In what has been one of the most dramatic Worlds to date the remaining hope for Europe lays on the shoulders of H2K...
In terms of entertainment and excitement in eSports, it doesn’t get much better than Worlds.
This year’s iteration has truly outdone itself, and we’re left with semi-finals that couldn’t be more intense.
There have, as always, been some major upsets. Most notably the defeat for Team SoloMid, who didn’t even make it out of the group stages.
More remarkable still, this competition has produced possibly the greatest eSports underdog story of all time, with Albus NoX Luna making it all the way to the quarter-finals.
Alas, it had to end somewhere. Thankfully, we have two razor’s edge matches to look forward to at the end of the week.
SK Telecom T1 vs. ROX Tigers
In many ways, this is the match. The one everyone was expecting, and waiting for.
To say that these two Korean teams have history would be an understatement.
ROX and SKT have been rivals for domestic supremacy for years, with SKT usually coming out on top.
SKT are the only team to have won Worlds twice, and are the current reigning champions.
That said, ROX have had a good year, winning the summer split (SKT came third).
ROX actually boast a superb 72% win rate on domestic soil for the past two years. But – and it’s a big but – this drops dramatically to 28% against SKT.
This psychological weight could hold ROX back. After so many defeats at the hands of SKT, their match-up must be daunting.
On the other hand, they’ll be hungry to finally break the cycle of defeats.
Looking at play style, SKT’s only real weak point is their early game. ROX will do themselves a favour if they manage to get an early hold on the match.
In the top lane, ROX could have a slight edge in the form of smeb, whose performances have been phenomenal.
However he lacks consistency, as opposed to Duke who also been extremely steady in lane.
On paper, ROX also have a slight advantage in the jungle, thanks to Peanut. Both Blank and Bengi could be vulnerable to jungle pressure, which will be ROX’s best bet for building an early lead.
SKT could offset this with careful bans.
In the quarter-finals, Peanut proved just how deadly he is with Lee Sin in three of the four matches.
In the fourth match, his Olaf achieved 11 kills, 5 assists, and 0 deaths.
ROX’s performance against Edward Gaming also showed how in sync this team is, with high kill participations, and a consistently high lead in kills.
However, if SKT can secure a strong laning phase and not fall behind, their superior macro play could enable them to secure a comfortable 3-1 victory.
But it’s a hard one to call.
As for Faker, LoL’s most celebrated player, there are numerous options for him to adopt an aggressive style against ROX thanks to a favourable meta and his versatility.
This is surely one of the hardest games to call in the tournament, and opinion is pretty evenly divided.
One thing’s for sure, though – if ever there were two teams whose fates were entwined, it’s ROX and SKT.
Samsung Galaxy vs. H2K
Samsung Galaxy makes the semi-finals 75% Korean, having destroyed any NA dreams of glory with a shocking 3-0 victory over Cloud 9.
H2K, meanwhile, managed to actually bring an EU presence into the semis. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
Well, you’re not alone.
And, to be frank, H2K got lucky being up against ANX in the quarter-finals.
SSG have only just recovered from a year in the LoL wilderness, finishing top of their group at 5-1 – compared to H2K’s 5-2.
Interestingly, H2K may have an advantage in terms of strategy.
They played with very similar picks in all of their QF matches against ANX, allowing them to keep SSG guessing to a certain extent.
Their greatest asset, however, is Forg1ven.
The ADC achieved an awe-inspiring K/D/A ratio of 9.4 in the group stages, and participated in 18 kills in one game against ANX.
In fact, a hallmark of H2K’s QF match against ANX was building and maintaining sizable economic leads, and keeping their champions out of harm’s way.
Replicating this success against SSG will be entirely different, though.
SSG are on a winning streak and have the highest win ratio of 88.9 at Worlds so far, so their performance against C9 was solid.
That being said, Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles summed up C9’s performance perfectly:
“Maybe the crowd was booing C9 since they didn’t bother to show up today?”
CuVee made some great picks though, with his Ekko finishing the last game against C9 with 8/2/4.
He could pose a challenge in the top lane for Odoamne, and SSG’s flexibility in drafting against C9 might be of concern to H2K.
All in all, we can say a few things with confidence.
There will be a Korean team in the final.
There will be Korean team in either 3rd or 4th.
There will probably be an all-Korean final.
And the top three positions are likely to end up being the three Korean teams.
We can hope, but it looks like the rest of the world will, once again, have to be patient.
