For those uninformed, all the games this week will be focused on one group per day. If you thought Riot killed superweeks only to go back on their word to bring them back… well you’d still be wrong because these are technically “superdays” with teams playing back to back games in consecutive best of one’s, which in many ways is a lot worse (or better if your team thrives off of momentum) for competitors. Enough about the format for now; let’s get on with the games.

CLG vs KOO

There couldn’t have been a more disappointing first game for CLG fans to wake up to in the really early hours of the morning -- but it happened. Koo Tigers unbenched the Kench, and GorillA used him to completely decimate CLG in every single skirmish back to back for what seemed like an excruciatingly painful 24 minutes. Admittedly, CLG bunched up a lot during those fights when they didn’t need to against Koo’s comp -- but it’s without a doubt that KOO owes a lot to GorillA’s Tahm Kench for their early game dominance against CLG.

FW vs PNG

Another “paiNful” game was given to us with almost no rest for the early morning of group stages, but at least it was exciting as a spectator. Karsa’s Lee Sin was absolutely amazing, Mylon made some pretty good Gnar ults time to time followed up with Kami’s Orianna shockwaves, but the game turned out to be throw after throw, giving fans Vietnam flashbacks from OMG vs. FNC last year where they failed to push down the Nexus. Steak even became the new Soaz when he TP’d into paiN’s base and failed to take the nexus with a Lich Bane, and died instead.

If you’re looking for an entertaining game, look no further. If you’re looking for some really clutch plays, watch with caution. If you’re looking for stability and high level team play, take a nap. As brutal as that sounds, I would still hold that PaiN has shown Riot Games needs to open the discussion of whether or not Brazil deserves a spot at worlds

KOO vs PNG

Speaking of Vietnam flashbacks, KOO vs. PNG was almost the exact same stomp from CLG vs KOO from earlier that morning minus the Kench. Smeb’s Darius however was the constant factor in both games, and he crushed them like ants. Maybe from here on, teams will finally figure out that banning Darius might just be better in case you get snowballed versus failing to snowball them. Not much to write home about, paiN looked tilted after their loss against Flash Wolves and had no time to recover as they rolled over to die vs KOO.

FW vs CLG

CLG won the North American Regionals to give fans false hope. Losing to KOO seemed like a reasonable result, whether or not the degree of despair needed to be that bad for the fans that game. Losing to Flash Wolves however is way below fan expectations, but given how well Karsa has played this tournament for the Flash Wolves, it’s not ridiculous to see that he carried them super hard against CLG. Aphromoo played the worst he’s played in a very long time, ZionSpartan’s Ekko was too telegraphed to make an impact, and Doublelift made a lot of mechanical errors. No one on CLG is without fault, and the Flash Wolves earn a deserved victory here.

FW vs KOO

Koo got the same team composition that they’ve been running all day with great success. It was an incredibly slow game, but KOO tends to do better the longer the game drags on -- so KOO fans started to rest easy until they tripped and fell, and Flash Wolves just started banging on the doors. They outplayed KOO on the map and even though it wasn’t perfectly clean, KOO got a decisive teamfight victory over Flash Wolves even though Steak was too busy splitpushing the base. FW rode off with a huge, momentous high and takes the first seed in the group, ending CLG’s dreams of getting out of the group.

CLG vs paiN

This game had absolutely no importance on the standings, though it could have had the Flash Wolves lost to KOO, giving CLG hope for a tiebreaker chance. As it wasn’t, CLG had some fun throwbacks with Doublelift’s Vayne. Because this game was not really important, not too much time needs to be spent on this unless you want some respite for the Wildcard discussion and whether or not Brazil deserves a spot at Worlds next year.

CLG’s new legacy at Worlds will always be that they lost to paiN like how CLG.EU (well, Alliance after the rebranding) lost to Kabum. However, this would be rather underplaying paiN’s success because after these two weeks of group stages it is without a doubt that paiN is the best Wildcard team to perform at Worlds thus far.