As the crème de la crème of League of Legends gather in the US for the 2016 World Championship Series, we look at the possible winners
The NA Teams
Since the tournament is taking place in America, that’s where we shall begin.
The top-seeded team from North America, fresh from winning the NA summer split, is Team SoloMid.
TSM recently beat Cloud9 in a hard-fought final, which featured spectacular performances from Bjergsen and Svenskeren.
TSM dominated the season and are going to be a fascinating team to watch at Worlds, especially with impressive fresh talent in the form of Biofrost.
This is the fourth consecutive year they’ve come out on top in the summer finals, and they’ve never missed a Worlds yet.
Their victory is also good news for their old rivals, Counter Logic Gaming, who are also through to the Worlds on Championship Points thanks to their victory in the spring split.
Of course, no NA team has ever taken the trophy, but TSM are well placed to break that pattern.
Rarely has an American team looked strong enough to take on the best from other regions, but TSM’s consistently commanding performances suggests a team with the raw talent, strategy and calm coordination to succeed.
The third NA team will be decided by the regional finals, fought between Cloud9, Immortals, EnVyUs and Liquid.
It’s a formidable line-up of teams, but the smart money has got to be on Immortals, who recently beat CLG – the 2nd NA team at the Worlds – 3-2 in a nail-biting series.
If it is Immortals, NA will have a particularly strong representation at the Championship this year.
From the East
The competition will be tough though, especially from Korea and China.
China’s Edward Gaming are superb at the moment.
Other than their 3-2 win against WE in the semi’s for the playoffs, they’ve achieved a clear record for the split and playoffs.
That’s an intimidating record for their opponents at the Worlds.
EDG also have a steady team of excellent players, with Deft and ClearLove standing out this season thanks to their unflashy, but effective, playing style.
However, this should be taken in context.
Edward Gaming has been up against other teams from the Chinese scene, and competing at the Worlds is a different ball game entirely.
EDG, and Chinese teams generally, have often come under fire for their lack of a coherent macro game.
While nailing the micro to near-perfection, it can be hard to decipher their overarching strategy.
Too often it seems to boil down to grouping together and team fighting until they’ve won.
A mindless war of attrition may work for EDG in China, but there are teams at the Worlds this year with incredible macro play.
Team SoloMid have a great macro game, as do the two teams that have so far been announced from Korea – ROX Tigers and SK Telecom T1.
In fact, much to the dismay of the rest of the world, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this year’s Worlds is dominated by Korean teams, again.
Last year saw an all-Korean final, and SK Telecom T1 already have two Worlds trophies to their name – including last year’s.
They are the only team to have won twice, and this year could make history again by being the first team to win two consecutive Championships.
All eyes on SKT then.
But how likely is it? They are an incredible team, but not unbeatable.
Faker remains the world’s greatest LoL player, and Bang demonstrated that he’s one of the game’s very best ADCs.
Despite all this, SKT didn’t win the LCK – in fact they finished 3rd.
The finals saw ROX Tigers just about defeat KT Rolster, who are yet to secure their place at the Worlds.
ROX Tigers blew everyone away with their barnstorming performance this season, and their regional final against KT was one of the best in history.
After years of domination by SKT, ROX finally got that LCK title that they have so desperately been chasing.
Could this be a sign of things to come at the Championship?
ROX has incredible macro play, an amazing top-laner in Smeb and great jungle-solo communication.
They truly deserved their LCK win, and it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine them going all the way.
The EU and Wild Teams
And as for Europe? It’s best not to get your hopes up.
G2 Esports LoL and H2K Gaming are great teams in their own right, but up against the best from China, Korea and now America, it’s hard not to be glum.
The international Wild Card teams are also yet to be confirmed.
Popular Latin American team Lyon Gaming are widely expected to attend, and INTZ e-Sports, Dark Passage and Albus NoX Luna are also in contention.
Wild Card teams often end up being cannon fodder for the LoL powerhouses, but can show great raw talent, and Lyon are considered a promising underdog.
At the end of the day, though, it boils down to four teams: EDG, ROX, SKT and TSM.
It will be fascinating to see EDG go up against the Korean teams, especially if ROX’s momentum holds.
But most of all we want to see if TSM or SKT can make League of Legends history.
Al in all it’s set to be an impressive couple of months for LoL, made even more exciting given the recent meta changes Riot have implemented.
The most interesting aspect to keep an eye on will be how the teams cope with balancing out lane-swapping in relation to strategic choice and risk vs reward.
But could Riot have waited?
They say on the issue: “We also want teams to qualify for the Worlds in the same general meta that they’ll be playing in this October, meaning now’s our only chance to make these changes.”
This is a crucial time for all teams to quickly adapt to the changes if they want to succeed. Still, it does make it a lot more fun for us.
