Worlds 2020 Play-In: Three Word Game and MVPs of Day 1

Day 1 of the play-in stage for Worlds 2020 has come to a close so let’s recap all the action.

The League of Legends World Championship is officially upon us, with the 10 teams in the play-in stage having kicked off play earlier today. All but three teams played at least one game, some even playing two, so we already see the first standings of Worlds 2020 starting to take shape.

With only three more days of play in the play-in stage and each team only getting four games total, teams have very little time to re-set, re-evaluate, and rebound before their next action tomorrow. Let’s break down how each of these games went, in only three words, and give the three players who stood out today as the MVPs of the play-in stage.

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3 Word Recaps

*The winning team is in bold

MAD Lions vs. INTZ – Too close MAD

This game could have easily been our first upset of Worlds 2020, as INTZ jumped out to an early lead and forced MAD Lions to claw their way back to snatch away a victory.

PSG Talon vs. Rainbow7 – Talent gap big

Even with three substitute players, including two who were on a completely different PCS team, PSG Talon was fully in control all the way. Unfortunately, the gap in talent between Southeast Asia and Latin America appears to be too big.

Legacy Esports vs. INTZ – How to Nidalee

Babip put on a show as Nidalee in this game, going 9/2/5 on the champion and proving why she should be perma-banned against him.

LGD Gaming vs. PSG Talon – Subs cause chaos

The big upset of the day was this mis-matched group of PCS players taking down LGD, who were assumed to be the strongest team in Group B. All of a sudden, PSG Talon is in prime position to make it to the group stage and LGD have to be a bit concerned.

Team Liquid vs. MAD Lions – NA > EU

Nothing more to say, Team Liquid looked great, MAD Lions looked as sluggish and disjointed as they did in their earlier game against INTZ.

MVPs of Day 1

Leo “Babip” Romer (Legacy Esports, Jungler)

No question here, Babip was a force for Legacy Esports on his Nidalee pick, picking up over half (9 of 17) of Legacy’s kills on the game and participating in 14 of the 17 kills (82.4% kill participation). Oh, and he led all players in damage in the game with over 700 DPM as a jungler.

Hsiao “Kongyue” Jen-Tso (PSG Talon, Jungler)

You could make the argument for any of PSG Talon’s three subs (Kongyue, Dee, or Uniboy) but I’m going to give the nod to the jungler. In his first two games with this new team, Kongyue went a combined 16/1/15 on Ekko and Graves. He stepped the heck up in his first action on the world stage.

Edward “Tactical” Ra (Team Liquid, ADC)

You could easily give this to his teammate Impact, who smurfed on Mordekaiser in Liquid’s first win over MAD Lions, but Tactical was the dominant player on TL for me. With a 5/2/14 scoreline (86.4% kill participation) on his first professional Twitch game and his first international game, Tactical looked right at home.