BLG's first match was chaotic, and even Faker was solo-killed! As the Chinese and Korean powerhouses took the stage, the World Cup opener was a victory.

Hello, fellow LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is the World Game Hub.

The EWC Esports World Cup officially kicked off today. With BLG and T1 in the same group, they both played their first group-stage matches almost simultaneously. BLG secured a win against MKOI, but the victory was far from easy.

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During the match, BLG once again showed chaotic playstyle issues. Fortunately, their opponents were also in poor form, allowing them to get through smoothly.

BLG's Cassiopeia flex pick, chaotic mid-game play

In the first game, BLG chose a classic flex composition similar to the one they used against HLE before, sending Cassiopeia bot lane and Akali mid. MKOI responded with a surprise top lane Vex and a mid lane Anivia. LPL viewers expected an easy win for BLG, but the actual game told a different story.

In the early stage, Xun initiated a successful gank bot lane, securing a kill. Later, BLG's support roamed mid to try and kill Anivia, but both teams' reinforcements arrived, and On's Thresh was the first to fall.

In the mid lane, Knight attempted a solo kill while low on health, but his second E on Anivia backfired, leading to him being solo-killed. Fortunately, Xun arrived in time to kill Anivia, then ganked top lane with Bin to secure another kill, giving BLG a lead.

However, during the subsequent dragon fights, BLG made repeated mistakes. The first dragon fight ended in a 1-for-1 trade. Then Knight gained an advantage on the side lane, attempting two solo kills—successful once, but then got caught by enemy reinforcements. Meanwhile, BLG's main team kept making disjointed errors, with On dying twice after initiating fights.

A typical example was one dragon fight where BLG wasted their ultimate abilities randomly, leading to a lost team fight. Their overall playstyle appeared very messy.

Sudden team fight collapse, BLG ends the game in one push

After repeatedly giving the opponent opportunities, MKOI's mid lane Anivia reached a 7-1 KDA. At this point, BLG's team fights were becoming difficult, and they lost several consecutive engagements with almost no coordination. However, BLG managed to secure the dragon soul. In the crucial river team fight, Bin engaged with his ultimate, and after the clash began, BLG finally executed an impressive team fight: Akali dove in and secured a key kill.

Akali then continued to dominate, and BLG kited their way to an ace, using that ace to push directly and end the game.

BLG's main issue in this match was playing too casually. After losing MSI, BLG did not present a good image in their World Cup opener. It's unclear if the coach's plan was to let the players experiment and find their rhythm, but this style of play makes BLG vulnerable to counterattacks, easily leading to stalemates or disadvantages.

Since the group stage uses a double-elimination format, BLG will face T1 again later. T1, on the main stage, successfully defeated GAM. In the next match, BLG must adjust their form.

Faker solo-killed in his opener, T1 also in poor form

To summarize BLG's players' performance in the first game: several players made mistakes, but Viper's laning performance was particularly weak—an area that needs significant improvement. If not for the opponent's Vex constantly feeding, BLG would have had a much harder time winning.

Interestingly, T1 also performed poorly next door. They made many mistakes against the Vietnamese team, with Faker getting solo-killed mid lane, and T1's top-jungle skirmish being crushed by GAM. The match was back-and-forth, and like BLG, T1 relied on superior raw strength to seize control mid-game and eventually win.

The next round between T1 and BLG will be very interesting. Fans are now unsure whether these two teams are pretending to be bad or genuinely struggling. They will play a BO3, and the winner will advance to the quarterfinals first.

In my opinion, given the extremely harsh tournament format, the demand for a team's form is very high. It's best to be in good competitive shape from the start. Among the seven major Chinese and Korean teams, GEN, who did not participate in MSI, might have an advantage. To win the championship in such a tournament, every match must be played at full strength. BLG urgently needs a good result in this event to prove themselves. I hope they improve as the tournament progresses.