RIOT Season 3 World Finals

Schedule:
Group Stage -> September 15th - 22nd
Quarterfinals -> September 23rd - 25th @ Galen Centre
Semifinals -> Sept 28th @ Galen Centre
Finals -> October 4th @ Staples Centre (cannot believe I actually wrote that)

Useful Links
Leaguepedia
Riot E-Sports Home
Teamliquid (Look for their LoL forums)

The best Preview on the Internet (LOL at other previews)

Baby got Byes

Due to Riot's brilliant/awful tournament structure, we have 4 teams that will completely avoid the group stages. Ironically none of them are the two heavy favourites to win the whole tournament, but it does include some interesting wildcards (C9, Najin Sword and Royal Club) and some fodder (Gama Bears). These guys will have to deal with the teams that are red hot coming out of the group phase and 2 of them will almost certainly be Samsung (formerly MVP Ozone) and SKT, which will probably doom anyone that draws them in the quarterfinals. Without further adieu lets look at those teams that will be avoiding the groups of death.

Najin Black Sword - Korean #1 Seed



Top - Expession
Jungle - Watch
Mid - SSONG
AD - PraY
Support - Cain
Sub - Nagne (Jungle)

One of the few returning teams to the World Championship, Najin Sword have been severely discounted by many, despite them claiming the most circuit points over 3 OGN seasons, including 1 championship (Okay it was Champions winter, but still). Funnily enough coming into the current OGN season it was the reformed Najin Sword team that was expected to be one of the favorites to win the entire tournament, even with MaknooN leaving the team. However Expession failed to live up to the hype as MaknooN's successor and Sword looked pretty terrible in going 1-1 with everyone in their group including CJ Blaze, CTU and Jin Air Greenwings Stealths, and as such they went out of the group stage.

Fortunately for them, their combined 1st in the OGN Winter season, combined with a victory in the NLB Spring tournament (think of it as essentially 5th place in OGN) they had a big enough lead on their rivals that they were able to secure a bye to the quarterfinals. Sword is talented and experienced but has not found a playstyle that works for them, though they did defeat CJ Blaze, Najin Shield and LG IM 2 in the NLB Summer series. They mainly get by on the talent of PraY and Cain in the bot lane, one of the best duos in Korea and thus the world. Expession has been good at times, though he's not quite the dynamic force that MaknooN is. Watch is a very good jungler, though he's somewhat hindered by the s3 jungle changes which seems more aggressive junglers like J4 and Nocturne, he's much better on champs like Maokai (and still picks him occasionally). SSONG is an okay Korean midlaner, though he's been outshone by the top tier talents in Korea over the past few months.

Sword has a couple of advantages going into the s3 finals - they are the Korean team no one will be studying for, they have little expectations on them and they haven't had to show any of their recent games to the rest of the world (unless people are really good at tracking down NLB VoDs). Another advantage is that Najin's owner flew over brother team Najin Shield to be their practice partners, so that Shield do not have to reveal any of their strategies beforehand. Ultimately Sword can't really expect to beat their Korean counterparts, and are more at the level of the Chinese teams, but given the right bracket and some breaks, they could make a deep run.

Cloud 9 HyperX - NA #1 Seed



Top - Balls
Jungle - Meteos
Mid - Hai
AD - Sneaky
Support - Lemonnation

The North America hope for S3 worlds comes into the tournament with the maximum level of hype that an NA team could hope to produce. They went 25-3 in the regular season and then smacked around Dignitas and TSM to the tune of 5-0 to secure the championship at PAX Prime. With a 30-3 record in competitive games there is a reason that people are cautiously optimistic about Cloud 9 performing on the world stage.

There's not much you can write about Cloud 9 that hasn't already been said - they are the most dominant team in the west and they are the masters of taking small leads and snowballing them to victory. The star of the team is Meteos, unarguably the top player in North America (sorry Doublelift) who's ultra greedy- farm heavy jungle style allows C9 to dominate midgame dragon fights and take over the game from there. Balls is perhaps the best Rumble player in the world and has a fairly deep champion pool. Hai is sneakily good - his off games, though rare are terrifying, but he is solid enough and has an absurd champion pool that C9 can form comps around. Sneaky and Lemmonnation are basically the biggest proponents of 'utility' bot-lanes in the world, often pairing champs like Ashe and Zyra together to ensure that even when behind they will have an impact.

Overall, C9 are an interesting style matchup for many teams, because no one quite plays like C9, with their ability to survive laning phase even while Meteos is farming and then use that advantage to essentially abuse the fact that C9 has 4 farmed champions vs. the opponents 3. To beat C9, you must demolish them in the early game, because even when they get somewhat behind, their teamfighting execution is so crisp that they can overcome minor deficits. They are also surprisingly battle tested for a new team, having been the 'it' team in North America they had about every champion combination banned out against them - it hasn't slowed them down. They dismantled TSM in a pro-TSM environment, and will be the overwhelming crowd favourite when they play at the finals.

In general, I'm bullish on C9, I think they can beat any team at this tournament outside of SKT and Samsung Ozone. They are a team that will be difficult to prepare for and if they do manage to get a lead, you know they know how to close it out. I also, cynically, believe that RIOT will try to give C9 at least a easy quarter final matchup, because their darling NA team is too much of a draw to have them get murdered in two games in the quarterfinal by SKT.

Gamania Bears - SEA #1 Seed



Steak - Top
Winds - Jungle
Maple - Mid
NL - AD
SwordArt - Support

So thanks to RIOT's brilliant tournament structure a team that no one has ever heard of will be playing in the quarter-finals, due to their victory over the Taipei Snipers 3-2 in the Taiwan Regional Finals. They did put the last rites to the corpse of TPA, which gives them some degree of legitimacy (I guess)

In general, the team is supposed to be mechanically solid, and have some off the wall team comps but they are supposedly a level below the top Chinese teams. They'd be an intriguing team to have in the group stage, but instead will be fed to someone like Samsung Ozone in the quarter finals and no one will even remember a team called Gamania Bears was even at the finals 6 months from now.

Royal Club Huang Zu - China #1 Seed



Top - Godlike
Jungle - Lucky
Mid - Wh1t3zZ
AD - Uzi
Support - Tabe

Royal Club Huang Zu (Royal for short) emerged victorious from the bloodbath that was the Chinese regional finals, dispatching iG in the losers finals and then dismantling OMG in the finals to take the bye. Royal are a team that relies on two players - Wh1t3zZ who is a very, very good midlaner and Uzi who is a true world class AD carry.

Royal, like most of the other Chinese teams, prefer frenetic, skirmish based games that are reminiscent of the old Moscow 5 style. However their objective control isn't always the best and that is a weakness than can be exposed by superior opposition. Royal though, do come with a handful of tricks including Tabe's fabled Annie support (banned by most Chinese teams) as well as top lane Shyvanna, as well as Aatrox (not seen in the Asian scene as much.) Royal are fine with playing 'standard' champions but are one of the few teams that will have a pocket strategy that could potentially surprise a team. Look out for Wh1t3zZ's Fizz, truly a champion that is to be feared.

It's hard to judge how the Chinese teams will do at Worlds, because the style played in the Chinese LPL would remind people of a terrible NA LCS game, played with superior mechanical skill. It is that style of relentless pressure that can unravel the opposition, but perhaps Royal themselves if they fail at it. The weakness of Royal club lies in their jungler, Lucky and their mediocre toplaner Godlike who is anything but. Wh1t3zZ and Uzi can compete with anyone in this tournament in terms of talent, and thus could surprise a team in the quarterfinals if they do not come prepared to take on China's best.

Group A - A is for Asian

The Teams
SKT1 (Korea #3 seed)
Lemondogs (EU #2 seed)
TSM (NA #2 seed)
OMG (CN #2 seed)
GamingGear.eu (International Wildcard)

So SKT gets a bye to the quarterfinals, but gets to play 4 exhibition matches first, where undoubtedly Faker will get #Fakermechanics trending worldwide. The battle for the second spot will be interesting and it will be between the Lemondogs, the upstarts from EU, TSM the perennial fan favourite from NA and OMG from China. GamingGear.eu is a nice story and all, but they can only play spoiler. I don't think TSM has a chance of finishing second, though its not out of the realm of possibility. Lemondogs vs. OMG should decide the group and it has the potential to be the game of the tournament. OMG if they play to their potential are the 2nd best team in this group, though they are not tested internationally and could disappoint.

SKT1 - Korea #3 seed



Top - Impact
Jungle - Bengi
Mid - Faker
AD - Piglet
Support - Poohmandu

To me (and many others) SKT is the team to beat in the finals. A great team with two superstars in Faker and Piglet along with several excellent role players in Impact, Bengi and Poohmandu SKT have the perfect balance for a League of Legends team. The last time SKT1 lost a set was to MVP Ozone in the Spring semi-final, and since then here are they teams they've beaten:
Jin Air Falcons (3-0)
MVP Ozone (3-1)
KT Rolster (3-2)
KT Rolster (3-1)
It's hard to argue that they aren't the #1 team in the world at the moment.

Faker is the star of the team and he has been talked about by the Korean commentators as "the Korean Messi" - a once in a generation talent that is unquestionably the best player in the world. Faker's absurd talent for outplaying his opponents (RIP Ryu's Zed) and his amazingly deep champion pool that includes a fearsome Leblanc. In fact here is a list of champions Faker played this OGN season

Kassadin, Orianna, Ahri, Karthus, Dianna, Ezreal, Gragas, and Zed.

So, uh, good luck banning Faker out. His most played champion this split? Orianna. Mostly because the opposition denies his his assassins. It doesn't matter, he's still world class on Ori.

Impact in the toplane has been described as the 'watercarrier' of the team - he's the guy that does the dirty work, plays tanks and disrupts the enemy team and he's about as good as anyone in the world in that role. He also plays a good Jax that could be unleashed if SKT feel that they need more damage. Bengi is a pretty reliable jungler, he has good coordination with Faker and Impact and usually makes his ganks worthwhile. Piglet is the Scottie Pippen to Faker's Michael Jordan. Not terribly flashy by AD Carry standards, but he get the job done with style - there are only a few AD carries at worlds that will threaten him. He's the conundrum for those playing SKT. Camp Faker and Piglet will run wild. Camp Piglet and Faker goes all #Fakermechanics on people. Poohmandu is also a really quality support, his Nami in particular should be feared.

So for SKT, anything short of a finals appearance will be a disappointment. They should emerge from the group stage relatively unscathed and will be the team everyone wants to avoid in the quarter finals. I think SKT could lose to Samsung or Najin Sword (or even C9 or Royal/OMG if they have a good day and SKT is off) but to me they are the betting favourites.

Lemondogs - EU #2 seed



Lemondogs, or as at least one commentator has coined them, 'Lemonpups' due to their roster all looking like they are 14, were the surprise of the EU Summer split where they took first place in the regular season. Their momentum and hype died somewhat when fnatic dispatched them easily in the playoff finals, 3-1. Lemondogs will be happy with their group though and will look to be one of the foreign teams that advances.

Lemondogs are a typical 2 carry team, Nukeduck and Tabzz are the heroes and the rest of the team supports them. Zorozero really evolved over the regular season from "the guy that can only play Shen" into a pretty decent top laner - though I fear he could be over matched against this level of competition. Dexter I think has been really under looked - you can easily make an argument that he's just a level below Dimondprox in the jungle - he's got great map awareness and has very good counterganks, especially on Jarvan IV. Nukeduck is the flashy star of the team and he's right at home on the champions that will see a lot of play at the finals - Ahri, Fizz and Zed, high skill cap champs that can get in, do a ton of damage, and then escape. Tabzz is probably the most mechanically skilled AD in Europe, though is like damning with faint praise. Tabzz reminds me a lot of Doublelift, he'll do some great plays than throw it away with one or two facepalm moments - he can't have any of those if Lemondogs hope to surprise. Mithy is average as a support, but as the shotcaller, his worth to the team is proven.

Lemondogs have the weakness that they can only play their tempo - if the game favours their aggressive tower diving and tower pushing strategies - they are right at home, but in a slower game they tend to look lost, trying to make big plays happen. Lemondogs are good at closing out games when they have the lead, an invaluable skill to have when every game is precious.

Team Solo Mid - NA #2 Seed



Top - Dyrus
Jungle - Oddone
Mid - Regi
AD - Wildturtle
Support - Xpecial

Team Solo Mid are a tough one to figure out. They played very well against CLG and Vulcun (though both those teams made tons of mistakes) and then they got wiped out by Cloud 9, with Regi ragequitting g2 and then tilt picking Fizz in g3 (it didn't work out well). TSM are not a bad team, yet they are not a good team either, when it comes to the world level. Their weaknesses (Picks/bans, Reginald, Wildturtle) are easily exploited on the world level and I think that is what we will see more of at this tournament. The fact that they don't have an analyst is bizarre when you consider TSM was the first NA team to get a teamhouse, to be ahead of the curve in one respect and then so far behind it in another has struck me as odd - though what analyst could possibly hope to win an argument with Reginald?

The talent is not lacking. Dyrus is an almost world-class top laner, though TSM hamstring him with picks far too often - he's one of the players that can concievably go up against an Impact or a SoAz or Homme and not look out of place. Oddone got his ass handed to him by Meteos in the NA finals but in general, he's pretty decent - rarely is he the reason why TSM loses. Regi is...well Regi. When he plays well TSM generally win, but his champion pool feels limited beyond Ahri/Karthus and if he's playing anything else he's not that dangerous. Wildturtle I thought more highly of before he basically got erased at every moment vs. C9. It's not a lack of talent on his end - its his inconsistency and decision making that are suspect. Xpecial remains another member of TSM that can be considered almost world class. His misplays are few and far between and his champ pool is very deep.

My concerns with TSM are the following - they've basically gotten destroyed every time they've played someone outside of North America. Sure the last time that happened was a long time ago, but I don't think TSM have improved to the point where they have figured out how to play against teams that are better than them. C9 made them look silly, with some preparation they could probably beat Lemondogs or OMG but will their record be strong enough to claim 2nd in the group? I don't see it.

OMG China #2 Seed



Top - GoGoing
Jungle - Lovelin
Mid - Cool
AD - San
Support - bigpomelo

OMG have been described as the C9 or China, emerging in the spring to win the Spring playoffs, then the Summer regular season and then take 2nd at the regional finals.

I think the general consensus is that OMG is better than Royal, but Royal is more consistent. OMG is led by their midlaner, Cool who is supposedly the Chinese Faker, but he hasn't quite lived up to that level of hype quite yet. GoGoing is a solid toplaner, who I think is actually quite good and may be a breakout star in the finals. Lovelin was a world class support, until he moved to jungler where he's....not world class. San will remind people of Zuna and not in a good way, while bigpomelo basically tries to keep San from killing himself.

OMG are known for going outside the box and playing things like Yorrick jungle, and Mundo top, though they can and do play more of a standard style than Royal, even with their obscure picks. OMG when they are playing well can be a joy to watch and they do tend to favour big AOE teamfight wombo-combos, which they pull off very well.

Just like Royal I feel they are a level below the Korean teams, but with their funky playstyle it wouldn't be inconceivable that they could win a bo3 against a Korean team. The group stage will be interesting as well - they will have to prove they are consistent enough to deal with Lemondogs and TSM.

Gaming Gear.EU - International Wildcard (So international amrite...)


Top - Nbs
Jungle - Alunir
Mid - Mazzerin
AD - Deadlybrother
Support - Inspirro

The team from...Lithuania that is reportedly losing to EU challenger teams in scrims is here to be the fodder for the rest of the group. They qualified in the international Wildcard tournament, where they basically went 2-1 against Brazi's PaiN gaming to secure a spot.

If OMG play outside the box, GG.eu play firmly within the box, playing standard style with standard champs, which will probably get them straight up murdered in the group stage.

In terms of players Mazzerin is pretty good, but the rest are basically decent. I'm bored talking about this team already, lets move on.

Group B - B is for Brutal
Samsung Galaxy Ozone
fnatic
Gambit Gaming
Mineski
Vulcun

I see this group as 3 teams for 2 places. I don't have a lot of faith in Vulcun after watching them fall apart vs. TSM and Mineski is...well the 3rd best time in the Philippines. Samsung are the favourites to emerge from the group, but neither fnatic nor Gambit will be afraid of the Korean team and will give them good games. fnatic and Gambit both have defeated Korean teams in the past and will feel confident in their LAN experiences. Group B is a very interesting group, and has many different permutations to it.

Samsung Galaxy Ozone (formerly MVP Ozone) - Korean #2 seed



Top - Homme
Jungle - DanDy
Mid - Dade
Ad - Imp
Support - Mata

The winners of the OGN Champions spring and 3rd placed team in OGN Summer will be competing under the banner of Samsung Pro Gaming at the s3 finals, having been purchased from previous sponsor, MVP. They are a solid team top to bottom and will be looking to avenge their loss to SKT1 at OGN Summer and may well get the chance to do so on the biggest stage of them all.

Samsung Ozone has 3 players that you could make an arguement that are wold class - DanDy, Imp and Mata. Homme is the captain of the team and mostly plays the tank role in the team, though his odd fascination with Yorrick remains inexplicable. DanDy is probably the best jungler in the world, with Insec now in the top lane - his showdown with Diamondprox against Gambit will be an absolute treat to watch. Dandy's Lee Sin is a must ban, though he'll probably just crush you on Eve or Elise anyway. Dade is a step below the top tier of Korean mids (i.e Faker, Ryu) he's not to be underestimated - Karthus and Zed will likely be his picks of choice. Imp is a goddamn beast, and is probably the best Vayne in the world. I'm going to voice a controversial opinion and say that Mata is actually better than Madlife. Yup. Madlife is a playmaker, but only really on Thresh and Blitz, Mata can play everything and catapult his team to victory. The Imp/Mata pairing is the best in the tournament and maybe the best in the world.

Samsung are a team that loves to grind games out and take their small advantages when they arise, they can get into trouble when they get behind, but their mechanical skill generally prevents that. If there is a blueprint to beating Samsung it is to crush down Dade and then take your chances in hoping to kill imp in a teamfight.

I like this Samsung team but they got a tough group that they cannot take lightly, they should emerge from the group and a spot in the finals seems like a likely destination.

fnatic EU #1 Seed



Top - SoAz
Jungle - Cyanide
Mid - xPeke
AD - Rekkles....ok its Puszu
Support - Yellowstar

The Season 1 world champion are back with a vengeance, and are looking to prove themselves on a world stage again. At IPL 5 it was fnatic that bested world champions TPA, convincingly, before falling to WE in the finals. fnatic lost narrowly to SKT1 (no not Faker's team, Reapered's) and CJ Blaze at successive IEM's but won a game both times. Fnatic won both the spring regular season and playoffs and the summer playoffs and cemented their status as the #1 team in EU.

The strength of the team is clearly the solo laners, both SoAz and xPeke will not be scared off competing against the world's best, and both have excellent champion pools and the ability to carry. Cyanide is basically solid, he rarely gets outsmited, has decent ganks and can steal baron every now and then. The real question mark is the bot lane, though fnatic had the option of playing Rekkles the wunderkid, who was not allowed in LCS due to age restrictions, they chose to go with Puszu who has been solid, if unspectacular as the fnatic AD carry. Yellowstar who has moved to support has been alright in his transition, though he does get caught more than you would like, outside of the laning phase.

fnatic are capable of playing any style and playing it well. Want to farm for 20 mins? no problem. Want to play a skirmish style? We can do that too! fnatic are probably the most adaptable team in the tournament and that is something that is difficult to prepare for.

I do wonder about choosing Puszu over Rekless. It's not necessarily a bad choice, it just puts far more pressure on xPeke and SoAz to carry. Puszu is like having Sneaky as part of your team - certainly a capable cog in a team. Rekkles is Doublelift-esque in that he can carry a close fight or game, its an admirable decision fnatic made, sticking with the guy they brought in, but I can't help but feel it affects their chances of an upset.

Nonethess, fnatic is my pick to advance from group B.

Mineski - SEA Qualifier



Top - Snoy
Jungle - Kaigu
Mid - Yume
Ad - Exo
Support - Tgee

So yeah. Mineski had a fairy tale run to get to the season3 finals. First they took 2nd in the Philipenes qualifier for the SEA tournament, and then the team that beat them couldn't go due to travel issues. So having magically succeded to enter a tournament they shouldn't have been at in the first place, they went on to beat the heavily favoured Saigon Jokers and Singapore Sentinels. Just like it happens in those Disney movies, right?

Well this ain't no Disney movie. While the SEA region is criminally underrated by most, its clear that Mineski will be outclassed at this tournament. Exo is the star player of the team, and it is clear that he has some skill. I was also somewhat impressed by Yume in midlane, but I admit that I have not seen alot of Mineski playing.

If I was to estimate Mineski's strength, they would be around a slightly worse Dignitas or Coast, there is some talent there, but the scrappy and downright terrible games that were played in the SEA qualifier didn't do much to enhance the reputation of the teams. Nonethless, Mineski will probably be a crowd favourite, due to their 'minnow' status and will hopefully show some good games.

Vulcun Command #3 NA Qualifier




Top - Sycho Sid
Jungle - Xmithie
Mid - Mancloud
Ad - Zuna
Support - Bloodwater

Vulcun came into the NA regionals with a decent amount of hype - they finished the season 20-8, including taking 2 games off of Cloud 9, and were expected to meet them in the final and give them a solid test. Instead Vulcun were demolished in 2 straight games by TSM, and were only able to go to worlds after defeating Dignitas in the 3rd place game, with only a fraction of their momentum maintained.

Vulcun has talent across the board with one exception: Zuna. Zuna is probably the worst AD carry in the finals and might be one of the worst players there. Its fortunate that this group doesn't have the most fearsome of AD carries otherwise this weakness would be even further pronounced. Fortunately, Vulcun has Sycho Sid, who is very, very underrated player, to me he's a slightly worse version of Dyrus, he has a deep champion pool, and is amazingly consistent. It will be interesting to see him up against SoaZ and Homme in the group stage. Mancloud is the star of the team, but choked terribly against TSM, letting Regi destroy him - for Vulcun to succeed, they need the Mancloud of old to show back up, for when he is on his game, he's the best midlaner in North America. Xmithie is a very, good jungler, only behind Meteos in North America and in general knows where to be at the right times. Bloodwater hasn't quite lived up to his reputation recently, but being the support that has to keep Zuna alive must be quite taxing.

Frankly, I don't think Vulcun has any chance to make noise in the group stage. Zuna has been playing Hearthstone and other members of the team having been giving lessons to the public at Lolclass. Vulcun just looked so lost at PAX prime, its hard to have any faith in them performing under pressure. Zuna also managed to alienate many NA fans by trashtalking Dignitas after just defeating them, a move that was poorly recieved by the community - so even though they are an NA team, they may not have much of a home field advantage.

Gambit Gaming - Europe #3 seed




Gambit Gaming remain one of the western teams that is feared by the Koreans and Chinese, mostly because they know that Gambit on their day, can beat anyone. However inconsistency absolutely plagues Gambit and this is a format that does not suit them. Gambit can beat anyone in a bo3. Can they be consistent enough over these one game series to get to the quarterfinals? I don't know.

Darrien is the most impossible person to categorize. He's either great and dominates, or is terrible and feeds. There is no in between. Diamondprox is awesome but sometimes he gets in his head that he can play Udyr and then Gambit lose. When Diamond is on his game though he's a terror and one of the best junglers in the world. Alex Ich is one of the many EU mids that are clearly in the top tier of players, with a deep champion pool, he'll be what many opponents of Gambit focus on. Genja, is well Genja. He does Genja things and builds Genja items. It works for Genja. Voidle is just flat out garbage, his level of play will need to be much higher if Gambit is to succeed in the group.

In my mind Gambit is 2 world class players and then a bunch of question marks. If Darrien, Voidle and Genja play well, then Gambit will lay a beating on people. If they don't Gambit will look like they do in the EU LCS - mortal.

Though one never wants to bet against CIS team at a LAN environment, I just dont see Gambit having enough consistency to take enough games off of fnatic and Samsung to emerge from the group.

Fearless Predictions
Group A:
SKT - 8-0
OMG - 5-3
Lemondogs 4-4
TSM 2-6
GG.eu 1-7

Group B:
Samsung 6-2
fnatic 6-2
Gambit 5-3
Vulcun 2-6
Mineski 1-7

SKT beats Sword in the finals 3-1

Bonus Predictions
- Regi announces his retirement a week after TSM are eliminated, only to change his mind, yet again.
- C9 get SKT in the quarter finals and lose in 2 close games, causing many to question RIOTs format
- An angry Vulcun fan who wants to see his team win, tries to break Zuna's hand, he succeeds. Zuna plays anyways with a broken hand, no change in performance is noted.
- Samsung are eliminated by a Chinese team
- Faker is revealed to be a robot. Further controversy erupts when the entire C9 team are revealed to be robots.
- At least one mainstream media report will declare that e-sports is 'the future'
- At least one mainstream media report that has no idea what is going on at the finals
- Reddit will collapse when Reginald kills faker in lane. Unfortunately for Regi, Faker was AFK getting a snack and he proceeds to 1v5 Pentakill TSM, which causes Reddit to collapse again. A new religion is started proclaiming that Faker is god. It is the fastest growing religion in the world.
- Many DOTA fanboys will be butthurt that LoL is putting up superior numbers to TI3 and will do something that unites all DOTA players - complain about LoL.
- Genja is finally told what attack speed and crit chance are. He now builds 5 dorans blades before bloodthirster.
- The Korean commentators will be detained by Staples Centre security after watching them cast, determining that they are raving lunatics. An international incident is created.
- Rivington will get so tired of non stop casting that he begins casting in Latin. The audience doesn't even notice.
- Montecristo will make fools of the entire analyst desk until someone brings up that he coaches CLG. His reputation is ruined.
- Gambit announces that they will withdraw from the EU LCS in order to win the international wildcard every year.
- RIOT will announce that a feature film is in production about League of Legends - it will tell the story of how the League was created.
- People who cheer for ward kills will be escorted from the studio and asked to never return. All applaud this move by RIOT.


Okay that's about several thousand too many words. However despite working a fulltime job and such, this will probably be the best preview on the internet. You're move RIOT.

Thanks to everyone on this fourm that make it an enjoyable experience. I hope we get to experience the best of LoL over the next 3 weeks. I also welcome any newcomers and lurkers, post and be merry - we don't bite.
Cheers,

Alex 'DatFirefly' [last name redacted]

More like 14 teams enter, TSM emerges victorious

Sounds about right?

also its hilarious you guys are so butt hurt about zuna

I think it was totally classless, but I kinda understand where he was coming from. Yet, it's one thing for Faker to talk trash, because he will dunk on you and if Regi dunks him (somehow) we'll all laugh at Faker. But Zuna basically gets carried by Vulcun, yet he goes out there and dumps on Dig. I'll just enjoy laughing at Zuna when Imp murders him in lane.

I think Gambit is the pretty clear favorite to take 2nd in Group B. They are always so much stronger coming out of a long bootcamp, which they will undoubtedly be doing.

TSM TSM TSM. Despite that, it would be hilarious if Regi plays Leblanc in G1 vs SKT and failed, then Faker plays it in G2 and stomps him.

SKT is clearly the heavy favorite, even coming from groups. I think they win it dropping at most 2 games the entire tournament.

Oh yeah, and it's not gonna take Regi a week to announce a retirement. I give it at most 24 hours after TSM is eliminated.

in the last set it went so deep as thresh/blitz/zyra, because Cloudtemplar, Ganked/Rapidstar have 0 champs you care about, and Shy only plays Shen(and KTB solved and baited him into it). Madlife did have a couple shaky moments, but I think the rest of the teams issues are much larger concerns.

banning blitzcrank in a pro game should be a colossal handicap(I might be wrong but I don't think he was banned vs anyone else all summer long), if madlife was on Ozone you couldn't ban him out without just dying to Zed. that said Mata is clearly absurd and very close if he isn't better

anytime you can force a ban on an Underpowered champ, you should win pick/ban and Frost is sitting with an extra ban and not doing anything with it. I think that is the best thing that happened with the death of TF/Jayce you reopened the ability for teams to gain edges in bans that didn't exist in the era of 1ban purple.

just read the faker messi thing, thats so ridiculous, you can't say hes a one in a generation player on a game whats been competitive for about 2 years

Great post, btw.

once SKT goes down in flames, you will have a better parallel, win domestic league, fail at worlds.

agree with the point, Mata is quite new to the game, and rose ungodly fast up the ranks. Faker version 2.0 very likely to emerge before S4 Worlds.

in korea 5th equals 4th

if nlb gave 50-75 points Sword gets slaughtered by Bullets and stays home(or well actually earns their spot with a result from the last 6months)

I lol'd, thx for the amazing writeup. Much appreciated.

omg Regi 1v1 owning Faker with TSM winning game 1 in their series would be so ****ing amazing

Come back to reality

c9 plz help us

just wanted to say i read all of this

and i absolutely HATE this tournament structure - top teams bypassing group stages is INCREDIBLY stupid. WE WANT TO SEE THE BEST TEAMS PLAY! Why the hell does gaming gear get to play at least 8 (8!) games when cloud 9 could get eliminated in 2? TWO GAMES. We could see two total games from cloud 9 at worlds. Who could have possibly thought this was a good idea??? I don't care that cloud 9 has an advantage by bypassing group stage, I WANT TO SEE THEM PLAY GAMES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL TEAMS.

Yea, its so dumb because we could come out of worlds with no idea how C9 stacks up to top tier teams outside of NA. If they get wrecked by say, SKT1, that puts them anywhere from a korean A team (compared to an S team) to a European B team. We would have no other data points besides them not being as good as the best team in the world.

If they absolutely have to give them byes let those teams play eachother and then let them pick their quarterfinal opponent. More games and then if you are a really good team with a bye you can actually avoid the best from the groups untill later.

It's honestly like RIOT thought up the worst possible format for worlds.

Just a selection of their mistakes

1) Giving byes to the entire regions on the basis of the All-star game, where SEA and EU have a massive disadvantage due to the language barrier between teams. If the same format is used next year, expect that people don't vote any Gambit players in so the team can communicate in English. Yes, I know all the guys in Gambit do speak English, but they communicate in game in Russian.

2) Giving an extra seed to the winner of the All-star game. Thank god Korea won, otherwise SKT would be sitting at home and Samsung/Sword would be the only two teams from Korea. It would be hilarious if SEA won, so we could watch the Taipei Snipers play. Just so...dumb.

3) Okay, say I'm Coca-Cola and I want to sponsor a North American team for worlds, because its a big event and such. It makes ZERO sense for them to sponsor C9, who won the NA regionals because they will probably play 2-6 games, total, while TSM/Vulcun are guaranteed at least 8 games. Just bat**** insane. The team that won is actually less desirable to sponsors because they will have less visibility.

4) Why is there 14 teams? Who decided on that number? What tournament has 14 teams?

5) Stifle international competition by essentially region locking, then basically don't allow the top teams to play against each other. So we *still* don't know how good various regions are compared to each other.

I could go on, but I think we can all agree that RIOT ****ed up this format beyond repair

I think maknoon said when he was casting one game with Chobra that Faker is Korean Messi, hes the one who started it.

Great writeup, and a pretty solid primer on a lot of the lesser known teams. Thanks homie.

+1. Hope you keep doing this in the future.

can confirm firefly is the best writeruppper na

gambit and SKT1 i will be cheering for

lol I am so out of the loop, so I have no idea about all these teams and recent performance, but nice read.