The Road To MSI: Playoff Pictures

GeminiRune·Apr 11, 2017·3 votes·1,091 views

So MSI is one of my favorite periods of the competitive League season. I remember the first MSI and actually attending, rooting with a group of AHQ fans, being disappointed in TSM, and so on. The year following, I put interest in to the IWCI and despite the expected outcome, it was an interesting viewing experience all around. Now this year, I have all reasoning to watch as much as I can, both major and minor regions. Odds are I won't, but I'll at least have an idea of what all is going on.

And that's where this post comes to creation. Some regions are about to start playoffs. Other regions have already finished. Even some who aren't even locked in. And for those regions underway or completely done, there's already some shake up in what even I was thinking.

So far, 4 teams are already locked in and will play in Round 1, which is basically the "IWCI" Stage:

RED Canids - CBLOL (BR) - 2nd Seed Reg.Season Defeated PaiN Gaming (3-1) and Keyd Stars (3-0) to qualify I've peeked in on this team from time to time and watched a few VODs. And honestly, if INTZ and Pain had some leverage of respect, then this team shows just as much potential to advance to Round 2 as their previous representatives. Things I have heard however was that the CBLOL was rather top heavy this split. I don't know how much score matters more than that of how the playoffs shaped out. Nonetheless, as always, Brazil is that region to watch when it comes to any international against non-major regions

Virtus Pro - LCL (CIS) - 3rd Seed Reg.Season Defeated M19 (3-2) and Vaevictis eSports (3-2) to qualify The Hard Random Era is finally over, as pre-split favorites M19 fell in the semi finals. Not only that, but the 1st Seed in Vega Squadron also fell in the same round, resulting in a new team being represented to compete for their region; probably the first shocker I had noticed before this weekend decided to add more to it. It's nice to see change, but if international events have told anything to the fans, it's that fresh international talent leave a whole lot of question marks and not a lot of trust in success. On a possible relevant note, there was an Aatrox pick in this finals. It didn't deliver like I had hoped.

Isurus Gaming - CLS (Lat.Am South) - 1st Seed Reg.Season Defeated Furious Gaming (3-0) to qualify Don't let the 1st seed fool you into strength of the team compared to the international setting. ISG is no stranger to international tournaments in the form of IWCI 2016. However they are strangers to actual success at that very tournament. The region's only other representatives in Kaos Latin Gamers have also shown similar failure constantly (and are at the bottom of the region's standings so we'll move on from that topic). They are not favorites as cruel as that sounds.

Rampage - LJL (Japan) - 2nd Seed Reg.Season Defeated Unsold Stuff Gaming (3-2) and Detonation FocusMe (3-0) to qualify Okay, I said Brazil felt top heavy. No. THIS REGION WAS TOP HEAVY! There may be 6 teams, but only 3 are actually contenders (you could look at the regular season score). And this time around, Rampage came out on top for the second split in a row. There's a bit of grievance I have with Japan; how they are capable of looking good but not necessarily pulling the best when it's expected of them. The edge that they will have at least is some international experience.

The remaining 4 teams to play in Round 1 will be decided over the coming weeks. So far:

OPL (Oceania) Finals: Dire Wolves (1st Seed) vs Legacy eSports (2nd Seed) That's right: a split without the Chiefs as the finalists...or winning for that matter. It's almost as much of a miracle as other very specific references I could make in other regions. It could be an Incredible Miracle! (No...). This leaves a good question though: could either of these teams do what Chiefs continued to fail at accomplishing?

TCL (Turkey) Finals: SuperMassive (1st Seed) vs Crew eSports Club (3rd Seed) Well honestly I was expecting Team AURORA to take the title this time around. I have been disappointed by their loss to Crew. We all probably know how this series will end and who will take the title. Watch I'll be wrong again.

LNN (Lat.Am North) Finals: Lyon Gaming (1st Seed) vs Just Toys Havoks (2nd Seed) Once again for who knows how many times now, Lyon is an absolute favorite to take the title and represent internationally once more. Having run over their entire scene and not suffered a single match loss (almost a perfect split - potentially THE perfect split), it's almost as figuratively scripted as the NA LCS. The only possible part that's needed to fit in is failing to meet standards internationally.

GPL (Southeast Asia) Playoffs: 6 Teams All of the GPL begins and ends this week. One team that will bring interest over the rest here is the GPL return of Mineski, competing for another chance to compete on the international stage.

And with all of that out of the way, we now go somewhat silly lightning round over the major regions which we should all really know or will know in due time. Starting.....

LCK (Korea) Playoffs: Final 4 (MVP, KT, SSG, SKT) With MVP's "upset?" win over Afreeca Freecs, they now go into the Mortal Kombat referencing ladder of death, where they will face KT Quan Chi to have the chance to face Shang TSunG to have the chance to face the best in Korea in the form of Shao Khan the Third. I overdid this. Do you think they can even pull that off or is SKT going to win everything in the end?

LMS (Taiwan) Playoffs: Final 4 (M17, JT, AHQ, FW) The regular season has ended and the clear tier ladder remains pretty much the same as past splits. M17 ultimately turned out to be the Dark Horse in the 3 way dance back from IEM Katowice to contest for the title. But it's probably already set to expect a Flash Wolves claim for the title. But in what world do they not take the title? Is it as simple as SKT's chances?

LPL (China)...uh... They're still in the Regular Season...all we actually know as of now is that 5 teams are in Playoffs and only RNG is seeded into a semifinal bye. As messy of a split it's been so far, I can say that it's refreshing to see OMG back in the contention for the title after splits of relegation and survival. The Reverse Exodus was truly a real thing wasn't it?

EU LCS Playoffs: Final 4 (FNC, MSF, G2, UOL) In the end of the day, Group A was the better group after all. But that's now beside the point. Honestly I can't play heads or tails as to who will be the best representative for MSI from this region. G2 and UOL are safe picks obviously. But given G2's trust, UOL's chaos, FNC's regular season, and MSF's recent download that Splyce somehow didn't take advantage of, I just can't pick to support!

NA LCS Playoffs: Final 4 (TSM, FLY, C9, P1) And this one just makes me want to join the hype that could be a different story for once! Chiefs lost! It's possible! Real talk though, kudos to FlyQuest. I was genuinely shocked that CLG literally pulled a Splyce; guess that's something to have in common. And frankly, it's for the best possible closer to the split to have the 4 all around best performing teams throwdown for the title. Can't wait for this weekend where my sleep schedule will be slightly screwed from NA, EU, and LPL content.

Okay okay...I can finally rest. 13 regions covered. All semi-serious. What has surprised you so far and what are you looking forward to in the end of all of this?

7 Comments

III BAKURYU III Apr 11, 20172 votes

Nice work and appreciate the hard work that went into this post!

GeminiRuneApr 11, 20172 votes

Much appreciated. Took a bit of time to mentally prepare following all of the upsets that apparently happened.

III BAKURYU III Apr 11, 20171 votes

Np. MSI should be interesting considering I don't know the whole set-up yet, considering there's so many BO1 to be in the group then there's the group stage, followed up by the other group stage, the tournament etc it's crazy but also a little confusing at least for me.

I'm a little disappointed that CLG lost mainly because of what they did at MSI last year but the saying goes " If you coulda, you woulda" - or something like that. I'm not a fan of FQ mainly because outside of Hai's shotcalling they just look mediocre but same can be said about CLG this split.

dakm102Apr 13, 20172 votes

It is gonna be interesting to see what happens to CLG at the end of this split. as for FQ I think that it is an interesting story in that if their draft is good they are pretty good (aka give them some cc or way to start a fight) they win but if it is a no cc draft they get stomped. I think that TSM is looking solid but I don't see anything where it is like "that guy can be the playmaker at MSI except for maybe bjergsen. Sven has been looking ok but the worrying part there is that this seems to happen with a lot of TSM junglers where they never seem to be standout players which hurts them at international play with crazy junglers like peanut, karsa, and jankos as just a few examples. C9 feels like they CAN be good at international play if contractz steps up and impact starts playing like a beast again. but for right now they look like they lose early a little too hard to hang on against top teams. In all seriousness C9 or P1 seem like the two best candidates (unless either Moon steps up on FLY or TSM has sven turn into a monster again) since when they play well it seems hard to punish either team.

III BAKURYU III Apr 13, 20171 votes

I don't know what else Aphromoo can really do honestly, he's taken 2 rookies and made them into B+ players if not A+ depends how you look at it, he's become a shotcaller that everyone respects now more than his earlier 6 Splits in the past.

Darshan and Xmithie- These guys are either the sword that helps defeat CLG's opponents or they're the sword that causes CLG to lose games.
XMithie had a great 2016 Spring split but went down just a bit in the Summer where his earlier 2013-2015 Splits were meh, and his current 2017 split was again just ok but he was caught out multiple times. Darshan has 1 way of playing and that's split pushing, his TP plays to help CLG was great in 2016 but teams figured out how to counter that with their own ( tank split pushing) and CLG was pretty much fighting a 4v5 each game.

Huhi - I'm not saying replace him mainly because he did improve greatly since his rookie split but I would like CLG to find another MID. People on these boards have mentioned Selfie who's a good player, very aggressive and that's what CLG needs to go to the next level. I'v watched Selfie; gosh back in 2013/14 and he's a mix of Jensen/Nukeduck in my opinion. He's good but at the same time isn't that great at "team" play and that's where CLG maximizes their strength at, so it's a toss-up but they need to do something. They've had the passive MID players for SO MANY YEARS LINK, POE, Huhi they need to get more aggressive in that lane or it's going to be the same 3RD best NA team again and again.

I just don't believe in TSM at international events and who really does anymore?
It's a shame because each year it seems to be TSM going to these events and they get blown out of the water by either SKT, FNC, UOL it's just annoying to see a team that has dominated NA either #1 or #2 as a team for a better part of 9 splits now and it's the same story internationally.

Cloud 9 are good but can be excellent if they can recover their early split performance, but I don't think they will be as good as they once were early on.

dakm102Apr 14, 20171 votes

It is so weird how with certain teams it feels like all their players for a certain role all end up being the same. I think examples being TSM junglers ending up being a bit passive, CLG mids being passive, and C9 bot lane generally being quite passive (although now it might be starting to buck that trend). It just seems interesting to notice those patterns. but yeah my faith in TSM internationally is just dead now and I have no idea what the reason is. In all seriousness it almost feels like it could have something to do with Bjerg funnily enough in that in international play he often is outperformed by his counterparts (worlds 2015 being the exception and there were many other problems with TSM in that run) and he seems to be the only thing staying consistent throughout this entire stretch of them doing meh at worlds. It could be something mental or I could just be crazy and it could be everything else collapsing around him. meanwhile yeah C9 is looking like the best hope if they can return to that form, which would fit the script of C9 being "NA's last hope" like most years.

III BAKURYU III Apr 14, 20171 votes

{quoted}

It is so weird how with certain teams it feels like all their players for a certain role all end up being the same. I think examples being TSM junglers ending up being a bit passive, CLG mids being passive, and C9 bot lane generally being quite passive (although now it might be starting to buck that trend). It just seems interesting to notice those patterns. but yeah my faith in TSM internationally is just dead now and I have no idea what the reason is. In all seriousness it almost feels like it could have something to do with Bjerg funnily enough in that in international play he often is outperformed by his counterparts (worlds 2015 being the exception and there were many other problems with TSM in that run) and he seems to be the only thing staying consistent throughout this entire stretch of them doing meh at worlds. It could be something mental or I could just be crazy and it could be everything else collapsing around him. meanwhile yeah C9 is looking like the best hope if they can return to that form, which would fit the script of C9 being "NA's last hope" like most years.

Yeah, it's a ( team formula) for example The Pittsburgh Steelers - Yes, they're an offensive beast for the last couple of years but their ( true-Blue formula) is defense.
Lakers with the triangle offense, the Suns with their run and gun offense, the bulls and their defense, every sports team has their own formula and it's most likely going to be the same with the LCS teams and in the League sport for years to come.

" Although now it might be starting to buck that trend" a As far as C9 I don't think their botlane is that impressive as regards as not being passive/aggressive, I think the meta is just fitting for Sneaky/Smoothie. Sneaky hasn't ever been a good laner hence why in the past Lemon would play Morgana 24/7 to give Sneaky some room to farm etc and push back the enemy players when he did play Morgana or any range support.
Without a poke comp Support for Sneaky he wouldn't be that great in my opinion.

TSM internationally stage ......................................... Bjergsen needs to grow as a shotcaller but you can't be a 100% great shotcaller without giving up some pressure on the talent side of the conversation and that's where his teammates need to step up. Hauntzer has stepped up greatly but it's more of an emotional upgrade more so than shotcalling, Hauntzer has a mentality to crash and burn especially when Sven gets involved and they get counter ganked 2v2 they typically die and that's 2 out of 5 roles for TSM behind the 8 ball.

TSM just needs to be better on the strategic side of things because they have talent and it's fading because talent can only get you so far in a competitive scene. I honestly don't think they actually watch film of other teams I really don't. They most likely would rather play NA solo Q and think that's the equivalent to scouting, studying, and watching their opponents before games.

That's why I don't think TSM or even NA itself will be win at Worlds, especially this year considering NA is behind the 8 ball with these play- in games and being in tougher groups because of NA's previous years falling short.

Cloud 9 .................... C9 is NA's true team but tend to barely luck out, they're constantly in tie-breaker games(2014 vs NJS) ( 2015 vs AHQ) and only went into the group stage because SKT beat their opponents for them last year. You also look at C9's stats compared to the TSM members and their stats are very similar when it comes to groups at Worlds or any international events even tho C9 seem to play 1 more game than TSM.

Overall NA just isn't ready for real competition compared to other regions because we tend to act like children who only cares about ( memes and "clapped" ) etc while other regions have a sense of winning - NA has a sense of being foolish and acting a muck of ourselves.