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Afreeca Freecs defeated Flash Wolves

G2 Esports defeated Phong Vu Buffalo

Flash Wolves defeated G2 Esports

Afreeca Freecs defeated Phong Vu Buffalo

Phong Vu Buffalo defeated Flash Wolves

Afreeca Freecs defeated G2 Esports

2nd Place Tiebreaker: G2 defeated Flash Wolves

Game 1

At their first Worlds 2018 match up, the Flash Wolves utilized a tanky front line to protect Betty, and allowed him to snowball. When they met again on Day 6, AFS took full control and prevented the enemy ADC from gaining any traction. Betty and the rest of the team were unable to pressure the enemy team the way that they needed to, and paid the price. With only one kill going to each team until the final team fight, AFS played a controlled game. Marching up their gold lead and gaining objectives, the Korean side found revenge against the Flash Wolves, and defeated them cleanly in just over 30 minutes.

Game 2

In the second game of the day, Phong Vu Buffalo faced off against G2 Esports, and the European side showed just how badly they wanted to move on to the Quarter Finals. After falling behind in the early game, They won a team fight 4-1 at 26 minutes, despite being down over 5k gold. Shortly after, they won another. Even though PVB took the Baron in this second team fight, it was the start of their downfall. G2 was Led by Perkz and Wunder who went 11/2/11 and 5/1/10 respectively, fought back to take the victory at 47 minutes.

Game 3

G2 essentially played Game 3 the way that they were supposed to, focusing on objectives and maintaining a solid gold lead for nearly the entire stretch. In the end though, they failed to secure the victory because the Flash Wolves Just. Kept. Killing. Them.

It seemed that every member of FW was deadly as they racked up a total of 28 kills in 43 minutes. G2 carries Wunder and Perkz each died 7 times, and their bot lane went a combined 7/11 as they fell. Despite everyone being excited to see Hjarnan play Brand, he failed to ever really come online with the mage, and the unique pick was unable to be effective into the high CC, high damage comp of FW.

Game 4

In Game 4, Phong Vu Buffalo seemed  to be doing well in the laning phase. Though they gave up a couple of kills, they secured an early dragon, and won a team fight just after 12 minutes which enabled them to snag the Rift Herald and with it, a few early towers. Things turned around in the mid game however, and they found themselves unable to compete with the damage and crowd control coming from the Afreeca Freecs. AFS shut down PVB from there on out, and marched their way to a decisive 34 minute victory.

Game 5

Though they were already eliminated, Phong Vu Buffalo didn’t leave quietly. In a game that was one of the bloodiest of Worlds 2018 so far, lasted 42 minutes, and didn’t see a gold lead greater than 2.6k for either side until minute 32, PVB went out with a bang. Showing that they had learned from their previous struggles, they drafted well and played to their strengths. They brought in XuHao as a substitute Jungler, and he took full advantage of his Worlds opportunity.

Grouping together as much as they could, they continuously used the Camille/Galio combo engage to start team fights in their favor, and relied on MVP BigKoro’s AP Kai’Sa to carry them through. With a game-high 452 CS, Zeros looked unkillable in the late game for PVB, and even the 10/3/8 Betty couldn’t take the VCS team down in the end.

Game 6

In the last scheduled game of the day, G2 faced AFS. The European side was once again able to showcase their high level of game knowledge and macro play, keeping a gold lead for most of the 40 minute game. unfortunately for them, AFS had shaken off their earlier issues, and looked in great form today as they went 3-0 and secured first place in the group.

AFS were able to give their Mid and Bot lanes enough resources to let them produce massive damage, and they turned that into a 10-kill lead by the end of the game. Kuro went 6/0/7 on Galio, and Kramer went 5/1/10 on Kai’Sa, continually winning team fights all the way to the enemy nexus.

Game 7 – Tie Breaker

The final standings for Group A came down to a tie breaker for second place between G2 Esports and the Flash Wolves after AFS secured first. In the final match of the day, predictions were split on who would advance to the Quarter Finals.The match could have realistically gone either way, until the Flash Wolves forgot the first rule of playing against G2 – always ban Heimerdinger.

Instead of banning Hjarnans favorite turret-building yordle, they let him through the banning phase, and G2 snatched him up. In response, the Flash Wolves broke out a Mordekaiser/Tahm Kench bot lane. While they must have thought this strategy would come out on top, it was brought down handily by the Heimerdinger Strategy, and with it, FWs hopes of making it out of the group stage. Hjarnan went 2/0/6 while the enemy bottom lane combined to go 0/6. Wunder dominated in the top lane, and G2 cruised to a 33 minute victory, securing them second place in group A, and a spot in the Quarter Finals.

Be sure not to miss a game! Find the Worlds 2018 schedule Here

Find the rest of my articles here. If you would like to contact me or keep up with things I like, find me on Twitter: @_mrdantes. For more of the best esports news, follow The Game Haus on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for reading!