4 things we learned on Worlds 2021 Day 1

Worlds 2021 Play-Ins started with eight glorious hours of League action. From HLE vs LNG to Cloud9 getting revenge on DetonatioN FocusMe, and Galatasaray announcing themselves as a team to watch – there were plenty of highlights on Day 1.

The first day of the Worlds 2021 schedule has left us with plenty of memories and, more importantly, vital lessons to take forward in the tournament.

We’ve picked out our four biggest takeaways from Day One at Worlds 2021.

Ale diff in HLE vs LNG

LNG toplaner Hu ‘Ale’ Jia-le had a phenomenal start to his debut Worlds campaign.

He went 2-0 in matches against Hanwha Life Esports and PEACE, with a combined stat line of 14/1/10. With LNG expected to make it into the main group stage with ease, teams from Korea, North America, and Europe should probably start making notes on how to stop him, or at least attempt to.

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On Day 1, Ale displayed his mastery of Jax and Fiora, and we can likely expect more masterclasses for top lane champs for the rest of the play-ins and beyond.

Don’t count Cloud9 out

There had been questions about Cloud9 prior to Worlds, as the LCS Spring champions stumbled in both MSI and the Summer split.

One of their most notable slip-ups was their MSI loss to the Japanese representative DetonatioN FocusMe. While Cloud9 won their second game against DFM at MSI, they completely set the record straight with a quick and straightforward win to open their Worlds campaign.

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While speaking to media after the match, Cloud9 AD carry Jesper ‘Zven’ Svenningsen denied that it was a revenge game, but was glad Cloud9 defeated DFM.

“I wouldn’t say this was a revenge game because we did get revenge on them in our second game with DFM at MSI. But it was good to beat them in the first game of a tournament because we had lost our first game of a tournament to them last time”

The win shows that Cloud9 have earned their play-ins favorite moniker and are ready to compete at Worlds.

Galatasaray the dark horse

Turkish representatives Galatasaray are a talented team, with many expecting them to make it out of the group stage of play-ins. But few people expected them to take down Taiwanese team Beyond Gaming in both teams’ first match of the tournament.

The TCL champions then went on to stomp Unicorns of Love in the final match of the day, putting them at the top of Group B with an undefeated record.

Play-Ins has been full of surprises and Galatasaray were a shock for many fans on day one. However, their ultimate test will come tomorrow, as they face both DFM and Cloud9.

Red Canids hungry for Worlds 2021 upset

Worlds debutants RED Canids opened their campaign with a win over Latin American rivals Infinity. Following the victory, match MVP Daniel ‘Grevthar’ Xavier made a confident claim about what the Brazilian team is going to do at Worlds.

“I am very confident. I think all of the players are really confident,” Grevthar said, “We think our style of play is the correct one. It is the one that we won CBLOL with, and we believe it is the one that can help us win in play-ins”.

Red Canids face a tough second day, however, with fixtures against both Hanwha Life and LNG.