Apparent bug could have affected outcome of GAM Esports versus Top Esports at Worlds

While the teams from group C are moving on to the League of Legends World Champion quarterfinals, a bug has been discovered to have impacted one of yesterday’s games that could have changed which teams advanced.

Popular content creator Vandiril pointed out via Twitter that a bug impacted the end of the game between GAM Esports and Top Esports, which resulted in a victory for GAM that brought them closer to the quarterfinals while placing the hopes of TES in the hands of other teams. This game is being recognized by fans internationally as one of the most hype in Worlds thus far, ending in GAM successfully stopping TES from getting the last hit on their nexus, ultimately winning the game for themselves.

Vandiril pointed out that, upon reviving, GAM’s jungler Levi immediately used his ultimate as Karthus to prevent TES from winning the game, dealing massive damage to Jackeylove’s Lucian and Mark’s Nami. This allowed the remainder of his team to clean up the low-health members of TES and advance towards a win for themselves.

However, upon closer inspection, Lucian’s Maw of Malmortius did not negate damage from Karthus’ ultimate and therefore resulted in Jackeylove being unable to get that final hit on the opposing nexus. This item normally grants a large shield to champions that take an excessive amount of magic damage and an additional omnivamp for a short duration, but what is seemingly a bug prevented that damage from being negated in this instance.

It’s worth noting that Levi’s Karthus had a Liandry’s Lament (upgraded by Ornn), Shadowflame, and Void Staff, each capable of bursting through Lucian’s low magic resist but still should have triggered the Maw of Malmortius passive as it was not on cooldown. Should Lucian have lived, Jackeylove likely would have been able to hit GAM’s nexus one or two final times and end the game right then.

This “bug” has not been addressed by Riot Games itself, though many professional League players, casters, and analysts such as Nymaera and MAD Lions’ mid laner Nisqy have voiced their opinion on it, and many believe that it could have changed the outcome of group C entirely.