The first round-robin of the World Championship group stage is concluding, each of the teams playing the rest once, giving them a taste of the following week. With its conclusion, Group A has found itself with no clear favorites heading into the second round, two teams at 2-1, two at 1-2. Leading Group A at 2-1 are both Europe's first seed, G2 Esports, and China's third seed, Suning, while NA's third seed, Team Liquid, and the PCS' first seed, Machi Esports, sit behind them at 1-2.

Despite the 2-1 record, G2 started off a bit shaky compared to what fans may have expected from the team. They won their game against Suning, but it was a doozy, giving up Ocean Soul and dragging out the game to finally win a fight at Elder Drake to allow them to close out the game. They played a close game against Machi, barely edging out thanks to some strong teamfighting skills, but then lost their third game to Team Liquid. 

Suning has looked pretty solid throughout their games, with fairly controlled wins over both Liquid and Machi, losing just that one game to G2. That game, of course, was in their control as well, but they failed to properly capitalize on their strong advantage with the Ocean Soul, and one late-game mistake wrote their death note.

Team Liquid found their single victory in a very well controlled and executed game against G2 Esports, and not a moment too late, else they'd end their first round-robin at 0-3. Their first two games did not inspire much confidence, and the team looked too predictable and understood - perhaps due to the rest of the competition getting a read on them from Play-Ins. 

Machi came out strong, getting a win in their first game against Liquid, and having a strong performance against G2, despite their loss to them. However, their final game against Suning was completely out of their control other than a couple of early solo lane kills. But with Suning's jungler, Lê "SofM" Quang Duy, completing a "Flame Horizon" on Huang "Gemini" Chu-Xuan, the jungle diff was just too big for them to play it out. 

Group A plays their second round-robin first of all the groups, playing this Thursday, October 8th to decide the first set of teams to compete in the Knockout Stage.

Images by Riot Games

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