League of Legends news » Takeaways from Group A

We’re all Lunatics now as the CIS’ Albus NoX Luna advances to the Quarterfinals alongside Korea's ROX Tigers.

ANX advances. ANX advances. ANX advances. Say it three times and the Russian winter will descend upon your land. A tournament rife with upsets continued the trend today as ANX secured the most successful run for an International Wildcard ever after notching their third win of the tournament against Counter Logic Gaming. They then followed that with the biggest  triumph in Worlds History.

It was also one of the longest matches ever, but in a grueling 66 minute teeth-clencher, they pulled off the previously unthinkable by knocking Korea's No. 1 seed ROX Tigers to their knees. It was one of the most exciting matches of the tournament -- or ever! And with the win, they became the first team to secure a trip to the Worlds Quarterfinals. It’s a remarkable achievement for both ANX and for all of the International Wildcard regions.

And while ANX will deservedly dominate headlines, its the ROX Tigers who managed to take first place in the group. With their backs against a corner, ROX looked dominant against CLG en route to punching their ticket into the Quarterfinals. They carried that momentum into the tiebreaker rematch against ANX to clinch Group A’s top seed.

With the the conclusion of this group, let’s take a look back and see what we learned. Here are the quick takeaways from Group A:

• The ROX Tigers are breathing a sigh of relief as they leave San Francisco atop this group. Their early game issues were exploited -- from Smeb's over-aggression to teams camping Kuro -- and it became clear they're not unstoppable. Surprise punches from Week 1 saw them lose the early game against all three of their opponents, and Week 2 didn't get better until they were facing elimination. They're a missed Baron Smite away from booking an early ticket home to Korea. But once their gears revved towards the end of the day, they looked exactly like what we expected -- aggressive and lethal.

• In standard lanes, you have to be able to match your opponents on a mechanical level for the early game or you’ll get run over. And ANX repeatedly won the early game -- in large part thanks to the roaming prowess of their support, Likkrit. There were unique picks in Anivia for mid and Brand for support, but they weren’t cheesy -- they were legitimate comfort picks. And on the macro level, this was a team willing to take the initiative, which is a hallmark trait of World Championship caliber teams. They started Barons. They started team fights. ANX is the real deal.  

• Before Worlds, if you’d told fans that Counter Logic Gaming would go 2-0 against G2 and 1-1 against ROX, they’d be ecstatic. But if you paused after that and just stared at them, slowly, surely, they’d start to furrow their brows and ask you, “What about ANX?” And you wouldn’t have to answer. They would just know. CLG crushed the early game when they got their picks -- especially when they got Aurelion Sol -- and Stixxay had another particularly strong international showing. Such discrepancies on champion picks might mean their pools are shallow, and now they'll have time to improve on that weakness.

• Between Worlds and the Mid-Season Invitational, G2 Esports' combined international record is 3-13. They just couldn’t manage to translate their strengths -- the dominance of Trickz and their bot lane -- onto the Worlds stage. And it seemed as if early struggles perpetuated themselves throughout the matches -- at times, the team’s individual mechanical gaffes were dumbfounding. They didn’t even have a chance to play out the macro portion properly. G2 will need to spend the offseason trying to identify exactly what went wrong.

In exchange for busting nearly every bracket in the world, Group A gave us match after match of excitement. ANX’s historic run in this group is a major milestone for League of Legends history. While the first two teams are locked in for the Quarterfinals, there are still six spots to claim. Be sure to tune in to the rest of the weekend to see how the final field pans out.