JD Gaming eliminates
EDward Gaming after five intense games in a hard-fought BO5 on September 11. EDG are thus also eliminated from
the race to Worlds, as they won't play in the
Regional Finals to try and claim the two available Worlds spots. JDG remains alive and will face
Weibo Gaming in their next round. The other Lower Bracket Round 1 match will see
Ninjas in Pyjamas take on
Anyone's Legend tomorrow. If AL wins, JDG are guaranteed to be able to participate in the Regional Finals.
The first game started heavily in favor of EDG, with the jungle–support duo of Peng "
Xiaohao" Hao and Wang "
Parukia" Ping-Yang putting on a massive performance. The crowd control provided by their Jarvan IV–Nautilus combo was decisive in securing the opening win. In Game 2, Kim "
Peyz" Su-hwan stole the spotlight, dealing over 62,000 damage to even the series.
JDG then displayed a poor level of play, getting completely stomped in the fastest game of the series, only 27 minutes, as Zhu "
Zdz" De-Zhang’s Kennen and his teammates secured match point. In Game 4, Peyz once again delivered, this time on Caitlyn, an off-meta pick for the AD Carry role that he executed to perfection.
Finally, in the deciding game, JDG opted for a scaling draft with Viktor mid and Zeri–Lulu botlane. They logically struggled in the early stages, but things eventually went their way, allowing them to clinch a hard-fought qualification for the next round. Still, they will need to step up significantly if they want to keep their hopes alive against Weibo Gaming.
