here. You can watch the games live on the official LoL Esports site.
