T1 came out on top in its first Group Stage match against EDward Gaming.
Reigning League of Legends World champions EDward Gaming went up against three-time World champions T1 in a highly-anticipated Group Stage matchup today, and it somehow wasn't even close. EDG put up a fairly clean fight in the early game, but T1 came out on top after a brutal midgame that saw EDG get picked apart.
This LCK versus LPL match began… slowly. T1 held an early gold lead eleven minutes in, but EDG had picked up a dragon by then which wasn’t a bad tradeoff by any means. Neither team was willing to let the second dragon of the game go by without a fight however, with T1 scoring two kills against EDG and pushing the enemy team back to take it down. T1’s Faker really brought those kills home, allowing his team to press into the dragon while EDG was too busy getting cut down to do anything about it.
With that dragon in its pocket, T1 now had a turret down and a 3k gold lead - forcing EDG on the catch-up. EDG pushed into the Blue Herald, but T1’s Oner stole it from the enemy team at the very last second and picked up a few more kills for good measure. Faker and Zeus made a fierce duo here, scoring a double kill and rolling into a killing spree. Thus began the bloodbath: another dragon spawning ended with T1’s Faker being unstoppable as he ran down the entirety of EDG. T1 was putting on such a strong performance here, leaving very little opportunity for EDG to scale and take the game back.
20 minutes in, this was turning into a one-sided match. EDG had long lost control of the map, with T1 picking up 13-5 kills and a massive 7k gold lead. EDG still hadn’t taken down any turrets yet. EDG made the critical mistake of pushing into the Baron in the lategame, and T1 utterly stomped the team out for it and pushed into the enemy base. EDG couldn’t come back in time to mount a defense, and T1 took a massive win in the second-fastest game of the tournament thus far - not an outcome anyone would've predicted before today.
T1 will next go up against Fnatic, while EDG takes on Cloud9 tomorrow.
