The second day of the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds) played out accordingly to the preordained script -- at for the most part. The chalk teams won out and the underdogs were rolled upon.
It was business as usual for the defending Worlds Champions, SKT Telecom T1, in the team's first match over the North American squad Cloud 9. The clinic began in the lane phase with star mid laner, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok shutting down Cloud 9's main playmaker, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen. From there, the Korean juggernauts were vultures picking off their prey, and they systematically finished the match with ease.
It was another crushing victory for Chinese Royal Never Give Up (RNG) over a very overwhelmed Splyce. The second seed from the Chinese region came out of day two as one of the top contenders for the championship. The new patient and macro-intensive focus in the lane phase combined with the team's superior team fighting prowess is a matchup nightmare for any opponent.
Winners of the day: I May and Team SoloMid
I May played a complete game against the Flash Wolves. Even when the balance of the match was even, I May made the correct plays to stunt the growth of the major disrupters, Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang and jungler Hung "Karsa" Hau-Hsuan. The Chinese squad played great defense around its Varus pick and made crisp decisions for neutral objectives and map control. This is a team to scout out for because of Jinshan "Jinjiao" Xie and Hawoon "Athena" Kang's balanced attack.
Team SoloMid (TSM) shook off the defeat of yesterday and utterly smashed through Samsung Galaxy. Samsung's mistakes from yesterday (overextension, poor execution in rotations and fights, and weak vision control) were exploited to the maximum degree and suffocated the team's chances for a comeback. The TSM dissection started early with a 4K gold lead at 10 minutes and never relented. This was a necessary bounce-back victory for the best North American team.
Losers of the day: Samsung Galaxy and INTZ e-Sports
With so little time for improvement and turnover, Samsung Galaxy's shortcomings were fleshed out and exposed by a superior team. The South Korean's inconsistencies that reared its ugly head toward the end of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) split continued on day two. Despite the talent on the roster, it did not factor into the indecision and directionless approach that came after the team lost its lane phase. The resolve must be stronger, the decision-making needs to be direct, and the rotations must be clean for the remainder of the group stage, or it's lights out.
Just when the INTZ e-Sports' hype train was ready to leave the station, reality in the form of H2K delayed the destination. In a matchup of eerily similar styles and objectives, it was the veteran European team that took firm control and dominated the short game. It took only 30 minutes for the clock to strike midnight and slap the sense back into the International Wildcard darlings of day one. That said, the loss in a macro game plan against arguably one of the better macro teams was no insult and the pool play is just in its infancy. INTZ e-Sports can still pull off a miracle tournament run, but it will take more than a dominating top lane snowball to do so.
Team that needed improvement: Flash Wolves
On paper, it was tough to pick a winner out of I May and Flash Wolves, but the game was effectively over from the draft phase. This is a team with plenty of talent that should scare off opposition starting with playmaking jungler, Karsa to the damage-dealers, Maple and Wen "NL" An Hsiung. It was just disappointing to see a draft that did not fit the abilities of these skilled individuals. Instead of consistent and reliable engage or even longer-range poke, it was a low wave-clear and siege lineup that relied on too many variables from the opposing side. If Flash Wolves want to be on winner's column, it starts with the draft.