Legacy Esports have started their inaugural Worlds campaign off on the right foot, downing group rivals INTZ in a nail-biting 17–17 battle to remain one of three teams still undefeated in Group A after the first day of competition in Shanghai.
The Australian champions got off to an early lead, once they got through multiple pauses at the start of the game. INTZ, through Diogo “Shini” Rogê on Volibear, claimed the first dragon, but Legacy made them pay with first blood to Leo “Babip” Romer.
Babip in particular was a highlight in the clash, as he scooped up nine kills and a further five assists on his signature Nidalee. His crowning moment came 36 minutes in, as a now-scaled INTZ looked to claim supremacy around the Elder Dragon.
The game had begun to slip away from Legacy. A hefty 7.5k gold lead had nearly halved as the CBLOL champs played the slow game, scaling into the backend of the match.
Then, it looked like disaster had struck. Jonah “Isles” Rosario had found another of his many hooks on Nautilus, and James “Tally” Shute — playing Sett in mid lane — had teleported in to a strong flanking position.
Despite that, INTZ began winning the fight.
Quin “Raes” Korebrits leaped into the middle of three Brazillians (a regular occurrence in the opening game) and was immediately chunked out and then killed.
Isles was soon to follow, as Bruno “Envy” Farias finally began dishing out damage on what had been a relatively quiet Zoe pick.
Babip and Tally had different ideas though. Babip’s Nidalee returned to the fight, deleting the INTZ jungler, before a long-winded chase through the jungle cleaned up Envy and RedBert to gain control of the dragon pit, and put Legacy back in the driver’s seat.
WHAT WAS THAT @BabipOCE
— Legacy Esports @ #Worlds2020 (@LegacyOCE) September 25, 2020
🔴📺 https://t.co/n7QOwZa2h3 pic.twitter.com/NBDHDxrdJK
All the while, Kim “Topoon” Ji-hoon was pulling INTZ across the map.
The Korean top laner had quietly been split-pushing on Camille for the first thirty minutes of the game and, apart from one failed Hookshot-Flash combo early in the lane, he had become the rock Legacy built their skirmishing gameplay off.
The Legacy Esports star admitted he was “really nervous” after he missed that early kill.
“There was an issue with the key setting… so it’s really fortunate that we won,” Topoon admitted after the win (cheers Inven Global for the translation). “If you press the ~ key, you can click only champs, but if I pressed that button, the mouse right-click didn’t work.”
Those limitations — likely the reason for the pair of pauses at the start of the game — did little to stop Topoon flexing his authority across the map as the game dragged on.
INTZ simply couldn’t find an answer after that Elder Dragon fight. Legacy claimed Baron, and set Topoon loose on the side lanes. He cracked two of the Brazillian’s inhibs, before the OCE champions squeezed INTZ in mid lane, and closed out the match.
Legacy Esports return to action against Team Liquid (also 1–0 after the opening day) later tonight. The team’s second match will begin at 12am AEST on Sunday morning.
