JD Gaming Eliminate Rogue From LoL World Championship

JD Gaming defeated Rogue in the first round of the League of Legends 2022 World Championship playoffs. With that, the Chinese LoL powerhouse eliminated the final Western LoL team from the tournament, which now features only seven Asian squads.

The first round of the League of Legends World Championship 2022 playoffs kicked off on Thursday, October 20, with a clash between JD Gaming and Rogue. And while it was billed as a one-sided affair, all Western fans were hoping for a miracle which would see Rogue take one step closer to the coveted Summoner’s Cup.

Unfortunately, that miracle didn’t happen. In fact, the exact opposite happened at Madison Square Garden, where JD Gaming demolished the final Western representatives from the tournament. There were some close calls throughout the match, but ultimately, JD Gaming proved to be the better team and locked in a clean 3-0 sweep, retaining their tag as the favorites to win the title.

From start to finish, JD Gaming were in complete control of the series, establishing a firm grip over the Summoner’s Rift with strong laning performance and superior macro play, leaving Rogue unable to claw their way to an upset.

Interestingly, the first blood of the series went to Rogue, but outside of that, the European champions failed to match JD Gaming. Most of JDG’s success on the day was thanks to jungler Kanavi, who had an MVP performance, creating massive leads for his team and disrupting Rogue’s game plan.

With precise ganks and rotations, Kanavi completely shut down Malrang, denying Rogue to play their game. Notably, Rogue had their moments where it looked like they could derail the LoL Pro League representatives, but all their attempts were in vain.

The second and third map of the series played out similarly, with Rogue struggling to match JD Gaming across the lanes and especially in the jungle. Even by doing their best to engage on their opponents and reduce the gold deficit, Rogue were inefficient and eventually had to admit defeat to the superior team.

Rogue entered the LoL World Championship as the final Western LoL team after G2 Esports, Fnatic, and MAD Lions all exited the tournament prematurely.

The former LEC champions, MAD Lions, crashed out of the tournament in the Play-In stage, while G2 Esports and Fnatic couldn’t make it out of the group stage, both finishing their respective groups in third place.

Of the three teams, Fnatic were in the best position to reach the playoffs after finishing the first round of the group stage with a 2-1 record. But once the second round rolled around, Fnatic fell apart and lost their series against T1, Cloud9, and EDward Gaming, suffering a humiliating exit from LoL Worlds.

G2 Esports, on the other side, struggled on the Worlds stage from the get-go. Although they took a W from Evil Geniuses in the first round of the group stage, they proved to be an inferior team to DWG KIA and JD Gaming, finishing the group in the tied-third place with a 1-5 record.

As it’s become a trend, western LoL teams have struggled to deliver internationally, with the LoL Worlds 2022 marking the second consecutive World Championship where a Western team didn’t make it past the quarter-finals.

This year, in particular, showed how the gap between the East and the West has widened, establishing a worrying trend that many believed was long overdue. But there’s always next year, granted we’re still 12 months away form the LoL Worlds 2023, where LEC and LCS will try again to prove that they can compete with Asian LoL teams.