Worlds Wrapped - Play-Ins Stage 2

The Play-Ins stage has now finished, and the final two teams have qualified for the groups stage in New York City. Here's a rundown of how the last few days of Worlds played out.

EG Dominate MAD

With only 4 spots in groups available to the 5 major region teams in play-ins, it felt inevitable that a Western team would be the one to miss out. The battle between Evil Geniuses and MAD Lions was hotly anticipated, given the regional rivalry and the fact the last EU vs NA series was 3 years ago at MSI 2019.

Both teams had looked respectable in play-ins but had faltered throughout, so it truly felt like it could be anyone's series. However, this was not the case as EG absolutely decimated MAD and sent them home in a brutal 3-0.

One of EG's strengths was their drafting, banning out MAD's effective pocket picks (like Bel'Veth and Seraphine) and – memes aside – Armut's Gnar. MAD also made some questionable drafting choices, picking Draven twice despite his unproven track record in the tournament and other successful ADCs like Kai'Sa being left open.

Inspired and jojopyun had excellent performances. Inspired had full control of the map when playing Maokai and Sejuani, then locked Lee Sin in game 3 and crushed the early game. Jojopyun smartly countered all of MAD's all-in damage by buying Crown of the Shattered Queen as Viktor, then surprised with an effective Sett mid.

It was a huge win for the team and North America, as EG deservedly cruised through to the group stage.

DFM make History, but still fall short against RNG

While the community was split when choosing between MAD and EG, the favourites for the other elimination match were clear; the MSI champions RNG were the overwhelming favourites against Japan's DFM.

Therefore, everybody was shellshocked when DFM handedly took game 1 in a controlled and assertive fashion. They drafted an aggressive all-in comp with picks like Kennen, Yone and Tristana, and took down RNG's nexus after forcing them to fight at Elder and wiping them off the map.

People started to believe the unthinkable would happen when DFM got ahead early in game 2, but just like in so many other games between major and emerging regions, their lead crumbled in the mid game. RNG stabilised with a play around the Baron, and took control of the game.

Once RNG established a foothold in the series, they never let it go and closed out the series 3-1 with some very clean games. Though this outcome was expected, it was the first time RNG had ever lost a game to an emerging region, and DFM should be so proud for once again making waves at an international tournament.

Group Stage

With EG and RNG advancing to the Group Stage, the 4 groups have now been filled out:

Despite winning their series, EG now face even greater foes after being drawn into group B with JDG, DWG and G2. With RNG stumbling against DFM, no doubt 100T are feeling hopeful they can take them down and make it out of group D.

Groups kicks off with some classic rivalries, as C9 face off against FNC and G2 look to once again take down Korea when they play DWG; you won't wanna miss it.