Splyce was the only team to begin the play-in stage of the League of Legends World Championship in Berlin with a pair of victories on Wednesday.
Groups A and B each played two matches, with Splyce defeating Isurus Gaming and DetonatioN FocusMe in Group B. Isurus beat DetonatioN earlier and finished the first day of play 1-1.
All teams in Group A are 1-1, with Clutch Gaming rebounding from a loss to Unicorns of Love to beat Mammoth, who had previously taken down UoL.
UoL levied the first upset of the tournament, with the LCL champions earning a convincing victory over Clutch, who entered as the favorites to win Group A as the LCS third seed. Nihat "Innaxe" Aliev got UoL off to a strong start with two kills, going on to finish the match 5/0/4.
The double round robins play-in stage continues Thursday, with all matches being single games. Group C includes Hong Kong Attitude, Mega and Lowkey Esports, while Group D consists of Damwon Gaming, Flamengo eSports and Royal Youth.
The top two teams per group advance to Round 2, with the first-place teams from the group stage each facing a second-place team in best-of-five matches. The winners advance to the main event, which begins Oct. 12 with the group stage.
The group stage will include 16 teams again divided into four groups playing single games in a double round-robin format. The top two teams from each group then advance to the knockout stage, which will be a single-elimination bracket.
While first-place teams will be pitted against second-place teams, no two teams from the same group can be placed in the same half of the bracket for the best-of-five matches.
Worlds will conclude Nov. 10.
--Field Level Media