The LoL Worlds are currently taking place, the World Championships in League of Legends, and the teams are competing until October 29 for a place in the quarter-finals. The best EU team, G2 Esports, however, suffered a crushing defeat just before the finish line. Even the last round did not go well: for the first time since 2014, there is no EU team in the final rounds.
Note: This article was originally published while the match against Bilibili was ongoing and was updated around 12:30.
These were the matches: On October 28, the NA team NRG Esports and the EU team G2 Esports played for a spot in the quarter-finals of the Worlds. G2 was considered the clear favorite, especially since the team had just achieved a highly unlikely victory.
The match was contested in the penultimate stage of the Swiss phase. This means: the winner advances to the quarter-finals, the loser must play another round for a chance at the final place.
Although G2 has shown early as the best team in Europe, the players around Mid-Laner Caps could not really find their footing. By minute 20 in the first round, G2 was already significantly behind and ultimately lost with a crushing 0:2.
The subsequent match against BLG also went poorly for G2 Esports, ending 1:2. With two consecutive losses, the last EU team is now out of the Worlds – something fans have not seen in 9 years. Commentators say: there was a lack of the G2 magic
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Here you can listen to the anthem for the current World Championship:
NRG crushes G2 with aggressive gameplay, Europe finds no answer
This was G2’s problem: Early in the game, NRG continuously takes the lead, securing picks on the bot lane, important dragons, and eventually leading by a few thousand gold. After about 15 minutes, NRG jungler Contractz (featured image) turns everything around.
His strong ganks with Vi bring the team two towers. From here on, G2 simply cannot respond to the aggressive playstyle of the Americans. The European team repeatedly finds itself caught in poor positions.
NRG, meanwhile, capitalizes on the momentum and builds on every small mistake, exploiting it and pushing each lane step by step. The decision is ultimately made right in G2’s base, even while most towers are still standing there.
The US team is already leading with 18 to 3 kills and over 10,000 gold by minute 29. With coordinated assaults, NRG dismantles the cohesion of G2, picking off individual champs one by one and ultimately finishes without another death over the top lane.
G2 appears intimidated, finds no lever for a comeback
This is how it ended: The second round plays out almost identically to the first. After it initially seems that G2 has regained their composure, NRG again uses their super-aggressive playstyle and repeatedly dismantles the Europeans.
After not even 28 minutes and 30 seconds, the game is over, with the final fight on the top lane ultimately breaking G2 and granting NRG the victory. With only one death, the NA team clears all towers up top and finally the nexus.
Afterwards, G2 had to face Bilibili Gaming (BLG), a team from China. After losing the first of three games, the EU team managed to fight back to a 1:1. However, the third game looked similar to how it did against NRG.
The aggressive ganks and coordination of Bilibili ultimately broke the cohesion at G2. Even when they managed to equalize, BLG was able to pick off another one somewhere on the map.
G2 was eventually visibly intimidated. Instead of at least trying to force the opponents to waste important abilities, they often simply stared at them. With a 2:1, G2 Esports was then finally eliminated.
This is the first time since 2014 that there is no European team in the finals of the LoL Worlds. Many fans cannot even remember something like this. Back then, Alliance, FNatic and SK Gaming all went out of the tournament in the group stage.
A similar problem this year was faced by the US favorite Team Liquid. Here, fans quickly placed the blame on one person:
LoL: US team embarrassingly eliminated at the Worlds – Fans blame expensive star signing
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