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3 things to know from Day 2 of Worlds

China, Europe and TSM all recover (relatively) from Day 1.

Riot Games

After a day of close games to open the tournament Thursday, Day 2 of Worlds provided many more straightforward results. Of the six games that were played, only one, maybe two were legitimately contested, and for many of the groups we got a much clearer outlook of the pecking order.

Check out our Worlds hub for everything going in the tournament. From just Friday’s action, here’s what you need to know.

  1. TSM, SKT and RNG look O freaking P

Friday was the first time we got to see defending champions SK Telecom T1 in action, and they simply destroyed Cloud9, led by a masterful performance from Faker in the mid lane.

North American champions Team SoloMid recovered from a rough Thursday to blow out the LCK’s Samsung Galaxy in a dominating win. In particular, jungler Svenskeren and mid laner Bjergsen put on a show for TSM.

Meanwhile, TSM’s top Group D competition improved to 2-0, as RNG easily took down Splyce. The Uzi buff is at Worlds once again, and it is very real.

2. China and EU respond after bad Day 1s

This is moreso true for China than Europe, but both regions had a better Friday than Thursday. After LPL champions EDward Gaming’s embarrassing loss to Brazil’s INTZ e-Sports, China went 3-0 on Friday, with wins for RNG (against Splyce), I May (an upset against Flash Wolves) and EDG (against ahq e-Sports).

Meanwhile, after a disastrous 0-3 start to the tournament, Europe recovered with an “at least that’s better” 1-1 Friday. H2K held on to an early lead this time, taking out INTZ, while Splyce lost handily to Royal Never Give Up. Splyce head coach YamatoCannon still has hope, however.

3. Group C is wide open

All four teams sit at 1-1: EDward Gaming beat ahq but lost to INTZ, INTZ beat EDward Gaming but lost to H2K, H2K beat INTZ but lost to ahq, and ahq beat H2K but lost to EDward Gaming. Coming into the tournament, EDward Gaming was considered the strong favorite in the group, and the fact that ahq or INTZ were not able to jump out to a 2-0 start after EDG’s stumble has to be good news for the Chinese champions.