Reigning champions EDward Gaming are on the board for Worlds 2022.
The Group Stage of Worlds 2022 is in full swing on Day 2, seeing both Fnatic and EDward Gaming come out on top with huge victories. Fnatic went up against T1 in the second match of the day and won, followed by EDG’s victory over Cloud9. Fnatic now leads Group A with 2-0 while EDG and T1 trail closely behind at 1-1 each.
First up was Fnatic versus T1. Some context is needed here: T1 had just come off a fantastic win against EDG on Day after a blazing fast 20-minute match, so we were expecting big things from this team today. Fnatic’s prowess was nothing to scoff at however, and it showed in this matchup. The team seized control of the botlane relatively quickly in this game, thanks to both Upset and Hylissang cleaning the map up and pocketing crucial kills when they came up.
T1 put up a good fight, but let an early kill and gold lead slip to Fnatic, and the team just never managed to regain that advantage. By the 24-minute mark, we saw T1 nab two dragons but fall perilously behind with a nigh-10k gold deficit. To the team’s credit, it still managed to pick up just as many objectives as Fnatic in the lategame, allowing it to stay in competition without being forced on total defense. Despite T1’s efforts however, Fnatic slayed the Baron and started poking into the enemy base soon enough. It took two tries, but Fnatic managed to break through and seize a well-deserved win.
Next, reigning champs EDG faced off against Cloud9. Group A is full of heavy-hitters like these teams, but EDG seemed to have no problem picking Cloud9 apart anyway. The team was determined to mount a comeback after yesterday’s tough loss against T1, and succeeded here by making aggressive plays. The team already had 4-1 kills 11 minutes into the game, giving it a nice gold lead over the enemy team. The game did get paused after this for about 10 minutes, but both teams came back into the match swinging soon after. 16 minutes in, we saw Meiko hit this insane hook:
C9 managed to keep the gold deficit from getting insurmountably wide in the midgame, but EDG was dominating the map by seizing objectives and dragons so this was to little effect. 28 minutes in and with a 12-3 kill lead, EDG rolled into the enemy base to seize a fairly unsurprising win. At this point, NA teams have not managed to score a single win in the Group Stage – but there’s still time for them to make a comeback.
Next up, we’ll see Top Esports go up against GAM Esports.
