In a matchup viewed as little brother versus big brother, it was the elders that earned the respect when Edward Gaming defeated ahq e-Sports club in a slugfest at the 2016 League of Legends World Championships on Friday night.
The drama began prior to the game, as ahq decided to make a substitution with Wong "Chawy" Xing-Lei replacing Liu "Westdoor" Shu-Wei in the mid lane.
The matchup started with a bit of chaos, as an opening trade in the bot lane led to EDG's Tian "Meiko" Ye pressing into the ahq jungle to try to leverage his team's advantage, only to get chased back down the river by ahq jungler Hsue "Mountain" Chao-Hong. Neither team gained a direct advantage from the fight, but Ming "ClearLove" Kai of EDG was able to get an early level up on his Hecarim that he immediately put to use.
ClearLove was able to gank the mid lane and then the bot lane for two opening kills for his laners, and picked up a kill and another assist prior to 14 minutes, giving EDG a decent edge. He then managed to assist in a kill to Mountain in the top lane around the 23rd minute which turned into a risky pursuit of Baron Nashor. Edward Gaming earned the Baron buff, and used it to get a more solid footing in the game.
The League Masters Series competitors of ahq were able to hang around and stall out the game for a while, but the Chinese top seed pressed their lane advantages and kept vision control over the river, which they were able to turn into an uncontested kill on the Elder Dragon. That buff would help them take another Baron, which would be all they'd need to go right down the middle of the map and destroy the nexus.
EDG moves to 1-1 for the championship following Thursday's surprising upset loss to INTZ, while ahq falls to 1-1 in a Group C that is currently in a four-way tie after two games.