The 2021 League of Legends World Championship Group Stage kicked off on Oct. 11 with a clash of two titans. Former world champions DWG KIA and FunPlus Phoenix headlined Day 1, and the match got off to an exciting start before either team loaded onto the map.
Right off the bat in the draft phase, DWG KIA first-pick insta-locked everybody’s favorite AFK champion: Yuumi.
Yuumi has never been regarded as a great blind pick because she has zero flex potential and more or less gives a ton of information to your opponent in the draft phase. The minute the South Korean champions punched in the pick, caster Andy “Vedius” Day lost it, and the rest of the internet followed suit.
I hope Yuumi wins
Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter.
League of Legends European Championship host Eefje “Sjokz” Depootere:
Yumi first pick? Cancel the whole fkn event
— Eefje Depoortere (@sjokz) October 11, 2021
LEC caster Andrew “Vedius” Day:
Evil Geniuses Head Coach Peter Dun:
1P YUUMI FIRST GAME????? Worlds already delivering and they haven't even loaded onto the rift.
— Peter Dun (@pcdv8r) October 11, 2021
League of Legends Champions Korea Caster Maurits “Chronicler” Jan Meeusen:
Beryl making sure he can play Genshin during his games by first picking Yuumi
— Chronicler (@ChroniclerCasts) October 11, 2021
LEC caster Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain:
I hope yuumi wins xD. I’m a yuumi main and she’s just so fun!! People get so trolled by her ult , and her voice lines are so cute like when she talks about zoomies LOL! She’s super random but also smarter than she looks, just like me xD
— Medic (@MedicCasts) October 11, 2021
Golden Guardians Academy top laner Aiden “Niles” Tidwell:Â
no shot i woke up at 6 am for first pick yuumi
— Niles (@NilesLOL) October 11, 2021
It’s no secret that the League of Legends community has a love/hate relationship with the floating feline, but compared to the high presence of heavy-crowd-control support champions like Leona that were picked in the play-in stage, scaling enchanter picks like Yuumi are definitely a change of pace. On top of that, DWG KIA having the confidence to grab the champ right out the gate could be telling for how the rest of the top-heavy Group B could shape out.Â
Going by the match’s results DWG KIA’s brazenness definitely paid off for them at the very least. They drew first blood against the 2019 world champions FPX, one of the most hyped matchups of the first day of groups, and blew them out of the water with an 18-2 scoreline.
