Worlds Pick'em Discussion

Shared my picks in the link, would like to hear opinions on them and see others' as well :D !

Group A: 1 - SKT is just way too good for me to put anywhere but #1. I don't foresee them dropping a game until maybe semis or later depending on knockout stage draws. 2 - I put C9 #2 because I'm a fanboy with a lot of faith, but also because they absolutely smashed the play-ins (outside of game 2 vs. Lyon) and EDG has a history of choking at Worlds cough INTZ cough. I still think this is a bit of a longshot, maybe coming down to a tiebreaker if C9 and EDG split games or something like that, but I don't think this would really be as crazy an upset as it looks on paper based on history and what experts have been saying about the state of China atm. 3 - EDG #3, basically explained above. 4 - AHQ here seems like the obvious choice. Based on what LMS analysts have been saying the region as a whole looked pretty weak all summer, plus the 3rd seed HKA that lots of people were pretty confident in as the region's final representative got swept by a shaky looking Fnatic, which doesn't bode well for the AHQ squad if they really are close in skill to HKA, because (again) C9 looked immaculate enough to smash basically every team in play-ins 3-0 other than maybe WE. Plus I really doubt they take any games off SKT, and unless EDG chokes even more spectacularly than anyone might have though, even 1 game from them would be a crazy steal.

Group B: 1 - If Longzhu doesn't 6-0 this group, I would be absolutely stunned. I mean they've got 4 of the top 6 players in the world going into this tournament. Honestly, if they don't 6-0 this group with an average game time sub 30 minutes it would still be somewhat surprising. I'm expecting them to look as dominant as C9 did in play-ins if not better against the NA's 2 seed, EU's shaky 3rd seed, and what is essentially a wildcard team that had some surprising success like 4 months ago then changed their playstyle dramatically. 2 - Immortals is the best of the rest in this group. IMT demonstrated that one of their biggest strengths is their prep and early game over the summer split and playoffs and even though they faltered against TSM in the finals because their late-game wasn't as clean as they wanted it, I don't really think they'll have many opportunities to get to those do-or-die 40+ minute late game fights and lose in this group. Against the bottom half of the group, IMT's early game power should basically allow them to shut out GAM and FNC with few problems (maybe drop a game if they haven't fixed their close-out problems). Against Longzhu, whatever they do really doesn't matter tbh because they should basically be outclassed in every role and aspect of the game. 3 - I went with Gigabyte Marines here based on Fnatic's lackluster performance in what should've been one of the easier groups in the play-ins. In addition, I think Bo1s will work heavily in favor of GAM here too. Look at MSI, they basically cheesed their way into the knockouts then got blown out of the water when they had to transition to a real BoX series. I think they could probably get a game off both IMT and FNC, but I also think FNC will get 0-2'd by IMT, pushing GAM to 3rd. 4 - Fnatic just didn't look like the team we saw all summer (until playoffs) in play-ins, and that that's troublesome enough for me to put them last in this group. Even though they took down HKA 3-0, I personally think based on the depth of the LMS that even some of the other emerging region teams could've beat them pretty soundly in a Bo5 as well (i.e. Lyon, FB).

Group C: 1 - Samsung to me has to be the first place choice here. Even though they didn't play amazingly in LCK playoffs, it was still LCK Playoffs, and I think it would be pretty surprising if they drop more than 1 game even in this stacked group. 2 - This might've been the hardest choice for me from any group, but I decided to go with RNG 2nd. Even though G2 had a massive resurgence at the end of the split and dominated EU playoffs againx4, I think the team that went up on EDG 2-0 is just the safer bet here. Plus, if anyone here has been an example for the dangers of Bo1s for better teams, it's G2. 3 - Again, this was a really hard choice to make, but it was just too hard for me to turn a blind eye to the G1-5 faltering at worlds last year, MSI 2016, and Rift Rivals earlier this year. Outside of this year's MSI G2 has done nothing except choke internationally, and in this group I expect them to com up short again. At least that means if they DO flop again, they can blame the group of death and it won't be a massive upset for them not to be in knockouts yet again. 4 - As decent as FB looked in play-ins, I can't imagine them somehow upsetting a combination of any 2 of the other teams to make it out of this group. That being said, I think they could steal a game off G2, but anything more than that or a steal of a game against RNG or SSG would be pretty crazy to me. Who knows though, groups with Korean powerhouses and G2 have historically been pretty damn good for wildcards @ANX (EU LUL) :^)

Group D: 1 - To me, this group is a battle of 2 halves, the upper and lower. Based on how not utterly dominating the team that many analysts were calling the REAL best Chinese team was in play-ins, I think TSM should be able to beat them at least once, maybe even both times in the Bo1s. After that, TSM just has to avoid going full 2015 NA on this group and play as they have been all year to pretty easily take the 1st seed here. 2 - WE is still good, don't get me wrong. I just think the team that a ton of people have been calling the 4th best team at the tournament should've basically cruise controlled their way through play-ins, and they most definitely hit a few unforeseen speed bumps on their way to groups. If they had some issues beating Lyon in their group (later 0-3'd by C9) I don't think they're getting out of this group without at least some bruises from TSM. 3 - In the battle of the bottom half, I went with Flash Wolves over Misfits. This is mostly due to FW's international experience, basically being the perrenial 1 seed from the LMS. As I said before though, I do think that the LMS as a whole is pretty weak so I wouldn't be super surprised if this goes the other way and MSF takes 3rd. 4 - Even though MSF looked competitive in EU, they still got nuked by G2 in the finals, and I don't know if they've shown that they can take even a relatively decent team like FW on. I will give them the Bo1 buff though, so maybe they'll surprise me here.

Let me know what you think!

TL;DR Group A: 1 - SKT 2 - C9 Group B: 1 - LZ 2 - IMT Group C: 1 - SSG 2 - RNG Group D: 1 - TSM 2 - WE