J Team, GAM Esports eliminated from LoL Worlds 2019 group stage
CTBC J Team is out of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship after losing its final match versus FunPlus Phoenix.
The LMS representative will not advance to the next stage at Worlds. J Team started the competition with a strong performance, by taking down both FunPlus and Splyce in the first half of the round-robin. J Team was the team to watch heading into the second half and seemed ready to pull off an upset.
That did not come to pass.
J Team stumbles against FunPlus Phoenix
J Team had a fighting chance until the last match, with that one game deciding the final team to move to the Knockout Stage.
FunPlus left behind the unorthodox picks it had worked with earlier in the group stage and decided to play a standard game, with a standard composition. Without the mistakes that come with experimentation, FunPlus looked comfortable and much more competitive.
J Team put up a good fight, but it wasn’t enough to win that final match. Throughout the group stage, mid laner Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan caught the audience’s attention with his dominating play. Unfortunately, his individual prowess was not enough to get the team over the finish line.
GAM Esports also headed home from LoL Worlds 2019
GAM Esports from the VCS is also going home early. The Vietnamese team only found one victory at Worlds and was mathematically eliminated by J Team earlier in the day. GAM still had to play versus Splyce one more time despite having no chance of qualifying.
The squad jumped into the rift and played without regrets. For the first time in the tournament, GAM showed the aggressive style they’re known for. GAM was close to denying Splyce their direct qualification to the next round, but one big play from the LEC team around baron completely changed the game and denied GAM the opportunity to play spoiler.
GAM set up for the baron, confident that their gold advantage would give them the upper hand in a team fight. Inside the pit, Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir on Qiyana pinned the GAM players against the wall with a Supreme Display of Talent. Splyce slaughtered GAM and claimed the Baron to snatch away the victory.
J Team returns home and faces a new frontier. Back in September, Riot Games announced that the LMS would join the LST and form the new Pacific League Championship Series.