North America's ascension at Worlds
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As Day Two of Worlds Group Stage in Singapore begins, North American teams look to be on the rise. While Korean teams have performed as expected, few expected a 4-0 start by North American teams in two of the hardest groups at Worlds. How have they improved so dramatically from last year's Worlds showing and how have they pulled off their imrpessive showing?
Some members of the community have been quick to judge Korean boot camps as ineffective, but watching play from the North Americans, it's clear that some teams have benefitted directly. Earlier in their histories, both LMQ and Cloud9 played a very aggressive, heavy engage style of game. However, in matches yesterday on Singapore Day 1, both had games go 11 minutes before a first blood, and both used a very calculated and methodical style to close out games with very slight gold advantages.
It has become clear that North American teams have taken some cues from Korea. "I think the NA strategies and mechanics are much better than before," said Vasilii. "Currently we are focused on playing more stable than we did before."
In this, it seems that the North American meta is evolving. While some teams focus on snowballing kill advantages onto carries to outplay other teams mechanically, both Cloud9 and LMQ have realized that you can't always rely on snowballing, or your mechanics, to defeat teams like Samsung Blue or Najin White Shield. With this increased focus on team play, it may give them the edge they need.
With that said, the North American teams may even be surprising themselves. "When I first learned that we were in Group C, I thought that every team [was] super strong, [even] stronger than us, but it happened that we were so lucky to win both games [yesterday]," Vasilii continued. "Maybe it's because we have the mindset that it doesn't matter if we win or lose, we just play our best."
After Samsung White's performance in Taipei, Shield at least is feeling the pressure to at least match that performance, and sweep the group completely. But still, despite the more humble goals of North American teams, all hope isn't lost for the West. "Alliance is a team that we feel will give us the strongest fight," Watch continued.
With the faltering of Chinese and European teams through the first five days of Worlds, it looks as though North America may have finally surpassed China and Europe as the next best hope to defeat the Korean squads. But given the opening match between Cloud9 and Alliance and the methodical and high level execution by both teams -- though Cloud9 certainly edged them in the end -- it would seem that Group D will continue to remain close through completion.
The World Championship Group Stage, and perhaps Korean dominance, continues in Singapore tonight at 2:00 am Pacific Time or 11:00 am Central European Time when Najin White Shield takes on Alliance.
Frank 'Riot Mirhi' Fields is a Senior Web Content Coordinator for Riot Games. You'll find him in solo queue on Ahri trying to DFG charm his way up the Diamond ladder, or on Twitter where he'd love to talk to you about esports.
Korean Influence
While there has been much and more said about the Korean boot camps of each of the Western teams, at least some players believe that coaching and creative direction is a more direct cause of some of their success. LMQ's ADC Vasilii had this to say about the NA teams' improvement: "A lot of it has to do with us utilizing coaches (and for us Korean coaches) to teach us more advanced strategies."
Some members of the community have been quick to judge Korean boot camps as ineffective, but watching play from the North Americans, it's clear that some teams have benefitted directly. Earlier in their histories, both LMQ and Cloud9 played a very aggressive, heavy engage style of game. However, in matches yesterday on Singapore Day 1, both had games go 11 minutes before a first blood, and both used a very calculated and methodical style to close out games with very slight gold advantages.
It has become clear that North American teams have taken some cues from Korea. "I think the NA strategies and mechanics are much better than before," said Vasilii. "Currently we are focused on playing more stable than we did before."
In this, it seems that the North American meta is evolving. While some teams focus on snowballing kill advantages onto carries to outplay other teams mechanically, both Cloud9 and LMQ have realized that you can't always rely on snowballing, or your mechanics, to defeat teams like Samsung Blue or Najin White Shield. With this increased focus on team play, it may give them the edge they need.
With that said, the North American teams may even be surprising themselves. "When I first learned that we were in Group C, I thought that every team [was] super strong, [even] stronger than us, but it happened that we were so lucky to win both games [yesterday]," Vasilii continued. "Maybe it's because we have the mindset that it doesn't matter if we win or lose, we just play our best."
Korean Dominance
On the other hand, there's the Korean mindset: total domination. Najin White Shield jungler Watch said about his team's expectations:,"Coming in, all the pundits picked the three Korean teams to win Worlds. As as one of these three teams, we feel like we really want to win all the games… It would be really nice if the three teams could win every match -- make it 18-0. That's our goal right now."
After Samsung White's performance in Taipei, Shield at least is feeling the pressure to at least match that performance, and sweep the group completely. But still, despite the more humble goals of North American teams, all hope isn't lost for the West. "Alliance is a team that we feel will give us the strongest fight," Watch continued.
With the faltering of Chinese and European teams through the first five days of Worlds, it looks as though North America may have finally surpassed China and Europe as the next best hope to defeat the Korean squads. But given the opening match between Cloud9 and Alliance and the methodical and high level execution by both teams -- though Cloud9 certainly edged them in the end -- it would seem that Group D will continue to remain close through completion.
The World Championship Group Stage, and perhaps Korean dominance, continues in Singapore tonight at 2:00 am Pacific Time or 11:00 am Central European Time when Najin White Shield takes on Alliance.
Frank 'Riot Mirhi' Fields is a Senior Web Content Coordinator for Riot Games. You'll find him in solo queue on Ahri trying to DFG charm his way up the Diamond ladder, or on Twitter where he'd love to talk to you about esports.
