Invictus Gaming has advanced to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship semifinals after defeating Griffin in four games.
The story of the series was Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok’s dominance in the top lane. The 19-year-old South Korean took Kayle (x2), Vladimir, and Yasuo to the top lane and proved to be a nightmare for Choi “Sword” Sung-won in each game.
TheShy played a pivotal role in the most decisive team fights, finishing up the series with an impressive 4.6 KDA and a total of seven solo-kills.
A dominating performance from TheShy gets him the player of the series! #Worlds2019 pic.twitter.com/6Rs13Rj8A4
— LoLEsports Stats (@LoLEsportsStats) October 26, 2019
After Invictus Gaming took game one after 43 minutes, Griffin had their chance to make it one game apiece after a near-perfect start in game two.
One of the few positives for Griffin during the series was Park “Viper” Do-hyeon’s play as Xayah when paired with Son “Lehends” Si-woo playing Rakan.
Viper picked off Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo’s Kai’Sa to get first blood at 3:34 of game two and carried this momentum into a second successful kill against the opposing bot-lane player at 8:23.
Viper had worked his way to 7-0 by the 24-minute mark of the game and held a considerable gold advantage at the time.
However, Griffin failed to capitalize on Viper’s significant advantages and instead found themselves in a terrible position retreating from baron with half-health at the 25-minute mark.
Exceptional teamplay from Invictus Gaming’s TheShy and Song “Rookie” Eui-jin helped them put down four of the Griffin players and seize map control before eventually jumping to a 2-0 lead in the series.
A comeback win for @invgaming who came back from a -3.1K deficit @ 15, the largest comeback from 15 minutes at #Worlds2019 so far! pic.twitter.com/D9Bx3OVn5s
— LoLEsports Stats (@LoLEsportsStats) October 26, 2019
Griffin’s only victory came in game three of the series, largely thanks to impressive performances from Viper and Lehends, who took Xayah and Rakan to bottom lane again.
At 29 minutes, Viper took out all five Invictus Gaming players to score the first pentakill of the tournament, all while teammate Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon’s tanky Sion was parked in the bottom lane.
TheShy put in another remarkable game with his top-lane Vladimir but it wasn’t enough to close the distance on Griffin after they raced to an early gold lead and this time maintained it for the duration of the game.
PENTAKILL FOR VIPER! #Worlds2019 pic.twitter.com/UYSmRqzbHQ
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 26, 2019
Although Griffin snagged the same successful bottom lane for game four, the team quickly fell behind Invictus Gaming because of TheShy’s dominance in the top lane. TheShy scaled well into mid-game and used his XP and gold advantages to push lanes and dish out extreme damage in team fights.
Now, as Invictus Gaming moves forward to the semifinal stage of the tournament, future opponents will certainly be wary of the in-form reigning champions and their masterful top laner.
