By David Curry on August 6, 2014 at 5:00pm
The "League of Legends" Season 4 World Championship starts in early September with three teams from the North American, European, Korean and Chinese region, alongside two teams from SEA, Taiwan and two wild card winners heading to Singapore, Taipei, Busan and Seoul to play out the Finals.
Season 3 Worlds showed the growth of the Korean region with SKT T1K taking home the victory. This year, Korea has grown even stronger, with regional teams winning IEM and the All Star tournament against strong teams in other regions.
Strongest Teams in Each Region
Each region (apart from NA and EU) has a different way of providing seeding. In Korea, OGN offers a group stage, followed by playoffs. In the LCS, teams have 13 weeks to compete, and the six teams with the highest wins seed into playoffs. In the LPL, the top four teams from the region battle it out, after several weeks of round-of-twos. The differences in seeding mean it is easier for a team in North America or Europe to seed into Worlds, even if they didn’t perform incredibly well throughout the whole season. Taiwan and Korea rely on circuit points meaning consistency over multiple splits is key.
Samsung Galaxy Blue
Back in Winter 2013, Samsung Galaxy Blue was not even on the list of the top four Korean teams. The team finished middle of the pack in NLB, a tournament for the losers of OGN, while SKT T1K continued to ride their run of wins.
However during the Spring Split, Galaxy Blue surprised everyone by winning the entire tournament, netting 400 circuit points and skyrocketing them up as a favorite for Worlds. Galaxy Blue has succeeded in making it into the final of the Summer split, and they now face KT Rolster Arrows in the final.
Several factors came together for Blue; Dade’s performance on more champions helped them in the pick/ban phase, Deft and Heart became a fearsome duo in the bottom lane, and Spirit, the jungler, became one of the best in Korea with impressive mechanical skill for a newbie.
More importantly, Galaxy Blue became a team who could sink into 10K gold deficits and still win team-fights in the late game. The shot-calling and objective control became much better. The coaching staff have worked with Galaxy Blue to provide smart early game decisions when it comes to lane swaps.
OMG
OMG has always been the most promising team in China. At Season 3 Worlds, many said OMG were the only team to stand a chance against SKT T1K, even though the Chinese team lost to their rivals Royal Club in the quarters. The team has changed since then, after finally getting rid of Pomelo and putting LoveLin (now named Drug) back in the jungle. OMG added a new support player, Cloud. Cool, the popular mid-laner from Season 3 Worlds returned, swapping places with Xiyang.
OMG has some of the best players in the World mechanically. Cool is a veteran in mid-lane, Gogoing is one of the better top-laners in China, San and Cloud look like a formidable bottom lane, and Drug is impressive in every role he takes on OMG.
In terms of performance with the new team, OMG is currently sitting at the top of the table in points. OMG’s performance in playoffs is rather shaky, meaning EDG, Starhorn, or WE could snatch the top spot. Hopefully OMG has learned from the previous Split when it comes to the playoffs.
The Chinese scene is known for its lackluster understanding of the metagame, lane swaps, split pushing and other tactics compared to Korea, but OMG are starting to incorporate some into their gameplay, which might put them level with some of the smarter teams going to Worlds.
Cloud 9
For most of the Summer Split, C9 struggled to maintain the near perfect record they set in North America. Oddly, the best teams weren't the ones kicking C9 down a notch but the bottom ones instead. This phase appears to have worn off, though, as we come to the end of the Split.
C9 has plenty of consistent factors that keep them on top, the main one being the team’s smart setup when it comes to who dictates the play. Before the game, support LemonNation works on the pick and bans, in the early game Meteos works on buff control, and late game Hai becomes the shot-caller for team fights. This hierarchical management on who does what in the team is rare in the West. Most teams often employ democratic shot-calling, which leads to a less experienced player making a call that could make the game tilt the wrong way.
Other than the shot calling strategy, C9 has always had a consistent bottom-lane that uses Sneaky and LemonNation, who are not afraid to pick champions that may lose the lane but help the overall team. Hai is becoming stronger with champions like Yasuo, Fizz, and Syndra, and top-laner Balls looks to be regaining his power with the 1-vs.-1 meta back.
Alliance
In two splits, Alliance made it to the top of the European LCS. The team, created by veteran mid-laner Froggen, was built to succeed and go to Worlds after EG (previously CLG.EU) decided to part ways.
The team did look shaky in some parts of the Spring split. During the Summer, they dominated almost all competition in Europe. Landing the top spot is the ultimate show that this team is ready for Worlds, potentially Froggen’s last chance to win the biggest title in eSports.
Alliance were built for mechanical skill. Wickd is one of the powerhouse top-laners in Europe, Shook is one of the best up-and-coming junglers, and the bottom lane using Tabzz and Nyph appear strong against all opponents even against Fnatic’s acclaimed bot lane.
Even with the win in Europe, Alliance still needs to prove themselves on an international stage. The team is capable of going up against the best in Korea and China 1-vs.-1, but the tactical skill of the team as a whole still needs to be shown off on the grand stage. All too often, it feels like if Alliance falter at any point in the match, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and cannot come back up for air. Against any weird level-one moves, Alliance might be thrown off and lose all confidence, which will be detrimental in a best-of-five.
Dark Horse of Each Region
From past Worlds events, if there is anything we have learned, it is not to expect the best team on paper to win. Fnatic won Season 1, Azubu Taipei Assassins won Season 2, and SKT T1K won Season 3. All three of these teams have one thing in common; they were not the favorites when coming into the tournament.
Samsung Galaxy White
Samsung Galaxy White is potentially the second best team in the World, standing behind their sister team Galaxy Blue. Considering they lost to Blue in the semi-finals of OGN last week, it would be quite the feat for Galaxy White to beat them at Worlds. The thing about Samsung Galaxy White is this is their last shot. Some members in the team have already talked about retirement after this year, and it might be enough to fuel them to play outstandingly well at Worlds.
Imp and Mata are considered the best bottom-lane in the world, alongside one of the best junglers in Korea, Dandy. Pawn and Looper are consistent, and while they are not be the best in the world, at their respective positions, they are still top-four.
Fnatic
In Season 3, Europe was considered the weakest region at Worlds, but once Fnatic had an almost flawless group stage, they showed that even without their “star” player Rekkles they could still perform to the highest level.
After Season 3 Worlds finished, Fnatic finally signed Rekkles, the 17-year old AD Carry to make the team an even stronger force. Fnatic won Spring split, and even though they didn’t come first in the points standings, it is quite likely they will come first in the Summer playoffs, unless Alliance come out throwing punches.
Fnatic is backed by some of the oldest veterans in League, top-laner SoAZ, mid-lane xPeke, jungler Cyanide and support YellowStar all played professionally in Season 1 and have continued their careers into Season 4. Alongside the best AD Carry in Europe, Fnatic is a powerhouse team, even if they lack tactical prowess in the late-game.
Fnatic has shown absolute domination when they go into a game knowing what to do. Rekkles has a 65 KDA on Vayne, and the team has a solid understanding of what to do when he is on that champion. The issue is when Fnatic go into a game with a normal team or no special plan, they seem to get outclassed by others.
TSM
The dreams of North America fans would be to see TSM hold the Season 4 Worlds trophy, especially since it is played in Korea, showing up all of the fanboys who thought America would not stand a chance.
Team SoloMid has made various changes over the Spring and Summer split, adding a new highly-mechanical mid-laner Bjergsen, a new European jungler Amazing, and a veteran Korean support LustBoy.
Alongside TSM are players Dyrus and WildTurtle. On paper this a team who looks like one of the strongest in North America. Management has also been boosted, adding LocoDoco and an analyst to the team to work on strategy and picks.
The addition of LustBoy only happened a few weeks ago, meaning TSM still need to gel. By the time playoffs come around, we will have a better understanding if TSM are the dark horse or destined for the bench until Season 5.
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