Before the official kickoff of the World Championship (Worlds) 2022, many spectators (especially from the LCK region) believe that Gen.G will be the strongest contender for the championship. This belief is especially strong after the team’s convincing journey in the LCK Summer 2022, culminating in a resounding 3-0 victory against T1 led by Faker in the finals.
As the matches of Worlds 2022 officially began, Gen.G stumbled a bit when they lost to Royal Never Give Up (RNG) in their opening match. However, after regaining their best form, Gen.G did not lose any more matches. They successfully avenged their loss to RNG and secured the top spot in the group stage after its conclusion.
However, upon entering the quarter-finals, Gen.G caused a bit of concern among their fans. In the match against DWG KIA (DK), the reigning LCK champions took a 2-0 lead after the first two games. However, they could not finish DK off neatly and had to drag the match to game 5, winning thanks to a superstar moment from AD Carry Ruler. In that situation, Gen.G also did not show overwhelming dominance compared to the 2021 Worlds runner-up.
Recently, several other factors have also been mentioned as fans assess Gen.G’s championship potential at this year’s Worlds. As is known, before each Worlds, Riot always releases a music product in collaboration with famous artists. For Worlds 2022, Riot partnered with Lil Nas X to create the MV STAR WALKIN’ – the official song for this year’s tournament.
On the cover of this MV, player CoreJJ cannot participate in Worlds 2022, while Humanoid and Meiko have also been eliminated, leaving only Chovy to fight in the semi-finals. Looking back in history, in the MV Burn It All Down from Worlds 2021, EDward Gaming (EDG) was the only team not featured in the MV that went on to win the championship. Previously, in the MV Take Over from 2020, DK (then known as Damwon Gaming) also did not appear, and the results are well-known to everyone.
Another factor mentioned by BeryL of DRX is that any team that has faced DK in a Bo5 match tends to lose in the next Bo5. For example, Gen.G defeated DK in the LCK Spring 2022 semi-finals and then lost to T1. In the LCK Summer 2022, this observation applied to T1 when they were defeated by Gen.G with a score of 0-3.
But of course, all these factors are merely references for fans to discuss during their “downtime”. The Gen.G team is undoubtedly still a top contender for the championship, and their players will have to give their all to achieve their title goal at Worlds 2022 this time around.