Will the last LPL representative survive to make it through to Worlds 2021 Finals?
Worlds 2021 Prediction: GEN.G Esports vs EDward Gaming
The Quarterfinals Stage at Worlds 2021 came and left last week, leaving us with just four final teams. EDward Gaming remains as the only non-Korean representative in the Semifinals for Worlds 2021. They get the luxury of facing off against arguably the weakest LCK team left in the tournament, but can EDG survive another BO5 to make it to Finals?
LoL Worlds 2021 Recaps:
Worlds Quarterfinals: T1 Smash Hanwha Life Esports 3-0
Worlds Quarterfinals: Gen.G Sweep Cloud9
Worlds Quarterfinals: DWG KIA Defeat MAD Lions 3-0
Worlds Quarterfinals: EDward Gaming Defeat RNG in All-LPL Match
GEN.G Esports at Worlds 2021
We've had our doubts about Gen.G this year at Worlds. They were looked at as one of the obvious teams to advance in Group D and were on track to accomplish that goal early on, but things got flipped upside down when their group went to a 4 way tie. Luckily, Gen.G Esports were able to make the best of their situation and finished 1st in Group D after wins to Team Liquid and MAD Lions.
After their shaky group stage performances, fans were skeptical on whether or not Gen.G would be able to deal with Cloud9 in the Quarterfinals. It's hard to tell whether C9 under-performed or Gen.G over-performed, but this series was a complete stomp. Game 1 was fairly close after some expert teamfighting from C9, but Gen.G Esports crushed their chances at a comeback off of Ruler's Aphelios by 42 minutes. The next two games were way faster, with Cloud9 struggling to keep up with the pace coming from their opponents. Before long, they had been completely shut out and Gen.G moved on to the next round of play.
How can EDG defeat Gen.G?
Gen.G has two major win conditions for EDG to target. They tend to either play through BDD on one of his comfort mid lane picks, or Ruler with scaling ADCs. The rest of their team is obviously extremely talented, but Gen.G's philosophy has stayed the same throughout the past several years. They're good at playing out matches slowly, controlling objectives and scaling towards victory. They're one of the best teams at this playstyle, since they've had so much time to refine it. But this team will really struggle in the face of any opponent that can speed up the tempo of a match. DAMWON KIA is a perfect example of a team who's play-style completely counters Gen.G. If EDG wants to win out in this match, they should try to pick champs with better early game tempo and close out games early
EDward Gaming at Worlds 2021
EDG has all the tempo in the world right now. They came into Worlds 2021 fresh off of a domestic title victory in the LPL with a 3-1 victory against FPX to cement themselves as the strongest team of their region. That definitely appears to be true given that they're the only Chinese team remaining now. However, things haven't gone entirely according to plan as they dropped several games in the group stage. They were deprived of a tiebreaker in Group B after losing to 100 Thieves, securing them second place.
To their credit, EDward Gaming were able to succeed in their Quarterfinals Match against RNG. This best of 5 was easily the most exciting of the last round, given that it went to all 5 games. The games were all fairly short, with salty runbacks aplenty. Both of these teams kept on drafting basically the same champions and just duking it out, it was awesome to watch. Luckily for EDG, they adapted better throughout the series and are now the ones aiming for a worlds title. However, they need to get through Gen.G first.
How can Gen.G defeat EDG?
Gen.G are definitely looking at an uphill battle in this match-up simply due to the play-style mismatch. With that being said, they're a capable team that have a strong identity. This is a huge advantage at any stage in the tournament, but especially as we get further in the rounds. Gen.G know exactly how they want to play each match, they know what their comfort picks are, and they're not completely ignoring the meta either. All of these factors are aligning in the favor of Gen.G, and they're on a roll too after their clean 3-0 sweep of Cloud9. I think the best course of action for Gen.G is to just keep doing what they're doing, stick to what works and don't make any major adjustments. This will be their best option if they want to compete against EDward Gaming.
More Worlds 2021 Prediction Pieces:
- Worlds 2021 Prediction: DAMWON KIA vs T1
- Worlds 2021 Prediction: Gen.G Esports vs Cloud9
- Worlds 2021 Prediction: MAD Lions vs DAMWON KIA
- Worlds 2021 Prediction: RNG vs EDward Gaming
Final Thoughts
This might be the most exciting match-up of Worlds 2021. The two different teams have such clashing ideologies, we're sure to see some close games. Will Viper and Meiko dominate against Ruler and Life? Can BDD win mid and carry or will Scout shut him down? All of these questions will be answered soon when these two teams clash. I think this one could honestly go either way, so I'm gonna go with my heart and root for an LCK vs LPL finals.
EDG 3-2 Gen.G
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