LGD live to fight another day.
LGD Gaming won the first best-of-five of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship today over the LLN’s Rainbow7 with a burst of momentum and a sudden change of pace in tow.
After only three games that lasted an average of just over 32 minutes each, LGD were able to finish off R7 in convincing fashion. And while this result would have made a ton of sense coming into the tournament, there were certainly shades of doubt surrounding LGD heading into this series since the LPL’s fourth seed lost a 40-minute thriller to Rainbow7 on the second day of the play-in stage. To see such a dramatic turnaround in such a short amount of time was certainly a welcome sight for LGD fans.
Throughout the entirety of today’s match, LGD looked like a new team. After securing first blood in all three of their victories, LGD were able to take their early-game momentum and snowball their leads into three surefire victories.
A major contributing factor in LGD’s effort today was a bounceback performance from jungler Peanut. His ability to lock down objectives and secure game-changing picks in all three games resulted in a 9/5/18 scoreline across the course of the series. Peanut significantly turned things around from his original performances during the round-robin phase of the play-in stage where he and the rest of LGD looked outclassed by nearly all of their opponents in Group B.
But in today’s rematch against Rainbow7, LGD swung the pendulum in an entirely different direction, setting themselves up for another best-of-five tomorrow against the OPL’s Legacy Esports.
LGD haven’t faced off against Legacy in the play-in stage yet, considering the Oceanic champions had been playing over in Group A. But in tomorrow’s meeting between the two teams, a spot in the main event of the World Championship will be on the line.
As for Rainbow7, their tournament run has come to a close. Four years have passed since the last time a Latin American team reached the group stage at Worlds. With R7 falling today, the region will have to wait at least another year for a chance at glory.
