The LJL are here to stay.
DetonatioN FocusMe has done what many would've hoped for but could not have predicted - defeating Evil Geniuses and thus, forcing a three-way tiebreaker with both EG and LOUD. DFM and EG will face off again in the first tiebreaker with the winner facing LOUD to determine who takes second place in Group A. And with DFM winning, Fnatic secures the number one spot in the group, hurtling them straight to the group stage.
All three teams will be wanting to finish second as this will put them in the final stage of the second round in the Play-In Stage. They will face the winner of the third- and the fourth-placed team from Group B. But looking over at the other group, it features the likes of MAD Lions, DRX, and Royal Never Give Up, three teams that could very well end up in the second round.
However, DFM will be taking that win in their stride, knowing that they are capable of standing with the other top regions. They also bested the PCS by defeating Beyond Gaming yesterday. Speaking of which, because of DFM's win against EG, it means that BYG is officially out of Worlds 2022.
It was a tight match from start to end with both teams keeping their cards close to their chest. In the end, it was EG who took first blood close to 10 minutes in and came out on top in a three-to-two exchange. But as the early game wore on, it was DFM who was building the gold lead, slowly pulling away from EG. It was also DFM who took the first outer turret.
While EG's aggression did pay off in terms of picking off DFM on numerous occasions, they could not turn those small wins into objectives. With the mid-game momentum pulling towards DFM with every passing minute, EG's response to constantly going for kills started to work against them. DFM was able to respond in kind, especially when it came to contesting drakes or rift heralds.
But EG did manage to bring the gold lead down to almost even by team-wiping DFM after they took the Baron. The long, drawn-out fights were what EG's team composition does best and they took advantage of just that. Sadly, it didn't take them that long to throw it all away with Jung "Impact" Eon-Yeong getting caught way too out of position. This gave DFM the opening they needed to wreak havoc and they did just that, taking out both Kacper "Inspired" Słoma and Muhammed "Kaori" Hasan Şentürk.
In the final teamfight of the match, EG managed to take the Baron but was then completely sandwiched by DFM. Shunsuke "Evi" Murase on Gnar was proving to be all sorts of problems, refusing to die whilst kiting his way around EG's abilities. This bought time for Yuta "Yutapon" Sugiura to go to town with his Sivir, ending it with a triple kill.
With that said, we end Group A and now look ahead to Group B with four teams still in contention for the top four spots. DRX is currently in the lead with 4-0 while MAD Lions are close behind with 3-1 along with Royal Never Give Up while Saigon Buffalo is at 2-2.
