League of Legends Worlds 2015 scores, plus 3 things to know from another upset-filled day

After a fun first two days, Day 3 of the League of Legends Worlds Championships gifted us with more upsets. The play was a little less explosive than Day 2, but there’s still plenty to talk about.

We were treated to a rematch of the Mid-Season Invitational finals, as SKT got revenge on EDG for the best-of-five series defeat. H2K, KT Rolster and Origen followed that up with dominating wins, as the group picture starts to become clearer.

Three things to know from the third day of action.

1. China’s in trouble. LPL champions LGD Gaming and Invictus Gaming are both 0-2, and have to right their respective ships immediately to get out of the group stage. Meanwhile, MSI champions Edward Gaming fell to 2-1 as SKT won that marquee matchup convincingly. The Chinese region went 0-3 on the day

2. We might see four Western teams advance. It’s still early, and Fnatic lost, but North America and Europe have impressed. Origen, Cloud9 and Counter Logic Gaming are all 2-0, with Fnatic and Cloud9 facing off Sunday. Origen has a tough test with 2-0 KT Rolster, while Counter Logic Gaming faces expected group favorites KOO Tigers. Saturday was good to the West, but Sunday will be tougher.

3. SKT is a pretty heavy favorite right now. Entering the tournament, it appeared SKTelecom T1, Edward Gaming and LGD Gaming were the three clear favorites. LGD is 0-2, EDG is 2-1 and SKT is 3-0 with a win over EDG. Faker hasn’t even started getting into his groove yet (Bangkok Titans game excluded), and SKT is simply rolling over the competition.

Full scores, stats and recaps of the day below.

SKT 19-6, 35:09

Bans: Alistar, Azir, Elise; Gangplank, Lulu, Mordekaiser

After a strong start for Faker’s Ryze in the mid lane, a gank from Meiko and Clearlove helped take him down for First Blood 11 minutes in. A big ensuing fight over Dragon ended 4-3 in favor of SKT, and Faker and MaRin were able to pick off Deft shortly afterwards to give SKT a delayed ace and a 5-4 advantage.

A successful SKT lane swap gave MaRin the top lane gold advantage early, and he was able to turn that into a solo kill of AmazingJ 16 minutes in. A 23-minute Baron for SKT allowed the snowball to continue, and a series of successful team fights helped land another Baron 10 minutes later. A final 5-0 fight clinched the win.

EDG’s big mistake early on was going for Dragon 1 at four minutes, allowing SKT to get an experience and gold advantage in most lanes. SKT ended up getting the next four consecutive Dragons, denying EDG the ability to stack the buffs.

Once again, the story for SKT was MaRin, who has emerged as one of the top players at Worlds.

H2K 25-14, 33:51

Bans: Rek’Sai, Yasuo, Darius; Lulu, Gangplank, Fiora

After being banned in every single previous game at Worlds, Mordekaiser made its way through for a first pick from H2K. An early gank from loulex allowed Hjarnan to get First Blood on Moss, and a huge fight near the top lane outer turret gave H2K a 5-2 lead.

A couple of picks and a successful Mordekaiser Dragon defense allowed the Titans to tie the game at 6-6 20 minutes in, but a 3-0 team fight for H2K minutes later allowed the European side to take Baron. A 5-2 H2K fight in the top lane resulted in the game’s first destroyed inhibitor, and after another Baron + Dragon combination H2K secured its first win of the tournament.

kaSing helped set up a ton of plays in the game, and had the highest assist number for any player so far this tournament.

The star of the show was Hjarnan’s Mordekaiser, which showed why the champion had been banned in 100% of games up to this point. He finished with near 100% kill participation, earned the second double-double of the tournament and secured a quadra kill in the Titans’ base to win the game.

KT Rolster 22-4, 30:56

Bans: Azir, Alistar, Gangplank; Kalista, Lee Sin, Rek’Sai

LGD started this game at a disadvantage with a triple AD comp going up against a Malphite (not to mention a Varus against a Braum), and things got more difficult five minutes in when Nagne took out GODV (with the help of Score) for First Blood. Arrow took out imp three times in the bottom lane relatively early on, and KT ended up with an 10-1 lead 23 minutes in.

A 4-0 team fight for KT soon after resulted in a broken LGD base, with the bottom inhibitor taken out. A KT Baron led to an ace in the base and an easy win for the Korean squad.

The last pick Malphite really came through for KT Rolster. Ssumday was able to control the top lane against Acorn from the start, and LGD’s AD-heavy team was unable to do much of anything against the big hunk of rock. Every single player on KT played an exceptional game, however, boosting them to 2-0 in Group D.

Origen 12-3, 36:17

Bans: Twisted Fate, Azir, LeBlanc; Gangplank, Mordekaiser, Fiora

This game didn’t get off to quite as quick of a start as some of the others in the tournament, but Bjergsen earned First Blood on Soaz 13 minutes in the bottom lane. Origen was able to tie it up 10 minutes later when Niels got a kill on Lustboy.

A big team fight finally erupted 24 minutes in, and Origen managed to get a second kill onto Niels, a first on Xpeke and a 3-2 advantage overall. A 4-1 fight for Origen near Dragon soon after landed a triple kill for Soaz and a major lead. Origen was able to snowball from that point, easing to a second straight win.

Niels’s Kalista had a second straight excellent game, landing key ultimates with Mithy and punishing TSM with a barrage of spears.

C9 23-16, 37:20

Bans: Veigar, Morgana, Alistar; Gangplank, Lulu, Mordekaiser

IG secured First Blood six minutes in when Zzitai and KaKAO dove Balls under the top turret. Cloud9 responded with a four-man dive bottom, taking out Kitties and evening up the game.

After Incarnation was able to pressure Rookie during most of the early game, the IG mid laner was able to get a 1 v 1 kill. Rookie then teleported to the bottom lane, getting a kill on LemonNatin, and IG held a 4-2 lead.

One of the big issues for C9 came in the draft, where the blind-pick of Darius was easily countered by Gnar (something we’ve seen many times in this tournament already). C9 was able to play around that in the mid game, focusing on strong performances from Incarnation and Sneaky and coordinated shot-calling from Hai to take a gold lead despite a kill deficit.

Hai and Sneaky were able to sneak in Baron at 26 minutes, and an explosive team fight after resulted in a 9-5 IG kill lead (with C9 still holding on in gold). The two teams followed that up with another big fight at Dragon. C9 won this one 5-2, finally using the gold advantage to win a team fight in a significant way.

Another successful C9 team fight led to two down inhibitors, breaking open the IG base. It was only a matter of time at that point, as C9 finished the Chinese squad off for a completely unexpected 2-0 start.

ahq 24-17, 40:53

Bans: Azir, Lulu, LeBlanc; Gangplank, Rek’Sai, Mordekaiser

Fnatic was able to catch Ziv out of position five minutes in, as Reignover’s signature Olaf caught him running away from Huni for First Blood. Mountain was able to even it up soon after, catching Huni for a kill of his own.

A 2-1 fight for ahq started to turn the game in its favor, and the teams started to just straight up brawl at that point. Tied 11-11 26 minutes in, Fnatic won a 3-1 fight near Baron, securing the objective uncontested.

Fnatic was able to open the base as a result, taking down the middle inhibitor, but ahq won a 5-1 team fight immediately after to keep it close. After another group of explosive team fights for ahq, the Taiwanese team finished off Fnatic for another shocking upset.

Once again, the blind-pick of Darius did not work out, as Ziv easily countered with Gnar. Huni was terribly limited throughout the game, and Fnatic ended up losing.