For the first time in the history of the League of Legends World Championship, a group is ending the group stage in a four-way tie. The dream of the LEC to make it to the knockout stage of Worlds 2021 remains attainable.
MAD Lions bounced back from their previous losses in the group stage to win earlier today against Team Liquid and then dominate LNG Esports to make Worlds history. All of the teams in Group D are now tied at 3-3, meaning for the first time, each team will have to go into tiebreaker games. Yet with all four teams still in contention, two teams need to be eliminated.
MAD took quick control over LNG today after Icon continued to struggle in his mid lane matchups. Within five minutes, the last-remaining LEC representatives at Worlds took advantage of a skirmish for the top scuttle with three quick kills, centering kills and gold into Carzzy’s Lucian. Icon got caught out by continuous ganks from Elyoya’s unprecedented Poppy pick and bubbles from Kaiser’s Nami, putting LNG’s mid laner too far behind to be impactful—especially on a champion like Irelia that flourishes with early snowballing.
Between Armut and Humanoid, the damage on the side of MAD was too much for LNG to deal with. The number of kills continued to rack up on the side of the LEC squad, providing MAD with a taste of what they could be experiencing if they make it to the knockout stage. LNG’s composition was much more focused on teamfights, with most of their damage centered on Light’s Ziggs, which wasn’t able to find the edge it needed to disrupt MAD’s path to victory.
Though LNG lost, they’ll be forced into a four-way tiebreaker with the other teams in Group D. Their first match will be yet another game against MAD to determine which of the two teams is eliminated from championship contention. The other tiebreaker will pit Liquid against Gen.G. The winner of both games will then face each other for group seeding since they’ll both already be qualified for the knockout stage.
The tiebreaker between Liquid and Gen.G is now underway.
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