The Quarterfinals week in the "League of Legends" Worlds tournament has just kicked off and with a very big upset as well - one that made the League of Legends universe speechless.
Samsung galaxy managed to beat the fan-favored LCK champions, LongZhu Gaming with a very unlikely 3-0 set in a best of five series. This was a task hard enough that even SKT, the current ruling world champions, couldn't manage to accomplish much in the LCK finals.
The upset, of course, wrecked all expectations as LZ's performance so far, almost made it out of the question that the cup would fall into anyone's hands but theirs.
How did it happen?
In an interview before the match began, LZ's TopLaner, Khan, stated that they are not very comfortable playing against another LCK team, especially Ssg. The reason for that, he said, is the fact that they know each other's play style by heart. Not only that, but they know exactly what to expect from their opponents.
It was this knowledge that gave SSG the upper hand during the entire series of the worlds quarterfinal, allowing them not only to win but to stomp the LCK champions. However, day one didn't witness much change to the current meta.
The first game was quite unpredictable and both teams seemed strong. The game itself kept swaying back and forth between the two teams and kept jumping to even scores, from 2-2 to 8-8 and 11-11 at several different points.
Despite that, Ambition managed to put a lot of pressure on LZ's Top Laner with his jungle Sejuani, with good ganks and a masterful tower dive. Cuvee, SSG's Top Laner, and ruler, their ad carry, managed to bring the team back from the dead in several breathtaking team fights.
The stale atmosphere, however, came to a halt when a team fight broke just right next to Baron.
SSG managed to kill two members of LZ and quickly shredded the Baron. Then they headed to the base as they claimed their first victory. Sadly enough though, LZ's fight came to an end with the first game as the next two games seemed to be pretty one-sided.
Games two and three were not the comeback everyone expected. SSG planned everything ahead with the knowledge they had on their opponents and they followed with the perfect execution.
In game two, Crown's Taliyah on SSG's side, empowered with the team's perfect execution, managed to melt down the LZ carries. At 20 minutes, SSG managed to ace LZ and picking up a Quadrakill for Crown. nine minutes afterward, and after cleaning the map's objectives, they claimed their victory. And they even made it look easy and simple as they did.
Game three followed the same pattern. SSG conceded the Taliyah power pick and countered with a Lissandra who had a decided role in the game, the lead just kept growing bigger and SSG finished the game in 32 minutes.
What to expect in the coming days?
With LZ out of the way, SKT's task has become much easier to keep their record and claim another world cup.
But while they are more favored to win than any other team, it's hard to say how to tournament will go from here, especially if SSG manages to keep their performance during the next stage. Also, let's not forget that RNG has been performing quite well this year, and they are the ones who put SSG in second place and forced them to face LZ.
It would be quite unfair to make a good calculated guess. One thing is for sure, this year's Worlds is full of surprises.