Second will have to do — Legacy Esports have finished as Group A runners-up in the Worlds Play-In stage, after back-to-back upsets over MAD Lions and SuperMassive on Day 4 of the championship fired them into shock top-spot contention.
Team Liquid were unstoppable as they marched to first in the last-gasp tiebreaker in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Led by Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen, who had once again been handed Graves in the draft, the LCS reps were clinical in victory.
Legacy’s 21-minute loss in the tiebreaker was a flat end to a day that had been anything but, however. The Oceanic champions had already bowled over MAD Lions and SuperMassive to earn themselves a shot at the Group A first seed.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
Liquid appeared to be playing from the same game plan that had earned them a win over the OCE champions on Sunday; assemble a mid lane tent for Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, complete with a little swag and bedroom for lurking jungler Broxah.
James “Tally” Shute, who was playing Galio, absorbed the pressure as best he could, but the role-swapped star cracked eventually. Broxah got on the scoreboard in the 3rd minute, before making return visits over the next seven to climb to a 4/0 statline.
The Dane added two dragons to his early game shopping list, and handed Edward “Tactical” Ra a kill on Jonah “Isles” Rosario in the 10th minute to boot.
The pressure just kept mounting for Legacy. A 3.9k gold lead for their North American rivals rolled over nearly 8k at 15 minutes. Liquid began knocking on the inner structures of the OCE team’s base at 17’, and the tiebreaker was decided by minute 21.
Is FFing at worlds allowed asking for a friend? 😢
— Raes (@RaesOCE) September 28, 2020
Liquid’s victory fires them straight into the World Championship group stage.
The second-place Oceanic champions will have another shot to achieve the unthinkable on Wednesday evening. LGD Gaming and Rainbow7 will play off tonight for the right to face off against Legacy in the qualification round.
Bookmakers would have the Chinese fourth seeds as Legacy’s potential opponents, but LGD have looked shaky at best since arriving in Shanghai. Mexico’s Rainbow7 currently boast the head-to-head record over them, after winning on Day 2.
If Legacy does win their Wednesday best-of-five — the first Worlds series an Oceanic team will have ever contested — they can be seeded into any of the four main stage groups.
