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The first round robin of the 2022 Worlds group stage is in the books, and after 24 games of League of Legends in four days, the tournament’s main event is starting to take shape. After that much League, it better.
The contenders are separating themselves from the pretenders, and by this time next week, we’ll know which eight teams will be advancing to the quarterfinals. In the final week of the group stage, each group will play all of their second round robin games on a designated day, beginning with Group A on Thursday, Oct. 13, and running alphabetically through the weekend.
Until then, though, teams have a bit of break period to sit and stew until their next scheduled game. With every team halfway through their group stage run, here are some of the biggest winners and losers at the tournament thus far.
Winner: JD Gaming
No other team looks as strong as JD Gaming at Worlds. While they were an obvious pick to win the whole thing at tournament’s start, this first week of games solidified their place as the pick to win. This is largely due to, one, their spotless record, and two, other tournament favorites like Gen.G, T1, and Edward Gaming all being exposed in some way that resulted in losses.
Loser: All of North America
What a miserable week for North America.
The region’s three teams (Cloud9, 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses) got off to a historic-for-all-the-wrong-reasons start at the group stage, losing all nine of their first round robin games. What’s perhaps more embarrassing about this 0-9 performance is that it’s not even the worst single-week record for North America at Worlds in the region’s history.
In 2015, all three teams at that event (C9, CLG, TSM) put up a combined 0-10 record in the second week of the group stage. No major region has ever gone 0-18 in a single group stage, but NA teams are halfway there—and they might get there on their home soil, no less.
Winner: Odoamne
Rogue top laner Odoamne had the longest wait of any European player in history to win an LEC title, and his first trip to Worlds as the region’s top seed has been well worth the wait.
Not only is Rogue 3-0 through their first three games, but Odoamne leads all top laners at the tournament with a staggering 12.3 KDA, according to League stats site Games of Legends. It helps that he’s been given Maokai—the arguable best flex pick at the tournament—twice in three games.
But regardless of what champion he’s piloting, Odoamne’s play on-stage looks crisp, and it’s not a stretch to say he’s one of, if not, the best top laner at Worlds so far.
Loser: Orianna players
Although Orianna hasn’t been a massively impactful pick at Worlds thus far, the one game in which she did make an appearance ultimately took her off the table at Worlds. A bug surrounding her Command: Shockwave (R) was discovered during Rogue’s game against GAM Esports on Sunday, forcing Riot to disable the champion “until further notice.” Thankfully, the pool of viable mid lane champions at Worlds is quite large, but our hearts go out to players like Jensen, Faker, Larssen, and all the other noted Orianna mains at the tournament who may have been inclined to pull her out as a pocket pick.
Winner: Faker
Beyond Faker cleaning house in his 100th career game at Worlds this week, the G.O.A.T. has played up to expectations at the tournament as a whole. Plus, the meta at Worlds sits directly in Faker’s wheelhouse. Champions like Azir, Sylas, Akali, Viktor and others are all picks Faker has had success on in the past, with a ridiculously high sample size to back up that success. Don’t be stunned if he picks all of his personal classics at least once at Worlds—and wins with them.
Loser: Top Esports
The whole “at least one LPL team is guaranteed to flame out in groups” narrative is a bit tired, but Top Esports haven’t looked like a team that’s fit to advance to the quarterfinals based on what we’ve seen thus far.
Plus, they’re performing far worse than their Chinese counterparts—each of whom have winning records through the first round robin. If you had to pick any LPL team to come up just short, Top Esports look like an obvious candidate.
