Welcome to the Worlds Finals 2019

Well the more things change the more they stay the same. A year we were all hoping that the gap would fully close-- it only became worse. Like 2016 the rich get richer and the NA peasants are contracting bubonic plague. Oh and a couple Korean teams are imploding outside of worlds. Let us remember the fallen among the elite.

Oh and play one of these songs as I recap who got eliminated.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-FMx_gu6g&t=793s

Griffin: After dominating Group A in the midst of a controversy, you get absolutely smashed by IG. Despite nearly having IG on the ropes in game 1, one-use tricks and craftiness are not enough to beat that level of high end mechanical talent. Beating a team like IG requires either complete commitment to control, vision, and macro manipulation or to fighting fire with fire. Unfortunately, Griffin was caught in the middle of the spectrum and got ran over by the mechanical pain train.

Fnatic: So you made it out of the group of death and sent RNG into the shadow realm. FunPlusPheonix would like to reward your efforts in a could e'tat of savagery to avenge for their fallen comrade/adversary. Even if one of your members got fed FPX was always a step ahead of you when it mattered. It showed in their dragon control all series long often collecting 3 of one drake. Doinb’s Ryze was fluctuating his talent and overloaded the Fnatic backline with machine gun damage. Then there was Bwipo’s Kayle in game 4. Where do I begin? After relentless camping by Tien and not having the items to be able to do much he needed to be an ult bot. About that; Bwipo’s Kayle ults were hair-pullingly frustrating. Like watching your friend bleed out when you have bandages and gauze pads, Bwipo almost never ulted his allies and only used it on himself when he was at 10 percent HP. Rekkles deserved better than this.

Splyced: I’ll give you an A for effort as you guys played valiantly against SKT. There’s nothing to be ashamed of with that loss. It’s just that SKT is SKT and the element of surprise can only sustain for so long. This is what happens when you put the featherweight against Mike Tyson; he’s just going to be knocked into a coma after Tyson is done with your tricks. Kobbe was playing on another level but it’s not enough when the rest of your team gets dominated on. The frontline was non-existent with SKT’s dual ADC comps. That just leaves G2 as EU’s last hope.

Damnwon: This now leaves Korea with 1 team in the semi finals. G2 ran around you in circles all series with consistent mechanical outplays. For each game G2 either dominated or one player took over. It’s kind of like how a group of bullies take turns stealing lunch money on the scrawny kid or just ganging up on them straight up. Case and point was when Wunder’s Ryze was left unchecked. Damwon was always outplayed at each turn and just didn’t look ready to handle G2’s aggression.

IG/China’s Koreans: The defending champs are down! I repeat; the defending champs are down! In an act of betrayal the mighty phoenix engulfed his Chinese brother in flames. Mechanics can only take you so far and teamwork is needed to optimize that level of talent. Rookie couldn’t hold the weight of the world forever you know. Teamfight after teamfight, you got punished in different ways. From clumping during Equalizers to overextending without vision there was always a mistake you paid for. Oh and they had a pocket pick AP Nautilus ready to one-shot or cc anything in sight. IG were never in sync and had to constantly face an uphill battle.

SKT: Faker’s revenge tour was unfortunately cut short as he ran into a brick wall. Its name is G2. Despite everything SKT tried to do, the Samurai Shogun’s mechanics and ambushes were too much to handle. Throughout the series it looked like SKT just couldn’t handle the pace that G2 was setting. Most of the games were defined by SKT and G2 trading blows early with SKT building a mid-game lead, only to throw it all away in a sloppy teamfight. Strangely enough Perkz was the weapon of choice that shutdown SKT. Sorry Faker, but there’s always next year though. Keep chowing down on the broccoli!

Now let’s see who will be one-shotting each other in the finals

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbzAAp8jqE

FunPlus Phoenix: Because I was mainly paying attention to the NA and EU scene I never really paid much attention to the LPL. FPX is now twisting my neck and forcefully keeping my eyes open for next split. From always falling short of getting to compete internationally to getting the chance to achieve immortality, this team has come a long way. The key word is team. No one player completely stands out as the defacto best in their position; as a unit however, this team can handle anything thrown their way. Tien has been seemingly omnipresent all tournament as he is always there at the right time, except for that teamfight where he was playing with the chickens. While GimGoon and Lwk don’t get all of the spotlight, they are absolute units who can wreak havoc when left unchecked. Like the Dota hero disruptor, Crisp is always looking to split the front and backline apart and revels in the chaos. With all of their teamwork they lacked a real showstopper to take them over the edge. That answer came in DoinB. He’s gone toe to toe with Rookie and was able to stifle his rampage. Secret weapons like AP Nautilus and Rumble mid were deployed to dominate teamfights. My only concern is that even with DoinB they lack a true star that dictates how the other team has to play. Their teamwork should be more than enough to circumvent this.

Now let’s see who will be on the other side of the rift.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LfmrHTdXgK4

G2: Conglaturation CAPS you get another shot at League glory and immortality. Hopefully this time you can win at least one game. Heck you have a superteam to support you at each turn. And that’s what this team is; an assembly of the most gifted Summoners in the west. Each player dominates at their position with top mid and bot having the potential to carry at any moment. Obviously the center piece that G2 brought in to push them over the edge is CAPS. Throughout the year he has performed even better than advertised pulling mechanical bullshit out of his ass. If FPX choose to camp CAPS, they have Wunder and Perkz poised to take over their lane. Speaking of Perkz, after traumatizing Uzi and the entire RNG fanbase, he made a seamless translation to bot lane and been rather flexible in his champion pool. His mid-lane experience has given him access to champions like Yasuo and Syndra ready to oneshot whatever poor squishy gets in his way. Then there’s Jankos and Mikyx who have been rather quiet with all of the talent that G2 has; instead they are the enablers that allow the carries to shine. The only thing they have trouble dealing with are teams that can fight fire with fire and come out on top. Despite being able to play different ways, early aggression is their bread and butter strategy. This acts as a double-edged sword as it can demoralize teams quickly or stifle their other game-plans from coming into fruition. They seem to have more coordination than IG as they beat SKT through patience and well timed teamfights. Hopefully this is the year.

The stage has been set we have the rise of the Phoenix vs the Samurai Shogun time to predict who will prevail.

This matchup is very close on paper. Both teams have conflicting strengths and are sort of opposites in a way. FPX plays a team with each player pulling their weight while G2 is mechanically dominant in their lanes and are resourceful in their tricks.

Something tells me that this will play out similarly to FPX’s series to IG, except that G2 plays with more cohesion than IG. It’s either going to 5 games or ending in a blowout.

I still give this to FPX as they have proven that they can deal with mechanically superior teams and still hold their own in the laning phase. Don’t get me wrong G2 could just as easily win this series as both teams odds for winning are constantly alternating between 49-51%. It’s just that I’ve seen this story play out ala last year when IG obliterated Fnatic.

Hopefully the west can actually win a game in the finals.