Worlds 2018 Group Stage predictions

III BAKURYU III ·Oct 9, 2018·4 votes·5,115 views

GROUP A 1.) FLASH WOLVES 5-1 Hanabi 17-12-28 Moojin 13-11-43 Maple 21-9-45 Betty 24-11--37 SwordArt 2-9-61

2.) G2 ESPORTS 4-2 Wunder 19-18-39 Jankos 15-16-47 Perkz 23-15-39 Hjarnan 29-17-27 Wadid 3-18-58

3.) AFREECA FREECS 3-3 Kiin 21-14-28 Spirit 14-15-47 Kuro 23-13-33 Kramer 24-15-30 Tusin 3-22-42

4.) PHONG VU BUFFALO 0-6 Zeros 12-20-29 Melodias 14-21-29 Naul 18-11-32 BigKoro 22-16-33 Palette 3-24-45

GROUP B 1.) ROYAL NEVER GIVE UP 5-1 Letme 12-10-27 Mlxg 12-13-37 Xiaohu 19-8-18 Uzi 30-6-37 Ming 5-13-52

2.) CLOUD 9 3-3 Licorice 18-16-21 Blaber 14-14-33 Jensen 19-13-25 Sneaky 17-18-21 Zeyzal 2-20-37

3.) GEN G 2-4 Cuvee 9-15-26 Ambition 13-16-19 Crown 18-18-14 Ruler 12-14-14 CoreJJ 2-14-26

4.) TEAM VITALITY 2-4 Cabochard 7-21-22 Kikis 18-17-25 Jiizuke 21-15-17 Atila 9-11-15 Jactroll 0-8-26

GROUP C 1.) KT ROLSTER 6-0 Smeb 20-13-52 Score 14-9-51 Ucal 21-9-51 Deft 30-5-35 Mata 5-11-67

2.) TEAM LIQUID 3-3 Impact 14-19-27 Xmithie 8-16-42 Pobelter 19-17-35 Doublelift 26-10-31 Olleh 7-8-42

3.) EDWARD GAMING 2-4 Ray 11-21-30 Haro 12-14-36 Scout 27-16-34 Iboy 28-13-32 Meiko 7-23-58

4.) MAD GAMING 1-5 Liang 11-19-22 Kongyue 12-23-25 Uniboy 17-21-23 Breeze 10-17-23 K 5-19-35

GROUP D 1.) INVICTUS GAMING 5-1 The Shy 24-20-32 Ning 12-15-48 Rookie 28-10-30 Jackeylove 20-17-49 Baolan 9-14-63

2.) 100 THIEVES 3-3 Ssumday 18-17-34 Anda 13-17-38 Ryu 13-16-21 CodySun 22-16-28 Aphromoo 2-19-43

3.) FNATIC 2-4 Bwipo 15-15-27 Broxah 8-16-43 Caps 18-12-29 Rekkles 26-15-24 Hylissang 3-19-48

4.) G-REX 2-4 Pk 22-14-32 Empty 17-18-34 Candy 21-12-42 Stich 20-15-33 Koalo 3-18-54

17 Comments

saltranOct 9, 20182 votes

Getting excited about KT, good.

III BAKURYU III Oct 9, 20181 votes

I don't know what your tone actually states, friend.... Are you saying you're a fan of KT of sorts or are you implying that KT will be eliminated early in groups?
TELL ME YOUR SECRETES, NOW!

Hexs FortuneOct 9, 20182 votes

Seems alot of folks on reddit think Africa will win their division

III BAKURYU III Oct 9, 20181 votes

rahh, I don't.
It's a bit easier for 5 to know what 1 does oppose to say vice versa..... Kramer is a former FW player that even played for such during the 2015 Worlds. I thin this year the Flash Wolves will prove that they are "The Korean Killers"

I'm a fan of Kramer - I also think he's similar to an old school D-Lift; he farms and farms and farms and farms to a negative for his teams that results with L's more times than not.

They've also fallen a bit since 2017/2018 Spring. Better lane stats and such for the players but the results didn't show with having a worse record. Out of the 3 Korean teams Afreeca is the hot plate team, the least consistent team compared to(Gen G(Samsung) and KT Rolster) and we've seen what the hot but non trail by fire team does at Worlds( Yes, makes it out of such groups but has some really ? games... Zefa the coach for Afreeca even knows about such games as 2014 Worlds his support role led Najin lost games to 2 western teams and being in a tie-breaker against such western team)

Point is that I'm not a believer in Afreeca compared to the other Korean teams. I wish them luck tho as the rest of the teams!

Dr PoroOct 9, 20181 votes

If perkz plays the way he did in play-ins, G2 has a bad road ahead of them. Wunder/jankos can't carry them against the more coordinated/tempo/punishing teams.

GeminiRuneOct 9, 20181 votes

The general hivemind on Reddit has followed a rather pessimistic ire for this Worlds. Granted it's somewhat justified with how negative the primary league bases in NA and EU have been perceived this season especially by Reddit's terms. Hell there was even a case where close competition in NA equated to a "Bad, 0 expectation region" while close competition in the LCK equated to 5 potential World Champs and everyone is screwed. Either way, there's teams doing good and bad; doesn't matter what the competition is like.

That being said, it's not a far cry being skeptical of Afreeca in comparison to their opposition in the group in which at least one team has some sound momentum over them pacing back the last 3 months. As it stands right now, I have them second with a slight belief of them falling third or going up to first depending on how ready their opponents are.

Dr PoroOct 9, 20181 votes

But you have to look at the level of the games being played. In EU and NA finals, you can find 10x more mistakes made than in LCK/LPL finals. On top of that, they're also worse at punishing them which means they won't learn from the mistakes. It's a vicious cycle.

GeminiRuneOct 9, 20181 votes

Errr....that first statement is hella biased to all kinds of opinions. To me the level should be what one region makes it out to be; not based off of metrics irrelevant to the present case.

There's also no multiplicative factor to me whatsoever. I find a fair share of flaws in any game or series. Individually, there's no difference between the likes of Cuvee, TheShy, and Licorice making the exact same misplay. Team wise there's no absolute squad without a flaw in all roles or among synergy. Funnily enough you found that more in LCK and LPL's respective final stages than that of the other major regions which were more relatively decisive.

But then you can say "that's why the region is so competitive." But you can't state that with absolution either. Nobody can plug in another team and pin the match to turn out the very same. Several cases in point back that one up.

The vicious cycle is only made because of responses like yours that cater to that pessimism instead of enabling a fair fighting chance if it presents itself. It's memes and as many years to use as fuel first and I personally find that stupid

Added note: Now that I think of it, that 10x more mistakes line is just what I read often when I looked at Reddit more than now; only that it was this team in another region and form there. Statements like MVP (before now relegation) being a top 5 team in NA but what the hell are the grounds behind that? Are we gonna just plug in Korean SoloQ, Korean scrims, Korean environment, and make them play there against the NA talent or are we fully migrating them into that environment? I find that to be bull shit if it's an analogy that can be assumed without any idea or sense of neutrality. That's where I come from; I'm not in the business of writing ins and outs just because. I'll at least reason not straight up judge.

ROYALR3IGNOct 9, 20182 votes

C9 struggling against wildcard teams > Gen. G? Liquid > EDG? 100T > Fnatic? And this one pains me the most as a FW fan, but FW first in groups and Afreeca not getting out?

The LMS and NA are my favourite regions but I just don't see either region doing amazing this year :(

Groups for me goes

A Afreeca, FW/G2, Phong Vu

B Gen G./RNG, C9, Vitality (Sorry Vitality fans although I do see a possibility where VIt > :( )

C KT, EDG, Team Liquid, Mad Team

D IG, Fnatic, 100T/G- Rex

I'm not saying the teams I put first are gonna 6-0 every group, I just have them favoured to come out first. Actually I expect everyone of the teams I put in last place to take at least one game off the other teams in the group.

III BAKURYU III Oct 9, 20181 votes

FNATIC isn't this super team by any means that makes them safe to making it out of groups and the same can be said about EDG that results in the ? from you. Every year people say 'LCK will win worlds', ' TSM sucks' because it has happened time after time again but yet when the other results happens year after year people tend to forget. Results such as Edward Gaming being huge question mark team that was always the #1 LPL team and would get so much hype and barely making it out of groups only to get dunked in QT Finals. FNC is the same thing they're 50/50.

What wildcard team has C9 struggled with ?

I think the 100 Thieves will beat Fnatic not easily or anything but 2-0 them. I'm researching every team with 0% bias but I do want to say that the meta is around that safe ADC and a dmg % top with the mid being the 3rd carry option at the moment. For Fnatic I'm scared about Broxah more than anything with his aggressive support, risk plays but if Ssumday does what he does does best and that is create pressure than 100 will take games off Fnatic themselves. People also say Fnatic are the cheese lvl 1-3, bush, invade strategy team - well 100 aren't no strangers with Aphromoo's career either.

ROYALR3IGNOct 9, 20181 votes

Fnatic is not a super team, I agree with this but, this is a team that has Caps with an amazing showing this year, a team that won the EU LCS, compared to 100T that lost to a struggling TSM and came in third place in the NA LCS.

I'm by no means a fan of the EU scene actually I'm pretty biased against them as a salty NA fan but you gotta give credit where its due. Also maybe Broxah is weaker than Aphromoo actually Borxah IS weaker than him, but you have to remember that Reckless is also a stronger AD carry than Cody Sun.

Sure C9 4-0'd the play in stage but if you watched the games, wow what a nail biter. Almost none of those games were convincing clean wins. They nearly lost to DFM, and were struggling on a macro level. Zayzel looked sharp in the series but it felt like Blaber was constantly getting caught. I do agree though that putting in Sven would solve the jungle issue.

On EDG, sure they did not look amazing this year, but you have to remember as a whole the LPL scene is generally accepted as a much stronger region than NA is, so even getting dunked in QT finals by a team that came third only to RNG and IG (both potential world contenders) in the summer LPL split, isn't by any means a horrific showing.

III BAKURYU III Oct 9, 20181 votes

That's not down play 100 where in previous years NA's #2-3 seeds overachieve/Aphromoo especially in the past. For example when CLG struggled in 2016 /Spring Finals, MSI but fell off some in Summer but still able to beat EU's #1 seed at Worlds 2016.
This is the rematch between Cody and Rekkles and yes, Rekkles is a better ADC than a rookie a year ago but Cody has become a powerhouse in a short time, already CS, kills and pressure compared to a player that has been known to be too safe for his own good at times. 100 creates pressure while FNC creates pressure from their top/jungle. Caps is good but a more passive Jensen at times.

NA vs LPL at Worlds tends to be close. With NA either beating LPL in a game or being close every time. TSM 2014 vs RNG, 2015 C9 vs Invictus etc. The LPL scene is strong no doubt about that tho.

ROYALR3IGNOct 15, 20181 votes

After watching the C9 groups I really ate my own words LOL. Gen G. Shit the bed. NA gets into quaters WTF?

III BAKURYU III Oct 14, 20181 votes

Indeed

IncrediPhiLLOct 10, 20181 votes

Couple of notes.

As a biased and often illogical C9 fan, I feel that C9 making it out of groups at the expense of GenG is a little off. I'm calling an RNG choke and they, not GenG, are the ones who don't make it out of groups.

I'm completely baffled at the praise Capps is getting as "The Best Mid-Laner in the West." Like what? He's only been in the league for what... 2 years now? He hasn't earned that title and I don't even think his play is that great. I'm expecting him to get dunked on hard, so I think your prediction on Fnatic will be correct in a way... but that group is so bad... I think they still make it out...

Doublelift making it out of groups isn't going to happen. He's a great domestic player, the 2nd best ADC NA has ever had (behind Sneaky of course), but he is literal trash on the Worlds stage. He gets this false sense of confidence by destroying (IMO) the worst bot lane region in the world and he has no clue how to adapt to actual talented bot lanes when he plays one. He's a one trick style AD carry and it always catches up with him. I still haven't forgiven him for literally solo carrying TSM's opponents last year. He was dreadful and I'm assuming he still will be. Time will tell.

Lastly... if 100 Thieves make it out of groups, I'll eat a pack of staples.

xChinOct 10, 20181 votes

Pro tip: The safest picks would be putting NA teams at the bottom. That gives you the best chance at guessing the rest.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

III BAKURYU III Oct 10, 20181 votes

Yeah. Sadly we'll most likely see NA get bent over like the previous years....but yeah, at least League is similar to the other sports with the same ol' same ol' constant winners in every profession so there's that at least.