G2 Esports starts LoL Worlds 2019 run by crushing Griffin

G2 Esports looked exceptional in its 2019 League of Legends World Championship debut. The 2019 Mid-Season Invitational champion struck again by completely dominating Griffin to kick things off for Group A.

On paper, the match between the up-and-coming talent from the LCK and the experienced European juggernaut should have been a close one. In reality, G2 smashed Griffin in a game that was one-sided.

Griffin cannot match G2’s experience

In the early game, Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong took his time to invade the enemy jungle. G2’s solo laners made sure to walk up to him and force him away from the camps, knocking his pathing off-track.

G2 pushed the tempo and leveraged the advantages it found around the map. Griffin had good moments, particularly Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon killing Rasmus “Caps” Winther in a one-versus-two situation, but ran out of options quickly as G2 started to execute on its gameplan.

In team fights, the Korean side looked disconnected and lost. The team was relying on top laner Choi “Sword” Sung-won to come through, but he never had a chance to farm and couldn’t execute any ganks to get ahead.

The game-deciding play took place inside Griffin’s base.

Caps used Orianna’s Shockwave to catch multiple Griffin members, with Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle dropping Leona’s Solar Flare on top of that. The Griffin players vanished and G2 was clear to push for the win.

Orianna seems ready to be a powerful force at Worlds 2019. The champion received a buff in Patch 9.19, and has looked like a strong mid lane pick to this point.

Group A returns on October 14 for the second set of games. Griffin will look to bounce back in the game against Hong Kong Attitude. G2 is facing Cloud9 for a highly anticipated EU versus NA matchup.