Field Level Media
18 Oct 2020, 20:49 GMT+10
In the final quarterfinal matchup of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship Knockout Stage, LEC champion G2 Esports dominated LCK's third seed, Gen.G, in a 3-0 series sweep on Sunday.
While Gen.G had some bright spots, G2 was in control throughout the series, winning almost every aspect of the series from preparation to draft to execution.
G2 Esports didn't just beat Gen.G, they dismantled Gen.G. G2 came up with unique level one strategies designed to put Gen.G on its back foot from the jump in each game. G2's drafts ensured that they could control the tempo while their biggest star, mid laner Rasmus "Caps" Borregaard Winther, was on champions where he could outplay Gen.G. Gen.G's plan of getting bot laner Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk ahead never got to play out, as the rest of the map was consistently controlled by G2.
In Game 1, Caps' roaming as Twisted Fate set his team up for success by finding isolated picks to keep even in gold while Gen.G took objectives. Over time, G2's kills led to a high-tempo midgame, where G2 took a 3-for-0 teamfight and a Baron Buff at 21 minutes to all but close out the game. Ten minutes and nearly 10,000 gold later and G2 was up 1-0 in the series after closing out Game 1 in 30 minutes.
Game 2 saw the continuation of the Caps show, where his Sylas dazzled to the tune of a nearly flawless 11/0/11 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) for 78.6 percent kill participation. Once again, G2 got the action going early on, though it was Gen.G that would come out on top, picking up a cross-map 3-for-2 at just two minutes into the game. Gen.G couldn't capitalize, though, as Caps and his jungler Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski's Lillia got Caps a couple of kills on his lane opponent, Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong, setting up Caps to snowball the game.
Try as Bdd and Gen.G jungler Kim "Clid" Tae-min might, they simply couldn't outfight G2. The breakneck pace had clearly taken Gen.G out of their comfort zone, as Gen.G slowly bled out throughout the midgame with little signs of resistance. Once the G2 gold lead had reached 3,200 by 19 minutes, the game was all but over for Gen.G, who needed more time for Ruler's Ashe to come online in the late game. G2 looked flashy as they took down Gen.G's Nexus in 29 minutes, going up 2-0 and threatening to sweep.
Game 3 was more of the same. Once again, Jankos and Caps were heavily involved in the early game, with Caps roaming around the map to get his teammates ahead while Bdd was content to stay and farm in the midlane. While Gen.G was finally showing some initiative in the early game, such as their 3-for-0 teamfight at 10 minutes that gave Bdd a triple kill, these plays never manifested into concrete advantages.
While Game 3 was somewhat sloppy near the end, with G2 building up gold leads only to lose them in mid- to late-game teamfights, their teamfighting prowess was undeniable throughout the series. Try as Gen.G might, there was simply no way the LCK side was going to out-skirmish the kings of Europe. G2 picked up an early Infernal Soul at 25 minutes, all but ensuring their inevitable win in 32 minutes.
G2 will open the semifinals Saturday against DAMWON Gaming, followed by Top Esports vs. Suning the next day.
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