Image: Riot Games
The four teams battling it out in the Worlds 2022 Semifinals have been confirmed.
The Worlds 2022 Quarterfinals came to an end today with a best-of-five series between EDward Gaming and DRX. DRX came out of these games victorious by winning a close 3-2 series against EDG. The latter team lost momentum following its first two wins in a row, while DRX came back swinging from the third game onwards.
With this victory for EDG, the four teams advancing to the Worlds 2022 semifinals have been confirmed - bringing us one step closer to the Grand Finals. JD Gaming will go up against T1 on October 30, and Gen.G Esports will go up against DRX on October 31. The victors will advance to the Finals, taking place on November 6.
DRX and EDG’s first match was actually pretty close, though we did see a painfully long match pause occur in the midgame. DRX took the lead halfway through this match, with Deft and Zeka pulling through to down dragons and pick up kills, giving the team better map control. By the half-hour mark however, EDG had managed to catch up by chipping away at objectives and successfully wiping out DRX over a dragon spawn. The team used this time to take down a Baron and multiple turrets, before rolling right into DRX’s base and picking its defense apart.
DRX was looking for a comeback in this second match, but although the team managed to pick up two kills in the first ten minutes, it quickly fell behind in skirmishes thanks to careless mistakes and premature engages. EDG’s JieJie was a force to be reckoned with, already involved in five of his team's six kills thus far. By the 20-minute mark however, DRX had a strong gold lead with four objectives to EDG’s zero - so the latter team was now forced to catch up. With almost all of its objectives downed, this should’ve been DRX’s game to win - but what ultimately tipped the scales in EDG’s favour were the four consecutive dragons in its pocket. The team once again wiped out DRX and stomped its base for a second win.
The third match kicked off with a bang. EDG’s JieJie and Scout found DRX’s Zeka in the jungle to score First Blood, before DRX lost Pyosik but gained a dragon to make up for it. By the midgame, EDG had a 4-2 kill lead, but DRX managed to grab a dragon and a slight gold lead. 25 minutes in, both teams were far too squishy to risk getting into a skirmish without a definite advantage. EDG had more kills and gold, but DRX had more success picking up dragons. Almost 35 minutes in, DRX wiped out EDG in a massive midlane skirmish and rolled into the Baron to keep that momentum going.
DRX began to poke into EDG’s base with a big 4k gold lead and better map control. The final fight ended up being a 3v1 with DRX against EDG’s lone Scout, but the latter couldn’t prop up a good enough defense over the Nexus. DRX finally earned a win, and thus staved off an early elimination from Worlds 2022.
DRX was beginning to mount a comeback, but it still needed two more wins to advance to the Semifinals. Both teams played a slow early game in the fourth match, but DRX managed to pick up two dragons with little resistance from EDG. By the 25-minute mark, DRX had control of this game with a 3k gold lead and four objectives to EDG’s measly one. That gold lead grew to almost 10k, and DRX began to lay siege on the enemy base by slowly taking out inhibitors. The team wiped out EDG and crushed the Nexus, seizing another win.
With both teams at match point, the fifth game of the day had the highest stakes possible. EDG got off to a good start here, knocking off two kills before downing an early dragon. A fight over the match’s third dragon proved to be decisive, turning the odds in DRX’s favour with 9-3 kills and a solid gold lead. At this point, DRX retreated to chip away at turrets and make the odd pick, while EDG regrouped and managed to pick up a second dragon. 30 minutes in, this was a win for DRX in all but name alone as the team doubled EDG’s kills with almost 10k more gold and superior map control. EDG was doing a fair job stalling for gold and XP, but DRX eventually stormed its base and scored a predictable win.
Next week, we’ll see DRX go up against Gen.G Esports while T1 battles JDG in the semifinals.
