League of Legends World Championship 2015 scores, with 3 things to know from Day 1

Follow the Day 2 action here.

The 2015 League of Legends World Championship kicked off Thursday, with six group stage matches taking place in Paris.

The day started with perhaps Thursday’s marquee matchup, pitting European champions Fnatic against Chinese hopefuls Invictus Gaming. Fnatic emerged with an authoritative victory, giving hope that a Western team could bring home the world title for the first team since Fnatic did it at the first tournament in 2011.

Cloud9 followed that up with a stunning upset of ahq, while Counter Logic Gaming pulled out a win against Flash Wolvees, giving the West a very strong start. SKT had little trouble (after some early game slowness) with H2K. EDG rolled past the Bangkok Titans, leaving the two strong Group C favorites 1-0 after Day 1.

Three things to know from the day’s action:

1. The SKT vs. EDG rematch is going to be SO MUCH FUN. These two turned in an incredible series at MSI, and both looked excellent in opening matches today. SKT even managed to ease past H2K without a dominating performance from Faker, winning largely on the shoulders of MaRin’s Fiora and Bang’s Tristana. EDG’s bottom lane looks frightening still as well, with a combined 7/1/21 line from Deft and Meiko leading to a 20-minute Bangkok Titans surrender.

These two teams will kick off Saturday’s action at 8 a.m. -- mark your schedules.

2. How about the West? Fnatic kicked off the day with a dominating win over Invictus Gaming. The win itself wasn’t surprising, but forcing a surrender from one of the top teams in China is a very good sign for the European side’s chances this October. And Cloud9 pulled off the biggest upset of the day (and perhaps the tournament), beating ahq e-Sports in just 23 minutes thanks to dominating performances from Sneaky and Incarnation.

And don’t forget Counter Logic Gaming, which firmly CLG’d its way into an opening way. After a slow start, CLG managed to win a late team fight to secure the victory despite trailing in gold to Flash Wolves.

3. This could be the best Worlds yet. There are just an unprecedented number of top teams this year, and we have an ENTIRE MONTH LEFT OF THIS. You can make a legitimate argument for about a half-dozen teams winning it all, and the knockout stages promise to offer even more drama than in the groups.

Full scores and totals below.

8-1 Fnatic, 30:34 minute surrender

Bans: Darius, Braum, Vayne; Lulu, Mordekaiser, Gangplank

A classic Fnatic lane swap gave Huni an early gold lead in the top lane and a turret advantage for the team. After a second unanswered turret 13 minutes in, Reignover swooped in for First Blood on Kittles, with assists from his bot laners.

A big Dragon fight 18 minutes in gave Fnatic a 5-1 kills advantage and a massive gold lead, allowing the team to take a 21-minute Baron uncontested and a 10k gold lead. After a 3-0 Fnatic fight near Baron 30 minutes in, Invictus Gaming surrendered.

After a 6-0 EU LCS record on Azir for Febiven, the mid laner continues his strong record with the champion. He led the game with 11.9k damage to champions (Rookie’s Viktor was second with 11.4k).

Fnatic’s bot laners also each recorded 100% kill participation, and the team looks as strong as supporters hoped.

9-2 Cloud9, 23:58

Bans: Ryze, Rek’sai, Elise; Mordekaiser, Azir, Lulu

What a group of picks! Gangplank! Veigar! Rengar! Darius! Fizz! This game did not disappoint.

Westdoor came into the game 4-0 on Fizz in the regular season ... because the champion was banned away from him the other 26 times. Eight minutes in, a Mountain gank gave Westdoor First Blood and seemed to send ahq on the path to a win.

But Cloud9 dominated from there on out. Sneaky’s Tristana and Incarnation’s Veigar had fantastic games, with Tristana sieging turrets and Veigar providing an unworldly amount of damage (and area CC). 21 minutes in, C9 responded to Westdoor picking off Balls by winning a 3-0 fight and turning that into Baron.

With Tristiana’s sieging ability, C9 was able to simply finish the game. Sneaky was the undoubted MVP, securing the only 100% kill participation on the winning team.

11-5 SKT, 31:08

Bans: Thresh, Mordekaiser, Lee Sin; Lulu, Gangplank, Darius

Expected to be an SKT blowout, the big storyline coming into this game was the rematch between Faker and Ryu in the midlane. H2K was actually able to keep this close, taking a lead early (Ryu even killed Faker first!), but SKT came through with the win.

MaRin brought out the first Fiora of worlds as well, and it essentially won the game for SKT. He earned First Blood thanks to a Bengi gank, and helped with split-pushing throughout the game.

H2K looked on the verge of a big advantage when a 23-minute Dragon fight started 2-0 in their favor, but MaRin came through with the triple kill to sway the game handily in SKT’s favor.

SKT was able to turn that fight into a Baron and an inhibitor, and the strength of Tristana’s siege ability shined through again. That MaRin triple kill completely turned the tide of the game, and SKT strolled to an easy win after that point.

14-1 EDG, 20:21 surrender

Bans: Yasuo, Elise, Lulu; Twisted Fate, Kalista, Mordekaiser

The first Thai team ever at Worlds, the Bangkok Titans were simply outclassed by Edward Gaming in their opener.

EDG started this game off perfectly, avoiding an early 4 vs. 1 gank in the mid lane from Bangkok Titans before a perfectly executed dive in the bottom lane. Every EDG player besides PawN was involved in the 4 vs. 2 dive, earning three unanswered kills for Deft (two of them on WarL0cK, who died twice in the fight after returning with his teleport).

Deft got kill No. 4 just minutes later on G4, who was able to kill Deft for Bangkok’s first kill 12 minutes in. The problem? That made the score 8-1 EDG, as the MSI champions just ran away with this one. Every member of EDG’s team had a great game, but the combination of Deft and Meiko was particularly brutal.

With wins for SKT and EDG, Group C is turning out as expected.

10-10 CLG, 41:55

Bans: Malphite, Thresh, Kalista ; Mordekaiser, Gangplank, Veigar

Easy pick for the comeback of the day!

This game had a busy start in the top lane with both junglers ganking, eventually giving Karsa the First Blood on ZionSpartan.

From there, the game slowed to a crawl. The Wolves held a 2-0 kill advantage 28 minutes in, but CLG had a slight gold lead. A 2-0 fight a few minutes later finally gave the Wolves the lead, allowing them to take Baron 32 minutes in.

This was the first game of the tournament that Lulu was not banned, and a double kill by Pobelter a few minutes later helped keep the game in reach for CLG. CLG followed that up with a pair of winning team fights, including a 4-2 win in the Wolves base to complete the comeback victory.

Pobelter’s Lulu was key to the win for CLG, while the “Rush Hour” bottom lane came through with a dominant performance, powering the team to a win despite finishing with a gold deficit.

23-5 KOO, 31:04

Bans: Kalista, Yasuo, Gangplank; Rek’Sai, Mordekaiser, Lulu

This game started off with a bang, as the Brazilian champions paIN Gaming picked up a 2-1 fight before minions spawning, hiding in KOO’s jungle and picking off both Smeb and PraY. paIN’s aggressive play continued, diving Smeb just six minutes in to extend the advantage to 3-1.

Two straight kills from Hojin on Mylon evened the game up for the Tigers, and a 3-0 fight at 14 minutes (started by an excellent ultimate from PraY) gave KOO its first lead of the game.

KOO had an easy time from that point forward, and Kuro put together a triple kill 22 minutes in to make it a 13-4 advantage. This turned very one-sided, very fast.