Day 2 of the 2020 Mid-Season Cup turned to be just as spicy as Day 1, but for different reasons. After an eight-hour endurance test among the teams in Group B, the results have finally come in before the end of the day.

Read on for the results as well as a preview of the playoffs starting tomorrow 1pm Korea Standard Time.

Group B Rankings

4^th Place: Invictus Gaming

Much to the dismay of many hoping fans, iG just was unable to deliver in the global stage against the Korean players and their local champion JD Gaming.

The team has been on a steady decline since their peak at the regular season during the spring. Much of this can be attributed to either the team underperforming, or every other team doing their research on the team’s habits.

If Invictus Gaming was a book, the neighboring teams and regions were the avid readers who learned the ins and outs.

Unfortunately, they will be going home with a disappointing 0-3 record in the offseason. Maybe there will be drastic adjustments before summer starts.

3^rd Place: DragonX

From this point on, consider the teams to be in even ground for managing to all stand with a 2-1 record (save for the dejected iG) and having to fight in tiebreaker rounds for this position.

DragonX claimed third place after losing to Gen.G, and then JD Gaming in a best-of-one tiebreaker.

That’s not to disclaim their performance in the actual round robin, however. Initially, DRX had a great record going into the latter rounds with a two-win streak against Gen.G and iG.

One key personality in this team is their top laner, DGX Doran. Managing to beat theShy—the world’s best top laner—as well as make impactful 1v9 plays near objectives is no easy feat for any player. Overall, the team is as solid as it can be, thanks to its roster of above-average players.

However, their tournament run was a roller coaster as they started crumbling in the later games of the day. Despite early leads and even taking dragon souls, they still managed to lose to JD Gaming. This could be attributed to the fatigue of playing for several hours, but consistency is still the issue in such case.

All things said, this team performed pretty well for being Korea’s third seed. Expect their gameplay to improve once they come back home to the LCK for summer.

2^nd Place: JD Gaming

The LPL Spring Split champion, and one of the two teams from Group B to proceed into the semifinals, none other than JD Gaming.

Just like DragonX, their tournament run was a rollercoaster as well. Initially being dominated by Gen.G, they bounced back after beating Invictus Gaming and then DragonX—twice.

One remarkable aspect in the team is their excellent roster. Like in their home turf, Zoom is there to be a dominant force against the Korean teams, and against DragonX who secured various win conditions, they still managed to clutch the wins.

With Kanavi’s iconic aggressive gameplay and Yagao’s skillful roams and micro, coupled with LokeN’s amazing damage output and LvMao’s perfect support plays, this team proves why they were the champions in China.

By staying true to their moshpit style of teamfighting, even the Korean teams were baffled at how they were able to consistently outscale the competition.

1^st place: Gen.G

Coming in first place is Korea’s second seed, Gen.G.

Gen.G can be described as many things, but to best sum them up, this team thrives on calculated aggression.

Even though they lost to T1 in the semi-finals, it’s as if they were just saving their strength during that time and dumped everything in the Mid-Season Cup. In Game 1 against JD Gaming, one could see how well-coordinated the entire team played their skirmishes, coupled with the micro mechanics Clid and Bdd naturally have.

This team’s excellence comes from the team itself; more specifically, each player in the roster were carrying their own weights.

Rascal was a great toplaner who knew how to pilot technical bruisers like Camille and Irelia; Clid was a remarkable jungler from the LPL; Bdd plays the mid lane with the exact amount of aggression and safety needed; Ruler is considered as one of the top ADC players in the world; and Life was a support that could complement the entire team whatever draft it makes.

Right now, Bdd came out of the group carrying all three Player of the Game awards from their wins.

To sum everything up, Gen.G’s players are truly talented players with supreme prowess in micro and macro play. They demonstrated that they deserve to play for the semifinals.

Playoffs Preview

Now that the Group Stage has concluded, we now have our Final Four teams competing for over $240,000 in prize money:

• FunPlus Phoenix (FPX)
• Top Esports (TES)
• Gen.G (GEN)
• JD Gaming (JDG)

This is a stacked roster in favor of the LPL, with Gen.G being the only Korean representative.  Gen.G is now Korea’s last hope, and they have to do more than what they accomplished to beat these bigshot Chinese teams.

Like in the LPL, the FPX versus JDG and TES versus JDG matchups are a throwback to the playoffs season. JDG kicked FPX down 3-0 into third place, and they barely made it out of finals against TES with a 3-2 standing. Things could change once these teams meet.

Some player-specific matchups to look out for are Gen.G’s Bdd versus JDG’s Yagao. Maybe Yagao has learned a thing or two after battling him in the first round, and some developments may ensue.

In addition, a bot lane battle between Top Esports’ JackeyLove versus Gen.G’s Ruler will definitely be one for the history books.

One can’t forget JD Gaming’s Zoom against all of the top laners in this Final Four, given how dominant he was since his return in the LPL. Could these other top laners find a way to beat Zoom before Zoom fast forwards into their nexus?

Who are your bets in the Final Four? Are there other matchups you want to see happen? Who do you think will match each other in the semifinals?