Team Whales have become the new tournament sweethearts.
For the second time in the Play-In Stage, Team Whales would come back after a first game loss to win 2-1, this time against CTBC Flying Oyster. That win now puts Whales into the next round of the Play-In Stage of Worlds 2023 with just one best-of-five remaining to see if they can move on to the Swiss round.
Whales are also the only team in the tournament to have gone to all three games on two occasions, which goes to show the amount of fight the VCS second seed has brought. As for Flying Oyster, they will now await the winner in the elimination series between Team BDS and DetonatioN FocusMe.
And much like their first series, Whales would go down first against Flying Oysters. The PCS second seed started the match well, being able to assert dominance from early on as their rotations and ganks were on-point. Both Chu Xuan "Gemini" Huang and Chia Hao "ShiauC" Liu were pivotial in the first match, combining for a total of 30 assists between them. Even Shih-Chieh "Rest" Hsu managed to get himself a triple kill for his troubles.
In what could be the team's way of understanding their opponents, Whales would come back in the secodd game with some style once more. And this time, the momentum swung the other way as it was Whales who dominated game two from start to finish. They even managed to keep Flying Oyster at arm's length, limiting them to just four kills, two turrets, and zero drakes for the entire match.
But it was game three that got LoL Park on its feet as both teams would go blow-for-blow in the third and final match. And it was Flying Oyster who got the strong start to begin with, setting the tone and tempo to ensure Whales do not have space and time to farm. But despite the multiple ganks and flanks they had to endure, Whales did not give up.
Instead, they managed to sustain the mounting pressure from Flying Oyster and somehow turned the tides against the PCS second seed. This included some clutch plays from Trần "BeanJ" Văn Chính and Trần "Artemis" Quốc Hưng, who were able to combine for some great plays to put Lê "Glory" Vinh in great positions to deal massive damage.
Team Whales will now be the second team to make it through to the next round of the Play-In Stage. Like PSG Talon, they will get a three-day break where they will await for the second seeds of Groups A and B. As for CTBC Flying Oyster, they will have two days to get themselves together before a decisive match-up against the winner between Team BDS and DetonatioN FocusMe.
