Evil Geniuses and Royal Never Give Up won the final matches of the League of Legends World Championship Play-In event on Tuesday in Mexico City, qualifying for the Worlds 2022 Main Event.
Evil Geniuses swept MAD Lions 3-0 and Royal Never Give up beat DetonatioN FocusMe 3-1 to earn the last two available slots in the group stage of the world championship, which begins Friday in New York.
The winners joined Fnatic and DRX as the four teams to qualify for Worlds through Mexico City.
The event’s 12 teams were divided into two groups for an opening round consisting of a single round robin. After five best-of-one matches per club, the top team in each group (Fnatic and DRX) moved straight into the Worlds group stage, while the second-, third- and fourth-place teams in each group headed to a second Play-In phase.
Round 2 of the Play-In stage featured best-of-five matches. Each group’s third- and fourth-place teams squared off in Monday’s elimination matches for the right to face the second-place team from the opposite group.
Evil Geniuses finished second in Group A, thanks to their victories in a pair of critical tiebreaker matches on Sunday. Royal Never Give Up went 4-1 in Group B to finish second.
On Tuesday, Evil Geniuses won in 38 minutes on blue, 24 minutes on red and 29 minutes on blue to sweep MAD Lions. Muhammed Hasan “Kaori” Senturk of Turkey led the way with an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 5.3/1.3/7.0.
DetonationN FocusMe opened Tuesday’s match with a 37-minute win on red, but RNGU charged back to win in 33 minutes on blue, 35 minutes on blue and 27 minutes on red. Chen “GALA” Wei of China got hot late for RNG, posting a combined 13/0/12 K-D-A over the final two maps.
The other 14 teams that made it through to the group stage were JD Gaming, Top Esports, EDward Gaming, Gen.G, T1, DAMWON Gaming, Rogue, G2 Esports, Cloud9, 100 Thieves, CTBC Flying Oyster, GAM Esports, Fnatic and DRX.
League of Legends World Championship Play-In opening-round group standings
(*qualified for Worlds group stage)
Group A
1. *Fnatic, 4-1
2. *Evil Geniuses, 3-2
3. LOUD, 3-2
4. DetonatioN FocusMe, 3-2
5. Beyond Gaming, 2-3
6. Chiefs Esports Club, 0-5
Group B
1. *DRX, 5-0
2. *Royal Never Give Up, 4-1
3. MAD Lions, 3-2
4. Saigon Buffalo, 2-3
5. Isurus, 1-4
6. Istanbul Wildcats, 0-5
–Field Level Media