Legacy Esports have confirmed a top two seed in Group A of the 2020 World Championship Play-In stage, after shock upset wins over Turkish champs SuperMassive and LEC darlings MAD Lions late on Monday evening in Shanghai.
The Oceanic representatives came into their third matchday in China with a 1–1 record at Worlds. The squad had edged Brazil’s INTZ in their opening match-up, before falling to North American third seed Team Liquid in a lopsided 16–1 contest on Day 2.
Legacy stunned the League of Legends third in their third and fourth outings, defying odds and expectations to pull off two stunning Group A victories.
The first was less of a surprise; MAD Lions have struggled so far on the world stage. The EU squad came into what would eventually be a 39-minute defeat with a 1–2 record, and Legacy didn’t help matters for LEC’s third seed in Day 4 either.
Legacy traded blows with MAD early, before Leo “Babip” Romer cleaned up a kill on Zhiqiang “Shad0w” Zhao and claimed the Rift Herald. The OCE champs doubled the hurt for MAD on the other side of the river, with Cloud Drake and another kill in the pocket.
The match was a strong team effort, with Kim “Topoon” Ji-hoon (Ornn) and James “Tally” Shute (Galio) standouts in the teamfights. Quin “Raes” Korebrits was also on-song as Jhin, a standout performance after two mixed runs on Days 1 and 2.
The 2v2 bot kill for @LegacyOCE! #Worlds2020 pic.twitter.com/UJ5OsT6vah
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 28, 2020
If Raes had a solid game against MAD Lions — who Legacy eventually accounted for 25–13 — the New Zealand superstar had a career-defining outing on Ezreal two hours later.
Legacy, led by their Kiwi commander in the bot lane, choked game favourites SuperMassive off the Rift in a 30-minute slugfest. Raes, who played Ezreal alongside Jonah “Isles” Rosario on Karma, dished out the hurt in all 30 of those minutes in game four.
Raes dealt a whopping 25.7k damage to champions. Only İrfan “Armut” Berk Tükek, who did 20k on Wukong, came close. Raes’ Ezreal finished with a 15/3/10 statline, boasted 92.6% kill participation, and had 55.6% of the team’s overall kills.
As said before, the Kiwi star handed in a career-highlight performance on Monday night.
ヽʕ •ᴥ•ʔﾉ RAISE YOUR KOALAS ヽʕ •ᴥ•ʔﾉ@LegacyOCE dismantle SuperMassive and will play the tiebreaker for 1st place vs Team Liquid as the last game of the day! Look at those @RaesOCE stats! 🐨 pic.twitter.com/vjRLKzvTi2
— LoLEsports Stats (@LoLEsportsStats) September 28, 2020
Topoon, who played Ornn again in the second game of the night, was called onto the official broadcast for a post-match interview. He was ice-cold as he delivered his verdict: Legacy is flying high right now, and they have faith they can go the distance.
“This is crazy… I don’t think we expected it would be like this. It’s crazy,” Topoon told Laure Valée.
Then, the Legacy top laner issued a warning to his upcoming opponents Team Liquid: “I think if we pick Ornn first then my team is going to win.”
There you have it: straight from the horse’s mouth.
Legacy faces Team Liquid around 11.30pm AEST for a place in Worlds groups. The loser will finish as Group A’s second seed, and face Group B challengers LGD or R7 later this week.
Watch live: https://lolesports.com/live/worlds
