The LPL reigns supreme once more.
JD Gaming ensured it would be an all-Eastern affair at the League of Legends World Championship after their 3-0 victory against Rogue. With both teams being the number one seed from their respective regions, the LPL comes out on top again with that clean sweep. This was Rogue's third appearance at Worlds but their first-ever making it to the playoffs.
That win puts JD through to the semifinals where they will await the winner between two crowd favourites in T1 and Royal Never Give Up. If the latter were to win tomorrow, it will be an all-LPL semifinal. Rogue will feel hard done by that loss, given that games two and three were within their grasp of winning.
Unfortunately, JD was on a different level today, which started with the first game. From minute one, JD was in Rogue's face to ensure they did not have a comfortable early game. With the likes of Lucian and Nami in the bottom lane, JD's game plan of stifling Rogue's duo worked out well with neither player able to get a good start to snowball from.
The top lane was also a problem with Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu on Renekton and Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong with Vi having a horrid time on the top lane. It also didn't help that both Bai "369" Jia-Hao and Jin-hyeok "Kanavi" Seo were on point from the start with their Gragas-Graves combo.
Game two felt eerily similar to game one with Rogue drafting Azir, Lucian, and Nami once more but this time to go with Maokai and Lee Sin. JD, on the other hand, stuck with Aphelios and Lulu and it worked out just as well in the second game. With Rogue once again picking an early-game line-up that was meant to snowball, it was clear to JD that they had to keep them at bay at all costs.
With JD's gameplay being spot on for two games straight, it made it even harder for Rogue to force their hand when it came to mistakes. This meant that Rogue could not capitalise on it, which was what their entire team composition was all about.
As their tournament hopes were on the line by game three, this was when Rogue decided to go out swinging. Or rather, just Emil "Larssen" Larsson and Markos "Comp" Stamkopoulos with both players claiming five kills each in the third game. To sweeten the deal, it was JD's turn to play an aggressive early-game comp with a Lucian-Nami bottom lane combo that didn't quite work out for them at the start.
While the entirety of game three had both teams neck-to-neck, JD just managed to squeeze out the victory. This was down to many factors but none more so than Kanavi and 369, both of whom were the difference in the series today. Even after allowing Maokai through the pool in two games, 369 showed that both Gwen and Ornn are more than capable to deal with the Twisted Treant.
With the first quarterfinal done, we now look towards the second series between T1 and RNG, two teams that are more than familiar with one another. T1 is in search of its fourth world title whilst RNG will be looking to add the Summoner's Cup to their trophy cabinet. It will also do the LPL a world of good if they were to win it two years in a row, further cementing their claim as the number one region in professional LoL.
