Thus, after much effort, GAM Esports has finally accomplished their first goal at the Play-in stage of the 2023 World Championship. With a new format applied, it’s been a long time since GAM has had the chance to return to the Play-in of an international League of Legends tournament. In reality, their journey has not been easy. GAM had once hit rock bottom when they lost to LOUD, only to finish their “climb” with a victory against Team Whales in the “derby VCS” right at LoL Park.
Notably, the fourth game can be seen as a convergence of what is characteristic of the VCS, as both representatives delivered continuous, intense skirmishes throughout the match. However, one thing that left the audience, who are not used to the continuous rhythm of VCS fights, astonished: the minion counts of GAM players and TW were almost always equal to or exceeded the game time. Particularly, the positions that are frequently “farmed” by GAM such as Kiaya, Kati, or Slayder had very solid numbers, even when they constantly fell or were pushed out of lane.
Even the famous streamer Caedrel was astonished during his co-stream of the match: “GAM continuously engages in fights, and some players are being taken down. But somehow they still have minion counts equal to the game time. What’s going on? Are they Chovy?” Perhaps those who regularly follow League of Legends and professional tournaments know that Chovy is a player with one of the most efficient minion clearing abilities currently. No matter what variables occur during the match, Chovy always ensures to have one of the highest minion counts in the game.
This shows that GAM not only fights well but also effectively controls lanes and macro, not allowing any position to be overwhelmed by their opponents. The players themselves also take advantage of every mistake and the smallest gaps that TW creates to bring back favorable results. The victory for GAM was well-deserved, but TW simply did not perform as well as GAM in this matchup.