Analysis and Opinion

DAWNBRINGER: Worlds Daily, October 7

Welcome to Dawnbringer, your daily recap of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.

Every day of Worlds competition, I’ll post a brief rundown of each game, along with some larger takeaways about the team and player performances we’re seeing and what it might mean for the rest of the tournament.

For live updates, make sure to follow me on Twitter!

Game Recaps

LNG vs INF: LNG win
LNG Wukong Graves Lissandra Miss Fortune Leona
INF Jayce Qiyana Leblanc Lucian Braum

Ale bullies in a losing matchup, solo dives Buggax for FB. Icon solo Ks cody. LNG find kills everywhere, up 4.5k at 10:00 and rolling to a dancing Rift Herald.

PCE vs RED: PCE win
PCE Kennen Nocturne Tryndamere Lucian Braum
RED Gangplank Graves Ryze Kalista Leona

Babip takes very early dragon, makes some ult plays. PCE flank/engage fairly well in mid-game, then punish a RED Baron force with Tally’s Tryndamere.

DFM vs BYG: DFM win
DFM Urgot Lillia Akali Miss Fortune Leona
BYG Aatrox Xin Zhao Sylas Ezreal Amumu

Evi controls lane, gets TP adv. and goes bot -> Yutapon gets fed. Steal plays through top. DFM early lead insurmountable but BYG make the fights a bit tough.

C9 vs UOL: UOL win
C9 Gangplank Xin Zhao Leblanc Miss Fortune Rell
UOL Camille Lee Sin Sylas Senna Sion

Fudge bad recall -> FB. C9 slow to Hld, lose a fight. UOL match every C9 play with trades/punishes, strong reactive game. C9 keep forcing but can’t come back.

TIEBREAKERS

UOL vs BYG: BYG win
UOL Jayce Lee Sin Orianna Senna Wukong
BYG Tahm Kench Xin Zhao Ryze Draven Rakan

Liang great early, 2K in a 1v2. BYG way ahead; Nomanz AHaHaCiK working for comeback. BYG mismanage Baron, lose it, but Liang Doggo hard-carry a chaotic late game.

DFM vs C9: DFM win
DFM Sett Xin Zhao Orianna Ezreal Leona
C9 Jayce Olaf Zoe Miss Fortune Amumu

Vulcan misplay gives FB. Steal good ganks/counters. C9 stack drgs, make gains top, but botch setups for soul dragons. DFM outscale, win 5v5s.

Takeaways

Nice Work, DFM

Congratulations to DetonatioN FocusMe on advancing to the Group Stage! They absolutely earned it, outplaying Cloud9 today, avoiding a snowball, and seizing the opportunities available to them. I don’t have any deeper takeaways than that, but they should be celebrated.

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – OCTOBER 7: Team DetonatioN FocusMe wins their match during the League of Legends World Championship Play-Ins Stage on October 7, 2021 in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Photo by Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games)

This Performance Was a Liang Time Coming

Beyond Gaming‘s top laner, Liang, had himself a really great showing on Tahm Kench in the tiebreaker to give BYG a chance in the Play-Ins Knockout Stage. His lane phase was really solid, especially the big outplay on a late dive attempt, and later in the game he had so many key saves on Doggo‘s Draven in fights that could’ve turned the game in Unicorns of Love‘s favour.

BYG have a chance against Galatasaray tomorrow, but even with Liang and Doggo powering them, it’ll be very tough to make it through two Bo5s in two days and reach the Group Stage. Regardless, they can be proud of what they brought out today, and hopefully they can finish strong.

If It Is Broke, Fix It

Remember what I said about Cloud9 yesterday:

The main thing C9 need to tighten up is their decision-making around early objectives when they are the second team on the scene. They’ve hunted for unnecessary fights a few times, instead of recognizing that they were behind on the play and looking for compensation gains elsewhere, by creating tempo or crossmap plays.

…Yep. It happened again, and this time the bad Herald fight against UOL — approaching in a 3v4 and getting caught for it — was a big contributor to losing a game that would’ve put Cloud9 directly into the Group Stage.

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – OCTOBER 6: Cloud9’s Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami gestures a thumbs up during the League of Legends World Championship Play-Ins Stage on October 6, 2021 in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Photo by LanceSkundrich/Riot Games)

C9 showed some tenacity with their playmaking efforts, and had a decent chance to get back in the game, but they dug themselves too deep a hole.

Overall, C9’s willingness — nay, their compulsion — to create and take team fights whenever possible is one of their greatest strengths but also sometimes their Achilles heel. Their losses in the Play-Ins have largely been due to over-eagerness to fight under poor circumstances. But similarly, they’ve kept themselves in games and given themselves chances to win by staying aggressive and tenacious, when other teams might have rolled over and passively lost.

Right now, the scales are tipped way too far in the wrong direction on this C9 trait. If they can’t find their balance back, they may not even survive the Play-In Knockouts.