We are now two days into the group stages of the League of Legends World Championship. Every team participating in the tournament has played at least once and there are a few things to take away. There are teams like the Rox Tigers and SK Telecom who have been performing as expected. While there are others such as China's Edward Gaming who have fallen below their expectations by dropping a game to Brazil's INTZ e-Sports. EDG somewhat returned to form against Taiwan's AHQ e-sports Club but not in convincing fashion. As there are more games to be played in the group stages circumstances can change drastically as they have in past world championships. The most unexpected standout of the tournament thus far has been China's Royal Never Give Up who are the only team to currently hold a 2-0 record in the tournament. Led by their former world champion support "Mata" and their two time world finalist ADC "Uzi", they have been looking dominant in their two recent performances. Toppling North America's Team SoloMid who are projected to be a top four team in the tournament, Uzi and crew have proven that they are here to win.
Europe's G2 E-Sports have a tall task at hand. After losing to North America's Counter Logic Gaming they now find themselves up against the number one team from Korea and favorite to win the entire tournament, Rox Tigers. I must say this is one of the most unpredictable group stages I have seen as there are only a few clear cut favorites to make it out of their groups. Seeing the performances so far, predicting the teams to make it out of their groups can be a complete toss up. Despite their very dominant win over North America's Cloud 9, SK Telecom T1 look to sub in "Blank" over their long time jungler "Bengi". While Korea's Samsung Galaxy looks to make some adaptations as well. They will be subbing in support "CoreJJ" to replace "Wraith" in Day 3. Samsung Galaxy was able to qualify for worlds by defeating long time rival KT Rolster with the help of "CoreJJ" and his well executed Tahm Kench play. Although the champion has been banned three times and only picked once in the tournament, it will be interesting to see what kind of adaptations Samsung Galaxy makes going forward.
North America's Team Solomid looked to be returning to form in their victory over Samsung Galaxy. With "Svenskeren" amazing Lee Sin play in the first two games and fellow teammate "Bjergsen" claiming Sven is the best Lee Sin at worlds, many speculate if he will get to play the champion again in tournament. The worlds meta so far has shown us a very huge emphasis on the jungle. Team SoloMid has found success by spending a good amount of their time controlling vision and jungle buffs in their enemy jungle. It will be interesting to see some of the more farm heavy junglers like Cloud 9's "Meteos" at worlds, make the adaption to this very early style of play. Teams are finding success by picking early pressure junglers like Elise and Lee Sin accompanied by winning lanes. Once lanes are pushed we see the jungler roam into the enemy's territory backed by their teammates. This then forces the enemy to either defend their buffs or concede, which can sway the game in either direction.
Aside from the huge emphasis on the jungle in the pick ban phase, the bot lane matchup is proving to be impactful on the flow of the game. The return of standard lanes is making the difference in skill level known. After nearly an entire season of lane swaps where it was possible the first fight would not take place until 20 minutes into the game, we are now seeing many outplays in the 2v2 matchup. Perhaps the most aggressive duo of the tournament EDG's "Mata" and "Uzi" have shown the benefits of having a winning lane. Whether its "Mata" on Alistar knocking up the entire enemy team or he is on Nami bubbling the enemy jungler. Having a winning lane enable the support to roam with the rest of his team to make plays on the map. "Mata" a former MVP of the Season 4 World Finals is proving once again why he is one of the greatest supports in the history of League of Legends.
From the information we have been able to process now being two days into the tournament, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the games unfold. There is still a lot of League of Legends to be played and anything is possible in the World Championship. We have seen teams like Counter Logic Gaming last year start their group 2-0, then go on to lose 4 games straight. Also season 5 World Championship saw China's LGD Gaming as a clear favorite to win the entire tournament, fail to make it out of the group stages.As stated previously this is perhaps one of the toughest group stages to predict as far as which teams will advance. Their are many adaptations that need to be made in the champ select as well as execution during the game. I also speculate what kind of pocket picks teams have yet to display on the worlds stage. I look forward to many more quality games of League of Legends and will be interested to see how the meta evolves moving forward.
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