Now that the first stage of the League of Legends World Championship is over, it’s time for the qualified teams to put it all on the line. The top 8 teams will battle in a single elimination bracket to determine the 2022 World Champions: T1, JDG, DRX, Gen.G, Edward Gaming, DWG KIA, Rogue and Royal Never Give Up have formed one of the most stacked brackets in League history.
We’ll be going over the 2nd quarterfinals encounter, which is T1 vs RNG. Two of the most successful League of Legends teams in the world. They have faced off against each other plenty of times, which means that this matchup is rich in history.
This year not only has T1 managed to survive the group of death, but they were able to do so while finishing first in Group A at Worlds. Compared to the team we saw towards the end of the Summer Split, the impression is that the summer version of T1 has disappeared and we are seeing glimpses of the version of the team that dominated the spring.
Much of this credit goes to Gumayusi and Keria, who seem to have found their rhythm and are being much more consistent compared to the past. In particular, Gumayusi has earned the most resources out of all the players on the team, with a 26% gold share so far.
That said, the real game changer in T1 is Zeus. The young Korean top laner has been incredible so far, and he is the true team carry: a 28.2% damage rate puts him above all others among the top laners at Worlds. What’s even more interesting is that he’s the only one who hasn’t played any weak-side tanks. Although it should be more difficult to play this type of champion due to the smaller margin for error, Zeus was able to blow away all the other laners in Group A.
The strengths of T1 are very exciting because not many other teams play similarly. By having Zeus as a carry, Faker has been relegated to more of a supporting role, which means he just makes sure he doesn’t screw up and plays around his team accordingly. The same can be said for Oner, who has already played Sejuani 3 times in the group stage.
On the other hand, we have the fourth seed, Royal Never Give Up, a team that has already come a long way in the World Championship. They dominated the play-in qualifiers for most of it and were doing the same in Group D before the whole team tested positive for covid. Despite the problems, the RNG was able to qualify with a 5-1 win. It was unfortunate for them to have to play the tiebreaker against Gen.G at the end of the day, as they clearly looked to be in terrible shape.
For these reasons, RNG’s form will depend mostly on the recovery of all players, and when it happens. It is a given that the team will not be able to skimp that much, as it puts a physical toll on the players, so knowing when they go negative or recover from symptoms will be key to the team’s overall performance.
If they show up like the RNG we saw in the first round robin, we’re sure to see one heck of a series. And I think they will bounce back – Wei and GALA were stellar individually and Breathe is proving to everyone that RNG was not wrong in their choice when they traded Bin for him during the mid-season break.
The 2022 League of Legends World Championship knockout stage is just getting started, so make sure you check out our League of Legends betting page where you can find all the best sign up offers and free bets available.
