The League of Legends World Championship 2017 Group Stage schedule has concluded. 8 teams out of 16 have survived, and others took their tickets back to home in misery. Longzhu Gaming, SKT T1, and Samsung Galaxy from LCK have all managed to the quarterfinals, and the remaining spots are filled with Royal Never Give Up and Team WE from LPL, Fnatic and Misfits from EU LCS, and Cloud9 from NA LCS.

Let us review the Group Stages before the quarterfinals. It would be interesting to see which team did well in the match, and what disappointing moments occurred. There was a number of best moments of victory and defeat in this Worlds Group Stages.

■ The ‘masterpiece’ teamfight

We have seen fabulous teamfights many times, especially during this Worlds. It is probably due to the teamfight-oriented combo with the Ardent Censer being a trend in this season. Tanks with CCs that protect the ally ADC and chase after the opponent were favored, leading to having a well-balanced tank and dealer combination.

Although teamfights occur more often because of the combination, it is pro players’ decision and performances that complete the perfect teamfight in the end. These features piled up to make the masterpiece more frequently than ever in one match. Among those, there are three memorable and noticeable ones that fans remember.

The first that comes up in everyone’s mind is the wombo combo occurred in the match between SKT T1 and Edward Gaming on October 6th. With the initiation by Jaewan “Wolf” Lee’s Rakan, everyone’s ults and skills hit the opponent team beautifully and eventually closed the 10k global gold difference. Despite iBoy’s Zaya responding with her ult, she could not avoid all CCs focused upon her. Let’s re-watch the moment of SKT showing their true potential once again.

If you were surprised about SKT’s decimating performance, now’s the time to check out Longzhu Gaming’s capability of concentration. They were falling behind against GIGABYTE Marines in the 2nd match on October 12th. GAM, in their high spirits, went to pressure the top lane, and LZ had to stop them. This is where their concentration shined. Woochan “Cuzz” Moon’s Gragas destroyed the enemy team’s formation with his ult, and they waited until the enemy Zilean’s ult faded away. They then charged after the opponent afterward and annihilated GAM.

Whereas two teams above have given powerful one-shot teamfights that completely turned the tide, this team proved how fearsome one can be when they try to hold the winning tide. This scene shows when Royal Never Give Up from LPL claimed the great victory of the second teamfight against Samsung Galaxy. While scanning the situation around the second mid tower, the initiation by mlxg’s Jarvan 4 combined with the ult by LetMe’s Galio locked up the opponent in one spot. The tremendous damage by Xiaohu’s Syndra and Uzi’s Tristana followed after, forcing SSG to lose four members almost instantly, along with the Nexus in the end.

■ Super plays by pro players

While we have seen how beautiful the team synergy can make the match, we need to check out how individual players do their super plays as well. There’s no doubt that cooperation comes first before individual performances as the team synergy is crucial in team-oriented matches. However, it is also not right to ignore each player’s potential, because they do have a huge impact which can change the tide of a match.

Even though they have tasted the bitterness of defeat in Group Stages, TSM became much better than before. Among the members, Hauntzer, the top laner of the team, especially shined and proved himself a top-notch player. He showed one of the most fabulous moments that Gnar can do with his ult in the match against Flash Wolves. It became even better and more destructive as the ult hit right after the opponent Taric’s ult faded away.

When SSG was having a hard time against Fenerbahce, it was Yongin “CoreJJ” Jo’s Lulu that determined the battle. SSG was struggling by a swift movement of Taeil “Frozen” Kim’s Ekko. When the match was in a deadlock, the teamfight occurred around the Baron Nashor, and Frozen’s Ekko penetrated towards Jaehyuk “Ruler” Park’s Tristana. The situation was about to become deadly for Tristana having continuous CCs upon her, and CoreJJ’s Lulu quickly used Whimsy on Frozen’s Ekko and prevented the skill combo. This led SSG to determine their victory of the match.

mlxg from RNG, in his most fearsome stance for this Worlds, has also shown the best moment. While RNG was charging toward the SSG’s Nexus in the 2nd match, mlxg was still thirsty for more kill points. He performed the Triangle Kick by Lee Sin, heating up the atmosphere and audience. Let’s enjoy his excellent Lee Sin performance one more time.

It is such a dishonor to not mention this player when we talk about super plays. It’s Sanghyuk “Faker” Lee. In the last match of the Group Stage against EDG, he delivered a powerful Shockwave that decimated the enemy formation, allowing the team to claim victory. Even in the most intense teamfight situation, Faker’s Orianna saved the ult until the last minute and used it at the perfect timing, getting the opponent mid laner and ADC and dominating that fight. Faker truly is the superstar who always fulfills his job.

Jongin “Pray” Kim, who has always been complimented for his dedication to the team, is also having his own way in this Worlds. Not only the great cooperation with his teammates, he also does super play that no typical ADC can possibly do. The match with Immortals was where he had the best shot. Pray’s Varus shot arrows at the enemy champion while standing in front as if people would mistakenly understand his role as a tank. Let’s watch the scene of his play while considering that Varus does not even have a single survival skill.

■ Forward flash that brought defeat

We have watched teams and players’ best performances and purified our eyes and mind. Now, it’s time for disappointing, and also costly mistakes. You would probably come up with so many moments already. Among those, some of the most disappointing moments that you would also empathize are the costly forward flash performed by ADCs.

Fnatic’s ADC, Rekkles, performed his best plays as Twitch against Immortals. Even so, both teams were in deadlock until 50 minutes into the game. Rekkles with 6 kills and 2 assists, thought to end the game with one big shot, and tried to kill Pobelter’s Taliyah who was standing a bit in front of the group. It was a huge mistake. Rekkles’ Twitch chased after the enemy even by flashing forward, but the enemy team joined quicker than expected, and that was the end of the entire match.

However, Fnatic managed to rearrange themselves and enter the quarterfinals even with Rekkles’ mistake. EDG, on the other hand, had to be dropped from the league with the similar mistake. iBoy showed his potential at every crucial moment as if he was going to realize the miracle that happened in the 2nd week once again. However, he learned a costly lesson in the match against SKT. He chose to flash forward instead of retreating when surrounded by the opponent team. This is still controversial among the community whether this was a reasonable decision or the worst. What’s important is that, after this play, EDG collapsed very quickly.

■ Catastrophe caused by a misjudgment

Two moments that are introduced below may not be as noticeable as the ones above, but they are surely mistakes that cannot be disregarded.

During the match between C9 and SKT, it seemed that Smoothie, Cloud9’s support, was feeling desperate when Faker’s Fizz started to rule the match. When Jensen’s Syndra was hit by Fizz’s ult during the teamfight around the Nashor, he flashed and desperately used the ult in order to prevent Fizz from penetrating into the group. It turned out to be the worst decision. Janna’s ult is supposed to utilize its AoE healing effect in the teamfight, but it didn’t work out that way. C9 had to retreat as they couldn’t sustain the teamfight any longer. It was surely the one that C9 could’ve won.

The momentary misjudgment in a teamfight was often caused especially by teams from NA LCS. This time, it’s Cody Sun’s Tristana from Immortals. He led his teammates to death with the ult mistake against Fnatic, and is considered the main culprit of their defeat. When a teamfight occurred in the bot lane and Immortals was retreating, Cody Sun suddenly flashed forward and ulted the enemy Cassiopeia toward Xmithie’s Ezreal. He was flustered to face Cassiopeia when he could’ve survived from that situation, and then fell immediately.

■ Air Shot!

The most important feature that all Orianna players need to care about is the use of ult during a teamfight. As did Faker’s Orianna use the ult to dominate, her ult is more than capable to change the entire atmosphere depending on how it is used. However, GAM’s Optimus couldn’t fulfill his task. His consecutive misuses of the ult failed the team to enter the quarterfinals. This proved how counter-effective it is when the skill is missed in the most important situation. The real problem is that moment is the start of his misuse.

■ Where’s our jungle?

During Worlds Group Stages this year, the performances by LPL junglers really stood out. mlxg from RNG, and Condi from Team WE did a fantastic job, and Clearlove7 from EDG also earned his prestige at every crucial moment.

On the other hand, there’s one person amongst other junglers who receives the most sympathy of being the worst jungler. It’s Svenskeren, the jungler of Team SoloMid. He’s criticized even by fans who are most loyal to TSM. NA fans even gave him a nickname of ‘walking ward’. There are so many matches with his plays scoring 0/0/0 KDA in 20 minutes, which influenced Hauntzer, Bjergsen, and Doublelift in a negative way. Without a jungler doing his job, laners couldn’t help but bind themselves in one spot with frustration.

■ Extra

GAM is truly an interesting team. They picked strange but profound tactics and champions and entertained fans who watched the Worlds. They also showed great performances for a Wildcard team, drawing people’s interest once again.

There’s one more reason why they should be remembered - the comedy scene that blew everyone’s mind. When Immortals was about to be defeated, they initiated the last fight, but it didn’t work out well and had to retreat to their fountain. Then, Optimus’ Ryze did a quite interesting play, although not sure whether it was a joke or a mistake. When NoWay’s Kog’Maw was trying to retreat to the fountain, Ryze used ult and sent Kog’Maw back to the enemy. This brought so much laughter to casters and fans.