In their first match of League of Legends World Championships is already producing some big plays.
In the closing moments of the DAMWON vs Team Liquid match in Group D, Liquid’s trusted late-game carrier Doublelift delivered an extraordinary play to seal it for the top-seeded North American team.
Despite losing Jake ‘Xmithie’ Puchero early in that teamfight, Liquid dealt so much damage to the enemy team that DAMWON tried to run away.
But Doublelift smelled blood in the water and flashed in to pick off the two players on their last bit of health, and then chased down the other two to secure the quad-kill and the team ace.
With all of DAMWON dead with at least 30 seconds before any of them could resurrect, Liquid marched down the midlane and broke down the enemy team’s base to take the match, and move to a 1-0 record in Group D.
The quadkill from Doublelift and subsequent victory for Team Liquid sent Twitter into an absolute frenzy.
LCS reporter Travis Gafford successfully backed up his prediction that Liquid was going to prove that the Worlds theme “Phoenix” is about them. “I told you,” he tweeted.
I told you.
— Travis Gafford (@TravisGafford) October 12, 2019
Gafford’s Worlds theme parody co-star, avid Team Liquid fan and LCS interviewer Ovilee May expressed her excitement for Liquid and the North America region as well.
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“FIRST WIN OF GROUPS,” she tweeted. “LET’S GO NA!”
FIRST WIN OF GROUPS EZPZ
LETS FUCKING GO @TeamLiquidLoL
LETS FUCKING GO NA!#WORLDS2019 #LCS #TLWIN
— Ovilee May (@OvileeMay) October 12, 2019
But the Doublelift play and the Team Liquid victory weren’t the only things gaining Twitter traction, as several people honed in on Jung ‘Impact’ Eon-yeong’s ponytail.
The official G2 Esports account hailed it as the “real MVP” of the match, and ESPN Esports writer Tyler ‘FionnOnFire’ Erzberger created a clever rhyme to celebrate the terrific game Impact had.
“THESHY OUTDATED, NUGURI OVERRATED, FOR SO LONG WE’VE WAITED, IMPACT HAS BEEN ACTIVATED,” he tweeted.
THESHY OUTDATED
NUGURI OVERRATED
FOR SO LONG WE'VE WAITED
IMPACT HAS BEEN ACTIVATED pic.twitter.com/vtMu8IPVsb
— The Esports Writer (@FionnOnFire) October 12, 2019
For Team Liquid and for Doublelift, they are looking to put an end to the heartbreak they’ve experienced at the international level. Liquid had a poor performance in the group stage of last year’s Worlds, and in 2019, a magical run at the Mid-Season Invitational came to a crashing halt in the grand finals, where they lost an embarrassing 3-0 series to G2.
With the exception of the very first Worlds in 2011, when Doublelift played for Epik Gamer, he has never made it out of the group stages of Worlds. A North American team has also never finished at the top of their group. With a 1-0 start for Liquid, they are on the right track to erase both curses, but it’s still a long way to go.
You can keep track of all the results and watch the matches at Worlds 2019 here on Dexerto, using our Worlds 2019 hub.