Daejeon's Play-Ins opened on Sunday with two best-of-fives and a place in the upper bracket on the line. Four regions arrived. By the close, the bracket had already split into the comfortable and the cornered.

T1 never let Team Liquid settle

T1 won by closing the map before TL could open it. The pattern set in early and held across all three games: Oner reached every skirmish first, posting a 66.7% first-blood rate while Josedeodo sat on 0%, and that head start fed straight into a bot lane that gave TL nowhere to stand. Keria's Camille in game one captured it best, diving Yeon again and again until the TL carry had no lane left to play. With the early map already conceded, Team Liquid needed their solo lanes to answer — and only one did. Faker was never troubled by Quid, punctuating game two with a solo kill on his signature Ryze. Top lane was the lone bright spot: Morgan held firm against Doran and even turned it around, handed awkward counterpicks like the game-one Yasuo into Gnar yet taking two solo kills out of the Rumble–Ambessa matchup in game two — a series that did plenty to dent his tank-only reputation.

Karmine Corp leave DCG underwater

Karmine Corp's 3-0 was just as dominant. They gave themselves little early scares in games one and three, then settled every time the mid-game teamfight arrived — the moment the map opened up, DCG had no answer. Game two was the proof of concept: a 20k gold lead by the close, the Taiwanese side completely underwater. The engine was the bot lane, winning the 2v2 repeatedly and banking kills outright, set up by a Kyeahoo draft that found engage on every pick across games two and three.

kyeahoo msi
Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Canna ran the topside too. Flauren had told us before the series he would "try his best to go even in lane and give it all" — instead Canna took a solo kill on Renekton into his Sion, a neat measure of how little DCG could contest. The series MVP went to Yike, who shook off a rough game-one start on Naafiri to take over the jungle in games two and three — a +889 Gold Diff @15 and +1555 XP Diff @15 across the series spelled out how far ahead he finished his opposite number.

What's next ?

That sets up T1 versus Karmine Corp in the upper bracket. T1 are favoured, but day one left a thread to pull — their topside looked like the loosest part of an otherwise dominant performance, and KC have shown the draft and the bot-lane pressure to test it. Kang "Kyeahoo" Ye-hoo, for one, isn't backing down from the favourites:

Going to a 5th set against T1, we'll win 3-2.

Below, Team Liquid meet DCG with a place at MSI on the line. TL are favoured there too, their measured tempo a natural counter to DCG's aggressive, chaotic approach. Whoever loses goes home first.