The first round of the S13 Swiss round has officially begun! T1 starts the opener, and the focus battle BLG beats KT
On October 19, 2023, Beijing time, the S13 Global Finals will officially start the first round of the Swiss round on this day. Among them, T1, one of the hosts of this World Championship, will play TL in the opening match of the first round of the Swiss round, while BLG from LPL will face strong rival KT in the final match of the day. So, what are the highlights of this day's game? Let's find out together!
The opening match between T1 and TL should not be too suspenseful, although TL has world champions Pyosik and CoreJJ and three Korean players plus the single player Summit, but the hard power of TL's entire team and T1 still have a relatively large gap. As we all know, on the stage of the global finals, the performance of T1 has been very stable, and it is the team that started in the final four. So, as long as T1 plays normally, there is no big problem in helping LCK get the Swiss round opener.
The second C9 vs. MAD match is undoubtedly a focus battle between EA and EU for European and American audiences. In recent seasons, LEC has actually surpassed LCS. It is not known whether the C9, which has always been called the light of North America, will be able to find a place for the LCS division in its Swiss debut. The next third game was actually not suspenseful. GEN is one of the recognized favourites to win the Global Finals, and GAM is the only wild card team in the Swiss round, and there is still an essential gap between the two teams in hard power. And if GAM can beat GEN in this game, it will also be the biggest upset of this World Championship.
The fourth match was the debut of the LPL team in the Swiss round, with JDG, another favorite to win the World Finals, against BDS, who had played from the qualifying stage. It is worth mentioning that BDS is a team that relies more on the upper single player Adam. As long as JDG is not given an advantage by BDS on the road, I believe JDG can still easily win the opening. The biggest attraction of this game is whether Adam will show his unique skills again, and how the 369 players will deal with it.
The fifth G2 match against DK is also one of the highlights of what can be called the first round of the Swiss round. Although there is a relatively large gap between LEC and LPL and LCK, as the dominant team of LEC, G2 still has a big threat to LPL and LCK teams. Therefore, although from the perspective of hard power, it is true that DK is better, but G2 still has a chance to get its own opening from DK.
In the sixth game, WBG took on the LCS Division No. 1 seed NRG, which is the LCS's dark horse this season. And WBG's singles player Xiaohu has a relatively high evaluation of NRG's singles player Palafox. Although WBG does have an advantage in terms of hard power, since NRG can become the No. 1 seed in the LCS division, WBG still needs to be taken seriously.
The seventh game is LNG vs FNC, and judging from the performance of the 2023 LPL summer playoffs, LNG is undoubtedly the second team among the four teams in the LPL. Although FNC is an established powerhouse and has even made LPL teams suffer in the global finals, the FNC is far from returning to the top in recent seasons. Therefore, I believe that LNG can still get its first win as long as it plays normally.
The eighth BLG-KT matchup should be the highlight of the first round of the Swiss round. On the one hand, it's a showdown between LPL and LCK; On the other hand, from the overall strength of the two teams, it is still quite close. However, judging from the performance of the summer stage of the 2023 season, it is obvious that KT has played better. On the contrary, BLG's performance in the 2023 LPL summer playoffs was not satisfactory. Of course, it's been more than two months since the summer playoffs. Therefore, this match, whether BLG can regain its feelings, will be the key to whether they can beat KT.
Finally, guys, how many games do you think the LPL team can win in their Swiss debut?