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Zhugan9/7/2014, 5:09:53 PM1 votes

The group for C9 makes obvious sense. I would argue that C9 is the strongest team in that group.

The group for TSM is harder to judge. There are quite a few teams I'd rather play than OMG, but other than the distinct possibility of OMG being stronger TSM could win that group.

LMQ's group obviously plays to their strengths. They would be able to play the pick game with Fnatic and match up against any other Chinese team fairly well (let's not kid ourselves, LMQ is Chinese, not NA). They could beat Shield, but that is entirely dependent upon which version of Shield shows up.

Having said all of that, you're putting both Samsung teams into the same group and that doesn't just seem improbable that seems more or less impossible. Which means that one of the NA teams will have that to compete with instead of the teams that they are against there.

Realistically, with a round of 8 after the group stage, I would expect to see at least one and maybe two NA teams break to quarters. How far they advance from there would depend entirely on whether or not they play one of the Samsung teams, imo, as the EU teams aren't categorically stronger than the NA teams and the Chinese teams, while mechanically brilliant compared to the NA average, seem to be strategically weaker than teams from NA/EU.

I don't, honestly, predict any NA team making it past semis though. NA teams don't scrim enough and practice enough to overcome the raw difference in mechanical skill that exists between NA teams and Koreans. I don't think anyone in the world does. And not because "Koreans are better at video games!", but because Koreans have a culture of treating esports like sports and practicing a hell of a lot more than NA players do. And, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.