Half time in the groups. Will Korea and China dominate at the Worlds? Partly, because two European teams are playing big. One of them can now count itself among the title favourites. The overview of the first round:
The European teams are doing outstandingly well. It’s half-time in the group phase of the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds). If you look at the results as a European fan, you can hardly believe it: EU champions Rogue are at 3-0, meaning they have won all the first legs in Group C. Fnatic, for their part, were able to continue their good play-in phase and only had to forfeit one match, so they are 2-1. Only G2 has to follow suit: the European star team played 1-2.
Nevertheless, only the LEC teams are a surprise. Otherwise, the groups are as expected: China and Korea on top, America at the back. It is a disaster for this year’s organisers: all three North American teams have lost all their group matches so far. For NA fans, however, there is hope, as there is every year: the Cloud9 organisation, traditionally streaky at Worlds, has made a name for itself by launching dream comebacks in the second round.
For EG and 100 Thieves, it will probably remain with a certificate of participation.
Group A is particularly explosive after the first round: reigning world champions EDG, ‘Faker’ superteam T1 and Fnatic are 2-1 and have taken a game off each other. EDG beat Fnatic, T1 beat EDG and most impressively, Fnatic made T1’s Koreans look old. This was not because of Sang-hyeok ‘Faker’ Lee, who worked his magic as usual and at least kept T1 in the game.
It was rather an unaccustomed poor communication, uncoordination and also a mediocre champion selection that was T1’s undoing against adept Europeans. They took advantage of the fact that T1’s top laner ‘Zeus’, currently rated the best in the world, did not build defensive items. The Koreans thus had virtually no frontline in team fights and fell apart time and again. Thursday is the return match at 10pm.
Champion Rogue tops expectations
Rogue played big for their part. Toplaner ‘Odoamne’ summed it up aptly in the interview, “When you come in as European champion, you have to deliver.” And it was the Romanian veteran and former Schalke player who delivered. He snatched two games from Maokai, once even against the wishes of his youngster, who wanted to play the champion in turn.
The fact that Rogue came to this pick twice at all may be seen as a gross omission on the part of the Chinese and Koreans. Maokai, along with Yumi, seems extremely strong this year. In the game against DRX, ‘Odoamne’ became an overtank, didn’t even die and withstood all damage even 1 vs. 5 without any problems.
Top Esports from China had been watching closely and picked Maokai Trundle, Varus and Azir against ‘Odoamne’. A good and working plan, but now rogue supporter ‘Trymbi’ put on the carrypants and surprised the LPL runners-up time and again with creative openings. Flanked of course by the immortal jungler ‘Malrang’ and midlaner ‘Larssen’. After this first round, Rogue can definitely be counted among the favourites for the title.
Not all teams have found their form
It is also a group stage of individual disappointments. In many cases, it can be observed that actual star players fall short of their performances and thus immediately drag the whole team into defeat. Teams like Rogue and Fnatic seem to benefit from this as they function as a collective and are not built around a ‘Zeus’, ‘Peanut’ or similar.
Rogue should have little trouble making it out of the group. The second legs are against the same teams and actually one win is already enough, unless the Koreans or Chinese pull off an infamous ‘3-0 sweep’, winning three in a row.
Fnatic, on the other hand, has to keep up the level. If the group momentum remains, they will play a tiebreaker with T1 and EDG for advancement at the end. So everything is still in it for everyone here, every game counts. The same goes for G2, who should take a cue from Rogue. If they lose even one game to Korea or China, it will be very difficult.
The second leg will be played by group. Fnatic is up on Thursday from 9pm, G2’s group Friday night and Rogue starts on Saturday. If you want to be there live, you have to stay awake until 2am German time.
