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Worlds Group Draw Thoughts

HeraldoftheBaron·9/12/2017, 11:32:28 PM·3 votes·1,124 views
LoL Esports

Group A(EDG, SKT, AHQ, TBD): I can feel the intensity of this group before a single game is even played. It will be interesting to see if Scout(former sub mid for SKT) can beat Faker. I have high expectations for this group and I expect some very intense games. SKT should never be underestimated, no matter how "poorly" they played in the LCK finals(Remember what happened to ROX last year). AHQ is the only team I have questions about. I don't know how well they will do considering they got swept by Flash Wolves in the LMS finals, but they did beat KT in Rift Rivals. For now, we wait.

Group B(LZ, IMT, GAM): What do these 3 teams have in common? All 3 are were underdogs coming from their respective regions. Longzhu's ascension to the top of the LCK is nothing short of an Incredible Miracle(upvote if you get the reference). In the same boat is IMT, who -just like Longzhu- finished 7th in the Spring Split only to come back to life and look immortal in the Summer Split. Last but definitely not least is GAM, the underdogs of the underdogs. I think it's safe to say that nobody saw GAM as a serious threat to TSM(I'll get to them later) before MSI, but with their explosive play style, I have confidence that they will make waves in group B. I expect to see a lot of explosive games (40+ kills) from all 3 of these teams, as they are all known for their fast-paced play styles and teamfight prowess.

Group C(G2, SSG, RNG, TBD): G2 have been placed in nearly the exact same group that TSM was in last year, but I do think it is important to remember that G2 swept WE in the MSI semifinals, so maybe they can take a game off RNG, but I would not call it likely. If there's one thing I learned from the LCK regional qualifier, it's that you should never count Samsung out. After denying KT a spot in Worlds for 2 years in a row (A moment of silence for Score please), Samsung look set to end up in the exact same spot they were in last year: facing SKT in the finals (unless Longzhu has something to say about it). Uzi is like the Score of LPL (except Uzi frequently makes Worlds). I do have a bit of concern for RNG considering they got reverse-swept by EDG in the finals, but considering how well they did against TSM last year, I wouldn’t call it too much of a stretch to say that RNG will finish second (or maybe even first) in Group C.

Group D: TSM WIN WORLDS 2017 CONFIRMED ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT!!!! In all seriousness, I don’t think TSM will win Worlds this year, but I do think that this is the best chance they have had in YEARS to make it out of groups (I can’t even imagine the number of memes that will spawn if they don’t). Misfits have achieved their 1-year plan of making it to Worlds, so the real question is how they will perform in Group Stage. Considering this is MSF’s first Worlds appearance, I have many unanswered questions about this team. Not much to say about Flash Wolves other than they have a good chance of making it out of groups.

(P.S. This took a long time to type. I would appreciate it if you guys could leave a few upvotes :D)

8 Comments

III BAKURYU III 9/13/2017, 12:04:58 AM1 votes

Good post

anonymous1199/13/2017, 5:18:06 AM1 votes

It seems really strange to me that all over reddit and lol forums people are calling group D easy. The entire panel of casters ranked WE as a better team than rng and edg despite having a really close loss in the semi finals. You throw in FW who went even with tsm at msi and won the tie breaker and it's by no means a free pass for tsm. I think misfits more, so than splyce from last years worlds, have the ability to take upset wins over every single team in that group, but not consistently enough that it's likely they will make it out of groups. I think it's extremely likely that WE takes first in group D and there's a pretty close to 50-50 on fw/tsm as the 2nd. I think tsm are honestly more likely to choke than fw in high pressure situations. The rampant optimism on these boards about tsm's chances seems unwarranted.

If c9 or fnatic get matched into group A I think they're shit out of luck. I think this is probably the most clear cut group of #1 skt, #2 edg and I'm not expecting any upsets.

I think my absolute favorite scenario for worlds is if fnc gets placed into group B. I think a lot of times the best lol is when teams of similar skill level are playing against each other. I think fnc, imt and gam are all really close to each other which will make 2nd in that group really fun to watch for. I think imt is more likely than tsm to make it out of the group stage.

Group C can be fun if g2 shows up the tournament. I know people like to throw MSI around as a "hey they showed up on the international stage," but they really didn't. G2, especially during the group stage, looked absolutely awful, but some how every other teams looked equally as awful or worse. G2 is a really good team when they play to their potential and if they're in good shape and c9 gets thrown into this group it would be a fantastic group to watch.

-edit

If all of the main region 3rd teams make it through the gauntlet this is what the groups look like. I'm pretty sure Group d is closed to guaranteed to get WE since they have no chinese team, and all of the korean teams are already placed.

A B C D EDG LZ G2 FW SKT IMT SSG MSF AHQ GAM RNG TSM C9 FNC HKA WE

or A B C D EDG LZ G2 FW SKT IMT SSG MSF AHQ GAM RNG TSM FNC HKA C9 WE

Maszii9/13/2017, 1:32:03 PM1 votes

Downvoted cus asking for upvotes.

III BAKURYU III 9/14/2017, 7:02:22 AM1 votes

Horrible grammar incoming !!!!!!!

Group A LPL #1 Edward Gaming LCK #2 SK Telecom T1 LMS #2 AHQ Esports ?

What an old group this is and it wouldn't be Worlds if two of the three didn't meet at some point I suppose.
2014 EDG and AHQ battled with EDG winning 2-1 in a tie-breaker at Worlds 2015 SKT def EDG 2-0 in the group stage of Worlds 2015 EDG def AHQ 3-0 in the MSI QT Finals 2015 EDG def SKT 3-2 in the Finals of MSI 2015 SKT and AHQ faced off with SKT winning 3-0 in the QT Finals 2016 EDG once again faced AHQ and 2-0 them in the group stage So overall, these teams know each other very well, however, it never seems to ever go in AHQ's favor.
AHQ are like 8-2 against EDG from Worlds, MSI and RR and are 0-3 against SKT in the same events.

 AHQ Esports

Really depending on who's the ? team from play-in but it wouldn't surprise me if this group ends up in a tie-breaker for either 1st or 2nd place, since AHQ and EDG were in a tie-breaker in 2014, AHQ was in a tie-breaker in 2015 with C9 and EDG were in a tie-breaker in 2016 with H2K.
Can AHQ make it out of groups, possibly beating out EDG but that's doubtful, considering AHQ doesn't ever seem to know who's their mid lane in big tournaments, Chawy or Westdoor ?

Edward Gaming/ SKT

I really don't care how bad SKT looks right now or how good EDG looks, it's SKT and EDG: here's how it will most likely go down. SKT will win this group #1 seed and will most likely go on to win their 3rd straight World Finals, while EDG will most likely get 2nd place in groups and be quickly eliminated in the first round like they always do for most likely a 3rd straight year. Seriously, EDG gets so hyped each year to be the runner-ups to Worlds, but instead they fumble and get eliminated in the first round, for 3 straight years.
The only thing keeping EDG in a conversation is their tower/objective focus 7.9 towers per game #1 in their group. 14.2 Kills per game #1 in group. Only 9.4 deaths per game #1 in group.
One thing to note is how much Faker really just farmed, split-pushed and really wasn't a factor in the LZ series. He was close to useless in that series and couldn't tell if because he needed to farm on a 100-0 champions like Corki that doesn't need 20 items to be effective or he was tilted honestly

If teams work around topside against SKT's weak points and avoid Faker as much as possible and let him farm/split push, I do see EDG/AHQ possibly taking a few games off SKT.

Group B LCK #1 Longzhu Gaming NA #2 Immortals GPL #1 Gigabyte Marines ?

The Cinderella group as I'm calling it. Half a year ago these teams were either forgotten because of standings(LZ), tossed aside exactly a year ago(CLG/IMT) or just never really been heard of before(GAM).

GAM Honestly, I have no clue which GAM will show up, the one that did great at MSI or the new roster of GAM that might honestly, s$it the bed? The mid laner for GAM(Optimus) is good, if not a lower tier version of Maple from FW, but he has pocket picks like the Ori in which I either see LZ/IMT/? either just banning it away from him or letting him have it, in which it's one of his most picked champions but also one of the worst for him, when it comes to winning. Optimus honestly, has a very shallow champion pool, sure, he brings fun stuff out every now and then but for the most part he's very similar to say, Westdoor.

IMT Immortals in this group as of right now with just the other two names, should be happy, considering against GAM in which it's really 1-1.5 carries on that team in which IMT has over 2 years playing against teams in NA that has only 1 to 1.5/2 carries(TL/P1/EF). After watching IMT v TSM in the Finals, I'm actually confident that Immortals will be more disciplined against a team like GAM and their chaotic style and could go 2-0 against them in groups.
People also said that the NA finals didn't really have much " macro/micro" play and I couldn't disagree more honestly !

LZ We've seen this before ! A team that beats the kings of LCK and somewhat falls under pressure in Groups. BDD will most likely get a 3 champion ban against his champion pool(Ori/Syndra/Talya), and that's really disturbing since that's all he really played( I understand "the meta" will have pros play like the same 2 champions).
Another thing that's interesting is honestly Pray, at times he can be one of the best ADC players in the world and in the next, he can make some of the most head scratching plays(Ezreal against Huhi/Sol at Worlds 2016). His lane partner Gorilla will also but banned out(Alistar/Braum/Thresh) as those are really his best champions.

If the meta returns to the poke like meta for supports like(Janna/Nami/Karma etc) I don't see LZ/Gorilla really having a big impact and we could see IMT taking 1st place instead.

Group C EU #1 G2 Esports LCK #3 Samsung Galaxy LPL #2 Royal Never Gives Up ?

Typo ?
Seriously tho, how funny that NA were runner-ups to SKT in 2016 and got a "group of death" and TSM's reward was a group with RNG and SSG and here it is, vice versa and G2 gets the honor! Makes you wonder if getting 1st-4th place at MSI is actually worth it, since EU's #2 seed was given one of the easiest groups last year and same can be said for TSM(fingers crossed) this year.
MSI= Not worth

SSG Pretty much the Spurs of league at the moment, only getting around 10 kills per game/allowing only 9 deaths while also having one of the strongest tower defenses among all teams at Worlds, only 5.2 towers lost(which is actually mid-tier) but considering they win games around a 36 min average game time and do so but having low scoring games is actually very impressive.

G2 Zven being a real ? for G2, will he only have 4-5 kills this year or will he actually impact the games like he did in 2015 for his team? Let's also talk about Zven in big moments and how it's similar to SSG aka The Spurs; Zven has been in 48 total Eu' playoff games and out of those 48 games, 20 went 40+mins long. MSI he's played in 18 total games and 7 went 40+ mins long. Worlds he's played in 19 total games and 10 went 40+mins long.
Which in total equals - 85 big time games with 37 going into "OT"/40+ mins, in which he's won 21 out of those 37 "OT" games.
I'v said this way before MSI, G2 should try to stall out games into the 40-50 min mark and capitalize on teams' mistakes, since most players/pro/solo Q etc tilt to some degree when games go beyond what they thought was a clear -cut game. Or, what I call the "Old EU". Remember when EU played in hr long games and were actually somewhat successful against Korean teams, sure as s$it was against NA that's for sure.
Same thing here, RNG thought of the same thing against TSM last year, instead pulling the trigger and going ham, they were slow and methodical against TSM and 2-0 pwnd them.
G2 should be calm against RNG and just play "AWAY" from UZI, instead of what TSM and try to camp and give a higher possibility of UZI getting like 3-4 kills like against TSM/Splyce and instead work around him like what SSW did at Worlds 2014.

RNG Uzi may be the more well known player on RNG but it's actually Xiaohu, who's doing like 38% of his team's dmg that should get the bulk of credit and recognition for RNG. RNG needs to keep Xiaohu alive and not have him pressure in this group. IF teams pressure him off mid tower, in which will cause RNG's hyper carry Uzi away from farming I do see RNG falling in groups because of it.
We might see a lane-swap from RNG that might "steal" them some victories in this group.

Group D LMS #1 Flash Wolves NA #1 Team Solomid EU #2 Misifts ?

Worlds really hates #1 teams from the LMS region! 2014 #1 AHQ faced #1 LPL EDG and "#2" LCK SSW.
2015 #1 FW faced #2 LCK ROX and NA #1 CLG. 2016 #1 FW faced "#2" LCK SKT, #3 LPL Imay and #3 NA C9. And now......... NVM, it's TSM and unproven EU Misfits in this group instead, on a real tho, this group could still get #3 LPL Team World Elite so..........

TSM 7th Heaven ?
TSM made it out of Groups I believe only 1 time, the 5 other times they've failed, horribly mind you.
Yes, TSM always seems to be in some tough groups like in 2015 and 2016 but at the end of the day, you can also make the groups tougher for the teams in the group with you too. Watchmen style " I'm not stuck in here with you, you're stuck in here with ME"! Instead, TSM does their usual "copy-paste" Korea and gets pwnd because of it, each and every year it seems. If Doublelift does run up to Victor like he did last year, or lose lane=lose game/tilt, TSM should be fine in this group. However, there is a certain mid player that TSM will have to face.....

MFS To continue off from TSM's post with " TSM will have to face", they will have to face PowerofEvil in which the last 5 meetings with POE/TSM Power has 26 total kills against TSM with 3 out of the 5 meetings going into Power's favor.
However, Misfits have talent but at times they don't seem to know what to do for example: Alphari goes 1v4 and the rest of Misfits run around chasing the sole member of the other team for like 20 minutes, Alphair dies, the rest of Misifits fight 4v5 and lose. We've seen that in the EU Finals multiple times. If Misfits can actually clean up their teamfighting style and be less like pre 2014 Summer Alliance, then they should be fine.

FW Dragon/Baron control will most likely be the result in either they move on or get eliminated in group stage. Similar to most teams in tournaments they too tend to have lengthy games in which is honestly on them, since they typically have gold/kill/objective leads through out most of the games. 2016 Summer LMS FW were like 34-2 or something when they were ahead at 10 mins, went to Worlds had gold leads against Imay and C9 and still lost those games, against TSM who's not so good early, they need to actually do something late game against these teams. Flash Wolves are #1 among all teams at Worlds in tower defense, 4.0 towers lost, so getting objective leads may be tough.

Blu 19/14/2017, 11:24:43 PM1 votes

If TSM can't make it out of groups this year they are actually hot garbage, like "laughing stock of the entire world" hot garbage