Worlds Group B Champ select stats

So below is all four teams from group B with their champion picks for each of their games. Nothing particularly crazy, but alot of interesting things to point out.

Team Solomid (4-2)

G1 v. SK (Victory) G2 v. SHRC (Defeat) G3 v. TPA (Victory) G4 v. TPA (Victory) G5 v. SHRC (Victory) G6 v. SK (Defeat) So if there is anything their picks point out, its that TSM came in with a plan (the same plan) for all of their games. Get Dyrus a late game scaling top laner, lulu being his favorite flavor. Get Lee Sin for Amazing for the play making potential so he can run around and kick people in the face. Give WildTurtle a late game hyper-carry and let him scale up into a monster. Lustboy also ran only supports who had some form of heavy disengage (tidal waves, howling gales, Braum ulti, etc..) Bjergsen was the only TSM member in my opinion who didn't show up so far in the group stages. His performance was not bad by any means, it just didn't have that same dominating presence that everyone is used to seeing. Even when he ran Syndra (the champ he's known for putting the fear of God into people) it was an okay performance. Now they face their biggest opponent yet in the quarter final, Samsung White. Now everything tells us Samsung should win uncontested, but if we learned anything from Team Solomid in the playoffs, its that they know how to dig deep when it counts. We can only wait and see.

SK Gaming (2-4) *The first three games had Gilius subbing for Svenskeren

G1 v. TSM (Defeat) G2 v. TPA (Defeat) G3 v. SHRC (Defeat) G4 v. SHRC (Defeat) G5 v. TPA (Victory) G6 v. TSM (Victory) The first thing we have to point out was the absence of Svenskeren for the first three games. This was pretty much the nail in the coffin for SK gaming. Losing your jungler/shot caller with only a week or two to prepare your sub proved to be disastrous. There seemed to be a lack of communication on all fronts, and SK looked like a team who had never played in the LCS. What pisses me off about this most is that SK were a real contender for the second place slot. If anyone could sneak through the fog of war and upset TSM it would have been them. Their last two games gave us an idea of what could have been. All that being said Candypanda showed up as the most consistent player, often being the only thread of hope in their games. nRated ran some unconventional supports showing some great play on Morgana. I would talk about the Swain pick in game 6, and while it was cool to see, Swain didn't have that much of an impact in game. And then there was poor little Jesiz...never has he looked more like a little fish in a big pond. He got manhandled by Bjergsen and Corn and was often camped by the enemy jungler. Even on his comfort picks of Orianna and Ahri he didn't play too well. This was a sad turn out for SK, but at least they got the consolation win over TSM.

Star Horn Royal Club (5-1)

G1 v. TPA (Victory) G2 v. TSM (Victory) G3 v. SK (Victory) G4 v. SK (Victory) G5 v. TSM (Defeat) G6 v. TPA (Victory) Operating as a well-oiled machine, Royal Club swept through this group stage without much resistance. Even the one game they dropped to TSM wasn't a landslide, they went down fighting. The coolest thing to point out was the Chinese-meta picks. Cola's games on Irelia were awesome, I've never seen her played quite like he did it. InSec dominated with Lee Sin and Rengar often securing small early game advantages and snowballing them into victories. But the all-star of the team Uzi proved why everyone knows his name. Running Tristana three times, Caitlyn twice , and one monstrous game on Vayne he put up the top KDA numbers in every game. They play fellow Chinese competitor Edward Gaming in the quarter final. I look for them to take down EDG and secure a semi-final spot.

Taipei Assassins (1-5)

G1 v. SHRC (Defeat) G2 v. SK (Victory) G3 v. TSM (Defeat) G4 v. TSM (Defeat) G5 v. SK (Defeat) G6 v. SHRC (Defeat) Turning up short, the once world champions proved abysmal this year. Now there are alot of factors to consider, Bebe is the only returning member from the championship team, the GPL is arguably the weakest region and not having much international exposure it's easy to get land-locked. Only able to pick up a single win against a wounded SK, TPA needs to completely change their game if they ever wanna see future international success. Look at the NA LSC, this summer split saw the biggest influx of outside influences (locodoco, lustboy, seraph, amazing, Bjergsen, & LMQ) and now the NA scene is more powerful than it ever has been. We can only hope that the GPL finds a way to keep up with the rest of the world, but until then I'm not holding my breath for any Southeast Asia teams.

I hope you liked all the stats for group B! Group A is posted if you wanna check that out, and C&D will be posted shortly after they conclude. Look for more juicy numbers and percentages while worlds continue.

Happy warding,

-starrb77