After 12 years of competition on LoLAmerica’s teams have no never won an international title. Their best performance remains one MSI final. Worse still, their teams only reach rarely the top 4 of the World Championships. Can they afford to do better this year?
C9, the only hope?
Once again, C9 landed the 1st seed in the LCS. However, the group draw was not kind to them, putting them in the same pool as T1 and EDG, two teams that are also serious contenders for the top 4. Getting out of groups will not be easybut if they succeed, they will then have a psychological advantage over certain opponents, who will have had a more accessible course.
The level of gameplay stylethat of the C9 is rather balance. Like many teams at the end of the season, their main carry was Berserker their ADC. However, Jensen, Fudge and Blaber have distinguished themselves on various occasions, showing that the team can also build their game around them. Zven mainly plays Berserker peel supports, as other C9s aren’t used to going on defensive characters. Despite the fact that the C9s take often the advantage at the start of the gamethey may have difficulties in concluding. Their games last about a minute longer than the average LCS game length.
Despite this, the team could be getting into trouble because of this kind of compositions. If they fail to get enough of an early lead, their game plan becomes more complicated to set up in the face of compositions more oriented towards teamfights. Moving the T1s who are the masters of the macro, or the EDGs who are used to this kind of strategy in LPL will be difficult.
100T, the year of consecration?
For their third participation in the Worlds, the 100Ts hope to finally get past the group stage. The draw was rather favorable to them, with no Chinese and European teams in their group for the moment. The Play-In could of course redistribute the cards, with teams like RNG or Fnatic, but for now, a qualification for the top 8 seems largely feasible.
The 100T have a atypical profile at the end of the season. Even if FBI deals honorable damage, the one who does the most damage in the team is Abbedagge. Although it does not reach very different amounts of its ADC, it remains unusual because most midlaners are below in the current meta, by a few percent. The 100T are a team that can be jostled in earlyand that could play tricks on them against formations as strong as them in teamfights.
They are still able to snowball very quickly when they regain the advantage, making them a formation not to be underestimated. Their compositions are very often oriented about team fights, since they don’t hesitate to put Sumday on tanks, even if it means that the Korean gets dominated during the lane phase. Despite all their style of play seems a bit slow for Worlds, and the team is going to have to progress to really become a serious threat.
Evil Geniuses, rebirth or descent into hell?
After their Spring Split victoryEGs have a lot more difficult during the Summer. The team was the last in the region to validate their ticket, and must go through the Play-In. They were “lucky” to inherit a group without Korean or Chinese team, and only Fnatic seem to stand between them and the first place, synonymous with direct qualification. On the other hand, a second place would likely put them against a team like MAD Lions, RNG or DRX, which would make qualifying more difficult.
In terms of style of play, the team rather follow the meta. They played with 2 ADCs (Danny and Kaori) which could allow them to surprise some teams, since the two players do not have the same pool of champions. Danny notably distinguished himself on Seraphinea pick that has not been popular in all regions, but has suffered from nerves, and may no longer be interesting on patch 12.18. The team has weapons at its disposal, and must not not be underestimatedbut its qualification for the Main Event is far from certain.
esport-lol
The KC ultras are really not like the others. If the structure is present on several games, what touches League of Legends often takes on gargantuan dimensions. While we impatiently await the outcome of KC in the LEC, fans are multiplying the feats on Twitter.