Fnatic defeat TSM in first LoL Worlds 2020 Group stage clash

Popular League of Legends organizations Fnatic and Team Solomid faced off in a highly-anticipated match on Day 1 of the 2020 World Championship group stage, with Fnatic clutching a narrow victory over the North American first seed.

Fnatic and TSM are two organizations with plenty of history in competitive League of Legends, as both teams have been competing in international events since the first World Championship in 2011.

After years of avoiding each other at international events, the 2020 group draws revealed that they would have the opportunity to battle it out once again, with massive stakes on the line.

TSM, Twitter

After missing out on Worlds in 2018 and 2019, TSM qualified as NA’s first seed for Worlds 2020.

Both teams were drawn into Pool C, which has been dubbed the ‘Group of Life,’ as all four of the rosters are similar in strength, and every result is crucial in determining who will make to the Playoff Stage. With the double round-robin format for groups, Riot revealed that Group C would be kicked off with the classic NA vs EU matchup on October 3.

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While there has been plenty of rumors around the current form of both rosters, the final Day 1 match started off surprisingly close, with both teams having almost identical gold up until the twenty-minute mark.

Although it was a narrow affair in the early stages, Fnatic’s call to sneak the Baron objective, while TSM were on the Mountain drake, is what gave them the advantage to swung the game in their favor.

Fnatic’s Jungler Oskar ‘Selfmade’ Boderek continued to mount pressure around the map, even finding a flashy, but crucial, solo kill on TSM’s star carry Yilliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng, after his pocket pick of Evelynn was left open in the draft.

While this is only the first of the two matches that these teams will have to play against one another, it gives a lot of hope to European League of Legends fans, with Fnatic now off to 1-0 start in Group C.

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There was plenty more action in Day 1 of the Worlds 2020’s group stage, including a clash between tournament favorites, JD Gaming and Damwon Gaming, in Group D, where the Korean first seed made a statement in their victory against the home team.

You can find all the full results, schedule, and more at our official LoL Worlds 2020 hub.