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Follow G2 Esports' incredible group stage journey at Worlds 2019
Despite being drawn in a very tough group, G2 Esports made it through to the quarter-finals of the League of Legends World Championship 2019 with ease. Here's how they did it.
When you come into the League of Legends World Championship as the reigning Mid-Season Invitational champions, one of the favourites to win the competition and with hype that the best performances from your roster are still to come, there's a lot of pressure to perform. When you add in the fact of getting drawn in a group with the second seed from South Korea, a resilient North American team with high expectations and a tough team from the Play-In stage that only dropped one game, it might seem like the mountain in front of you is impossibly large
That was the exact situation that G2 Esports found themselves in as they headed into the Worlds 2019 group stage. However, despite the mammoth task in front of them, they managed to qualify for the quarter-finals in impressive fashion, joining both of the other European teams in the next stage of the competition.
Their run through one of the tougher groups in the competition was almost faultless and certainly one of the best performances of Worlds so far. Let's break it down.
Week One
The format for the group stage of Worlds split things up into two weeks. During the first week, each team played one match per day, with one day off, and then in the second week each group has one play day, with teams playing their final three matches all on the same day. With G2 slotted in Group A, they skipped the first day of the group stage and then played one match for the next three days, giving them more time to prepare and avoiding a huge break that could disrupt their momentum.
Things opened up with the biggest challenge the group could throw at G2 – Griffin in the opening match. The two teams were favourites to make it out of the group, which meant this match would most likely have major consequences on who came out on top and who placed second, which would likely result in a harder quarter-final match. The early game was incredibly even between the two teams, but as things started to progress, G2 edged a small lead and used it incredibly well to eventually run over Griffin in around 30 minutes.
Next up was the match that everyone had been waiting for and the most tantalising EU vs NA match at Worlds this year – G2 vs Cloud9. With Clutch Gaming not putting up too much of a fight in Group C, this was the closest thing we got to a real battle of the western regions and the opening match between the two was pretty entertaining.
G2 picked some entertaining champions, such as Zoe for Rasmus 'Caps' Winther and Vladimir for Martin 'Wunder' Nordahl Hansen, and both teams proceeded to run at each other until everyone was waiting to respawn. There were a huge 39 kills in the 25-minute match. Of course, it was G2 who came out on top, putting them at 2–0 and with only Hong Kong Attitude left to play in the first week.
That final match against HKA was actually G2's longest match of the opening week and until the final stages was also probably the closest. HKA certainly put up a fight against the MSI champions, but in the end it was simply too much for them and G2 ended the first week undefeated and comfortably at the top of the table.
G2 dominated the group stage at Worlds
© Riot Games
Week Two
Once Week Two rolled around, G2 had a pretty simple task: win two of their three matches to guarantee a spot in the quarters. The order of matches was flipped, meaning G2's first match would be against Hong Kong Attitude and their last against Griffin.
Yet again, HKA put up an impressive fight against G2 and until Marcin 'Jankos' Jankowski picked-up a massive triple kill around the 15-minute mark, things were basically even between the two teams. After that however and with even more impressive plays from Jankos, who ended 8/0/4, G2 pulled ahead and claimed another victory.
The rematch against Cloud9 was up next and once again it was action-packed, but G2 never looked under threat, as they took an early lead and kept it throughout. The game did go on for over 31 minutes, but there was never any doubt as to who would come out on top. G2 had done it. Regardless of other results, they had a place in the quarter-finals and could, if they wanted, take their foot off the gas a little.
The final match of the group against Griffin did still have a lot of importance, though. If G2 won, they would top the group and be undefeated in the group stage. However, if Griffin won, they would match G2’s 5–1 record and force a tiebreaker match to decide who topped the group. Unfortunately for G2 fans, Griffin really put on a show and dominated the match, picking up the win and forcing the all-important tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker
With G2 and Griffin going 1–1 against each other and then beating C9 and HKA 2–0, they were forced to play a tiebreaker match to decide the winner of the group. Having just lost to Griffin moments before, G2 tried to take a leaf out of their book and picked three of the champions they just lost against. However, even this didn't work, as once again Griffin showed just how good they can be and claimed a very similar victory over G2.
Despite the tie breaker loss, G2 still qualified for the quarterfinals as Group A's second seed and now have a match against the third Korean seed DAMWON Gaming. It certainly won't be an easy task, but their three matches against Griffin should give them some info on how the Korean teams like to play and there's no doubt that they have the ability to come out on top. Picking a winner isn't easy, but we can be sure that the crowd in Madrid will be treated to one of the best quarter finals ever seen at Worlds.
