The first match of Rift Rivals 2019 between North America and Europe wasn’t even close—G2 Esports absolutely dominated Cloud9 in a one-sided stomp today.
Cloud9 opted into a Sona-Taric composition for their matchup against G2, but it completely backfired against their opposition’s counter picks of Neeko and Gragas in the bottom lane. Three minutes into the match, Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle and Martin “Wunder” Hansen—who switched lanes with AD carry Luka “Perkz” Perković—found first blood.
Ten minutes later, G2 were ahead of Cloud9 by 5,000 gold with five kills under their belt. After another five minutes passed, G2 suddenly had a 12,000 gold lead with 12 kills to Cloud9’s three. They had already taken down one inhibitor by this time as well.
G2 showed off why they’re one of the strongest teams in the world right now and Cloud9 couldn’t catch up at all. G2 played through their bottom lane to get the Sona-Taric behind and then turned up the tempo, finding kill after kill, snowballing their lead to insurmountable heights.
This wasn’t the start that North America wanted, but the region still has plenty of chances to get some wins today with the help of TSM and Team Liquid. The rest of the matches are being played on Riot Games’ official Twitch account.
