Our Worlds Groups MVP: JD Gaming 369

We saw a lot of amazing players and many great plays in the Worlds 2022 Group Stage, but none shone brighter than JD Gaming Top laner Bai "369" Jia-Hao.

This year's group stage offered everything - amazement, hopium and a bit of disappointment - or more than a bit, in some cases. The fact that no team comes out of the groups undefeated is a testament for the competition and the level of players. It provided a challenge even for the best players - but of course, for the very best that is just an opportunity to shine even brighter. This is just what JD Gaming top laner Bai "369" Jia-Hao did and he excelled in an einvironment with some of the best LEC, LCS and LCK players. When the smoke cleared, JD gaming came out ahead of LCK third seed DWG KIA, LEC finalists and spring champions G2 Esports and LCS' third representative Evil Geniuses. The fact that JDG triumphed is in a large part because of their top lane prodigy Bai "369" Jia-Hao.

On Top of the World

While the LPL champions came in this group as the likely favorites, there was a lot of uncertainty about just how well they could match up against their rivals here. In this atmosphere and against three teams that were considered to have some of the best top laners in their regions, 369 was a cut above them. He started his Worlds run with a very impressive Sejuani game that pretty much took Jeong "Impact" Eon-young’s Gangplank out of the picture. While JDG relegated their top laner to Ornn in their first game against DWG KIA, he still held on - and the next few games against Western teams allowed him to pop off on Renekton and Fiora. While the rematch against JDG did not go his way, he was unstoppable in the tiebreaker and a big reason why it was JDG that left the group in first place.

While he was initially infamous domestically for being a hit or miss player (Chinese fans often joked that he is a "3" when he plays poorly and a "9" when on point) , the JDG top laner was a 9 more often than not in this group. He only had one game which we would consider suspect - the Kennen performance in the second game against Damwon KIA - and he more than made up for that in the tiebreaker, maintaining a healthy 3 KDA over the course of seven games.

Read More:

• Our Worlds Play-In MVP: EG Inspired
• The Ups and Downs of the Worlds Groups Stage
• "Riot Won't Say Anything" - Why Riot Isn't Responding to TES Game Bug

Now that JDG is in playoffs, 369's next text will be against Rogue. Will the LPL champions cruise on to the semifinals or would Rogue serve another upset? Make sure to watch Worlds to find out!