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RNG 1-0 Samsung
With the home crowd cheering it along, Royal Never Give Up secured the first seed in Group C with a 32-minute victory over Samsung Galaxy to conclude Friday's action at the League of Legends World Championship in Wuhan, China.
For most of the game, it was a bit hard to predict who was going to come out on top. Both teams held slight leads, but neither could really break ahead. Samsung (4-2) found an early 2-for-1 as part of its first blood. But then RNG (5-1) battled back with sound objective play while Samsung tried to pull ahead with kills.
It all came to a head once RNG found two kills around the 26-minute mark that set off a chain reaction, eventually leading to the critical win. The two kills first allowed RNG to rush the Baron down with alarming speed, catching Samsung completely off-guard. With the Baron buff in-hand, RNG quickly found two more kills, truly breaking the game wide open.
The massive swing gave the Chinese squad an opening to march into the Samsung base and eventually wrap up the win after whittling down the Nexus in a prolonged power play. It surely seems as though the reverse-sweep loss to EDward Gaming in the League of Legends Pro League Summer Final is wholly in RNG's rearview mirror as it pushes right into the quarterfinals next week.
-- Wyatt Lyles
RNG 1-0 Fenerbahçe
Royal Never Give Up became the first Chinese team to qualify for the quarterfinals at the League of Legends World Championship following its Group C victory against 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports.
As the extreme underdogs, 1907 Fenerbahçe was looking to pull off a miracle and upset RNG, which would have simultaneously given G2 Esports, which beat RNG earlier in the day, another shot at a quarterfinals berth. But the skill disparity between the two teams was clear from the very start as RNG quickly built up an advantage and found a massive gold lead for AD carry Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao's Vayne.
Simultaneously, the rest of RNG made short work of its lane competition, quickly building the team's net gold lead to nearly 5,000 in addition to finding an early Infernal Drake.
A 4-1 teamfight win in the 20th minute essentially sealed the game for RNG. Although top laner Berke "Thaldrin" Demir and the rest of 1907 Fenerbahçe tried to mount a comeback, an early Baron on the side of RNG shattered all hopes. RNG quickly took a final teamfight near the 25-minute mark, allowing the team to claim a convincing 26-minute victory.
-- Chase Geddes
Samsung 1-0 G2
Samsung Galaxy walked away from Friday's game against G2 Esports with a win, earning a spot in the quarterfinals from Group C.
The biggest surprise came with Samsung drafting Kha'Zix for jungler Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong for the second time this tournament. Samsung quickly found itself regretting the draft as Ambition was constantly countered, giving up the first two kills of the game as a result of G2's proactive movements.
Still, the early lead for the Europeans was short-lived, as pressure from the opposite lanes overwhelmed its advantage in the bottom lane. Samsung ultimately grabbed the first tower gold, bringing the game back to dead even, with all the momentum swinging towards the Koreans.
A skirmish near the 25-minute mark essentially locked up the game for Samsung, as three kills netted it a lead and the Baron buff, too much for G2 to rally back from. Try as they might, Luka "Perkz" Perkovic and his teammates could not find a way back into the game as the team struggled in resulting skirmishes, allowing Samsung to pick up even more kills and a quick second inhibitor. With Samsung taking a second Baron, the team had no problem waltzing away from a crucial fight near the 41-minute mark practically unharmed, claiming victory three minutes later.
-- Chase Geddes
G2 1-0 RNG
Europe's G2 Esports bounced back from a disappointing first week at the League of Legends World Championship by handing Royal Never Give Up its first loss of the group stage on Friday in Wuhan, China.
Things continue to look better for Europe, as just one day after Fnatic made its incredible comeback run into the quarterfinals, G2 (2-2) has come up with a dominant victory over the top team in Group C. This match was all G2 from start to finish. Jungler Kim "Trick" Gang-yun's Sejuani opened the game with a fifth-minute gank top lane for first blood and went on to assist in 11 of G2's 12 kills. RNG jungler Liu "Mlxg" Shi-Yu's Rek'Sai found some success in the bottom lane, but RNG (3-1) soon gave up that advantage when its overaggression gave away two kills and first tower to G2.
Once G2 obtained a lead, it did a brilliant job of pushing it, with mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perkovic's Corki using The Package to find multiple roaming kills onto Mlxg, and G2 had perfect neutral objective control that prevented RNG from finding any sort of foothold in the game. In such a bot-lane-focused metagame, it was refreshing to see G2's original stars in the jungle and mid lane doing the lion's share of the work. G2 repeatedly found picks that led to easy objectives, and it took all three inhibitors and the Nexus in under 28 minutes.
This win has significantly upset the balance of Group C, and its now anyone's guess as to what the final standings will be. Only time will tell if Europe will be able to send its second underdog team to the quarterfinals in as many days.
-- Brendan Hickey
Samsung 1-0 Fenerbahçe
Samsung Galaxy brought heartbreak to 1907 Fenerbahçe on Friday by taking the Turkish side down and eliminating it from Worlds.
Fenerbahçe did its best to get ahead of Samsung early on, with mid laner Kim "Frozen" Tae-il picking up first blood as Kassadin 10 minutes into the game. Unfortunately for Fenerbahçe, that was the last time they would get the better of Samsung as jungler Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong and AD carry Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk popped off as Kha'Zix and Xayah, respectively.
After a lackluster mid game, Ruler came alive and picked up several kills in a 5-for-2 ace at 23 minutes. Fenerbahçe couldn't do anything in the face of Samsung's oppressive macro game, bolstered by mid laner Lee "Crown" Min-ho's Malzahar, who locked Fenerbahçe down with massive damage and crowd control through his Nether Grasp.
Ruler was the true star of the day, though, ripping through Fenerbahçe's weak front line and shattering the Turkish team's dreams in under 32 minutes and putting Samsung back in contention for first place in the group.
-- Noah Waltzer
G2 1-0 Fenerbahçe
In a game that meant little more than bragging rights for those involved, G2 Esports recovered a bit of its pride with a win over Fenerbahçe.
Prior to the start of this game, both teams were already eliminated from playoff contention. The match wound up being a true back-and-forth affair that saw sloppy play all around, with the final result not being clear until the very end of the game.
It all got started with a "surprise" (he openly suggested the move to media members prior) Yasuo pick for G2 mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perkovic that paid off, as he picked up the first blood and then snowballed into a 6/3/11 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). For all the good that Perkz did, however, Fenerbahçe managed to keep this game interesting for quite a while and almost won the game on a gutsy back-door push of the Nexuz from AD carry Ege "padden" Acar Koparal. G2 shut that play down, though, and managed to come away with the win soon after, even though it was left with no Nexus turrets after padden's furious assault.
-- Wyatt Lyles