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Five matches we want to see at Worlds

Riot··0 votes·23,468 views
As the 2014 World Championship grows close, we started theorycrafting about some of the potential marquee and interesting matchups that could take place throughout the tournament. After all, there are only so many times per year when international teams have a chance to duke it out. Here are some of the matchups we want to see at Worlds.

Cloud9 vs. Najin White Shield

It occurred to many of us at lolesports.com that Shield and Cloud9 match up very similarly across the board. They have carry style top laners who do a lot of the heavy lifting, their jungler is the star, their mid laner is stable with moments of brilliance on a small champion pool, their ADC is consistent above all else, and their support is integral, but not top class. A matchup of Shield and Cloud9 in the bracket stage would be a great match. It would also be a representation of regional strength, from two teams that bring their own unique style - but are composed in similar ways. Written by Riot Mirhi

Fnatic vs. Edward Gaming

Namei going toe to toe with Rekkles. Fzzf and Yellowstar backing them up. Why wouldn’t you want to see that battle go down? With two of the best bot lanes in the world, the brawl between Fnatic and Edward Gaming would almost decidedly center entirely around the bottom of the map. We’d see Cyanide and Clearlove making repeated trips down south, with xPeke and U joining them more often than not. And with EDG’s tendency to start brawls whenever they feel like it, there would be blood. Written by Riot RoboTayCo

Edward Gaming vs. Samsung Blue

Though this very well could be the final of Worlds, this matchup is exciting for so many reasons. First of all, these teams are considered the strongest teams from their respective regions. This match will also let us see how much China has caught up from a strategic standpoint from where they were one year ago. What excites me most about this matchup is the potential bot lane duel of Namei and Fzzf vs. Deft and Heart. While Fzzf and Heart clearly play second fiddle to their ADCs, there is no denying that Namei and Deft are two of the greatest ADCs in the history of League of Legends. Seeing titans of this order fight out would be a treat to watch. Written by Riot Mirhi

OMG vs. Fnatic

Finally, a matchup that is guaranteed to happen! Thankfully we will get a chance to see this matchup at least twice throughout the Group Stage. Fnatic only lost one game in the Group Stage during it's miracle run through the 2013 World Championship before losing to Royal Club in the semifinals. Since then, the team has only gotten better, adding on a super star ADC in Rekkles and improving in skill around the team. Though last season xPeke had to provide much of their carrying power and ADC was a liability against some of the better teams (like Royal Club), this season Rekkles is a force to be reckoned with. Written by Riot Mirhi

Royal Club vs. LMQ

You want a grudge match? How about one between estranged siblings? When LMQ played back in China, they were the sister team of Royal Club and split off before coming to North America to attempt to qualify for the LCS. Since they’ve been gone, they've honed their skills to become one of the most dangerous teams in the world. XiaoWeiXiao is one of the premier North American mid laners, and he’ll put up more than a bit of a fight for Corn, while Uzi and Vasilii will both be going hard down bottom. Both teams play with emotion and have tendencies to brawl constantly, so the family affair can only end one way: splendid ultraviolence. Written by Taylor ‘Riot RoboTayCo What are some matches that you're looking forward to at #Worlds? Let us know on Twitter @lolesports or in the comments below! Frank 'Riot Mirhi' Fields is a Senior Web Content Coordinator for Riot Games. You'll find him in solo queue on Ahri trying to DFG charm his way back into Diamond, or on Twitter where he'd love to talk to you about esports. Taylor 'Riot RoboTayCo' Cocke is a Web Content Coordinator for Riot Games. He only goes all-in, preferably on Leona or Alistar. You can follow him on Twitter, where he will talk your head off about supporting and bands no one has ever heard of.

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67 Comments

Ssataniko14 votes

Yes C9 vs Shield will be interesting. But the match we're all waiting for in that Group will be C9 vs Alliance which will not only be a fascinating matchup (particularly Meteos vs Shook and Balls vs WickD) but will also almost surely decide which of the 2 teams advances.

All StarGG2 votes

I want to see if Hai has increased his champion pool I feel as though his champs are like old Froggen farm heavy mid laners he's easy to ban out if you want too. TSM did it and it worked he was never comfortable.

T HubbZ3 votes

Um Hai likes playing assasins as when he played zed in the finals against TSM he spanked them

KorstigeKerstsok1 votes

Yeah he plays assasins all the time lol, hes just adaptable, so he played farm champions when the meta favoured them, I'm sure he'll pull out the assassins at worlds again as the meta has shifted back in their favor abit

RabidLawnGnome4 votes

True, but in the TSM vs C9 matches, every time hai played something else then zed, he didn't perform, he was the sole reason c9 lost that series, going 0/9 in a game and 1/7 or somehting among those lines, if he can't control his map movement and vision, the teams with better vision control will surely catch him out from time to time.

Ssataniko1 votes

HAI likes to play roaming assassins because he plays the whole map and can basically turn the entire game with one roam to top or bottom lane. But he is just fin on mages and he made Challenger in Korea in only a week (by comparison no one on CLG made Challenger in the 3 weeks CLG was in Korea. Only Seraph made it to Challenger promotion stage according to Hotshotgg). So HAI's play and champ pool will be finely-honed for Worlds. Basically he just needs to play smart against Froggen and pick up a crucial kill after laning phase against one of the other lanes to turn the game on its head.

Ssataniko1 votes

Hai's champion pool is fine and expansive. He is great on ZED which is back in the meta and he is just as good on Syndra as overhyped Bjergsen. TSM has ZERO effect on HAI. All that mattered to C9 was getting to Worlds which they did when they utterly destroyed Curse. After that they need not prepare much for the finals match because the seeding didn't matter this year and even on cruise control they nearly beat TSM which was starved to win and prove they weren't the crap team they've been for a year. C9 accomplished everything they needed to and TSM proved nothing.

MrOrangeLizard2 votes

Seeding matters a lot! TSM have a much easier group because they did not have to face another 1st seeded team. Im surprised you would say that...

0neSh0tGG2 votes

Tell me why do you think this will decide? The way I see it C9, All and Najin W Shield haven't played much against each other and this could go anyway. I actually think All and C9 are going to go through. To be honest Shield isn't that strong as they are hyped. They just caught everyone by suprise because they were the underdogs of the playoffs and neither KTA or SKT thought they would be a threat. If KTA went to worlds they would probably win it.

Mediocre Joe2 votes

well there was another team that crushed the gauntlet like shield last year...hmmm what was the name of that team? oh yeah skt the team that won s3 worlds lol

TrollFan0112 votes

Dark Passage vs KABLAM! Keep the dream alive!

Seagrove13 votes

Kabum.

ProtoShred4 votes

The dream is dead LOL

Perunich11 votes

What?! CLOUD9 VS. NAJIN WHITE SHIELD Amumu Pffff, I don't beleave in C9. And what about Alliance? More intresting team that Fnatic in this season

Ssataniko8 votes

Of course YOU don't believe in C9 because you're a typically biased and delusional EUrotwit.

All StarGG4 votes

I'm NA and I still think Alliace will best C9, ballz is on tilt, Froggen is better than Hai, and Alliance bot lane is scary specially if Nyph gets thresh

Mediocre Joe3 votes

I agree I don't believe in C9 either they have never showed up at international tournaments, they were destroyed at S3 worlds in quarterfinals and they got destroyed at all stars. I am hoping they don't suck again but history has a habit of repeating itself.

RabidLawnGnome1 votes

well they went 1 for 2 at season 3 world championships, and in all star group stage 2 for 2, it's not like they're are terrible, and that was even with link.

Cheez Whiz FTW1 votes

In All Stars 2014 (with CLG Link as sub in mid lane) C9 earned second seed in group stage, going 3-1 with victories against TPA, FNC, and an arguably weaker OMG than what we see today. C9 was knocked out in the semifinals in a 2-0 series against OMG, who were then trashed in the finals by SKT T1 K in a 3-0 series.

J to the Roc4 votes

C9 did not get destroyed at all stars..............................................................

KatChiu6 votes

I'd really want to see C9 vs EDG or OMG and see what Hai thinks about his "I don't think China is much better than us" comment.

Shanghai 1st Top1 votes

That's the whole point man!

Ghrian4 votes

Alliance vs White Shield. If there's a chance for Europe to have a win against a Korean team, it probably stands here. Gonna be really interesting anyway. Also, I would love to see TSM vs EDG in the bracket, maybe a quaterfinals? One can hope!

Geowall3 votes

"Finally, a matchup that is guaranteed to happen!" (about OMG and Fnatic). Why, we will see Cloud9 vs. Najin White Shield too.

Vastaya Nari3 votes

Fnatic biased much? Why does everyone keep forgeting Alliance? In my opinion Wickd and Shook are (right now) miles ahead of Soaz and Cyanide, Froggen is on at least equal level with xPeke (if not better) and, no matter how godly Rekkles is, the duo of Tabbz and Nyph is as good as Fnatic's bot lane duo. My opinion may be wrong but the results of the summer split seem to back me up.

Cheryl Cole2 votes

Well... im going to say there is not much difference between soaz and wicked... couse play under superior call making player as froggen is kinda something else then play with xpeke or whoever is making call to fnatic. And about that Froggen x Xpeke. Froggen is better for sure in every aspect of the game. Bud again it doesnt mean Xpeke is far worse. I would even say the difference between them doesnt even have heavy impact on the game. Bot lane is pretty much equal. But the main reason why is Alliance so better is Shook. If he playes well you can easily compare him to OGN junglers.

sheepduck3 votes

If there's a match I DON'T want to see, it's SSGW v. SSGB.

Seagrove2 votes

8 most important group stage matchups for western fans:- article:http://seagrovelol.wordpress.com/ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBr8DFwyPgo

College Debts2 votes

EDG doesn't stand a chance against SSB, why is that a good match up?

Seagrove20 votes

it is supposedly the best non korean team vs the best korean team

MG Logic12 votes

don't just write koreans off as gods, omg spanked skt in group stages last year, and then skt won the finals, anyone (especially china and korea) can win. Plus its the adc meta right now, and namei is the best adc in the world so dont cry your balls off when ssb botlane gets rolled

BlazinNewel8 votes

yea just leave out the part when skt spanked OMG back and got a 12 min inhib. Also just leave out the fact that in Season 4 no Korean team as EVER lost a game in an international tournament including your OMG who lost to SKT 3-0 and 4-0 throughout all stars, and SKT couldn't even make it to worlds

nthrichard8 votes

when at all-star , OMG uses their back-up team.,not the former one!

KorstigeKerstsok2 votes

Alright then what about KTB (rank 8~ in KR at the time) winning IEM Katowice without dropping a game?

12tales4 votes

They were playing against Invictus Gaming and World Elite. Not really the creme of the Chinese crop.

College Debts2 votes

JJust fyi I also watch LPL, so I know what I am talking about. If anything the gap between China and NA/EU is smaller than the gap between China and Korea. There is a higher chance LMQ beating EDG than EDG beating Blue.

Xiyang isn't that bad, and he isn't a substitute, he played with OMG for the entire spring split. OMG went 25-3 in regular season with that roster, and SKT lost to Frost before coming to all-stars. SKT went 4-0 against OMG in all-stars. Meanwhile at home, SKT have trouble surviving past 20 minutes against the Samsung monsters, I doubt EDG can beat them.

12tales3 votes

Xiyang's champ pool is kiddy sized. He only looked good during the period where people didn't realize they could take him out of the game with two bans.

SKT went 4-0 against OMG in all-stars. Meanwhile at home, SKT have trouble surviving past 20 minutes against the Samsung monsters, I doubt EDG can beat them.

Nobody's going to take LMQ's performance at worlds as an indication of Cloud 9's strength. Why should OMG's performance indicate how the better teams in their region will perform? I don't think there's a realistic question that EDG is the best team in China, and it's not by a small margin.

Especially if we're talking about Samsung Blue, a team famous for its passive laning and weak early game, then there's definitely potential for EDG to take games. These are two of the three best late game teams in the world, and both of them have demonstrated an insane ability to get back into games through their coordination in teamfights.

KorstigeKerstsok3 votes

Although you're right in that SSB will most likely win, I for one would like to see the matchup as I think EDG is the closest to korean we've got, just to see how much the gap really is ya'know

Mediocre Joe2 votes

I still think SSW will win over SSB

PlayWithVeebunni2 votes

who wrote this? this is not the match we want to see the most

Mediocre Joe2 votes

I want to see alliance for c9 I think those will be good games. Group C will be fantastic so many variations of teams, 2 amazing team fighting teams, 1 team with crazy mechanics and 1 team with crazy aggression. I really want to see how Dyrus handles the other top laners same with bjergsen(tsm fan here lol)

peer the seer2 votes

I WANT TO SEE ALL MATCHES!!!!!

Coach Mystik2 votes

C9 vs NWS is guarenteed to happen too

Skumfúk2 votes

every region can win worlds. prediction: korea is not going to take it

Adrian1871 votes

I agree I feel like China will take it this year.

Imperio Eboy1 votes

Noone else hyped for SK vs TSM?

Luko2 votes

Man the 2 first games (SSW vs EDG and SK vs TSM) of the world championship are going to be sick! So hyped for those.

Conker1841 votes

Watch, the star of NJWS? Please give me a break.

Fat of the Land1 votes

under C9 vs NJWS: "A matchup of Shield and Cloud9 in the bracket stage would be a great match"

under OMG vs FNATIC: "Finally, a matchup that is guaranteed to happen! Thankfully we will get a chance to see this matchup at least twice throughout the Group Stage."

C9 meets NJWS twice in the group stages too, and can't meet again unless they both make the Final...

Old Man Teeto1 votes

Hoping for LMQ vs Royal Club. Just the venom from Royal Club towards LMQ is palpable. LMQ is North American now, they fly our flags, and my cheer is louder.

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