General opinions after watching the 1st 2 days of play-ins

OHminus · 2019-10-03T21:07:38.653Z

Some general thoughts: Flamengo looks strong for a wildcard region (and also Brazil has an awesome fanbase). I expected BrTT to be good but Shrimp and Goku also really impressed. Isurus/DFM have generally disappointed me. I didn't think of either as particularly strong teams/regions but imo they were 2 of the weakest teams in play-ins so far. Unicorns of Love are the genuine thing, even with their loss to Mammoth Drafts have overall been terrible. I think the teams are trying to be creative but Nocturne mid/Ekko jungle aren't working Damwon looked rusty/shaky but there's still too much of a skill difference between them and the rest Group C is an absolute fiesta, none of the teams looked good.

OHminus·Oct 3, 2019·3 votes·4,416 views

Some general thoughts:

Flamengo looks strong for a wildcard region (and also Brazil has an awesome fanbase). I expected BrTT to be good but Shrimp and Goku also really impressed.
Isurus/DFM have generally disappointed me. I didn't think of either as particularly strong teams/regions but imo they were 2 of the weakest teams in play-ins so far.
Unicorns of Love are the genuine thing, even with their loss to Mammoth
Drafts have overall been terrible. I think the teams are trying to be creative but Nocturne mid/Ekko jungle aren't working
Damwon looked rusty/shaky but there's still too much of a skill difference between them and the rest
Group C is an absolute fiesta, none of the teams looked good.

12 Comments

GeminiRuneOct 3, 20192 votes

My opinions shall be in the form of thoughts and reactions I had in sequential order.

##Day 1

CG vs UOL: Group A is gonna be the end of me if Mammoth actually shows up
DFM vs SPY: Just a Splyce Game...poor Japan
MMM vs UOL: Mammoth showed up. Alright I'm proud of this group in the end.
DFM vs ISG: How did Japan lose this exactly?
MMM vs CG: Now I'm really proud of this group. Clutch can get 3rd and I'll be fine with it now
SPY vs ISG: Just another Splyce game...I've already written Splyce for Group Stage at this point.

##Day 2

RYL vs DWG: Time to make my prediction come true.....and you gave Vlad. That's basically a timed game now...and it's over
MG vs HKA: This was actually....How did MEGA fail this?
DWG vs FLA: Okay I expected Brazil to do worse than this. Not bad. Bad for Damwon though.
MG vs LK: [ Insert Megaman sprite here ]
...

{quoted}

Group D....Royal Youth then Damwon! I want straight up fire to burn with Damwon facing a like major region! Because then....spice!

RYL vs FLA: ...damnit....
HKA vs LK: Huh...guess I went 2-4 on the day today. That was awful....

OHminusOct 3, 20191 votes

Honestly both RY and FLA gave Damwon a good run, its just sololane difference is too high (seriously, Showmaker and Nuguri are probably yawning right now)

So you're rooting for Royal and HKA? I'm sorry ... Royal had bad luck being drawn into this group, HKA genuinely seems like they're at the level of the other teams in theirs. Royal should be able to pull out if they can put Chaser on a playmaker rather than a passive scaling pick like Karthus and stop first picking the Renekton, although from today I've become a fan of Flamengo so I'll be praying that doesn't happen.

III BAKURYU III Oct 3, 20191 votes

In the back of my mind I thought Clutch could struggle a bit in groups but Jesus, that would be an understatement. Here it is Huni talking about Group C With the big boys but there's a possibility Clutch won't even make it past Play-Ins. Clutch ends up #2 in their group and it'll be over as I don't see Clutch beating Splyce/Damwon if they end up first in their respective groups.

DFM - I thought people were high on this team? It's nice to see Japan get really invested in League but this isn't the year I suppose.

Splyce - They honestly look good and while ISG and DFM aren't exactly A+ teams Splyce aren't this 40+ slow team like they have been in the past 2 years.

If I had to pick 4 teams from Play-ins to be apart of Worlds Group Stage Main Event to make things even crazier - Clutch Gaming, Splyce, Damwon Gaming and Unicorns of Love would make Groups this year close to impossible to predict!

LowKey and HKA are good teams but IDK how good they actually are..... I haven't scouted or watched many of their games. HKA shouldn't have lost to Lowkey tho.

RyzeReworkOct 4, 20191 votes

I think clutch can beat damwon or splyce. The problem is wtf is lira doing.. oh wait hes inting again

III BAKURYU III Oct 4, 20191 votes

You ban this from him Skarner and he'll be one of the most useless junglers. At this point I'm at a low for Clutch and NA in general....again..(SIGH) NA is complete garbage by the looks of it.....[zombie-nunu-tears] IDK if Clutch can even win out to get #1 in their Group atm.

GeminiRuneOct 4, 20191 votes

And that's why I dee a reality where they could even be in 3rd and flat out eliminated. And the NA fandom in me would be rather fine with it. Ik this is being responded to mid-cast but yeah the reality is very much visible should Mammoth keep pace.

III BAKURYU III Oct 3, 20191 votes

When Oddie missed his Q at bot to potentially get 3 kills I was like, "DONE". XD
The thing about Damwon is they look like a better version of Team Liquid, right. They are much better than TL is when behind but they'll get down 1-2 kills but still be focused on objectives more than anything and that can hurt teams around this meta(fast paced, fight 24/7 meta). Look at IG and how they won Worlds and overall 1st in the Group stage at MSI.

Tristana seems to be the priority pick for ADC at the moment but honestly it beats Kaisa Xayah

OHminusOct 3, 20191 votes

I think Damwon should be fine. I saw it as nerves/arrogance (seriously, in that Royal game I was dying when Nuguri built coin and Showmaker built mejais and both took klepto) more than anything, sure the pace of wildcard regions is faster but Damwon were also the fastest and bloodiest team in the LCK, for what that's worth.

Oddie and Isurus, though... I'm generally worried. Seiya imo has been underperforming, and Slow has looked pretty terrible. I'm sure they'll get out of group B but at this point I think they'll lose in the bo5.

Tristana is priority because she can be flexed mid or top. She's safe, still has tons of damage and takes towers with ease. I think Kai'sa is still the #1 adc with Trist/Xayah being close 2nds.

III BAKURYU III Oct 4, 20191 votes

I would hope the second best LCK team(RIP Griffin) at the moment can make it out of the Play-In stage. [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

It'll just be interesting if DWG does indeed make it to Group D with Team Liquid because both TL and DWG are crazy for Dragons.

Isurus isn't what I thought they could have been, tough group and I knew such but........

The only thing about Tristana that scares me is we've seen NA especially go crazy with the Tristana pick in the past(2015 Worlds in Europe) and while it worked early with her aggressive tower pushing and NA's role swap, followed by grouping at mid and pushing mid tower all around 15 mins.... is that once teams figured it out NA went from 3-2 match record with pick and 24 kills - 7 deaths - 26 assists to 1-4 match record with pick and 7 kills - 21 deaths - 23 assists

BigBellBruteOct 3, 20191 votes

My thoughts.
Isurus and DFM didn't disappoint me. I really didn't have much faith in either to begin with.
Renekton is strong. but drafting him early will require a couple of bans for him.
Ranged vs Melee worked out in favor of the ranged for the most part. Mega should be 2-0 and Hong Kong Attitude should be 0-2. If Mega doesn't make it, that's the one they will probably want back. In any case, I wasn't impressed with Hong Kong Attitude today nor any other team in that group. If they want to advance further than this stage, They're going to need some improvement and/or adjustments.
Royal Youth was seen by many as one of the best of the wild card teams. They certainly didn't show it today.
Hopefully Clutch had their hiccup and will go 2-0 tomorrow. They don't want to be #2 out of their group.
There was quite a bit of indecisiveness imo. It usually cost the indecisive team.
I'm not sure what to make of Damwon. They weren't all that impressive. But is that because they aren't all that impressive or because they knew they didn't need to be to win and didn't want to reveal anything. Probably the latter.
The Brazil fans were loud and proud.

GaliöOct 4, 20191 votes

Damwon looks like they just rusty, I cant seems to gauge their skill or their opponents... all seems messy.

As for day 1 though there was wayyyy too much ekko jungle and I'm already (still) sick of the kaisa presence.

I thiugh nocturne mid was ok but they were matched against the (maybe) strongest team in play ins. So it's hard to judge if it was the pick or the team match up; nocturne was the only one doing even or well that match.

Day 1 was kinda weird but fun Despite all the ekko. Day 2 was sooooo boring to watch...

I'm hoping for better tommorow.

RedOpticToxinOct 4, 20191 votes

I really think the gap is closing for all sectors of the league. Play in teams can match low end main region teams while top tier main region western teams can match top tier main region eastern teams