Group B wrapped up their Group Stage today.
The LoL 2020 World Championship is nearing the end of the Group Stage. Yesterday, the four teams from Group A battled it out for the top two spots to make it to the Knockout Stage. Today it was Group B’s turn. Dubbed the group of death, expectations were high for Damwon and JD Gaming, but Rogue and PSG Talon had high aspirations of their own. Without further ado, here’s how the day’s games all went down!
PSG Talon vs Damwon Gaming
The day kicked off with a fairly one-sided matchup between PSG Talon (“PSG”) and Damwon Gaming (“DWG”). This was meant to be an easy win for DWG, but PSG surprised with some great early game plays. River ganked top to kill Nuguri for First Blood, though did lose his life to Canyon for it. Then, PSG’s Tank actually managed to solo kill Showmaker in the mid lane before teaming up with his jungler to kill Canyon too.
But despite the early lead, the sheer skill of DWG soon shone through. Canyon slew an Ocean Dragon before moving top to dive and kill Hanabi under his tower. This helped Nuguri take the First Tower bonus a short time later. Finally, at 16 minutes, the teams decided to give spectators a 5v5 team fight around the dragon. Unsurprisingly, DWG came out ahead two-for-one in kills. From here, they had a solid grasp on the game and never let go.
In typical DWG style, they pushed their lead and choked PSG out. They fought them in their jungle, racking up two more kills, taking multiple towers around the map around this time too. At 25 minutes, DWG pushed on the top tier-two tower. They destroyed it before engaging on PSG and killing their bottom lane. With this opportunity, DWG secured the Baron. Now, PSG was powerless to stop DWG from crushing two Inhibitors, their towers and ultimately, their Nexus.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 29:24
- Kills: 4-14
- Turrets: 2-11
- Gold: 47.1k-57.9k
- Dragons: 2-2
- Barons: 0-1
Rogue vs JD Gaming
On paper, this second match between Rogue (“RGE”) and JD Gaming (“JDG”) was another lopsided affair. Though the result was expected, the way the game unfolded wasn’t. That’s because RGE came out swinging this game, fighting at every opportunity they had. It started at three minutes, when RGE collapsed on an invade on their red buff. Vander killed Kanavi for First Blood before dying himself. After this, RGE dove the bottom lane tower to kill Loken too,
Then, around six minutes, both teams dove a side lane tower, RGE bot again and JDG top. Funnily enough, the outcomes were the same, one-for-ones. Throughout the early game, it seemed like RGE was applying pressure, but through smart picks and objective takes JDG was actually pulling ahead. Because of both teams’ compositions, there were a ton of fights, but JDG started pulling ahead with better team fighting overall.
The mid game continued to be bloody, and though RGE was fighting, JDG was constantly expanding the gold difference. At 25 minutes the deciding team fight occurred. As JDG went for Soul, RGE forced a desperate team fight, where JDG smashed them five-for-one, picking up Mountain Soul as a prize. Three minutes later, another team fight broke out near the Baron, which JDG won four-for-zero. They took the Baron right after that, then began their siege. Once again, RGE attempted to fight, but lost Hans Sama and were unable to defend their base. JDG rampaged through RGE’s base, killing multiple members and the Nexus. With this win, JDG eliminates both RGE and PSG from the tournament to make it a two-horse race between them and Damwon for the first seed.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 31:19
- Kills: 13-24
- Turrets: 2-10
- Gold: 49.9k-65.0k
- Dragons: 0-4
- Barons: 0-1
Damwon Gaming vs Rogue
RGE was eliminated by JDG last game but still put on a show against DWG. They started the game off by swapping their top and bot lanes around, then diving and killing Nuguri to kill him for First Blood. Nuguri TP’d back after dying, which resulted in another fight, but this time DWG went one-for-one on the top side of the map. DWG then moved their focus on bot, where they got revenge for the abuse top by doing the same to Finn, diving and killing him.
After all this, the game devolved into absolute chaos. Without anything to lose, RGE kept throwing themselves at DWG, but they simply couldn’t match up to the caliber of DWG. DWG was always ready for what RGE threw at them, so they ended up getting ahead in kills and objectives off the back of these kills too. Through the bloodbath, DWG had a massive 5k gold lead at only 13 minutes and it was all but over for RGE.
But it didn’t seem like RGE minded, as their player cams showed laughing members throughout the game. In fact, they made a few suicide plays with Larssen’s Ryze ult, where they warped multiple members into almost certain doom with the hope of getting maybe one or two kills. And they never stopped trying to kill DWG either, no matter the circumstance. Eventually, DWG was able to take a Baron and push RGE’s base. Of course, RGE engaged one last fight, but lost four members and soon after their Nexus.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 23:42
- Kills: 22-8
- Turrets: 9-2
- Gold: 52.7k-38.1k
- Dragons: 4-0
- Barons: 1-0
JD Gaming vs PSG Talon
Just when everything looked cut-and-dry, PSG pulled off a fantastic upset against JDG. Their win was their first of the tournament and all snowballed from a few picks in the early game. First, PSG picked off LvMao before minions even spawned, with River being the benefactor of First Blood. Very soon after, JDG tried to invade into PSG’s blue side jungle, but PSG collapsed on the play. They killed two from JDG and gained a significant gold lead.
From here, it was PSG’s time to shine. River ganked mid to help Tank kill Yagao, then took an Infernal Dragon. By 16 minutes, PSG had accumulated three dragons and was on Soul point. In addition, they took the First Tower bonus a bit before too. There were a few tower trades next, then the Ocean Dragon that would give PSG Soul arrived. PSG played it extremely well, poking JDG out and killing the dragon while keeping their opponents at arm’s length. However, Kanavi tried to steal it but couldn’t. He lost his life as a result, which meant PSG could go to Baron.
At Baron, PSG burned it down and secured it, then turned for a fight. It looked close at first but PSG turned it around and went three-for-one in kills. Equipped with the Baron buff, PSG set off to siege JDG’s base. They cracked the bottom lane and pushed forward, forcing one last team fight on JDG. Unified, who was very fed, got a Triple Kill while LDG picked up no kills at all. Riding this momentum, PSG boldly pushed further on and smashed JDG’s Nexus to ruin JDG’s chance of contest DWG for the #1 seed.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 26:46
- Kills: 1-11
- Turrets: 3-8
- Gold: 42.2k-50.0k
- Dragons: 0-4
- Barons: 0-1
PSG Talon vs Rogue
To end their tournament runs, PSG and RGE fought for nothing but pride. Unfortunately for RGE, it would end up being a disastrous end to an already bad day. They did find First Blood in this game when they dove and killed Hanabi, but River responded and got a kill in return. Like in their game against JDG, PSG was very proactive and had great control over neutral objectives. They picked off Hans Sama with a great Thresh hook and also secured three dragons by 17 minutes.
But that’s not all PSG was able to accomplish. They grabbed another kill in a team fight and a tower, though RGE did manage to take the First Tower bonus to their credit. While PSG definitely had a lead, the game didn’t seem doomed for RGE yet. In fact, closing in on the 20-minute mark, RGE found two picks onto Hanabi and River respectively. They also denied the Mountain Soul by taking one of the drakes.
However, PSG soon crushed RGE’s hopes. At 26 minutes, PSG pulled off a great engage onto RGE in the mid lane, where they slaughtered four RGE champions. After that, it was easy for PSG to take Baron too. Next, the two teams met at the dragon pit where PSG secured the Mountain Soul before turning for the fight. RGE was too far behind at this point and lost the team fight three-for-zero in kills. PSG took this chance to move straight through bottom and push to end the game, finishing off their Worlds run on a high note.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 30:31
- Kills: 13-4
- Turrets: 9-3
- Gold: 56.6k-47.5k
- Dragons: 4-1
- Barons: 1-0
JD Gaming vs Damwon Gaming
Group B ended with a matchup between two potential tournament favorites and an upset to boot. JDG played through their top lane super well, winning a 3v3 to get Zoom First Blood. Zoom then ganked the mid lane to get a second kill, then to make things worse for DWG, there was another fight mid where Zoom got his third kill. DWG was far from out of it though, as they did pick up objectives like the First Tower bonus and a pick onto LvMao.
But JDG had full control. They constantly pushed their lead farther, taking winning team fights to accumulate more gold and translate those into objectives. It was looking great for JDG until a misstep at 20 minutes. Here, DWG found a three-for-zero team fight victory and a Baron too. But JDG did pick up three kills afterward to minimize the Baron’s reach, which was huge for them because they still had the lead as a result.
In the next 10 minutes, there were a number of fights and picks where both teams picked up kills but never could break open the game. Eventually though, DWG did win a team fight five-for-three and secure the Cloud Soul. But JDG struck back by rushing and securing the Baron before DWG could contest. With this, JDG pushed down the bottom lane Inhibitor without much problem. The final moment occurred at 36 minutes when a team fight erupted in DWG’s jungle. JDG cut down four from DWG before moving into the DWG’s base, smashing their Nexus and claiming the upset win.
Quick Stats:
- Time: 36:57
- Kills: 25-18
- Turrets: 9-3
- Gold: 73.4k-65.4k
- Dragons: 1-4
- Barons: 1-1
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