It was GAM time at the KBS Stadium for the Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023.
The day of eliminations started today and it was Team Liquid who became the first team to bid farewell to the League of Legends World Championship after its loss to GAM Esports. The VCS' only hope have kept an entire nation's dreams flying high as they live to fight another day after going through the LCS third seed that also featured a reigning world champion as well as a Worlds 2017 winner.
Both teams have not had the best of starts at Worlds 2023 after losing the first two games of the Swiss Stage. GAM fell to the likes of Gen.G Esports and Fnatic while Liquid suffered defeats at the hands of T1 and fellow LCS competitor, NRG Esports. While Liquid was expected to take the series in three games, it was GAM who turned it into a complete upset.
And they showed just why the VCS will not be underestimated in the first match as the team's veteran Duy "Levi" Khánh Đỗ showed great composure and experience with Maokai as he secured 12 assists with no kills and no deaths. It's also worth pointing out that GAM had 15 kills the entirety of game one, which showcased just how involved Levi was in most of his team's kills and objectives.
Junglers played a crucial role in this series with the likes of reigning world champion Chang-hyeon "Pyosik" Hong was called into action for the second game after Liquid fell to an onslaught of GAM's attacks. And Pyosik brought something different to the table in the second game with a very niche Kindred pick. However, Kindred proved to be the difference as Pyosik went on to carry his team to take the win with his six kills, zero deaths, and three assists.
With both teams' lives hanging in the balance, it was GAM who went for the more aggressive early-game lineup and it proved to be the difference against Liquid. And it was Levi once more who was the difference maker in the thid match with Wukong who secured six kills, a single death, and 11 assists. He was second only to Nguyễn "Palette" Hải Trung's Rell, who had 15.
However, it was down to the early-game dominance of Trần "Kiaya" Duy Sang with K'Sante on the top lane, who managed to secure the first blood double kill to kickstart GAM's dominance in the match. And from there, the rest of the team took over to keep Liquid at bay with only four kills. While it was the longest match of the series, Liquid looked a lot more passive and were playing not to lose instead of to win.
That loss also means that in the org's fifth appearance at Worlds, it still has not been able to make its Knockout Stage debut. Liquid will have to head back to the drawing board for the world champiopnship next year while GAM will live on and wait to see who they will face in the fourth round.
