Image credit: LoL Esports
There are officially no LCS teams in the playoffs.
100 Thieves' loss against Royal Never Give Up means that there won't be any LCS teams in the playoffs. After winning their first match against CTBC Flying Oyster, 100T almost made it two-for-two against MSI 2022 champions, RNG. Sadly, it wasn't in the cards for them as RNG proved to be too strong.
While 100T will be disappointed with a game that was theirs to lose from the early game onwards, it will be even more disappointing for the thousands of fans in attendance. With no NA team in the playoffs and only one from the EU, it's looking to be a very stacked Eastern region playoff bracket in the United States.
As for RNG, that win puts them ahead of Gen.G Esports while still being the only team to remain undefeated in the group stage. They will still have to play two more games against CFO and Gen.G to see if they can clinch that perfect record.
The LPL squad started the game brightly, securing key kills in the early exchanges of the game. However, it was 100T who secured the bag in the early game, ensuring that while they couldn't compete in skirmishes, they could out-farm RNG. The early game was particularly eventful for Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao who took three of the five kills on his Akali.
As the mid-game progressed, both teams were happy to trade objectives. RNG would stake a greater claim over the outer turrets while 100T resorted to taking drakes. This even gave 100T a slight edge in the mid-game as they were able to deathball over RNG to even up the odds. But the LPL team were not out of it, despite a failed Baron steal.
This gave Xiaohu the opening he needed to deal damage to the back lines of 100T while they were in full retreat. Even with the Baron buff, it wasn't enough for the LCS squad to withstand the onslaught, which gave Xiaohu a triple kill in the process. But even after all that, RNG could not end the game just yet with 100T fighting back with some brilliant base defence.
Having resorted to taking the second Baron, this was 100T's last chance to try and take something back from the game. Sadly, that was all she wrote as they soon got ganked from both ends, which resulted in them getting team wiped and eventually, out of Worlds.
