Both EDward Gaming and ahq e-Sports Club began their win-or-go-home game with the same idea -- a passive lane phase for an unofficial truce in preparation for a strong midgame. But in the end, it was EDG that took advantage of ahq's late-game mistakes to advance to the Worlds quarterfinals.
Ahq would take the first turret at 13:29, but the stalemate continued because of EDG's Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu and Heo "PawN" Won-seok's farm over their opposition. On the opposite end, ahq rode the advantage of star players Chen "Ziv" Yi and Xue "Mountain" Zhao-Hong to keep pace. Ahq punished EDG's continued passivity to build a gold lead with fights via surprise teleports at the 20-minute mark.
But, EDG brought it back after punishing a greedy ahq Baron kill at 30 minutes with a fight that wiped out four of ahq's players. The subsequent ahq 643 gold deficit post-Baron nearly reset all the team's momentum. EDG's strength in late-game team fighting shone through with another Baron fight resulting in the team's first gold advantage, a kill lead, and complete map control.
EDG finished off the game after ahq attempted to interrupt the Baron and was punished with a loss to two of its major cores. Despite a 10,000 gold deficit, EDG played disciplined and relied on its late-game prowess.