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Watching the play in stage has made me realize this may be one of the worst worlds of all time

infinyx·9/24/2017, 6:21:25 PM·2 votes·713 views

While the play in stage is still the less impressive of the of the teams at worlds, it still sets up the meta that will be presented, which is a major problem. What we are seeing is a passive meta where if two teams are remotely even in skill level (which is why I am leaving c9 out of this), both teams pick defensive supports (playing alistar defensively) or janna and focus on protecting the adc. In itself this is what we expected, however many games are having incredibly boring gameplay that is easily predictable to what teams will do. On top of this teams are valuing ad mids more, playmaking ap mages are not as common, if it was not for incredibly good mage players like crown I would be worried this year's mid would be like 2015 worlds toplane.

So far watching any games other than c9's is just boring and I do not feel like it will change at worlds.

9 Comments

GeminiRune9/24/2017, 6:39:11 PM5 votes

Judging off of just the play-in stage - let alone half of it - doesn't even come close to amount to what is expected in the long run of the tournament. Drawing conclusions now is especially dumb. Meta style shifted following the MSI play in, even if slightly and that's mostly due to the flavor of the teams presented.

Honestly your discussion goes all over the place. It was stated since 7.16 that the patches were going to do minimal but effective tweaks in order to not have a massive shift like previous years. This in a result tests a team's adaptability to a patch and meta which is something that has been evident throughout the entire competitive season: macro and team play prevailing over the rest. I don't think it's about the champions this time more than it is playing the right game. Boring: Yes. But you have 4 games to make a statement or go home in this part of the tournament. Let that sink in to why strategies are used as such.

I mean even making the claim of C9 as the threshold of "boring or not" is a bit much. They played just as reactive as the other successful teams so far (WE and LYN). I feel that's quite biased on your part.

jwebb01139/24/2017, 6:23:16 PM3 votes

ok but the teams in the play in stage are the lower level of teams

this clearly wont vibe in group state, playoffs and finals

and playing defensively is smart... you wait to capitalize on your enemies mistakes and play to your win conditions

Miror B9/24/2017, 7:23:26 PM2 votes

To be fair, the actual "play-in" stage isn't meant to be of high quality and thus will look more boring than most things (even though I will say fenerbace potentially being forced to start crash instead of move could make for some interesting drafts). Barring gigabyte marines and albus nox, wildcard teams haven't at all looked decent over the past few years and unless one of them happens to dominate fnatic the trend will probably continue this year.

BigBellBrute9/24/2017, 10:57:19 PM1 votes

Unfortunately the Tristana and her four stoolies comp is very powerful. It makes for a boring game.

ZT Xperimentor9/24/2017, 11:05:50 PM1 votes

You mean there's actually been some exciting esports games? Not a surprise when riot balances so stilted, that half the roster isn't conventionally viable.

Glaedr9/26/2017, 12:41:49 PM1 votes

Teams don't wanna risk losing lane in the slightest in a BO1 format where a single loss is devastating, god damn who would have known???? At least wait until teams are playing BO5s to make an assessment on the meta because at least then they will probably try different strategies while studying up on their opponents to see what will work best and whip out more niche picks.

AbiwonKenabi9/24/2017, 6:55:36 PM1 votes

The first game of the tournament I thought was pretty exciting. We haven't seen any huge weird picks other than maybe the odd Nidalee, which isn't that weird for players like Contractz. I think this is because teams only have 4 games and that's it to make it out of Play-ins. They want to see the rest of the tournament, so we're seeing a lot of safe methodical play, with C9 probably doing the best at that so far hence their one-sided matches. I am putting my money on Group Stage being way more fun to watch, as the skill levels of the teams will be closer and they will have more games to experiment.

It also doesn't help that I watch maybe the first two games at 2am and am falling asleep through half of it. I imagine anyone in NA is having a hard time watching the tournament. This is going to wreck my sleep schedule for the next month. Should probably behave myself and just watch VODs and restreams...[sg-zephyr]

xJLx MCHammer9/24/2017, 8:19:25 PM1 votes

Totally agree

You can tell because everything is done in regards to how not affects the bot lane. There are champions that are doing record low damage. I think a and had 700 damage the entire game lol......

As far as watching, it's definitely better than season 3