EDG victory sets up undefeated showdown with SKT

China's Edward Gaming continues to show their strength during Day 2 of Worlds 2015 with a convincing win against European hopefuls H2K.

At 36 minutes, this game was a little longer than their 20-minute Day 1 stomp against the Bangkok Titans, but in the eyes of support Tian "meiko" Ye, no less expected.

"I think we performed well", meiko tells us. "It was easy for us today." Jungler Ming "ClearLove" Kai agreed, explaining that they even expected the Level 1 invade by H2K. "It was our expectation because we know it's really hard for them to play on both top and bottom. So I guessed that they would like to do a lane swap, so we put a ward at our Blue Buff and then we went to the Red Buff to wait for them."

[[{"fid":"19919","view_mode":"centered","fields":{"format":"centered","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"tagName":"IMG","src":"http%3A//admin.prod.lolesports.com/s3/files/styles/centered/public/h2kvsedg_meiko.jpg%3Fitok%3DXbAEWA9o","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-centered"}}]]

But the game wasn't entirely plain sailing for the team, meiko explains. "I think we could do better, because we lost a team fight when they invaded the blue buff. I think we can still improve from this game." Not only that, but H2K's top laner Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu gave a convincing performance as Fiora, but wasn't able to carry the game for his team. Still, the strength of Fiora was enough to give EDG pause. ClearLove explains why. "We waited a lot during lane-swapping, which allowed Fiora to farm and grow. Also we lost when we had a team fight around the blue buff, which gives Fiora two kills. So this is the main reason why we lost to Fiora in that game."

ClearLove believes that despite Fiora's strength as a champion, there are some very simple reasons why she isn't being picked or banned in most games so far at Worlds. "I think the reason why most teams don't pick Fiora is because there are still a couple of champions who can counter her well. She needs a lot of time to grow and to farm, so in the early game it's easy to counter her."

Having both meiko and ClearLove together was a great opportunity to talk about the powerful synergy they exhibited during their game today. With meiko sneaking away from the team's ADC Hyuk-kyu "Deft" Kim to go play in the bushes with ClearLove, questions arise about their thoughts behind the strategy, which meiko was happy to answer. "When our ADC is farming, I go with jungle so we can place a ward together and we know that if we meet someone from the enemy team we won't be afraid because we have two people together. We can also do other things, for example helping the mid lane."

So why isn't this a more common phenomenon, if it's as simple as it sounds? "This kind of strategy requires a very high synergy and very good communication between support and jungle, because if they go together to gank in the jungle we could let our ADC die," explained ClearLove. "Also we need to find a good opportunity to go together, so overall it requires a very high synergy between support and jungle in order to be successful."

[[{"fid":"19918","view_mode":"centered","fields":{"format":"centered","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"tagName":"IMG","src":"http%3A//riot-web-cdn.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/lolesports/s3fs-public/styles/centered/public/h2kvsedg_0.png%3Fitok%3DL6GkC9l_","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-centered file-full-page"}}]]

This synergy will come in handy as the team continues throughout the tournament. When asked how they felt about the rest of the Group Stage, the pair immediately skipped forward to the Quarterfinals. "We have time to prepare for the Quarterfinals. Although it highly depends on the draws, but we're not afraid of any teams because we want to do our best," said ClearLove. Meiko reiterates this, saying, "I think that SKT from our group is pretty strong, but also we have watched their plays for the past few games so we kind of know what they want to play." Their confidence is palpable.

ClearLove's certainty shone brighter as he was asked whether he was confident EDG would make it to the Quarterfinals. He laughs, stating very matter-of-factly, "We are very confident that we can go to the Final!"

 

Jem Alexander is a staff writer for Riot Games, based in Brighton, England. You can find him on Twitter @jemalexander.