Image credit: LoL Esports
LNG Esports is the first team to move on to the third round of the Swiss Stage at Worlds 2023.
It just keeps getting better for China and the LPL as LNG Esports took down Cloud9 to move one step closer to the Knockout Stage of Worlds 2023. LNG made light work of C9 to be just one best-of-three series away from a guaranteed top-eight finish, the org's best performance to date in only it's second appearance at Worlds.
As for C9, they will now move down to a 1-1 scoreline, which means they will need two more wins to guarantee a spot to the Knockout Stage. Being the only LCS team to win its opening match against MAD Lions yesterday, C9 could not do much else against this LNG side. Aside from all the technical pauses that the game went through, the LPL's third seed did not let it affect them in the slightest.
However, even with LNG's victory, C9 made sure to make them work for it. Both the early and mid-game was fairly even between the two sides with the gold lead slightly shifting back and forth without much difference. And it was C9 who took the first real lead of the game with as much as a 2.5k gold swing. But that lead was soon cut short as LNG showed greater mechanics and teamfight capabilities to pull ahead.
LNG was also able to keep C9 to just six kills the entire game, even with them taking a large gold lead at one point of the game. This showed just how well LNG was able to keep C9 back while still getting key kills to their favour. Lee "Scout" Ye-Chan was particularly instrumental in LNG's win with Azir, getting half of the team's total kills to go with a sole death and four assists.
But it was Seung-yong "Tarzan" Lee who came away with another key performance for LNG with his Lee Sin. While he only got himself two kills, Tarzan's movement around the map from the get-go was what helped the team pull through with the win. His initiations to teamfights as well as the ability to disrupt the opponent was the difference between both teams.
And what was the final nail in the coffin was when all five from C9 dived to kill Chen "GALA" Wei, only to get teamwiped shortly after and a few minutes later, lose the game. While the dive seemed necessary to try and catch LNG by surprise, C9 could not withstand the burst damage that was coming out from the rest of the LPL squad.
