Two days after squashing Golden Guardian’s Worlds qualification hopes, Europe’s Team BDS received a reality check via a 2-1 Play-Ins defeat to Vietnam’s Team Whales.

BDS started the series well with top laner Adam thriving on his signature Darius pick in game one, but the Whales fought back to claim games two and three and continue onwards in the upper bracket. As a result of the loss, Team BDS must win their next series to avoid dropping out of the tournament.

Credit: Team BDS / LoL Esports

BDS jungler Sheo spoke to the media following the series, saying that the loss was “execution-based” as his side “simply didn’t play that good.”

“We could’ve improved some skirmishes in the early game, that would’ve made the game easier. I think we weren’t connected together, we didn’t play as a team really well.”

After finding the first game “pretty easy to play,” Sheo said his side found it “kind of hard in-game to do many things” during subsequent the back-to-back losses.

Quizzed on Team Whales’ relative strength compared to BDS’ previous opponents Golden Guardians, and why his side found today’s series more difficult, Sheo explained that TW “are a better team than Golden Guardians since they beat us twice… their botlane overall played better, so we had some problems in teamfights.”

Confidence Check ✅

The Frenchman remains confident ahead of BDS’ do-or-die series against Japan’s DetonatioN FocusMe on Friday, the loser of which will be eliminated.

“I think we were kind of overconfident for today’s matches and that’s probably why we lost. I’m not really worried about this loss. We just need to stay focused, keep our cool, and we should go to the main stage.”

Asked by Esports.net what needs to go differently in the next series, Sheo explained that BDS “need to have a better read on the meta and the draft, and play better individually.”

Sparda talks on laning versus Adam and tackling a difficult matchup

His opponent’s top laner Sparda also spoke to the media after the series, reflecting on his tough lane matchup with Adam which saw Sparda suffer one of the largest early-game lane deficits in Worlds history.

“I did make some mistakes during the laning phase, but Adam also made his own mistakes in the sidelanes. So that always gave us manpower priority and that’s how we won the games.”

Credit: LoL Esports

“I think Adam just has some very weird, strong picks. So all we needed to do was ban his champions. Other than that, BDS is a team that’s just as strong as any other team and we can beat them.”

Also highlighted by Sheo, Sparda gave his thoughts on the importance of Xayah and Kai’Sa in this series. They pair are currently the most-picked bot laners after the opening two days of Worlds.

“I think that those are the champions that have a pretty good laning phase, pretty good teamfights, and overall suit our ADC’s playstyle pretty well.”

The winners of all four series thus far will face off tomorrow in the Winners Bracket. Check our Worlds Play-Ins Predictions article for a match breakdown and our analysis.

Read next: League of Legends Worlds Songs: From 2014 until 2023