Pool 1

LCK Summer champions ROX Tigers, 1st seed from Korea
LPL Summer champions EDward Gaming, 1st seed from China
NA LCS Summer champions Team SoloMid, 1st seed from North America
LMS Summer champions Flash Wolves, 1st seed from Taiwan

Pool 2

LCK Circuit Point Leaders SK Telecom T1, 2nd seed from Korea
LPL Circuit Point Leaders Royal Never Give Up, 2nd Seed from China
EU LCS Summer champions G2 Esports, 1st seed from Europe
NA LCS Circuit Point Leaders Counter Logic Gaming, 2nd seed from North America
LCK Gauntlet winners Samsung Galaxy, 3rd seed from Korea
LPL Gauntlet winners I MAY from China, 3rd seed from China
EU LCS Circuit Point Leaders H2k-Gaming, 2nd seed from Europe
LMS Gauntlet winners ahq e-Sports Club, 2nd seed from Taiwan

Pool 3

NA LCS Gauntlet winners Cloud 9, 3rd seed from North America
EU LCS Gauntlet winners Splyce, 3rd seed from Europe
LCL Summer champions Albux NoX Luna, 1st Wildcard seed from Russia
CBLOL Winter champions INTZ e-Sports, 2nd Wildcard seed from Brasil

Four groups will be drawn with one pool 1, two pool 2s, and one pool 3, with no region having two teams in the same group.

I think NA are sending two strong teams this year so I hope CLG doesn't get the good draw again. Over on Reddit people are giving tons of credit to EDG and RNG from China for I'm not sure what reason given their history of dramatic under performance on the world stage.

My rankings:

1. ROX Tigers
2. SK Telecom T1
3. Team SoloMid
4. EDward Gaming
5. G2 Esports
6. Samsung Galaxy
7. Flash Wolves
8. Royal Never Give Up
9. Cloud 9
10. ahq e-Sports Club
11. I MAY
12. Splyce
13. Counter Logic Gaming
14. H2k-Gaming
15. INTZ e-Sports
16. Albux NoX Luna

Based on this, the toughest group possible would be EDG, SKT, G2, C9, averaging 5.0 of 16. The easiest group possible would be FW, H2k, CLG, Albux averaging 12.5 of 16.

NA hype always strong before worlds

Its more likely no NA team makes it out of the group stage then 1 making it into the semifinals

I mean yeah, TSM is the only team that are favorites to get out of groups at this point and both C9 and CLG would have to have a lot of things go well to make semifinals.

I don't expect Korea to be as dominant this year, last year with SKT going 12-0 vs non-Koreans, KT going 5-1 vs non-Koreans (loss to OG), and KOO going 7-2 vs non-Koreans (dropping two games to FW).

just finished watching lck, samsung looking good. korea probably crushing again imo, although i don't know china well. NA hype train just a little too familiar ;-)

hoping for skt to pull out bengi the wardbot/lane protector again and crush

The possibility of 8 asian teams in Knock-out stage is big this year

C9 best shot at beating one of them

Not gonna believe the China hype again this year. I think their games are too sloppy and even their best teams are too deficient at the macro game.

No Swap Lane and lots of korean ADC/TOP in LPL

last year they didn't knew how a swaplane worked, often loosing game in the first 5 minutes

They couldn't manage lanes correctly after three years in the same meta, hard to imagine they're going to manage it correctly one month into a new meta.

With First Brick gold being so important, I still trust the three Korean teams to work around setting that up in the early game and working the map from there. I just think ROX/SKT/Samsung are a step above everybody else until proven otherwise. Samsung was only 1 game behind SKT/KT in Summer Split, got rocked by KT in Playoffs, then had a nice win against them in Worlds Gauntlet. I think they're just a step behind ROX/SKT to where those teams are probably -250 to -300 in a Bo5 against Samsung, but I see no evidence that EDG or RNG are on a similar level to ROX/SKT.

Gonna be pulling for ROX to win, but have a feeling that SKT is gonna pull it out.

The three Korean teams are far ahead of the LCS teams in pretty much every sphere of the game. The Chinese teams is a mystery because before the Korean exodus they where pretty even with the Koreans. They had a bad worlds last year but that was mainly because of some weird circumstances for the teams and not so much with their actual quality. I think they will show up alot more at this worlds.

When it comes to the LCS teams i think that C9 is the team that can make it the furthest if they get a good group draw. TSM can get to quarters but that depends on what group they find themselves in. They have crushed the NA region by having better players in pretty much every lane but at worlds that wont be the case and i can see them crumbling under the pressure that is put on them to go far. EU will be happy if they have one team making quarters this year imo.

As someone that has followed the LCK playoffs and the Gauntlet i can only concur. The quality of the games that has been played this year has been insane. SKT is probably not that much worse than last year when they won worlds but the other teams did step up and played great. Its crazy that such a great team as KT wont make it to worlds especially after seeing them beat SKT and produce one of the greatest series ever in the finals against ROX. Thats just how good the Korean teams are right now. I still have a small asterix that if the Chinese teams step up that they are the ones that have the raw ability to challenge the Koreans.

Haven't watched, played or followed any patches. Anywhere I can get a quick synopsis of changes? What games will be the ones to watch this year in pool play?

Since last Worlds? Biggest change is bot tower is weaker than the other lanes which forces teams into standard lanes as there's also a huge gold award for taking first tower. Some believe this will favor teams that were bad at lane swapping, like the teams in China. The groups haven't been drawn out, they will do it on Saturday, once the groups are set we'll know more.

G2, EU LCS Summer Champions, come into the draw as a #2 seed as they lost Europe's #1 seed by virtue of finishing below Taiwan at midseason after going on vacation instead of practicing.

SKT also comes into the draw as a #2 seed as they were knocked off by KT in the LCK semifinals. They're still arguably the tournament favorites as no one at Worlds has beaten them and they've had the ROX Tigers' number in all of their matches.

Whichever #1 seed gets either of them in their group isn't going to be happy, and there's the chance some poor team could end up with both creating a true group of death. e.g. EDG/SKT/G2/C9.

Group draw started boys

get hyped

Rox
G2
FreeLG
wildcard group 1

izi for skt and g2

TSM getting h2k or samsung

Samsung it is then

bad draw for NA good for EU imo

7/8 danish guys in group D? Scripted.

Bad draw for the NA teams...

TSM are pretty much forced to win their group otherwise they will likely face ROX in the quarters.

C9 just got a really tough group that they will not likely qualify from.

The team that drew the best group was the weakest NA team in CLG that actually can make it if they can just beat a highly unstable G2.

My predictions

Group A: ROX in 1st is basically a lock, 2nd is basically a flip between G2 and CLG. I'll take CLG because I'm American

Group B: FW in 1st, SKT in 2nd. Could be reversed, but FW 2-0'd ROX in groups last year and SKT at MSI this year, plus SKT not looking that hot recently. C9 is a dark horse since they always bring it. I don't know anything about IMAY or LPL in general.

Group C: EDG in 1st, AHQ in 2nd. H2K has a real chance, though.

Group D: SSG in 1st, TSM in 2nd. Could also be reversed. Obvious group of death, so much so that not many harder ones even theoretically exist. I think Splyce definitely influences this group since 2-0ing them will probably be necessary to advance.

G2 got an easier group by vacationing at MSI, flash wolves is harder

My thoughts on the draw:

Group A: ROX and G2 with a very favorable draw. MSI CLG and G2 could return and send the NA team to groups instead, but I don't anticipate the wild card picking up any games.

Group B: Most competitive group, SKT should advance but any of the other three could join them. Good measure of the strength of LCK vs NA vs LMS.

Group C: ahq and H2K aren't making semis, so this group is just does EDG drop any embarrassing games.

Group D: The names Mata and Uzi don't make RNG some world-beater. TSM will advance and one of SSG or RNG. Splyce the 3rd least likely to make it out of groups behind the wild cards.

As an NA fan really excited for TSM vs SSG vs RNG and SKT vs C9 vs FW.

Group stage schedule is out. Crazy to think it's over two weeks out.

http://www.lolesports.com/en_US/worl...edule/groups/1

Day one excited for CLG vs G2 and TSM vs RNG. Day two features some interesting games for Korea, SKT vs C9 and TSM vs SSG. Day three has FW vs C9 and RNG vs SSG. Day four we finally get to see SKT vs FW.

I think I May has a rough week, red side vs C9 and FW, although who knows maybe red side is good this patch. TSM with a chance to 3-0 getting blue vs SSG and RNG while taking red vs SPY. Would be pretty surprised if ROX or EDG dropped a game.