Worlds 2022 Blog- Day 3 (Group D)
Last day of the Worlds trip was Sunday! (Writing this late.) Around 1:30, I went to CLG’s meetup event near the venue. It was at a rooftop bar, but you didn’t have to be 21+ to go.
For my non-esports friends, CLG is an esports organization that's been in the LCS since the very beginning. CLG was my first team back in 2018 because huhi was on the team, and huhi is the player who got me into LCS in the first place. Huge props to CLG for holding these cool events during Worlds! I really wish more teams would do stuff like this.
So I walked into the CLG thing and immediately realized Dhokla was standing MERE FEET away, and my face immediately went like this: 😳. And then I noticed Palafox standing a little bit farther. Wow. Two LCS pros right there, they're actually REAL PEOPLE?? I mean, I had also never seen any LCS pros in real life before, so I was literally stunlocked.
3rd person is a new friend i met at worlds
And then I tweeted this because I was still internally freaking out haha. Dhokla and Palafox were talking to some other fans so I walked around the place a bit. Then we got a pic with CLG Greg Kim (the head of CLG).
And then I think CLG pewtimestwo found us? (If I’m wrong i’m so sorry i’m horrible at names/faces aahhh) He gave us some info and CLG postcards. They also had free CLG stickers and wristbands.
Then he initiated our conversation with Dhokla, he was like “here’s our top laner!” and then I was a bit starstruck. I awkwardly mentioned that I’m a huge fan and it’s so cool to meet you, and I’m in your twitch chat sometimes, I’m fluffjwi. (Cringe moment XD) He just went, ah nice to met you! I was totally like, blanking out and forgetting how to speak words, but Dhokla is so friendly, he absolutely hard carried the conversation. He asked questions like “where are you from”, “how long are you at Worlds”, etc. He mentioned that he’s sorry about CLG not getting farther this year, we said, it’s okay and hope you go far next year! TBH, I did want CLG to go to worlds this year, but I think it’s alright that they didn’t. I mean they already exceeded people’s expectations with this roster that people didn’t really believe in at the start.
It seemed like Palafox was talking to other fans still, so we went to the table where CLG had signs and markers you could use to make signs. I made a sign that just said “WE ❤️ HUHI” and put my 100T stickers on it. Also I gave someone a 100T sticker and later they came back and said that there’s other fans who want stickers! And then I was just handing out other 100T stickers to a bunch of fans, haha. So that was cool. Someone also asked about my CLG crewneck. It’s actually something I got in 2019. CLG did a giveaway for Valentines day and you had to submit like fan content or a picture with the team? And why you’re a fan of CLG. (like I mentioned, CLG was my first ever LCS team.) So I submitted some CLG fanart back then and I happened to win the giveaway, that’s how I got this CLG merch.
I felt really awkward waiting to take a picture with Palafox, there was like a whole little circle of people talking to him and I was just awkwardly standing behind them. Palafox was nice about it though, eventually we did get to take a picture. I wished him good luck next year and all. Then we headed over to the venue since 100T would be playing the first game.
Group D Teams Info:
Gen. G (GEN)- KR 1st Place
CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO)- Taiwan 1st Place
100 Thieves (100)- NA 2nd place
Royal Never Give Up (RNG)- CN 4th Place
Before the start of the game, I wrote this quick 100T Players appreciation thread since I had been talking with resident 100T Superfan, Delfino @decemberoli about how we’re sad that the 100 Thieves organization has seemed to really de-prioritize LCS this year, barely making any content about the LCS team, which makes it really hard for non-fans to know much about them. And I felt like this might be this 100T roster’s last dance because they’ve been together for two years already (which is very long for a lol esports team to stick together), so I just wanted to get this out. Because I usually focus on EG so I haven’t been able to express my appreciation of the 100T boys enough.
Our first game was against the Flying Oysters, who were the “expected” last place of the group but had defeated 100T the week before (which made everyone understandably sad). So it was nice that 100T managed to pull a clean win vs them this time around, keeping the miracle run dreams alive. I remember huhi had a really amazing game on Amumu support.
They interviewed Closer after the game, that’s him up there.
Side note, there were a lot of COVID problems that day. CFO and RNG were all not on stage due to covid. For 100T, huhi and Abbedagge were playing remotely due to getting covid. That sucks and I hope all the sick players will feel better quickly.
The next game was CFO vs Gen. G. Technically, we wanted CFO to win because it would make it easier for 100T to get out of the group. Unfortunately, CFO lost, so now in order to remain in the running, 100T would have to win their next two games.
100T vs RNG was an incredibly close game. We were so close, but sadly ended up losing in the end, which was heartbreaking for every NA fan, I’m sure. This knocked 100T out of worlds, although they had one game left to play still.
At this point, Delfi reminded me to ask Busio about whether I could meet him to give an early birthday present. Context for the non-esports buddies: Busio is 100 Thieves Academy support player (Academy is one level below LCS). He was also the MVP of Academy in summer, he’s really good, and also born in 2003 so of course I gotta root for him! (Also he follows me on Twitter for some reason??) Delfi is a huge fan of Busio, so she wanted me to give him an early birthday present for her. So she had this cute reversible octopus plushie shipped to my house and then I brought that to NYC haha.
Busio was super sweet! At the time I messaged him, he was at the area with drinks (right outside the seats), but when I saw his reply and went out he had already gone back in. So he said he could sprint back out real fast to find me, which was really nice of him. I was just looking at the entrance and then suddenly he appeared, he was wearing a mask and the 100T jersey, and his eyes kinda lit up when he noticed me (I said I was wearing the green EG jersey). And he walked over, gave a fist bump, and introduced himself as Alan, which was kinda cool cause even though I know his real name, in my head he’s always Busio.
I thanked him for coming out and gave him the plushie, he said to tell Delfi thank you (of course I did).
“Reversible?” he asked.
“Yeah!”
“What does that mean?”
So I demonstrated it for him, you basically can turn the plushie inside out and it has a different color and facial expression!
“Oh, that's pretty cute!” he said.
When we were lining up to take a picture, I accidentally slightly stepped on his foot (IM SO BAD) and I went, “omg I am so sorry”, I feel so bad ajdkwkd Busio I’m sorry I'm so clumsy.
“Are you cheering for the boys?” Busio asked after the picture- of course, we had to support the thieves! He asked if we saw the last game, the one vs RNG, and then we were just lamenting for a while about how close that game was. And then he mentioned how the current game, the one vs Gen. G, wasn’t looking so good either, unfortunately. I can’t remember exactly everything we talked about, but there was some more discussion of NA at worlds.
Lastly he gave a last “well it was nice to meet you” and I said something like “you too, thank you so much” and hope to see you in LCS next year!
After going back to my seat I really couldn’t focus very well on the 100T vs Gen G game, I was kinda in shock that I just met Busio and how friendly he was. Unfortunately I think 100T got kind of stomped in that game.
I decided to leave after that since I had an early flight and I didn’t really care about the remaining games since 100T was done playing. I only managed to get 1 hour of sleep at night anyway, I couldn’t fall asleep since I was emotionally processing a lot of things… (i did sleep the entire flight though, and then I made it back in time for drawing class, and I had a throbbing headache the whole time but at least I didn’t miss anything…)
I actually had a lot of trouble mentally affirming that this trip was worth it despite all the fun things that I experienced and cool people I met. I think it’s because I’ve been conditioned my whole life to prioritize school / productivity first, and this is like the first time I decided to go against that? But I talked to some friends who helped me realize that it’s okay to enjoy hobbies that aren’t necessarily ‘productive’. (Like not everything you do has to ‘get you somewhere in life’.) It’s true that these are unforgettable experiences and memories that can never be replicated.
My parents also had a nice trip and went to more places than expected, apparently, so I feel good about that… (I was worried about bothering them, but seems like they enjoyed NYC.)
Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my LoL esports year. like I said, I’m not really that invested in non-NA teams so I don’t really mind too much about who actually wins Worlds. I’ll probably watch the rest of the games casually and keep an eye on NA offseason (possible roster changes, changes to LCS in general, etc). I honestly feel like my heart isn’t gonna be fully at ease until I know what’s going to happen to the EG roster haha…
I’ll probably try to take it easy a bit for a few days, I’m pretty tired honestly, I just need to recharge (and catch up with school…) then I can come back as normal.
