Group A, last thoughts on Group Stage

This group is a group i wanted to save for last, to be on its own before i talked about the stage in general and im glad i waited, AHQ, EDG surged but it wasnt enough, SKT and C9 almost losing their respective spots, this Group was so huge.

First of all for Group A.

SKT: Theyve looked so wonky all year, Huni and Untara splitting time gave them both not enough to truly rise and get the rest of SKT used to how they should be used but Huni came up clutch on the Trundle against EDG, Faker finally just waking up and smashing later on, Bang and Wolf getting camped but being able to change up and win. With SKT singing Huni and Peanut i thought, "Oh god its Huni without Reignover, without his personal jungler" but he showed so much this year and in this group, their wins focused so hard on Huni doing well and well he did. Blank and Huni came up large while the rest of SKT kinda pissed me off a little with how lackadaisical their early game was. Bang and Wolf in a bot lane focused meta scared me a little, as far as a list of best bot lanes int he world, Bang and Wolf are up there but not for being hyper carries who smash but being a rock in lane for SKT to always have an Ace in the Hole to rely on and not so much the gods to open up early like Pray and Gorilla or Uzi and Ming. Faker has switched as well from the frantic "I will kill you until you die to death in lane" kind of player, to a more calm and sometimes boring heavy farm style, this is no knock about him, do not let the word boring throw you off, its something no other mid laner was able to do, change the style so drastically and win still. DaDe, PawN, Ryu, Scout, Kuro, Crown, Bjergsen, etc. Nobody has done this as well as Faker. All this and one weak link for me in SKT is the willingness to not be very proactive early and with teams like RNG and team WE who are far beyond better early, RNG being the team who dont have the big questions with them like WE about being able to close against tough teams, SKT could lose when it comes to Semi-Finals if they dont fix this. Peanut is another weakness i dont like to see with SKT, he makes far too many mistakes and his style doesnt mesh well with what SKT has been doing. All in all i hope SKT can improve even more later in Worlds.

Cloud 9: BAAAAD drafts coming from C9 in week 2 almost destroy their chances. They looked very strong still being able to defeat EDG, AHQ and really putting up the best fight when SKT decided to turn it on in the early game in week 1, then in week 2 it kind of made me scratch my head. They couldve beaten EDG but they decided for what ever reason on earth to give the Galio to EDG and let the Shen fall to be banned and STILL giving Contractz the ok to play Graves. Against SKT they had a very bad time getting out-drafted and still managed to fight back so very hard but that whack NA vision game showed its head and it cost C9. All in all im proud of these guys, many people will say EDG was the better team but i think not, Scout is too frantic in trying to get things done, Mouse looks very uncomfortable at times and Clearlove is just doing poorly and with a better draft, C9 had them. Jensen and Sneaky prove who really is the best in NA after all year people pegged Jensen as being this guy who had this stigma of being under Bjergsen's shadow and people never took Sneaky seriously in a "who's the best ad carry in NA" conversation and 2 years in a row they show up so large and help C9 make it through. Problems for me from C9 still get to me in shaky drafts, Contracts not playing tanks during groups and the lack of vision game bother me, they have such a good chance to make it into Semifinals but those questions, while fixable, bother me a lot.

EDG: These guys made me salty while watching the LPL finals, ill admit it now, i didnt like they way they played but RNG didnt have an answer for how EDG likes to play around Scout. EDG wins by early rotations, vision and as the game gets later, Scout MUST be roaming and splitting to run the enemy team around the map and USING that vision and early map control to kind of use Scout as bait to get clean picks. They do not like to team fight and SKT and C9 forcing them to do so exposed them very hard. Scout did look very good in the second week showing he isnt a Lucian one-trick and still being aggressive btu he reminds me of Ryu with the much memed about "Ryu stat" where he just begs to have the enemy mid freeze under tower so he can always be over-extended a lot but he does this without vision, many times i saw him with wards in his inventory and he died while being aggressive and extended. The best points of EDG were iBoy and Meiko just picking up this team on their back, they teamfight well but the rest of EDG does not. Im har don these guys because they couldve gone 6-0.

AHQ: I straight up DID NOT expect anything from these guys but it seems the Korean Team Killer moniker went from Flash Wolves to AHQ as they straight up dominated SKT and couldve carried that momentum to win vs C9 but again, very bad drafts by almost every team today just ended it for them. I was impressed to see Ziv look good again, to see Westdoor look decent, not great but decent and It was fun to see the LMS can still hang from time to time but now it seems with a different team.

All in all from this group, C9 deserved it but almost blew it with bad drafts, SKT looks like they can live in a world where they go more than 3 games vs Misfits given how bad the early game is and how they looked so sloppy vs AHQ, EDG is the TSM of China and AHQ save respect for the LMS by slapping around EDG and SKT for their wins.

Now we look at the Quarterfinal Matches with

RNG vs FNC SKT vs MSF WE vs C9 LZ vs SSG

Im very hype to see Rekkles vs Uzi, WE vs C9 as both units are similar to me in how WE is meta driven and formulaic, and C9 was the team who innovates to win when they have the chance, both very different, SKT being shaky and maybe dropping a game in a series vs Misfits, wondering if Maxlore and his nuggets can take a game, and LZ having a chance to beat SSG and look even stronger and scarier or SSG being the wrench in everyone's Grand Finals predictions and having a chance to upset LZ. Im so excited and this group stage in general was amazing. I loved it so much and getting another year to make fun of TSM, another year of SKT making people second guess them, im doing it now, and another year of such awesome play in groups. Let me know what you guys thought of the group stages, of Group A and what do you guys have predicted of Quarterfinals, given the matches? I cant wait until Quarters start. Hope you enjoyed Groups as much as i did. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]