Analysis and Opinion

NIGHT VISION: Group Stage, Day 3

Night Vision is your nightly recap of the 2020 League of Legends World Championships.

Look below for Recaps, Takeaways, and my pick for which player had a Night to Remember.

Recaps

Awake during Worlds? Get these recaps live on Twitter.

MCX vs. G2: G2 win
MCX Mordekaiser Graves Syndra Senna Pantheon
G2 Camille Nidalee Galio Ashe Tahm Kench

Wunder lvl 1 FB; huge early. MCX rotating well from behind. G2 ace, Baron. MCX still pushing back, find fight and Baron, but G2 use inhib to get ocean soul, win final fight.

TL vs. SN: SN win
TL Volibear Lee Sin Syndra Twitch Rakan
SN Jax Nidalee Galio Draven Leona

Huanfeng SwordArt destroy Tactical CoreJJ with SofM cover, full proxy farming. Impact Broxah strong side is completely impotent vs. Bin. SN utterly starve out TL.

DWG vs. PSG: DWG win
DWG Kennen Graves Syndra Senna Thresh
PSG Lulu Kindred Azir Ashe Nautilus

PSG match DWG kills early, roams from Kaiwing with River, two dives top. But DWG win the map through mid, get early neutrals, can win 2 lanes while fighting in 3rd. Not actually close.

JDG vs. RGE: JDG win
JDG Renekton Lillia Zoe Caitlyn Bard
RGE Volibear Nidalee Azir Ashe Blitzcrank

JDG strong side work top sets up Zoom well. RGE late & over-invested on Herald; LokeN gets way ahead. RGE some pushback, but Zoom LvMao map play and team fighting make the difference.

FLY vs. UOL: FLY win
FLY Renekton Volibear Syndra Miss Fortune Rakan
UOL Ornn Graves Orianna Senna Tahm Kench

PowerOfEvil lane kingdom, Santorin gank and double scuttle helps. BOSS >>> Solo. SantaS some good work. Solo int-to-win. IgNar rescues FLY at soul drake. PowerOfEvil superhero performance.

TES vs. DRX: TES win
TES Renekton Nidalee Nocturne Senna Tahm Kench
DRX Quinn Lee Sin Twisted Fate Draven Thresh

TES win bot; DRX win top; Chovy wins mid. DRX can’t extend lead; knight active w/ ults. TES Baron; DRX ace. TES dragons force DRX to group; TES catch Chovy to win.

Takeaways

  • Coming into Worlds, I overlooked the PCS and took the easy way out, assuming MCX would be weak since the southeast Asian scene has struggled in general over the past couple of years. I didn’t see much positive sentiment from the analytical community to hint at the reality: the PCS teams actually look really good! MCX played G2 very close today, after out-performing Team Liquid yesterday in the lanes and cleaning them up pretty easily. I had limited “research” time coming into Worlds this year and spent my prep resources elsewhere, and now I regret it. The PCS deserves far more respect than I gave them.
  • I don’t want to talk about Team Liquid.
  • I’m impressed with DRX for playing TES to such a close, tense game (especially given the relatively low expectations I had developed for them after some pre-tournament VOD review), but disappointed in their inability to press their early advantages harder and execute their intended mid-game snowball.
  • In the first instance of the highly anticipated knight vs. Chovy matchup, knight came out way ahead in my eyes. It’s great that Chovy can generate such big CS leads every game, and he helped Pyosik get a pick on knight in the river near Herald, but he was on Twisted Fate, a pick usually intended to apply map-wide pressure and benefit your side laners at least as much as yourself. On Nocturne, knight was the one getting out of lane more and using his semi-global ult to far greater effect.

Night to Remember

PowerOfEvil earned North America its first win of the Group Stage by hard carrying FlyQuest to a scrappy, chaotic win over the Unicorns of Love, the pro team he entered the EU LCS with years ago. It was touch and go throughout, especially with UoL holding a pretty clear team comp scaling advantage, but PoE did everything he could, from dominating his lane matchup with Nomanz to making roam plays to solo killing the enemy jungler in the middle of a team fight to deny a dragon soul, to sniping carries in team fights.