Day 2 was expected to be the calm day, the day when all the favourites win their games and upsets are unlikely to happen. But this Worlds isn’t normal, upsets can always happen in a BO1 and teams are still not fully adjusted to patch 5.18. Group D gets their first games and they didn’t disappoint. Upsets and level 1 fights are a continuing trend in this group stage. Let’s look at how day 2 entertained the fans.

KT vs TSM

Both TSM and KT are considered the 2nd best team of their region and wanted to make a good opening statement in their first game. Darius had an underwhelming opening day even though he had a 100% pick and ban rate. KT didn’t make the same mistake as some other teams and banned the Gnar so they could safely FP darius with no good counter left on the table for TSM. They round up their comp in usual KT fashion, get Nagne on a waveclear champion and Arrow on Kog’maw, a champion he has done extremely well on all of summer.

TSM go back to LeBlanc for Bjergsen, a champion he carried TSM on many times before the nerfs and still is one of his staple champions. TSM drops the ball in their choices for top and bot though. Dyrus gets Olaf, a pick that they only ever made work with Lulu and Wildturtle is put on Vayne. Vayne’s short range makes it extremely hard to do anything into the comp of KT and WT has struggled with his positioning for a very long time.

TSM was ready for the early game of KT and executes their laneswap and early turret pushing very well but can’t keep up the pace and dyrus gets caught a couple of times while Ssumday manages to avoid those pesky 4 man dives. Bjergsen has insane pressure with LB into Azir and gets a solokill plus a 50+ CS lead on Nagne. But TSM can’t transition this pressure into anything else, KT never falls behind too far and slowly start outscaling TSM. One good fight for KT goes into another and another. Bjergsen can’t solocarry his team like he did so many times before and the poorly drafted comp from TSM loses them the game. Piccaboo and Score tally up assists while Arrow can deal free damage in every fight.

TSM is still relying too much on Bjergsen and need to step up in their drafting if they want to survive this tough group D.

LGD vs OG

Other than rumoured coaching issues, LGD is considered a favourite to maybe win the whole tournament. This game showed clear issues for the Chinese/Korean squad and was another win for EUphoria against the eastern teams. OG targeting TBQ in the P/B phase forced him on Vi. While LGD got Lulu, they drafted a low dmg comp around her and everything relied on Imp, defintely one of their best players so it didn’t look bad at the start for LGD. OG drafted a wombo/ult based composition with Vlad, Oriana and Annie. OG continue their trend from EU and play this game with double TP, focusing on splitpush and turret pressure and less on dominating the lanes. 

They manage to keep acorn down early with the counterpick in vlad and good laneswapping. OG is in the control of the early game until some small individual misplays result into Imp getting a lead. Many turrets fall early but LGD keep their inhibitor line up. Mixed calls from OG on their teleport use seems to put the game in the hands of LGD until Imp in usual Imp fashion overextends and randomly dies, giving OG some breathing time.

LGD misplays a TP flank and OG has of a great teamfight win because of that. Xpeke picks up a quadra kill and OG can secure the first baron of the game. The game is completely in OG’s control from this point. Using their double TP they can split up LGD between the next baron and defending their base. LGD picks up the baron but OG wins the teamfight 4v4 at baron. Meanwhile Soaz is killing the nexus while Acorn futilely tries to defend.

OG Starts day one great and everyone will have to watch out for this European squad with their off-meta picks. Much still has to be decided but OG is looking to wash away the disappointment of EU last year and get out of groups this time.

SKT vs BKT

I could talk about this game but really there was an Olaf vs Irelia mid matchup. There is nothing more to say; watch it, enjoy it. This is an enjoyable game that mostly brings up the question why wildcard teams are even at Worlds and don’t have to play against some 4th place teams from other regions to qualify.

EDG vs H2K

While group C is a rather dull group with the 2 juggernauts EDG and SKT almost surely getting out, it’s good to see that EDG isn’t underestimating any team and going full force.

P/B excluded, EDG mainly showed how well they can work as a unit and where they trump a team like H2K, not only in individual skill but more importantly in communication and teamplay. H2K members were often found wandering the map alone to get picked off by Meiko or Pawn. Pawn, Amazingj and Deft got some strong carry champion but it were the supportive members of EDG: Clearlove and Meiko that did most of the heavy lifting and truly destroyed H2K. Their vision control, picking off members and constant jungle pressure broke H2K before they even put up a solid defence. EDG is hungry to prove themselves after a disappointing Worlds last year and losing to LGD in the Chinese playoffs. This squad is dangerous and I fear for their opponents in the quarterfinals.

FW vs KOO

Gangplank -- not much more I want to say about this game. KOO banning a lot of junglers but Karsa just falls back on Nidalee while FW can pick up a lot of powerpicks in this meta. Until this day I haven’t seen any reasonable counterplay vs GP and it happened again. KOO had early pressure, kept maple down in CS, all lanes were winning but somehow the pirate gets his gold and the tides turn. NL is back this game instead of KKramer and he goes on his favourite champion Varus. FW drafts an entire poke comp around this pick but in the end gangplank is the only thing that really mattered. Sure Karsa kept Pray down in teamfights, sure Pray is not the best positional ADC anymore which you want to combine with a Lulu, and sure Smeb didn’t have great TP plays or rage control, but Gangplank is just utterly dumb. GP deserves to be banned every single game, and teams need to realise this. Finally, the LMS gets a win on the board but I hope no team will get GP anymore.

CLG vs PaiN

After a close comeback against FW yesterday, CLG had a lot to prove and they did. Playing with a very similar comp but replacing the poor Darius pick with Olaf vastly improved CLG’s effectiveness. Both teams start the game with their duolane top. While Xmithie is once again camping for Zionspartan, Rush hour botlane has to endure with a lot of pressure up top. Midlane is untouched by either team and Pobelter shows his prowess on Lulu and can push in Kami early to gain a small CS lead. When CLG figures out standard lanes aren’t working too well for them they decide to swap and the Rush hour botlane picks up a good kill bot and then mid, taking both outer turrets as a result and creating a small gold lead for the team. The surge in gold of the early turrets in combination with the lvl 1 fight that CLG smartly turned around accelerate the game and CLG never removes their foot of the petal. Rush hour takes full control of the game and after many baron dances CLG closes it out without even taking down the big worm. CLG holds first place at the moment in group A but still has to prove and show us that they can play more than just Lulu mid. A lot of doubt got removed after their game of yesterday but the road to quarters is still long and tricky.

Some teams are clearly not fully adjusted to 5.18, but which ones will fail to make the quarters because of that? Much can still change and we can look forward to more interesting games from group B and D tommorow. Europe can extend their lead with Fnatic and OG while LGD and iG want to get some points on the scoreboard. EDG vs SKT might be a highly anticipated game, I doubt either team wants to show of many strategies and won't be that valuable to watch because of that.