Seriously, congratulations to all of you who got this group correct in the pick'em. But I'm really surprised that this many would guess Gen G, the former world champions with the same roster, would end 4th in place?!?
I'm not even salty that I only got 4 points, I'm hyped that C9 made it out and that KR got a 4th spot. Only thing that could've gone better if it was VIT instead of RNG, but that would've been too much chaos for the world to handle.
8.2% got it correct because this is usually the outlier group that just picks simply due to favorites. The reason that it's become so much harder to accurately pick for worlds is because of the erratic balancing.
SKT not in worlds. Afreeca losing an easy bracket. Gen. G getting absolutely turned over. I know that they had RNG, but still Clown 9 and Vitality. They shouldn't have had any problems against them.
Rito has secretly been balancing the game for worlds so that Korea can stop winning every year.
*Continues to thicken tinfoil hat wrappings. *
http://pickem.lolesports.com/share/series/5/user/3567752/my-picks
by being bronze v and never have watched a day of LCS.
_Story time, but here's a serious TL:DR - I was actually one off in the end of things (VIT and Gen.G flipped) and even considered to pit Gen.G in 4th but changed my mind when making the Pick'Em. _
Here's what I think a lot of people don't get about the situation: teams can have magic and immaculate performances but that's not gonna last forever especially if the opponents aren't playing your game. I personally put Gen.G out of playoff contention because I wasn't convinced by their entire season whatsoever. Sticking to that narrative is one thing. But being shocked by it not panning out the way it was intended only shows that you as the viewer or analyst did not truly dig into worst case scenarios or really thought into the differences between track record and recency.
Analyst desks, casting, predictions that things would just stay to narrative...those all rubbed me the wrong way. They were an upper middle team always edging out in long run somewhere in that 4th thru 6th area with SKT, Hanwha Life, Afreeca, and Kingzone come Summer. Some reason I only ever seemed to see "world champs," "regional qualifier worlds buff," and so on; as if the regular season and road to points didn't matter. Yet the likes of C9, VIT...everything on their seasons were brought up in some kind of medium. That right there alone pissed me off. In a discussion on Discord, I actually pegged Gen.G weaker than VIT (hell even 100 Thieves) and people called me crazy. I didn't defend myself. Just my observation vs theirs. Their minds vs mine.
Come Pick'Em, I said to myself, "So what if they're the freaking World Champs? I don't believe in them!" Same time, I didn't believe Vitality to play their style and secure wins their way. But on the chance they did, I had to choose between the belief that one would be 3-3 and not advance and the other to be 2-4 or worse. Went with my typical 50-50 college exam process. Chose wrong again...simple as that.
I'll take my 10 points. My road to 34 is looking better than last year!
Samsung Blue/Samesung White/Samsung/GEN G whatever they call themselves; were just a slow team in both 2016-2017 and now, 2018. People say SSG shouldn't have made it to the Finals in both years and well, they shouldn't have- they beat a falling off SKT team and had what 3/5 games go 50+ mins long in 2016 in a losing effort. Don't get me wrong GEN is a great team but when a slow paced team faces off against 3 fast paced teams in their group they're going to lose. It wasn't a hard prediction knowing they would end 4th.
I almost got it right myself... I expected Vitality to perform worse than they did and GenJ to be slightly better. I had those two reversed, but I got C9 and RNG in their correct spots.
I simply guessed that the stars would align to allow C9 to get out of groups since IT ALWAYS HAPPENS. Somehow, they nearly ALWAYS manage.
