At the end of a wild Day 2 of the Play-In stage at the 2017 World Championship in Wuhan, China, there were only a few things left standing. Gone were Gambit Esports and Dire Wolves after two days of action, leaving the rest to either dominate their respective groups or squeak into the next stage on Sunday.
Here's how Day 2 went down.
Coming out of the Play-In stage, North America's Cloud9 easily looked like the strongest team, securing two back-to-back stomps on Sunday. Against Brazil's Team oNe, Cloud9 was relentless as jungler Juan "Contractz" Arturo Garcia took Sejuani and set up mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen's Ryze for success, giving him three kills by the five-minute mark. From there, C9's gold lead snowballed into a 5,000-gold advantage, eerily familiar to how C9 would decimate foes years past. Contractz was a stud for C9 in this game, posting a 2/0/11 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as C9 increased its gold lead to 15,000-gold at 22 minutes in the most lopsided win of Worlds thus far. C9's rematch against Dire Wolves was no different as C9 took the OCE's representative out in 25 minutes, locking in a 4-0 record and flying through to the next round.
Meanwhile, China's Team WE didn't play cleanly or convincingly at all, but it managed to get the job done against Gambit and Lyon Gaming. Building on their gripping Day 1 matchup, the LLN's Lyon Gaming gave Team WE everything it had on Sunday, showing great potential in the face of Team WE's oppressive objective control. After rushing a Baron kill as it spawned at 20 mintues, Team WE went on to secure three Barons total in a 37-minute win, locking up the first seed in Group A. Lyon would go on to blast the CIS' Gambit Esports on the back of strong play from the top half of the map and a pentakill from AD carry Mattias "WhiteLotus" Musso's Kalista.
When it came time for Gambit to take on Team WE, Gambit had already become the first team to be eliminated from Worlds. That didn't stop Gambit from putting on a show for its fans, though, as legendary support Edward "Edward" Abgaryan took Nunu while mid laner Mykhailo "Kira" Harmash locked in a surprise Yasuo pick. Not to be outdone, Team WE AD carry Jin "Mystic" Seong-jun selected Vayne in what quickly became a ridiculous fiesta of a match. Bloodier than a raw steak, the game saw Team WE post over a kill per minute by the time everything was said and done, holding a 38-to-9 kill lead. Fans everywhere had no choice but to be entertained by both sides' hijinks, but this was a dull bright spot on Gambit's World Championship run.
Team oNe finally got on its feet after getting rolled for three straight matches, taking out Dire Wolves to force a tie-breaker match. There, Team oNe finally showed its strength as a team, with AD carry Luis "Absolut" Felipe Carvalho's daring Tristana play leading the charge. Dire Wolves might have looked strong in the first meeting between both sides, but Team oNe gave the Brazilian fans something to cheer about by taking Dire Wolves out in two straight games, sending the OCE representatives packing.
The action continues on Monday at 1 a.m. ET when Young Generation takes on Kaos Latin Gamers to kick off the next round of Play-in stage group play.