It was the start of week two for the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds) and Group A took center stage. The four teams contained arguably the best narratives and teams to follow for Worlds with International Wildcard darlings Albus NoX Luna, tournament favorites ROX Tigers, North American hopefuls Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), and European pincushions G2 Esports. It took every game, including a first-place tiebreaker, to determine the two qualified teams, but ROX Tigers (No.1 seed) and Albus NoX Luna (No.2 seed) will move on to play in the quarterfinals.
Winners of the day: Albus NoX Lunas
The true Cinderella and underdog story of Worlds kept rolling. Albus NoX Luna became the first wildcard team to qualify for the quarterfinals in the history of Worlds with its successful day of play. It began with a dismantling of CLG in its definitive announcement to the public that the wildcard was here to stay. Against CLG, the Russian team prioritized the midgame and punished its all-out early game draft to snowball an advantage. But, the best victory for the team was its late game resolve the ROX Tigers. The team regrouped each and every time a mishap occurred, which was a testament of this team's skill and depth, and allowed its better creep equilibrium to pressure lanes for free. Despite all the Baron steals from ROX, the Russian squad played discipline and patient League of Legends to outmaneuver the Tigers. Albus NoX Lunas did end up losing to G2 Esports and the tiebreaker rematch against ROX Tigers, but this feel-good story did not end on week two.
There are certainly notable weaknesses that could be exploited such as a limited champion pool, an overreliance on Vladislav "aMiracle" Scherbyna, and average rotations, but nothing too game breaking.
Losers of the day: G2 Esports and Counter Logic Gaming
The destruction of G2 Esports began during week one, but it was swift and cruel when Group A finished and the team ended its run at 1-5. Whether it was ROX Tigers or CLG, it was nearly the same script -- lose a must-win lane, transition poorly into the mid game, and collapse entirely during major fights.
G2 Esports was in prime position to play spoiler to the other teams in the group and collect some confidence back, but only showed up during its last game against Albus NoX Luna. G2 Esports' drafts were poorly constructed, its early game mistakes were hardly corrected, and the team fight execution was nonexistent. Enter any sport's cliché here, but G2 Esports simply played without pride; it was a shell of the team that won the European League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split.
CLG put up a great fight that lasted until the very last game, but the weaknesses of an inconsistent secondary source of damage and carry ability outside of Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes showed up in the fight against ROX Tigers. The inclusion of the North American lineup on the loser's section was only a matter of tournament placement - CLG was eliminated from Worlds.
Team that needed improvement: ROX Tigers
ROX Tigers got back on track with a relatively simple victory over G2 Esports off of a comfort draft, but it didn't last long. But, in its loss against Albus NoX Luna, the inconsistent ROX Tigers that puzzled analysts and audiences alike returned. The team played disrespectful League of Legends with silly overextensions, failure in the early game and lane phase, and a lack of a macro game or map awareness that made the game unnecessarily difficult. ROX Tigers temporarily remedied some of its mistakes in its match against CLG and the runback tiebreaker against Albus NoX Luna for first-place in the group, but the ugly version of this team still exists. The MVP for the South Korean top seed was easily Han "Peanut" Wang-ho and his Elise. He was the initiation, the carry, and the overall band-aid for a team that needed stability.
ROX Tigers' strengths include: great team fighting and positioning, comeback potential, and stellar defense, but the self-sustained deficits may cost this team. The games will only be tougher from here on out, so the improvement will need to be immediate.