After a very entertaining best of five series, the Pacific Championship Series’ Beyond Gaming were able to hang on in Game 5 against the Turkish Championship League’s Galatasaray Esports and keep their Worlds 2021 dreams alive. Despite taking a lead in each of the five games, BYG fell in an early 0-2 hole to GS and needed a reverse sweep to bring it all the way back.
The path through play-ins
Galatasaray started off the play-in round-robin red hot, taking two early wins. One of those wins were against their eventual knockout stage opponents, PCS squad Beyond Gaming. After the end of Day 1, GS was a cool 2-0. But after back-to-back losses against the top two Group B finishers, GS ended the round-robin 2-2. This guaranteed them the third seed in the third and fourth place knockout match.
On the other hand, Beyond Gaming struggled to begin their Worlds 2021 journey. In fact, BYG only managed to beat one singular team in their round-robin, a Unicorns of Love squad who came into the final day of the round-robin winless. After an upset at the hands of Cloud9, UOL managed to force a tiebreaker against BYG, with the loser going home. Beyond managed to defeat UOL to stay alive and set up the best of five series against GS.
A knockout best of five
The BYG vs. GS series started off with a banger. While Beyond were in control for most of Game 1, Galatasaray erased the mid-game deficit on the back of a crazy elder dragon steal from Onur Can “Bolulu” Demirol. GS then parlayed that huge play into a steal of Game 1.
In Game 2, BYG once again jumped to an early lead. In fact, they had a gargantuan 7,000 gold lead at the 19-minute mark. But similar to Game 1, GS were able to make the plays necessary to turn things around. Coming all the way back to take Game 2, GS found themselves on match point while BYG had a big mountain to climb.
With their backs against the wall, BYG finally managed to turn their fortunes around. After acquiring an early lead for the third straight game, BYG finally managed to hang on to put GS away in a sub-30 minute rout.
Game 4 was a battle all the way. While Beyond showed some of the same early game prowess they’d displayed throughout the series, it didn’t result in a commanding lead. With gold even for pretty much the entirety of the game, it was an ace at the 28 minute mark that gave Beyond the edge and set up a decisive Game 5.
The fifth and final game delivered. Both teams looked like equals for over 30 minutes, holding a tie in gold at the 31-minute mark. Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan continued his impressive performance as BYG’s best player while the rest of the team stepped up. A clutch baron steal from jungler Huang “HuSha” Zi-Wei wound up being the x-factor as BYG completed the reverse sweep and moved onto the group stage qualification match.
What’s next for Beyond Gaming at Worlds 2021
With the series win over Galatasaray Esports, Beyond Gaming earned themselves the pleasure of playing another best of five series tomorrow. As a result of the way the Worlds 2021 format shakes out, their opponents will be mid lane superstar Chovy and his South Korean fourth-seed squad, Hanwha Life Esports. Given the reputation that League of Legends Champions Korea has as a region, Beyond Gaming enter this series as the heavy underdogs.
BYG will face off against HLE on Oct. 9 at 7 a.m. ET. If Beyond Gaming can manage to pull off the upset, they will be rewarded with one of the final two spots in the Worlds 2021 group stage.
For Galatasaray Esports, their Worlds 2021 journey is now over.
