The second-to-last game of the first day of Worlds 2016 saw Samsung Galaxy (Third seed from Korea) take on Splyce (Third seed from Europe). Going into this game predictions were heavily in favor of Samsung as they are the expected 1/2 seed in the group, while Splyce has been expected to get 4th. Being the game right after the crazy upset that was INTZ over EDG, Splyce surely was more fired up though coming in.
Samsung very much targeted Sencux in the bans, banning away Aurelion Sol and Kassadin from him, as well as the flex pick in Karma. Champion select completed as follows:
SSG Splyce
Top: Rumble Kled
Jungle: Reksai Graves
Mid: Viktor Cassiopeia
ADC: Ezreal Jinx
Support: Nami Tahm Kench
Notable from this draft, we got to see the first Kled in competitive play. Casters noted that Kled, in theory, does really well into AP top laners as well as being able to get great engages into poke comps.
The game started off with Samsung showing their laning dominance, as their bot lane picked up a kill in the 2v2, as well as them being able to set up a dive in top lane to get another kill. Shortly after though, Samsung failed a dive bot resulting in two kills for Sencux’s Cassiopeia and a kill for Kobbe’s Jinx.
Despite Samsung’s ability to extend their lead, Splyce constantly showed that they could come back into the game if given the chance. Every fight was incredibly close, but miraculously ended in favor of Splyce most of the time. As the game went on, Splyce kept getting closer and closer to evening up the gold lead despite their questionable engages from Wunder.
Unfortuantely for Splyce, their sloppy play caught up with them. Samsung was able to dominate a team fight in the jungle, then take the baron. This led to another fight in Splyce’s base in which Samsung cleanly closed out the game.
Samsung now 1-0 in groups, while Splyce is 0-1.
