Golden Guardians beat Evil Geniuses on Wednesday night to jump into a three-way atop the group stage standings at the League Championship Series Summer Split.
A 19-minute victory on blue allowed Golden Guardians to improve to 9-4 while dropping EG to the same record. Also at 9-4 is Cloud9, who fell to Team Liquid on Wednesday.
South Korean Kim “Gori” Tae-woo led the Guardians with a 7-0-2 kills-deaths-assists ratio, while no player on Evil Geniuses was able to muster more than one kill.
The 10 teams in the top North American League of Legends circuit will play every other team twice in the group phase, which runs through July 21. All group-stage matches consist of a single map.
The first- and second-place teams will head to the upper-bracket semifinals for the double-elimination playoffs. The third- through sixth-place teams will open the playoffs in the upper-bracket quarterfinals. The seventh- and eighth-place teams will enter the postseason in the lower bracket, while the ninth- and 10th-place teams will be eliminated.
The playoffs will feature best-of-five matches. The top three finishers will earn berths in the League of Legends World Championship, to be played in South Korea from Oct. 10 to Nov. 19. The fourth-place finisher will head to a wild-card qualifier with a chance to land a spot at the World Championship.
TSM got the best of Dignitas on Wednesday, prevailing in 29 minutes on red.
In the day’s two other matches, NRG was playing on red as they topped FlyQuest in 27 minutes, and Immortals, who were playing on blue, got the best of 100 Thieves in 27 minutes. It was a rare victory for Immortals, who came out on top for just the third time in 13 group stage matches.
Week 5 continues Thursday with five more matches:
–NRG vs. Dignitas
–FlyQuest vs. Evil Geniuses
–TSM vs. Team Liquid
–Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves
–Immortals vs. Golden Guardians
League Championship Series Summer Split group-stage standings:
T1. Cloud9, 9-4
T1. Evil Geniuses, 9-4
T1. Golden Guardians, 9-4
4. Team Liquid, 8-5
5. TSM, 7-6
T6. Dignitas, 6-7
T6. NRG, 6-7
8. 100 Thieves, 5-8
T9. FlyQuest, 3-10
T9. Immortals, 3-10
League Championship Series Summer Split prize pool:
1. $100,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
2. $50,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
3. $30,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
4. $20,000, berth in wild-card qualifier for League of Legends World Championship
5-10. No prize money
–Field Level Media