The biggest surprise in the first round of the group stage of the LoL World Championship 2023 was made by the European champion G2 Esports who brought LEC the only victory by defeating the favored Korean team Dplus KIA (formerly DAMWON).
The most trophy-winning team in the world, T1 and Team Liquid, had the honor of opening the main stage of the tournament this year. The current world champion jungler Pyosik who moved to Team Liquid did his best to make his team try to match the powerful rivals, the team he defeated in the fight for the title in the last championship, but Liquid could not make a miracle and T1 takes an important victory at the start of the championship.
Cloud9 brought joy to American fans by taking advantage of the favorable draw awarded to them by MAD Lions in the first round. The Lions were completely harmless in this match which is best shown by the statistics that they made only three kills in half an hour of play and it seems after everything seen that they are one of the main candidates for the 0-3 score.
GAM Esports struggled to reach the group stage, and in it they received a baptism of fire against one of the main favorites of the tournament, the Korean champion Gen.G who demolished them in just 22 minutes with the same number of kills. The difference in quality was simply too great, and the mitigating circumstance for GAM is that it can realistically only get easier from here.
BDS managed to hold on for the first 15 minutes of the game against JD Gaming, with Gen.G perhaps the main favorite of the tournament, which, as strange as it sounds, can be at least some consolation for the fans. Garen on top proved to be a good solid choice against one of the best top laners in the world, but as the game progressed it was clear that the carry potential that knight and Ruler have is still too much for a relatively average European team.
On the other side, Hans Sama showed what kind of carry he is with his signature pick Draven, although on the other side he had legendary names like Canyon, ShowMaker and Deft. Over 40 minutes of outsmarting between the teams lasted, but G2 managed to get hold of the precious Dragon Soul buff, which was extremely strong against the Dplus KIA team, which in the end, along with the excellent play of the whole team, brought them the victory.
After that, Weibo Gaming defeated the LCS champions NRG with a score of 12-3, and LNG Esports and Bilibili Gaming made sure that the Chinese teams finished the first day with maximum performance in the next two matches.
In the center of attention of the LNG - Fnatic match was experienced veteran Scout who went 11-0-7 with Azir in his team's victory. LNG got the upper hand very early and they didn't allow Fnatic to even try to get back into the match. Unlike them, Bilibili and KT Rolster played a marathon duel of 45 minutes, and the top laner Bin on Xante and Elk as Xayah stood out in the match.
