The 2022 League of Legends World Championship continued on Oct. 7 with the Group Stage. Teams of Groups A, B, and D jumped into action with their first best-of-ones against each other. Contrary to many predictions, the day was filled with outright stomps. Here is the recap of Day 1 of the Worlds 2022 Group Stage.
Cloud9 0-1 Fnatic
The Worlds Group Stage kicked off with another chapter in the EU vs NA rivalry. Cloud9 picked up First Blood through Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, who found Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov overextended. But Cloud9’s composition required a big early game lead to win the game, and Fnatic did a solid job at staying up to speed.
Come mid game, Fnatic’s composition started to come online. Mid laner Marek “Humanoid” Brázda continued his Play-Ins dominance and farmed up quickly. Using multiple engage angles with Ornn, Maokai, and Renata Glasc, Fnatic kept collapsing on their North American opponents. Fnatic’s champions scaled better and the team played a composed late game, putting their first win on the board.
G2 Esports 0-1 DWG KIA
Speaking of rivalries, the second game of the day reopened the wounds of G2 (who were eliminated by DWG KIA at Worlds 2020) and DWG KIA (who were eliminated by G2 at Worlds 2019). The teams took different approaches in the draft. DWG KIA played heavily towards the top side with jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu on Graves, while G2 chose a scaling/utility top side and put Victor “Flakked” Lirola on carry duty with Caitlyn.
The game quickly fell apart for G2. DWG KIA swiftly found an advantage in the bot lane, which rippled across the map. Heo “ShowMaker” Su found a fantastic ultimate with Azir to ace G2 before 10 minutes had even passed. G2 had no say in the game at all. Their lineup simply didn’t do damage. The game lasted 32 minutes, but this was mostly because DWG KIA stayed disciplined in their annihilation of G2.
CTBC Flying Oyster 1-0 100 Thieves
A bloody battle followed between 100 Thieves and Worlds debutant CTBC Flying Oyster. An early deficit forced 100 Thieves’ bot lane with their backs against the wall, but Victor “FBI” Huang redeemed himself later. However, his counterpart on Flying Oyster, Chao “Shunn” Ying-Shun, started to ramp up quickly. Farming kills, minions, and objectives, Shunn’s Kai’Sa managed to buy item after item.
Flying Oyster was a well-oiled machine. Chen “Mission” Hsiao-Hsien split 100 Thieves up, Huang “Gemini” Chu-Xuan found the engage, and Shunn cleaned up the fight. Calm and composed, CTBC Flying Oyster pushed their leads. They tried to seal the deal by slaying Baron, which was stolen by 100 Thieves, but in the subsequent fight the PCS first seed cleaned house and ended the game.
JD Gaming 1-0 Evil Geniuses
It was up to Evil Geniuses to save the face of the LCS on Day 1 of the Worlds 2022 Group Stage. They faced a tough opponent in LPL first seed and title favorite JD Gaming, and EG didn’t do themselves any favors. JDG read their opponents like a book in an early setup and farmed a free kill on Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme. But the LCS squad showed their resilience. Hasan “Kaori” Şentürk and Vulcan showed no fear in the bot lane and rapidly found a few kills.
JDG played a sloppy game. They allowed Evil Geniuses to stack up drakes and keep the gold level even for a solid 20 minutes. Unfortunately for EG and North American League of Legends fans, once EG threatened to take the Ocean Soul, JDG dialed up their play. Led by Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok, who had an incredible game on Viego, the LPL champions played EG dizzy. They attacked on all fronts in the late game and secured their first victory.
T1 1-0 EDward Gaming
T1’s draft versus EDG raised many eyebrows. With a Fiora/Lee Sin/Akali/Sivir/Yuumi composition, the LCK team had no tank or bruiser to soak up damage in team fights. T1 would have to massively outplay EDG with individual skill starting at level 6 if they wanted to stand a chance. The early game went according to everyone’s expectations. EDG got ahead in the lane and pushed T1 back to secure the first drake.
That’s where EDG’s honeymoon phase came to an end. The Worlds title defenders were disjointed in their setups. At one point, EDG let T1 jungler Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun simply walk up to the Rift Herald to steal it. EDG gave T1 all the space they needed to display their mechanics. Faker sliced through EDG and T1’s Sivir/Yuumi combination faced no threats from the enemy. With the second-fastest game of Worlds 2022 so far, at 22 minutes and 47 seconds, T1 demolished EDG.
Gen.G 0-1 Royal Never Give Up
Sticking with the “interesting LCK picks” trend, Gen.G support Son “Lehends” Si-woo locked in his signature Singed support. The pick didn’t pay dividends. RNG realized how much the Senna/Singed bot lane would give priority to their Aphelios, and pressed that advantage hard. The LPL team locked down Gen.G’s designated carries Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon and Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk from early on, giving them no wiggle room to display their skill.
RNG worked in harmony to disrupt Gen.G at every waking opportunity. Chen “Breathe” Chen hopped to the backlines with Jax to be a nuisance. With Lissandra and Leona, RNG pinned down Gen.G’s players so that the carry champions Aphelios and Graves could round out the kills. Desperately, Gen.G tried to force a play at Baron Nashor, but RNG swooped in to clean house and close out the game.
Standings
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| T1 (1-0) | DWG KIA (1-0) | Rogue | RNG (1-0) |
| Fnatic (1-0) | JD Gaming (1-0) | Top Esports | Flying Oyster (1-0) |
| Cloud9 (0-1) | EG (0-1) | GAM Esports | 100 Thieves (0-1) |
| EDG (0-1) | G2 Esports (0-1) | DRX | Gen.G (0-1) |
Group C’s teams play their first matches on Day 2 of the Group Stage. You can find the full schedule here. All games can be watched live on the official LoL Esports channel.
