SKT and OMG pull out the punches and dominate the first day while Fnatic does their trademark struggling. Cloud 9 managed to pull a win against the Europeans, bringing them in the middle of the pack.
To close out the first day, it was looking good for Cyanide initially in the Cloud 9 vs. Fnatic matchup. Once again, Cyanide was able to bait and acquire an early first blood on his jungle Kha'Zix. Without the leadership of Hai, it would appear that Cloud 9's decision making was rather questionable and Fnatic sustained a solid lead the entire game.
s0AZ was a massive threat with his split pushing power. Fnatic were mostly able to hold off Cloud 9 with four while s0AZ rampaged through minion waves and towers. However, Cloud 9 would capitalize on this and win a crucial teamfight that would grant them baron, and an inhibitor, snowballing the game to a victory for the Americans.
Taipei Assassins had the misfortune of facing arguably the second strongest team of OMG after their loss to SKT T1 K. OMG had a bad level one despite Allen's three-man stun on Annie, but OMG were able to pick up the pace and smash afterward.
Taipei Assassins would then feel the pain of letting OMG have comfort picks as every single lane was crushing, especially Xiyang on his signature Syndra. OMG were able to easily close out the second game and lead the group 2-0.
The night would come to a close with Cloud 9 featuring their first ever matchup against a Korean team, SKT T1 K. Even though Cloud 9 took the first tower, SKT simply froze the wave for Impact and allowed him to free farm. For this reason, SKT stayed even in gold when they should have remained behind.
With a few mistakes coming out of Cloud 9, SKT were quick to capitalize. Unlike many other teams, one cannot simply hold out on SKT to make a mistake, as SKT turns inch leads into miles. Until the game would end, SKT were essentially playing with their food. SKT eventually pushed in and tied the groups with OMG, a feeling reminiscent to Worlds.
RESULTS