JD Gaming defeated DAMWON Gaming in a tiebreaker match to claim first place in Group B at the League of Legends World Championships’ group stage Friday in New York.
JD Gaming entered the day 3-0, but DAMWON drew even with them in the final scheduled match by beating them in 29 minutes on red.
With both teams 5-1 and owning one victory over the other, they played a tiebreaker to determine first place in the group, and JD prevailed in 34 minutes on blue.
China’s Bai “369” Jia-Hao, JD’s top laner, led the way in the tiebreaker match with a 10/1/11 kills-deaths-assists ratio.
Earlier in the day, JD beat Evil Geniuses in 25 minutes on red and outlasted G2 Esports in 28 minutes on red.
DAMWON took down G2 in 25 minutes on blue and Evil Geniuses in 28 minutes on red before their pivotal win over JD forced the tiebreaker.
Evil Geniuses beat G2 Esports in 32 minutes on red for their only win of the group stage. Both teams were eliminated from the tournament.
Sixteen teams were divided into four groups for the double-round-robin group stage, which runs through Sunday. All matches consist of a single map. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout stage, with the third- and fourth-place sides in each group heading home.
The knockout stage is scheduled for Oct. 20-Nov. 5, with all matches best-of-five. The entire group stage and the quarterfinals are being held at New York’s Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden. The semifinals are set for State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and the grand final will be contested at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Six matches are scheduled for Saturday to conclude play in Group C:
–Rogue vs. GAM Esports
–GAM Esports vs. Top Esports
–DRX vs. Rogue
–DRX vs. GAM Esports
–Top Esports vs. Rogue
–Top Esports vs. DRX
League of Legends World Championship group-stage standings
Group A
1. T1, 5-1
2. EDward Gaming, 4-2
3. Fnatic, 2-4
4. Cloud9, 1-5
Group B
1. JD Gaming, 5-1 (won tiebreaker)
2. DAMWON Gaming, 5-1
3. Evil Geniuses, 1-5
4. G2 Esports, 1-5
Group C
1. Rogue, 3-0
2. DRX, 2-1
3. Top Esports, 1-2
4. GAM Esports, 0-3
Group D
1. Royal Never Give Up, 3-0
2. Gen.G Esports, 2-1
3. CTBC Flying Oyster 1-2
4. 100 Thieves, 0-3
–Field Level Media