CTBC Flying Oyster are on the board at Worlds. In what was both teams' first result at the event, CFO took a 37:32 best-of-one against Team Liquid Alienware on October 23, starting their Swiss campaign 1-0 and leaving TLAW at 0-1 with plenty of the stage still to play.

The kill count suggests a coin flip. CFO finished with 12 kills to TLAW's 11. Everything else on the sheet tells a different story. CFO took eight towers to three, five dragons to one and the only Baron of the game, and they ended up with roughly 8,800 more gold. This was a win built on the map rather than in skirmishes, and TLAW never turned their share of the fights into structures or neutral objectives.

Doggo at the centre of everything

Doggo's line is an odd one: zero kills on Aphelios, but 12 assists and a 100% kill participation, meaning he was involved in every kill CFO scored. He also led the game in damage with 25,215 and topped the gold charts at 18,578. Shad0w's Qiyana was close behind, with 17,266 gold and 20,781 damage from the jungle, while POUT's Viktor went 5/2/5 and led his team in kills.

TLAW had bright spots. Josedeodo finished 5/0/4 on Lee Sin, the only player on either side to end the game deathless, and Quid's Syndra put out 22,518 damage. Morgan was involved in 10 of his team's 11 kills on Galio. Yeon, though, went 0/2/7 on Jhin despite holding the most gold on his team, and with a single dragon and no Baron to show for it, TLAW arguably did not get enough from the fights they did win.

A long road for both

This is only one game, and a Swiss loss does not end anyone's tournament. TLAW are not eliminated, but the objective gap is the thing they will want to fix, because the kills alone suggest they were rarely far off in fights. For CFO, the start is what matters. The opponent for their next Swiss round has not been confirmed yet, but they head into it with a win already banked and an early lesson that a tight kill score can still mean a comfortable map.