Quarterfinals were a bloodbath. My pick'em will get no more points.

FNC (9-2) with just two losses to the LPL this tournament and look like they have a champion ocean. C9 (14-5) had two losses to Gambit just a few weeks ago. Fnatic are the team willing to sacrifice some early game bot lane as they always find a way to pull it back, but Zeyzal, Svenskeren, and Licorice's quick trigger pulls could find a snowball. If they can neutralize C9's early game in draft, Fnatic should be favored.

G2 (14-7) has piled up a lot of losses at Worlds but IG (8-4) has shown weaknesses at times against FNC and RNG. After vanquishing Moojin, Spirit, Mowgli, Karsa and Mlxg, playing against Ning has to be a reprieve for Jankos. I think Baolan has also looked shaky so I think I actually favor a team that lost to Infinity and SuperMassive to make the Worlds finals.

LCK 2018 (12-14) exit out of worlds with a losing record against other regions despite taking the first seed in two groups. Compare that to the LCK 2015 (23-3) who smashed all other regions.

One interesting note is third seeds from NA, EU, and the LPL are now 6 of 6 in making quarterfinals, and 3 of 6 in making semifinals, twice only being eliminated by eachother. Somehow these teams not considered good enough to slot into the final 16 are 50/50 to make final 4.

With respect to the third seed play-in teams, I sometimes think that the extra play time is worth the extra risk of elimination at worlds. It seems like the game is becoming about whoever grasps the meta first as a better chance rather than simply outskilling people. And those extra days of live play rather than scrimmages seem to be beneficial at worlds for the NA and eu specifically.

the gap between the 1st and 3rd seed isnt gigantic, the seeding at worlds is terrible so being a top seed doesnt matter much, and playing more games on the stage is probably an advantage

Agree that Fnc should be favoured but they'll have to play better than they did today, that was pretty messy. Caps especially had a rough day.

I actually think G2 will get smashed in the semi. While RNG was a good matchup for them IG seems like a horrible matchup. They need to get their solo laners ahead to win games, good luck with that vs Rookie and TheShy.

As a European it was hard for me to understand American culture. What's fascinating is they like bragging about their freedom, because I didn't think I had less freedom. I always thought 'What's the difference'. After this series I finally understand. NA is just so ****ing free.

FNC (12-2) looked good in their semifinal. They understood C9's win conditions and took them away or played around them. Already they have EU's greatest performance at Worlds and they aren't underdogs in the finals. IG (11-4) ran over G2 pretty impressively, but already lost to Fnatic twice so there's some pressure to show improvement from their group stage set. I favor FNC slightly based on overall performances.

g2 especially but also c9 did not look like semifinalists, wow

finals should be very fun, go fnatic

Is Bwipo's face the most punchable face you've ever seen or is it just me? I hope Invictus can find a way to win because I hate Bwipo's face and I hate Rekkles because he doesn't pronounce his name the way it's spelled (and he seems like a bit of a ****)

well that was disappointing

ig deserved winner and while it was fun the quality of play in worlds overall was pretty lacklustre. hopefully next year we get another samsung white style team playing perfect league