Two teams eliminated on Day 1 of the Horizon Cup knockout stage

After a short break, it was time for Wild Rift’s Horizon Cup to move onto its knockout stage, and on Day 1, we already would see two eliminations.

Six teams walked into the Horizon Cup’s Knockout Stage, but after the first day of play, only four would remain, as we get closer to crowning the very first champion of the event. While Da Kun Gaming and ThunderTalk Gaming getting directly into the semi-finals, having topped their respecting groups, SBTC Esports, Team Secret, KT Rolster and Sengoku Gaming would need to battle it out through the quarter finals – where one series loss would be all that stood between a team and elimination.

Southeast Asia Championship rematch

The first of two quarter final series would be a rematch of the recent SEA Championships 2021 grand final, which saw SBTC Esports take down Team Secret to secure the tournament – but both teams still made it through to the Horizon Cup, representing the SEA region. Unfortunately, one of the two teams would see their tournament lives come to an end today as they faced off. SBTC saw a very slow start to their Horizon Cup, but still managed to regain their footing and reach the knockout stage, while Secret was far more solid, dropping only a single series om their group – but knowing that Secret did lose out to the Vietnamese squad recently meant that it would be an uphill battle, or so we assumed.

Going into the series, we saw a fantastic game one from Secret, With Chewy’s Lucian getting a massive early lead, giving the Dragon Laner a quick Blade of the Ruined King. Although they had a solid lead, SBTC were still looking to take team fights constantly, but it was almost always Secret coming out ahead. In one final play, where Hamez used Nami’s Aqua Prison ability to quickly stop an attempted engage from SBTC, Secret took the first game of the series. Game two saw an assassination squad from Secret, with Zed and Akali looking to rip through their opponents. That’s exactly what they did, as Secret quickly took a second game.

Banning Renekton seemed to be an extremely important aspect to Secret’s dominance, as game three saw it happen for the third time in a row. Right from the start, Secret seemed to have their opponent’s number, with Azar even securing a massive quadra-kill on his Darius, dunking on the SBTC line-up. Only 12-minutes in, Secret were destroying the Nexus, destroying the hopes of SBTC Esports and moving forward to play Da Kun Gaming in the semi-finals.

The late game fighters

Next up would be the Korean powerhouse, KT Rolster, taking on the Japanese team that surprised everyone when they made it into the knockout stage, killing the European dreams of Team Queso on the final day of Group stages, Sengoku Gaming. Both teams were known to play rather long games on average, so it was likely that the series would end up in many late game team fights.

Prior to even going into the game, it seemed as though KT had definitely done their homework, targeting Rush’s champions, expecting him to carry everything. Even so, both teams were off to their usual start, as they traded towers and farm across the board, but with no kills for over eight minutes. But, once KT drew that first blood, they seemed to take complete control, dominating the game, ending at almost 18-minutes with a fantastic ace. Sengoku looked far better in game two, stopping Do’s Lee Sin from getting any early game farm. The Japanese team seemed as though they would tie up the series, but a huge fight from KT turned everything around as the Koreans took the series to 2-0.

In what would be the final game of the series and Sengoku’s tournamet, KT absolutely dominated them. From start to finish, it seemed as though Do had a point to make after being starved of early game farm in the previous game. Although having some good fights, Sengoku could not keep up, even losing a 3 versus 5 fight to their opponents. Unfortunately for the Japanese team, they would be the second team eliminated from the Wild Rift Horizon Cup today.

With the first day of knockout stage over, only four teams remain in the Horizon Cup – and tomorrow we will see the semi-finals, which will have Team Secret taking on the unbeaten Da Kun Gaming, and KT Rolster taking on the also unbeaten ThunderTalk Gaming. Both series are sure to be absolutely epic as teams fight for a spot in the grand finals and a chance to become the first ever Horizon Cup champion.

Source: https://www.gosugamers.net/wild-rift/news/55108-two-teams-eliminated-on-day-1-of-the-horizon-cup-knockout-stage