Clutch Gaming and Damwon Gaming won their play-in knockout games on Monday to advance to the main event group stage of the League of Legends World Championships in Berlin.
After advancing out of the play-in group stage despite some struggles, Clutch faced little opposition from Royal Youth, beating the Turkish champions 3-0. Clutch's AD Carry Cody "Cody Sun" Sun went deathless across the three games to receive match MVP honors.
Clutch will now wait to see if they are drawn into the so-called "Group of Death" along with Fnatic, SK Telecom T1 and Royal Never Give Up. If not, they will play in Group B along with FunPlus Phoenix, J Team and GAM Esports, which is considered the far easier group of the two.
"Our boys has played over 50 games since the start of the year to qualify for #Worlds2019 group stages," Clutch tweeted after the match. "This miracle run has been absolutely insane, but we aren't done yet. See you soon.
Damwon was able to get past Lowkey Esports 3-1 earlier in the day, with the third-seed from South Korea dominating after dropping the first game. Damwon will now be drawn into either Group B or Group D, which includes ahq, Team Liquid and defending champion Invictus Gaming.
"Damwon Gaming broke through the Play-in stage to advance to the group stage," DG tweeted. "There were some disappointing aspects of the game, but we will make sure to improve and grow up! See you at the group stage!"
The play-in knockout stage continues Tuesday with Hong Kong Attitude playing Isurus Gaming and a highly-anticipated match between Splyce and Unicorns of Love, who upset Clutch twice in the group round.
The main event begins Oct. 12. It will include 16 teams separated into four groups playing a double-round robin format in single-game matches.
The top two teams from each group then advance to the knockout stage, which features a single-elimination bracket. First-place teams will play second-place teams, with no two teams from the same group placed in the same half of the bracket.
All matches will be best-of-five, with the event concluding Nov. 10.
--Field Level Media