The second day of Rift Rivals Dalian between the LCK, LPL, and LMS was as explosive as League of Legends esports gets. We saw several premier matchups between the world’s best teams, and at the end of it all, the LPL stood at the very top.
The action started with Flash Wolves needing to save their region with a win over KINGZONE. They also had some personal pride on the line after MSI. They ended that tournament tied 3-3 with KINGZONE, so this was the tiebreaker of the year, at least until Worlds.
Boy did Flash Wolves deliver. They played a beautiful defense against KINGZONE’s funnel comp, built around Kim “Pray” Jong-in’s Xayah. Pray didn’t get opportunities to contribute in the early game and when he finally started coming online, Flash Wolves still had enough left to finish.
The next highly-anticipated matchup came between Invictus Gaming and SK Telecom T1. Mid laners Song “Rookie” Eui-jin of IG and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok have been on a collision course for years—they’re both so good it seemed like only time before they’d clash on a stage like this. But we’ve only seen them actually play against one another twice, including once at All-Stars a few years ago.
Faker busted out a carry champion in Yasuo to duel Rookie with, but the younger LPL star didn’t take the bait. He played Galio to stay safe and contribute in teamfights. But Faker still jumped out to a big lead, getting a kill and a couple assists when Rookie went too deep.
Usually seeing Faker with that type of lead, especially on a snowball champion like Yasuo, means the game is over. SKT kept building their advantage, getting multiple members ahead. But then it all went awry when they called for Baron. They weren’t all there at the start and did not have mid lane priority, a crucial mistake.
That one mistake undid over 20 minutes of solid play and got IG the win. SKT could not hold at their inhibitor line and IG won shortly after the Baron buff wore off.
That victory catapulted the LPL to first position in the group and they would not relinquish their advantage. In the last game of the day, RNG continued their dominance over KINGZONE, dismantling another funnel comp in the process.
Now, the LPL have pole position heading into this weekend’s knockout stage. And for the first time in forever, the LCK will be the underdogs after the group stage of an international tournament. Maybe that ignites something inside their players and we get even more exciting games over the next two days of Rift Rivals Dalian.
