It was a close one, but DRX now has a ticket to the Worlds 2022 Group Stage.
The final day of the Play-ins ended with two matches: DRX Vs. MAD Lions and Royal Never Give Up Vs. Saigon Buffalo. DRX walked away from its match with a win against MAD Lions, emerging victorious after one of the more intense matches we’ve seen this series. RNG on the other hand, scored a less surprising win from Buffalo, considering the former team has been practically steamrolling the competition since eating a loss from MAD.
DRX has gone undefeated in the Play-ins thus far, and it's finally taking on one of the strongest teams in Group B: MAD Lions. MAD was handed a defeat at the hands of RNG recently, but it might find redemption against DRX. By the 11-minute mark, we saw MAD Lions score First Blood in a small skirmish that ended with both teams backing off, not quite ready to fully engage and eat major losses. MAD was playing very well in this early game despite DRX being the clear favourite of this matchup, proving that its play-it-safe approach was working out well.
Half an hour in, MAD managed to score 10 kills to DRX’s eight, with a 5k gold lead and three dragons to the enemy’s zero. This wasn’t exactly an upset, considering DRX was still putting up a good fight by winning multiple skirmishes in a row, but it certainly wasn’t the outcome most would’ve predicted going into this match. MAD picked up yet another dragon, making four total, with DRX utterly unable to catch up in that regard. MAD began to pursue the Baron, while remaining wary of a hovering DRX and its player Deft in particular - a fearsome damage-dealer who tends to pick up kills no matter the encounter. MAD eventually picked up the Baron, but Zeka leaped to tear the team apart and push them back, allowing DRX to march into the enemy base.
DRX dove right into the base, taking down one inhibitor after the other and securing a massive comeback, with MAD unable to push them off in time. The odds were not heavily stacked against the team, but DRX was at a slight disadvantage here and still made it work in the end. DRX now has a ticket to the Group Stage with 5-0, while MAD Lions takes 3-2 and remains in the competition.
Next up was RNG versus Saigon Buffalo. Saigon was the underdog of this match, coming in at 2-2 against a team that has scored three wins in a row. Five minutes into this game, RNG had already scored two back-to-back kills. Saigon’s Taki managed to get revenge against Xiaohu, only for Gala to turn the tables by slaying Taki to give RNG 3-1 kills early on. This fight probably didn’t need to happen, but RNG just refused to waste any time in this match. The team rolled right into the first dragon of the game with Saigon in no state to put up a fight over it.
Gala kept control over the botlane while RNG converged on the second drake of the game, slaying it before Saigon even had time to poke into the team. RNG scored a kill against Taki and decided to take on almost the entire team soon after, but this was a miscalculation on their part - Saigon picked up a Triple Kill against the team and lost just one player for it. RNG was starting fights simply to win them at this point, and this strategy had already begun to have diminishing returns. Still, it wasn’t enough for RNG to lose the advantage totally. The team still had three dragons to Saigon’s zero, a small 3k gold lead and two turrets downed.
After a lategame lull, we saw RNG bait Saigon into a fight that the latter team ended up coming out on top of. Saigon simply cannot be underestimated in skirmishes like these, picking up two more kills and forcing RNG back from the fight it started. It wasn’t a big loss for RNG, who continued to have more objectives downed with a 4k gold lead. Like two ships passing in the night, Saigon went on to grab a dragon while RNG picked up a Baron. It took a little finishing, but RNG slammed Saigon’s base and claimed the victory.
This means that Group B now has no tiebreakers coming up, while Group A has to work out a three-way tie. Saigon Buffalo has to play a best-of-five against MAD Lions tomorrow, while RNG has secured second place in Group B.
