After the group stage and four best-of-five series, Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage is over, kicking off the main event. Before moving on to the group stage action, let’s take a look at the play-in stage from the start. There were some impressive results that might help you study the group stage better!
Play-In started on September 29, with two groups of six teams that made it to here either by winning their minor region leagues or finishing in a poor position in their major leagues. Either way, they had to work hard to get to the main event, as there were only four spots available for at least six favourites.
The group stage at play-in
0-5: Finishing the worst, Istanbul Wildcats and Chiefs Esports Club have something to think about on their way home. Oceania’s fall was expected after Riot Games decided to shut down their regional office, but Turkey raised incredible players like Armut and Closer in recent years. Wildcats was definitely a disappointment.
1-4: As a Latin America representative, Isurus looked like the weakest team in the group, and even a win over Istanbul Wildcats is definitely a positive for them. It should be a motivation to come back stronger next year.
2-3: While 2-3 was enough for Saigon Buffalo to stay in the top four and make it to the best-of-fives, PCS’ strong-looking representative Beyond Gaming got eliminated with a feasible score, as Fnatic and Evil Geniuses lost more games than they were supposed to.
3-2: As Europe’s lowest-seeded representatives, MAD Lions was 3-2 right after DRX and RNG, expectedly. However, Group A had three of them: NA’s #3 Evil Geniuses lost one more game than expected, and LOUD and DetonatioN FocusMe impressed everyone to stay in top four, only to lose the tiebreakers and miss a second-place chance.
4-1: Royal Never Give Up were the favourites in Group B, but an unexpected loss against DRX put them in second place after the Koreans. Fnatic was also heading for 5-0, but lost one to LOUD, playing with the group’s dynamics and still securing first place for themselves.
5-0: DRX is the only team to get out of play-ins perfectly. With a 5-0 score, DRX dominated their group and showed that they are better than what we saw in the LCK from them. You should especially note Zeka’s strong performance.
Worlds 2022 Play-In stage is over, and the main event’s group stage will start in a few days. Make sure to visit Luckbox to find the latest news and live streams to catch up with the event. to claim your 100% bonus before placing your bets.
The best-of-fives started
The first best-of-five of the play-ins was between MAD Lions and Saigon Buffalo. Although the Vietnamese showed a good performance to take one game away from the European representatives, they didn’t have the necessary strength to close any of the games. MAD’s mistakes were foreshadowing for the next round, though.
Brazil’s LOUD and Japan’s DetonatioN FocusMe played a best-of-five following that. It was the series between the two best-performing minor regions recently. While LOUD was able to turn the first game around, DFM didn’t fall and managed to win the following three and advanced to the next round.
Evil Geniuses lost 6 games against Europe’s G2 Esports at MSI 2022, and lost one more against Fnatic, but they decided to change that against MAD Lions. They didn’t just defeat MAD Lions, EG managed to crush them in every way, proceeding to the main event of Worlds 2022 and bringing NA the first bragging rights of the year.
Final best-of-five of the play-in stage was between DetonatioN FocusMe and China’s Royal Never Give Up. It looked doomed, but DFM played amazingly well to steal the first game from RNG. The Chinese five managed to take control of the series and dominated the rest of it, but DFM’s performance was still legendary.
We will see what Evil Geniuses, Royal Never Give Up, Fnatic and DRX will do at Worlds 2022 Main Event. However, it was evident that amongst the participating teams, these four were the best-performing teams in the play-in stage and they definitely deserved a chance at the main event.
