SK Telecom T1 vs Edward Gaming

With the first day of the group stage behind us, it became apparent that SKT are poised to have another incredible run at this year's World Championship. They looked as strong as they ever did. They outrotated and outmacroed Cloud9 on all fronts. They drafted comfort meta picks and never stopped pressuring C9's weak points. They were more comfortable on the Rift and it was expected, they are no strangers to the big stage. Far from it. While Cloud9 fought to the best of their ability, it only took a quick dance around the Baron pit to swing things in SKT's favor.

As for Edward Gaming, they didn't have a great start. They fought valiantly against LMS' second seed ahq e-Sports and still managed to lose. It was a result that was in essence unexpected, but there is an underlying logic to it beneath the surface level. AHQ is EDG's sister team, they spend a big majority of time scrimming against each other and that has been the case for a long time now. They showed some good things, Scout and iBoy especially, however it individual mistakes - both in teamfighting and positioning were the deciding factor as the game progressed. After over fifty minutes of insanely close teamfighting, An's overfed full build Twitch (paired and protected by Janna) was too much for EDG to handle.

Regardless this was a catastrophic start for the LPL's number one team. Things don't get any easier however as they have to face three-time Worlds winners SKT T1. It's not hard to see EDG improving with each day, however their victory against AHQ was something that was looked at as a sure lock. With that victory snatched away from them, fans have to worry what comes next as every single win or loss makes a world of difference.

They're playing in front of their home crowd and the pressure is obviously incredibly immense. Looking ahead, SKT T1 shouldn't have much trouble repeating their performance and taking EDG down in relatively quick fashion.