Korean dominance: Every team at the top of the early-game gold difference chart during the Worlds 2022 group stage is from the LCK

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Even though the 2022 League of Legends World Championship is being held in North America, LCS teams struggled immensely through the tournament, with most rosters stumbling from the opening minutes onward.

If you’ve been following the competitive scene for a while, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that instead, the Eastern representatives have crushed the competition in the early game. All four LCK teams make up the top of the leaderboards when it comes to average gold difference at 15 minutes, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Standing tall at the top of the mountain is DRX, who has a whopping 2,616 average gold difference in the early stages of their games. It looks like the play-in buff was real for the Korean fourth seed as they plowed through a majority of their opponents in groups after only dropping two games through the stage. The team’s group consisted of some tough challengers, including China’s dangerous second seed Top Esports, European champions Rogue, and the wily, unpredictable GAM Esports.

DWG KIA and T1 came in second and third respectively with the 2020 world champions racking up a 2,442 average gold difference at 15 minutes, and the three-time champs holding an equally-as-impressive gold difference of 2,050. T1 might have had the easier group compared to DK since they were the undisputed top team in Group A with a 5-1 record, while DK shared the top spot with the same record alongside the LPL champions, JD Gaming.

From spots five to eight, all four LPL representatives have lagged behind Korea, with differences spanning from Edward Gaming’s average of 1,360 gold at 15 minutes to Royal Never Give Up’s much lower 152 average gold difference. As expected, the Chinese juggernauts were much more volatile during the earlier stages of their games but eventually dominated their enemies through superior mid-to-late game macro and teamfighting. Their destructive and fearless mechanics also proved to be an X-factor for locking a spot into the next stage of Worlds.

If you’re from the West, however, you might want to look away. None of the teams from Europe or NA are seen in the top eight, with a majority of the representatives holding disappointing win rates over the course of their six games, along with negative average gold differences in their games. For example, the best team for gold was 100 Thieves, who only had an average of -732 difference at 15 minutes. Cloud9, on the other hand, had an abysmal early gold difference average of -1,957, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Fans will now get to witness whether these trends will continue as the tournament rages forward into the knockout stage, where teams can adjust their strategies across a five-game series. You can catch JD Gaming vs. Rogue in the event’s first quarterfinal matchup on Oct. 20.