T1’s bot lane Dominated Group A
There is no doubt that the Korean bot lane has been able to put up one of the best performances we’ve seen from them in a long time. Sure, we could say that Group A wasn’t a huge challenger for T1, but it’s still impressive to see them being consistent enough to only lose a single game throughout the whole thing.
If we just take a look at the KDA leaderboard across the whole tournament, sitting at the top with a whopping 18.25 is T1’s ADC Gumayusi, who has continued dominating the bot lane from throughout the year in the LCK into this year’s Worlds. Gumayusi and his support have been touted as one of the best bot lane duos in the world for what they’ve been able to accomplish in such little time.
The LCK #2 seed went through the group stage with a record of 5-1, successfully taking down the LPL’s EDG, LEC’s Fnatic, and the LCS’ Cloud9 in the process. Gumayusi showcased clear control of the meta with deathless games in all of T1’s wins, doing so with a combination of meta and comfort picks like Sivir and Kai’Sa.
But Gumayusi is not by himself in bot, Keria, his support, emerged from the group stage with the third highest KDA at 15.4, attained through his willingness to be a menace to opponents regardless of where they were on the map. Notably, most of this KDA was attained by playing enchanters like Nami and Yuumi, which created dominant bot lane champion combinations that brought out the fullest potential of the synergy between these two players.
T1’s support was even more than willing to play Soraka, a champion that has become situational in the evolving meta, against EDG in a match that many fans expected to bring both teams to their limits. Yet thanks to this pick, T1 completely snowballed the game from an early lead. Keria’s perfectly-placed silences rendered almost all engages from the enemy team futile, all the while healing his team to full.
Can RNG fully recover from COVID situation?
While maybe the majority of the public didn’t know about this, last week, RNG managed to get through the group stage while suffering the effects of COVID. A statement from the Chinese team reported four of the players from the roster had tested positive for COVID-19. As per Riot’s COVID policy, the team was allowed to continue albeit playing under isolated conditions.
The players were experiencing moderate to severe symptoms like muscle pain and coughing. Despite their conditions, RNG maintained their dominant status as major contenders in their respective games and advanced to the 2022 Worlds playoffs after only losing to fellow juggernaut Gen.G twice in the knockout stage.
Though qualifying for the quarterfinals, the team has reportedly cut practice times and not participated in scrims to accommodate the player’s health. This is obviously raising concerns amongst their fans, because it’s very obvious the impact this might have in their series Friday, which is going to be their toughest challenge they’ve faced so far.
Sure, RNG already managed to beat T1 back in the 2022 Mid-season invitational, but the circumstances are way different now, and we could say that they heavily favor T1. The best RNG and the LPL fans can hope for is a speedy recovery for the players, because if the situation doesn’t get any better, T1 might have the upper hand this time around.
T1 vs RNG Match Information
- Date: Friday, October 21st
- Time: 5:00pm ET
- T1 vs RNG Live Stream: Twitch.tv
T1 vs RNG Prediction
It’s impossible to know if RNG’s health situation is going to get much better by the time Friday arrives. Still, this series is definitely going to be a close one, especially if we consider just how inconsistent both teams’ playstyle can be on a bad day.
Yes, T1 did have the better results during the group stage, but they showed some clear weaknesses in their games, especially in their drafts. On the other hand, it seems that RNG is a much more dominating team as long as they get off to a decent start, so by the time teamfights arrive, they simply outplay their opponents due to their superior individual skill.
I expect a great series between these two teams, and I would go as far as saying that this could easily be a grand finals worthy match. I think that this matchup will go all the way to the 5th game, where two teams will try their hardest to advance to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the JDG vs Rogue series.
The 2022 Worlds knockout stage is just getting started, so make sure to stay tuned as we’ll be sharing our esports picks with you! Don’t forget to bet on esports at BetUS Sportsbook & Casino. We’ve plenty of lol odds for you to consider.
