Quarterfinals and predictions for semis

Before i start i want to say im humongously proud of C9 and Misfits for what they did during Quarter Finals. Lets get to it now.

Match 1 LZ vs SSG (SSG def. LZ 3-0)

Before this match began there were things i wanted to see from both teams, Samsung most though. Samsung Galaxy had the task of looking at their roster and deciding what they wanted to do, keep Haru in and be aggressive; switching to being an early game powerhouse who NEEDS to win early since Crown and CoreJJ arent the best late game shot callers, or finally convince Ambition to be an early game beast that he was severely needing to become for Samsung to have any hope of returning to the Grand Finals. They had more questions in Crown staying consistent and Ruler returning to this form of AD carry who was always able to find leads in lane no matter who he was playing against. Samsung answered all of these questions emphatically. Ambition came out of nowhere being able to control the tempo and vision so hard early and track down objectives and kills at will. Crown stayed consistently fantastic and often outsmarted and later, straight up beat BDD in lane and teamfights. Ruler and CoreJJ got wins over PraY and GorillA game after game and really denied LongZhu any opportunity to open up early to avoid the late game vs Samsung, where even when Samsung was struggling in Spring and Summer, NOBODY wanted to take SSG to the late game, even SKT or KT didnt want that because they knew, taking SSG to the late game is a death wish. Most importantly the biggest question and the biggest contributor to the hype of this matchup was Khan vs CuVee. Who really is the best top laner at Worlds? The answer came too quickly for LongZhu to respond as Khan's comfort pick was decimated when CuVee won flat out cleanly vs the Jax. LongZhu had some questions and problems that needed addressing such as Cuzz not being able to really get going if any lanes are having trouble and his lack of attention payed to LongZhu's bot lane in such a AD Carry/Support focused meta. Instead of fixing the problems, Samsung exposed so much more problems with LongZhu like BDD being able to be outplayed and not responding to being pressured in lane, PraY and GorillA relying too much on the super safe bot lane picks and Khan's inability to do anything when he loses lane. Id be a liar if i didnt say i had LongZhu to make it to the Grand Finals because i didnt think Samsung would be able to improve upon EVERYTHING i didnt like about them in just 3 games. Now im believing Samsung might win it all if they can remain consistent with this style. All in all, Samsung destroyed 80% of the world's pickems and giggled as they did it.

Match 2 SKT vs MSF (SKT def. MSF 3-2)

I had SKT to win 3-0 with shaky early games and dominating late games, i was wrong. Faker was tilted in game 2 and 3, Bang and Wolf looked so god damn lackluster, Peanut still had problems in being an early game powerhouse on a team that detests pro-activity pre-20 minutes and Huni tried but it wasnt nearly enough. HansSama and Ignar were the heroes of their wins in games 2 and 3. the Blitz, the fervor Leona, and HansSama looking better on Trist than Bang did, really made me as well as the rest of the fans watching worlds take Misfits seriously. PowerofEvil even looked so damn clean into Faker, he came in thinking he was just "Bjergsen's kryptonite" but he is really just a really incredible mid laner who is one of the very few players and even few in the west who can say "Yes, i can beat Faker in lane for every game i play against him in a series". It speaks a lot to this kid's abilities and game knowledge. Maxlore was so good as well, when Misfits got rid of Kakao for Maxlore i was thinking, "There goes any chance of those dudes to win." like i said before i thought i was going to see the Maxlore from Roccat and got a jungle God instead (the kid earned his nuggets), all in all EU fans and Misfits fans should not be upset about this series at all when such a young team can look this great against a team who won Worlds 3 times from a region who has had a worlds winners from the past 4 years. SKT on the other hand, looked awful. If EU fans and Mistifts fans should be proud, SKT fans and Korean fans should feel incredibly disappointed in what SKT has been doing since the Summer Finals vs LongZhu. seemingly disregarding the early game, welcoming the early deficit and sometimes looking like theyre thinking "Its ok, we are SKT" with how sloppy they are. I know, it may be the "Classic SKT scouting and hiding strats but when Faker is visibly annoyed in the performance 3 games in a row, the 3rd being the series winning game for SKT, its a problem when next they face an even stronger early game team with a damn great late game in RNG. They need to fix their priorities and they need Kkoma to finally say "Okay, Peanut isnt working, he's good but not what we need, Blank needs to stay in and Faker needs to roam with Blank to get Bang and Wolf ahead while Huni gets camped to hell, trade the rift herald for Dragon priority, focus more on vision in their jungle late game and force teams to fight them at elder with how many Dragons SKT has accrued and push vision to the enemy jungle for wave control. This is how you stifle the enemy team by the book for a cleaner late game but SKT has not shown any of it as the game 5 win over Misfits was the luckiest 50/50 fight at Elder and Huni teleporting into 5 people. If Huni did not get the outplay, SKT loses. That's another scary thing, they rely on Huni getting ahead too much as their only really early game showing and that fine vs an inexperienced Alphari, but against top laners like Mouse, Ziv and Impact, that strategy came completely to Huni doing something insanely risky to win. All in all it showed massive improvement and skill by a young Misfits team and a huge nose dive in confidence by a team pegged in to win by a lot of people who werent on the LongZhu bandwagon.

Match 3 RNG vs FNC (RNG def. FNC 3-1)

This one is probably going to be the shortest match i look at. FNatic had a chance, they looked like they had the ability to play and win but the drafts were just one sided in favor of RNG. The Soraka pick alone threw a massive wrench in coach Dylan Falco's plan. Caps looked really huge on Taliyah, the 1 v 3 attempt to defend top had me going from "This guy is high, he's going to lose this game" to "Oh my god that defense was clean." This entirety of worlds for EU was a statement from mid laners, guys like Xpeke, Febiven, Froggen, Alex Ich and Ryu may be gone or not doing well but other, younger skilled mid laners are taking their place and EU is evolving to still be one of the best regions next to Korea to produce serious talent in mid laners. PowerofEvil, Perkz, and Caps are here and looking so damn good. For RNG this was also a statement, the typical Chinese early power house game-play is still there but now we have a Chinese team who have a massive ability to roll with the blows they take and dominate. Something we havent seen from teams besides RNG and Samsung. The hype of Uzi vs Rekkles was also one thing that drew me so hard into hoping this game would go a full best of 5 in the series but what we got from the 3-1 win from RNG is that both AD carries are dangerous. Uzi outplaying the hell out of Fnatic near the baron pit and having Rekkles flash in and whip ass until the Cho and Ryze killed him. China has been tested as far as the "LPL tactical clown fiesta" goes and so far RNG had the most answers. All in all, getting outsmarted in the draft and both AD carries hinging on wanting that hero play to win helped RNG get the edge and win this series. I hope this isnt the last time we see Rekkles because he is a good piece to Fnatic's success and has a lot still to prove for himself. Good games from both of these teams.

Match 4 WE vs C9 (WE def. C9 3-2)

Just like the Misfits taking SKT to 5 games, the loss here still speaks volumes to what NA as a region has to look forward to in the future. Ive never felt like this after the expected NA defeat at worlds. It has always been smashes and blowouts, even last year C9 was blown out by SSG in Quarters. This series was Reapered showing C9 has great adaption and the ability to pull out picks nobody expects as C9 has done all year to win, Impact on Singed had me hype because i havent seen it in 4 years and it still worked. That, however was the problem for C9. They win the best with Impact on a tank to disrupt the backline and Contractz on a tank that wants to fight it out after diving to back up Impact. This is why we saw Contractz have a day and night performance on the J4 and Sejuanni. Contractz is not good at just front-lining and soaking damage, he needs to be fighting and forcing the enemy back-line onto the ropes, which Jarvan, Rek'Sai and Gragas help him do. Impact on Singed worked so well because even on SKT, Impact was best at disrupting and causing chaos for enemy mid laners and AD carries. C9 needs chaos, not the front to back comp that relies on meticulous positioning in the front line. I wanted to see the Nautilus, Maokai, Shen, Singed and maybe even a Malphite to keep 957 having a hard time in lane and team-fighting. Sneaky looked as good as any top AD carry in the world breaking another record as he's done for 3 years in a row now, and Smoothie was another player in this tournament who can take a boring straight tot he point champ like Janna and make it look clean. Oddly enough another player i said this about was 957 on the Cho'Gath. Jensen also made me happy with his willingness to basically sacrifice any lead and make sure Sneaky and Smoothie carried out their lead and dominated the game. Again however this series came down to the draft, Condi and 957 were constantly screwed in the draft and thanks to Reapered C9 took advantage of that but one mistake that helped WE win was finally giving 957 a matchup he could play into and knew, and giving Condi the Jarvan 4. Sejuanni is not a pick you want Contractz on and he showed why. He wasnt awful but he also wasnt maximizing what a good Sejuanni can do. He was just really there, akin to Svenskeren in general, Contractz was nulled. Once Condi was in a champion he could fly around the map and provide the tankiness on, once 957 got a matchup he knew what to do in, it was done for C9. This entire series as a whole showed C9 needs to adjust small things in the future like Reapered being able to play the draft even better than he was in games 1, 2 and 3; C9 as a unit executing better and allowing themselves to play off the bot lane and top lane harder. That aside, C9 proved that while TSM is guaranteed to be awful garbage with excuses at worlds, Cloud 9 is the team who actually learns from their experiences and has the best chance to move into Semis next year. In a region that has been relegated to a joke, C9 made sure WE took them damn seriously. One thing i did like seeing was a play every other region but NA, save for C9, has been doing. Go for the baron while other teams are pre-occupied with either stupidly chasing a Singed or trying to sneak a drake. Everyone giving C9 shade for what happened in the regular splits and playoffs need to take notice now, TSM no longer has the respect or best players anymore. Sneaky proved he is in fact better than DoubleLift, Jensen proved at Worlds, he has the ability to do far more than Bjergsen has ever done, and Hauntzer is nowhere near being the best top laner in NA, its Impact. The more C9 grows, the more we can actually believe in the chance of NA doing well internationally. This series was a kill fiesta and China has a lot to prove this year as well with RNG looking for revenge on a sloppy SKT, and WE wanting to show the world they have once again, arrived and are ready to try to take down SSG.

Semi Finals Predictions.

Game 1- SKT vs RNG

My prediction RNG def. SKT 3-1

SKT has been looking way too sloppy and the "rope-a-dope" excuse is getting old. Misfits demolished them by using a staple Chinese teams excel at doing. Winning the early game. Too many times SKT relied on the go for broke play to win. They did it vs C9 in the second matchup with Huni backdooring, they did it vs EDG with the miracle engage twice. They did it vs Misfits is game 5 with Huni straigt up teleporting into 5 people to land that one shockblast to win a 50/50 Elder Dragon fight that they were losing. What is going to happen vs a far more experience team with better vision, better late games and better teamfighting? I do see SKT winning a game by draft picks but i dont see SKT winning if they keep throwing away the early game and rely on Super Huni to win the game on a risky play. SKT needs to fix themselves fast or its over for them, because if anything is going to repeat itself from previous worlds, its that China vs Korea matches always go the distance and both teams play their hearts out like theyre in the Grand Finals.

Game 2- SSG vs WE

My prediction SSG def. WE 3-0

Samsung has looked so much better with the ability of Ambition to get the early game going and help Ruler and CoreJJ secure leads. Crown looks like he snapped out of whatever funk he was in and is playing to level expected of him. CuVee is still, once again, the best top laner in the World and WE having problems against C9 who beat WE's bottom lane on a matchup WE should have smashed, Condi having issues with falling behind in the jungle and 957 not having as deep a champion pool as CuVee already spells defeat as well as Crown just looking far better in general than Xiye. I think Samsung is going to win cleanly to advance to the Grand Finals.

Let me know what you guys think, what you guys took from EU and NA, do you believe in a future where EU can make it to the Gand Finals and NA can make it deeper into the knockout stage? Do you think RNG can beat SKT? Do you think WE is legit or they showed too many problems against C9? Do you think SKT will still make it to the Grand Finals? Do you think Maxlore deserves more nuggets? Again, let me know. Quarters were wild and i feel like Semis are going to be even more wild. See you guys next week.

[galio-happy]