2015 MSI, TSM played AHQ and lost 0-1
2015 IEM Katowice, C9 played yoe Flash Wolves and lost 0-1, TSM played yoe Flash Wolves and won 2-1
2014 Worlds, TSM played TPA and beat them 2-0
2014 IEM Katowice, TSM played TPA and beat them 1-0

Total: USA #1 = 5, Taiwan noobs = 3

I think that you are really underestimating the Korean teams here. What they still have that is unrivaled by the other regions is their scouting and tactical staffs. They might not have as much raw talent right now but they are still much stronger than all other regions in the tactical aspect. The best Chinese teams have made teams out of individual talent but they still lack in the tactical aspect. This is also why its so exciting watching the chinese games since they are so actionpacked without as much thought about the bigger goal.

When it comes to SKT they are absolutely in GOD tier and should be the odds on favs to win worlds even though it will be very close with the 1 and 2 from China. Only thing that could bump SKT down is that they are quite patch sensitive. If adc´s become the main carrys again SKT will be much weaker compared to the other big teams and then they might be out of GOD tier.

Don't worry they just buffed Leblanc and Zed for worlds. Faker will have no problems

Koo tigers are very likely(>80%) to be the #2 seed from Korea and they are very inconsistent

I think its more korea being overrated.

They lost half of their player to china and western teams but in people minds its OMG korea too good at videogames they are the best. But the best players except faker are in china

I think its more that we overrate Korean players from an individual standpoint and underrate the structural impact that the Korean organizations have.

And to say that there are no world class players left in Korea except Faker is incredibly wrong. Only in midlane you still have insane talent outside Faker with Coco and Easyhoon easily beating out most Chinese mids. Toplane with Marin and Ssumday and Smeb. Supports with Gorilla, Madlife and Wolf. Its a little bit weaker in the jungle and adc but still more than enough to compete there aswell.

The biggest reason that EU and NA are so far behind is that the staffs are so bad. In Korea they have like a coach for every aspect but in NA/EU we have old players as coaches that are there as mascots and to lessen the pain for kicking them from playing.

Not really getting the neglect for bang here. Sure he's not going to consistently beat everyone, but he's up there imo.

I agree that Bang is really good and so is Ohq and Pray aswell but they arent really challenging the adc´s in China imo. The players from other roles i mentioned above are players that would walk into pretty much every Chinese team but the Korean adc´s probably wont do that since China is so stacked there. Same goes for the jungle role.

isn't bang the #1 and #2 in korea soloq?

Jungle is the biggest weakpoint in Korea, the 4 teams in contention all have bad junglers compared to China's top 8 only TBQ is below these guys, and that might not be the case anymore

Ambition
Score
Bengi would have been forced into retirement then Dandy, Kakao and Spirit left
Hojin only has limited experience

Eh Snake and OMG have each played 2 different ADCs because none of them perform well enough, Vici is at their 3rd. Kid probably isn't better than the best Koreans, TnT might be, Deft and Imp obviously are.

Deft, Imp, Namei prob the 3 top ADC right now. Bang, Rekkles, TnT, Ohq right below them.

I'm also not sure how much of us being down on Bang has to do with SKT never really playing a Protect the ADC comp because of Faker being the best player in the world.

If anybody wants to doubt Bang's ability to carry a game by himself, watch SKT's Spring Split semifinal Game 4 where Bang basically frontlined with Lucian and didn't get caught for the last 20 minutes of the game.

Another phenomenal "NA being NA game"

TIP is so far ahead that TL realize that the best strategy is to wait for TIP to make a mistake. Obv TIP gets nothing in the next 20 minutes with their massive advantage and then makes a massive mistake to let TIP back in it.

Man, what is it with IWD and misclick flashing in playoff games?

This is the most exhilarating game. . .

Said no one ever

Edit: And was that the first time Impact even ulted the entire game?

This series is just embarrassing for NA.

wtf was that game

pretty sick lvl 1 strat

This series is really just Rush and Impact trying to 2v8.

lol na

Gonna see if I can get a spot as ADC for TIP.

OMG that baron steal tho

LOOOOL NA

Apollo is so unbelievably bad.

Yeah TIP is really bad outside of the Rush/Impact Duo Queue. Obviously a big part of that is that Gate is just much much worse than XWX, but TIP's bot lane just does nothing for them.