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.
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Game Recaps
GALATASARAY vs. BEYOND GAMING
Game 1: GS win
GS Kennen Talon Zoe Lucian Braum
BYG Irelia Lillia Yone Kai’sa Leona
GS bully Liang, Crazy solo K. BYG skirmish to a lead. GS get soul; BYG win fight w/ flanks, take Baron. Bolulu steals Elder, BYG disorganized->GS ace. GS get Elder 2 to win.
Game 2: GS win
GS Gwen Lee Sin TF MF Leona
BYG Jayce XZ Ryze Lucian Braum
Many early TPs bot; Doggo Husha come out best. BYG use map better, Doggo v. strong but ints b/w turrets. GS 5v5ing better. Doggo carries at Elder but BYG overplay for Baron, throw.
Game 3: BYG win
GS Gnar Talon Ryze Ezreal Rakan
BYG Irelia Lee Sin Syndra Miss Fortune Amumu
BYG get another huge early lead, Doggo very fed, controlling dragons, much cleaner game all around and a convincing close.
Game 4: BYG win
BYG Camille Xin Zhao Syndra Miss Fortune Rakan
GS Renekton Talon Ryze Ezreal Leona
GS apply pressure all over the map, but BYG constantly punish and trade up on kills. GS try side lane plays; BYG punish with objectives and collapses. BYG roll.
Game 5: BYG win
GS Gwen Olaf Twisted Fate Lucian Trundle
BYG Gnar Graves Ryze Miss Fortune Leona
Another TP party bot goes BYG’s way, gold lead but GS executing dragon control better. Husha steals Baron! BYG win next dragon fight to complete the reverse sweep.
PEACE vs. RED CANIDS
Game 1: RED win
PCE Rumble Jarvan IV Sylas Lucian Nami
RED Kennen Lee Sin Kled Ezreal Leona
Action bot side, 2v2s and big dragon fight. PCE usually trade up. Then: CHAOS. Many fights. TitaN having a day. RED Barons starts work better than PCE’s.
Game 2: PCE win
PCE Jarvan IV Nidalee Sylas Lucian Leona
RED Kennen Lee Sin Kled Ezreal Rakan
PCE skirmish to a lead, FT top, big dive bot. Snowballing w/ towers, creating fights. Vizicsacsi multiple solo Ks. Tally is scaled now, PCE unstoppable.
Game 3: PCE win
RED Yone Lee Sin Sylas Xayah Rakan
PCE Poppy Lillia Aatrox Aphelios Leona
PCE get leads in every lane, Violet outplays a 2v1 dive, Babip Tally snowballing. PCE lead grows slowly, fights go back and forth, until 22m PCE ace->Baron.
Game 4: RED win
PCE Jayce Lillia Yone Lucian Braum
RED Wukong Lee Sin Zoe Aphelios Leona
Babip ganks get mixed results. Jojo TitaN roams and Avenger TPs get RED ahead. Aegis is fed. RED pressure for more kills, close it out hard.
Game 5: PCE win
RED Camille Lee Sin Akali Ezreal Leona
PCE Renekton Nidalee Sylas Miss Fortune Braum
PCE get FB lvl 1 w/ Braum, Vizicsacsi gets solo kills, Tally TPs bot for Ks. PCE had 98% win prob at 8:00 and it didn’t get lower.
Takeaways
(Sorry for the abbreviated takeaways today. It was a 10-game day, and I have to run to travel for the weekend since we’re visiting family for Canadian Thanksgiving.)
The Better Team Won in GS vs. BYG
Even though Galatasaray took the first two games, I really felt Beyond Gaming deserved the win. They were playing better than GS in most scenarios throughout the series, using the side lanes more productively and taking more control of the games. GS were coming out ahead in team fights and Bolulu carries, but BYG were fumbling 5v5s and executions on objective setups.
Bolulu the hero Zoe game.
I was fairly happy with BYG's use of side lanes to prep objectives, but their use of those setups was lacking. Have to tighten up their team fighting a lot.#Worlds2021
— Tim Sevenhuysen (@TimSevenhuysen) October 8, 2021
Generally speaking, I feel better about a team that knows how to get good setups than I do about a team that out-executes. It is far more difficult to coach a team’s setups and macro than it is to teach the players how to play out fights.
Games 3 and 4 confirmed my impression: BYG continued to win out in rotational play and setups, and the skirmishes started to work out better for them, which led to two convincing wins, and then a nailbiter to close it out.
The series very much could have gone either way, but in the end the superior team took the victory.
PEACE Make History
I haven’t independently verified, but someone in the Oracle’s Elixir Discord server said that this is the first time an Oceanic team has won an international best-of-five series (not including Rift Rivals events). That’s hugely historic, on a similar scale to DetonatioN FocusMe reaching the main group stage for the first time in Japanese LoL history. So huge congratulations to them, and good luck against Cloud9 tomorrow!
