The second day of the 14th edition of League of Legends Worlds - one of the biggest competition in the esports ecosystem - kicks off this Thursday in Berlin. This Thursday will see the continuation of Play-In, to determine which teams will advance to the Main Event. For this second day of competition, GAM Esports, with their fifth Worlds participations, will take on the less experienced Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Gaming (SHG), who are qualifying for the first time in their history. We've decided to pick a matchup of the day between two players from these teams. Let's dig into the toplane clash between Trần "Kiaya" Duy Sang and Shunsuke "Evi" Murase.

VCS and LJL's old guard

It is a battle between two veterans. Kiaya's career began in 2017 in the smaller circuit of Vietnam. He actually really integrated the professional circuit in 2018 with none other than GAM itself. He has been their faithful toplaner since then and has even played midlane in 2019 for several weeks as the team didn't have a sub available for the role. In 7 years with GAM, he is now entering his 4th Worlds run with them and is eager to reach the Swiss stage this time again. Indeed, he has been a part of team Liquid's humiliation last year.

On the other hand, Evi is 28 and is very simply the most legendary Japanese player in the World. Starting in 2014 in the LJL, he has won it 12 times. He was also part of the first Japanese team that reached the main stage at Worlds (in 2021, with DFM), and finally as the first Japanese player to compete in the LoL EMEA Championship (LEC), with Team Heretics in 2023. He is undefeated this year in the LJL, only loosing a handful of games but never losing a full series. He is currently living his 6th Worlds run and is willing once more to make his home soil proud.

Going blind in the meta

This year, Kiaya has emerged as one of the two key pillars of GAM Esports' roster, standing strong alongside the team's renowned jungler, Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh. He played a crucial role in GAM's dominance, not losing a single best-of-five series throughout the season. His solid performances on meta champions like Renekton, as well as Aurora who's back, after being disabled in the main regions Summer Splits, have made him a formidable presence in the top lane and a reliable force for his team heading into the international stage. He is the recent Finals MVP of the Summer Split, and will probably be playing around these two champions and K'Sante while he has also been able to play bruisers like Gnar and Camille pretty decently as well.

His opponent, Evi, is really dedicated to play for his team more than in a selfish way. He seems to always chose Kennen when he has the chance to. Indeed, the Japanese team seems to have built its strengths on this specific toplane pick as Evi is good at finding flanks and always watches out to TP on the back of his enemies, to eventually hit them with his signature thumbs up at the end of the game. Other than this, he is pretty tanks oriented with Skarner, K'Sante and Ornn being on the top of the list as it often provides the main setup and frontline for his team.

Don’t miss what could be the final showdown at Worlds between two leagues set to merge within the APAC region in 2025. In today's BO3 between SHG and GAM, both players will showcase their unique playstyles in what promises to be an intense matchup. Tune in at 2 PM CET to catch all the action.