Let's now take deeper look into the teams competing and talk about some of the bright spots, story lines, and worrying trends for each.
GROUP A
COUNTER LOGIC GAMING -
North America's Great Hope
CLG is the No.1 NA seed after winning the North American LCS Summer 2015 split with a 3-0 victory over long time rival Team SoloMid in Madison Square Garden. The team has a storied history in the scene and has been around since its inception. The team has gone through many roster iterations over the years with almost non-stop crazy drama ensuing the whole time. Owner and former player HotshotGG is the teams
spiritual leader and had a hand in popularizing the game competitively as one of the first true great League players and personalities. CLG is infamous for many reasons, but the main theme they have always had is "potential". They have always had a very talented team that just never could come together and win in the playoffs; that is, until this year. They come into Worlds after going undefeated in the NA playoffs and look like the cohesive unit they have always strived to be.
Doublelift and
Aphromoo also known as
"Rush Hour" are one of the most potent bot lanes in the world and known for getting kills in lane 2v2.
Zion Spartan has stepped up as the best top laner in North America showing a high proficiency on carry top laners. Jungler
Xmithie was having VISA issues and was possibly going to be unable to attend World's, but with some help from fans in high places, they got him back and are hoping to make it out of the group stage.
Players:
Top: Darshan "
ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya
Jungle: Jake "
Xmithie" Puchero
Mid: Eugene "
Pobelter" Park
ADC: Peter "
Doublelift" Peng
Support: Zaqueri
Aphromoo Black
yoe Flash Wolves -
aka Gamania Bears from Season 3
yoe Flash Wolves are the 2nd seed coming out of the LMS region and hail from Taiwan. They placed first in the spring split in the LMS, but fell behind ahq e-Sports and got second in the summer split. The first real look the west got on the Flash Wolves was back in the spring at IEM World Championships Katowice where they surprised many people and placed 3rd/4th and took games off of Team SoloMid and SK Gaming. The team has been around in various forms since 2013, but have looked like they have progressed a long ways with their region since their formation. Their mid laner
Maple and jungler
Karsa are both well respected and pose a formidable threat to any team that might underestimate them. Maple excels at using assassins such as Zed, Diana, and Leblanc out of the mid, and the meta is shifting in his favor. Their weakness as a team lies in their top laner
Steak who has a small champion pool and may not be up to snuff to compete against the high level of top laners in this tournament.
Players:
Top: Lu-Hsi
"Steak" Chou
Jungle: Hao-Xuan
"Karsa" Hong
Mid: Yi-Tang
Maple Huang
ADC: Wen-An
"NL" Hsiung
Support: Shuo-Chieh
"SwordArt" Hu
KOO Tigers -
Korea's Wild Card
KOO Tigers secured a 2nd seed out of Korea via LCK circuit points for placing second in the Spring Split and third in the Summer Split. They are known for strong mid and late game team fighting and play a heavily macro style game. As an organization they are relatively new in Korea, they took mediocre to bad parts of previous Korean teams and made something good and potentially great out of the pieces.
Smeb is their real threat out of the top lane. He brings a true carry and snowball potential that will always pose a challenge for opposing teams with his pocket Riven pick and ability to innovate within the meta with champions like Malphite.
GorillA is the other player to watch out for, famous for his Janna and Thresh play, but he is also able to pick up any support and work them properly. Their weakness comes from the unreliability of their jungler
Hojin in the Cinderhulk meta. With the meta shifting towards Warrior style play again he may have a chance to prove himself again. To close out KOO, here is a picture of them in
"uniform".
Players:
Top: Kyung-ho
Smeb Song
Jungle: Ho-jin
Hojin Lee
Mid: Seo-haeng
"KurO Lee
ADC: Jong-in
"PraY" Kim
Support: Beom-hyeon
"GorillA" Kang
Pain Gaming -
huehuehue
Pain Gaming hails from Brazil and represents one of the fastest growing e-Sports communities. South America has shown great exuberance for the game and it would be huge for Pain to do well in this tournament. After struggling all Spring and the beginning of Summer, Pain started to gain momentum and went undefeated through the CBLOL playoffs and International Wildcard tournament in Chile where they qualified for a spot at Worlds. Their mid laner
Kami is legendary in their region and is backed up by a hyped up ADC
brTT who is featured in Riot's upcoming documentary on League players. Pain Gaming also imported some talent from Europe; getting
Dioud in at support has given them the boost they needed to reach Worlds.
Players:
Top: Matheus
"Mylon" Borges
Jungle: Thulio
"SirT" Carlos
Mid: Gabriel
"Kami" Santos
ADC: Felipe
"brTT" Goncalves
Support: Hugo
"Dioud" Padioleau
GROUP B
Fnatic -
The actual Western hope
Fnatic are widely considered the best western team in the world after taking Korean powerhouse SKT T1 to a full five game set during the Mid-Season Invitational hosted by Riot. After their performance at MSI they went on to complete the first perfect season in LCS history going 18-0. They continued their dominance in the region until meeting Origen in the Summer Finals where they dropped their first game and ended up squeaking by a 3-2 victory to secure the No. 1 seed out of Europe. This is their fifth appearance at Worlds out of five chances, each year qualifying with a different roster. They even won the first World Championship back in 2011. In early Spring 2015 they picked up two Korean "rejects"
Huni and
Reignover along with rookie mid laner
Febiven to revamp the team. Huni has become a dominating force with his massive champion pool and
endearing personality. The teams support
Yellowstar is the backbone of the team as the shot caller and veteran leader. He is arguably the best western or most influential western player currently playing.
Players:
Top: Seung-hoon
"Huni" Heo
Jungle: Yeu-jin
"Reignover" Kim
Mid: Fabian
"Febiven" Diepstraten
ADC: Martin
"Rekkles" Larsson
Support: Bora
"Yellowstar" Kim
Invictus Gaming -
Koreans carrying the Chinese
Invicts Gaming holds the No. 3 seed from China after running the gauntlet at the end of the season. They are an organization that has always remained in the shadows below bigger and more skilled Chinese teams in the past such as OMG and World Elite. Many thought they would not make it to Worlds again this year after being knocked out by rising talents in the form of QG in the LPL playoffs. With fresh Korean imports from the old kT Rolster B team in
Rookie and
Kakao, they managed to qualify by beating QG. Rookie is an explosive mid laner, but can also play the control game very well. He synergizes well with fellow Korean Kakao. Kakao was known as the best jungler in the world last season, and looks to reclaim his title through expert adaptability, counter ganking, and jungle pathing. iG suffers greatly from a weak bot lane duo, but if they can tighten up their play and remain safe early they have a threat to go far in this tournament.
Players:
Top: Liu
"Zz1tai" Zhihao
Jungle: Byung-kwon
"Kakao" Lee
Mid: Eui-jin
"Rookie" Song
ADC: Ge
"Kid" Yan
Support: Liu
"Kitties" Hongjun
ahq e-Sports Club -
Ziv-a-dee-doo-da
ahq returns to Worlds for the second year in a row featuring a revamped line-up that could upset unsuspecting teams. They qualified after a dominating performance in the LMS this past Summer Split as a No.1 seed for the region. They share similar underdog traits with the surprise Season 2 world champ TPA that also came from the LMS region and look to replicate the underdog story.
Westdoor is their most famous player, he made a name for himself world wide for his Fizz, Diana, and Twisted Fate play, but reports have said that he may just be a decoy. Apparently the true carry for the team is top laner
Ziv who has shown immaculate team play and a wide champion pool. Many say he would be one of the best top laners in any region. These two are backed up by a solid ADC with
AN. I haven't heard much about the support
Albis, he may be a weak spot.
Players:
Top: Yi
"Ziv" Chen
Jungle: Zhao-Hong
"Mountain" Xue
Mid: Shu-Wei
"Westdoor" Liu
ADC: Chun An "AN" Chou
Support: Chia-Wei
"Albis" Kang
Cloud 9 -
Next step, world domination
Cloud 9 holds NA's No. 3 seed after making one of the most miraculous runs in e-Sports history through the entire qualifying gauntlet. Cloud 9 struggled after finishing second in the NA LCS Spring Split as they replaced their long time mid-lane shot caller
Hai with a European import
Incarnati0n. They were in 9th place out of 10 coming into the final few weeks of the Summer Split, when they replaced their all-star jungler
Meteos with Hai to make up for a lack of in-game decision making and team play. Hai managed to get them to 7th which just barely kept them in contention for the last World's spot. To secure the spot they had to win three Bo5 series in a row on consecutive days. They went down 0-2 TWICE, once to Gravity and once to Team Impulse, during this span only to reverse sweep each time and move on. They then cruised to a 3-1 finish over highly favored Team Liquid to complete their miraculous run from the bottom to the top. ADC
Sneaky is extremely talented and is often relied upon to carry the team mechanically while Hai makes all the decisions. Hai is famous for keeping C9 in games for way longer than they should be by catching other teams off-guard and by pursuing risky base-race strategies. The team needs to make sure that the weaker members
Balls and
LemonNation do not cost them games. Really in the tough Group B that they are in, they will be lucky to grab a game.
Players:
Top: An
"Balls" Lee
Jungle: Hai
"Hai" Lam
Mid: Nicolaj
"Incarnati0n" Jensen
ADC: Zachary
"Sneaky" Scuderi
Support: Daerek
"LemonNation" Hart
GROUP C
SK Telecom T1 -
The "favorite"
SK Telecom T1 were the Season 3 World Champions and after missing the Season 4 event, are back in full force to reclaim their title. SKT stormed through the LCK in both the Spring and Summer split to cruise to an easy 3-0 win over kT Rolster to secure their No.1 seed out of Korea. They enter the tournament clear favorites after show casing nearly flawless play over the course of the whole year, only faltering once to Edward Gaming in the finals of the Mid-Season Invitational, losing 3-2. The team is lead by the undisputed best player in the world
Faker. Faker is one of the few mid lane carries in the world who does not require many resources to be effective in leading his team. His economical approach allows him to carry based off of
individual skill while funneling necessary resources into other lanes.
Marin,
Bengi, and
Bang are also each individually some of the strongest players in the world at their position.
Players:
Top: Gyeong-hwan
"MaRin" Jang
Jungle: Seong-ung
"Bengi" Bae
Mid: Sang-hyeok
"Faker" Lee
ADC: Jun-sik
"Bang" Bae
Support: Jae-wan
"Wolf" Lee
H2K -
The KaSing Effect
H2K qualify as the No. 2 seed out of Europe based off of circuit points from coming in 3rd in both the Spring and Summer splits of the EU LCS. They most likely would have qualified for the third seed if Origen had existed in the LCS for both splits. The team rose up through the challenger scene in 2014 to claim a spot in the newly expanded 10-team LCS schedule and surpassed all expectations in late spring after a slow start to the split. The addition of support player
KaSing immediately had a positive impact on the team. He seemed to glue together the straggling pieces to form a solid strategical team.
Ryu is the other star on the team; as a former Korean mid-laner he was able to bring experience and positional skill into the position and proved to be a fairly adaptable mid-laner who could keep up with meta changes well. Look out for his Ahri at Worlds. H2K did hit a rough patch in the playoffs, with weaknesses in their jungle position being exposed by almost every team they faced.
Players:
Top: Andrei
"Odoamne" Pascu
Jungle: Jean
"Loulex" Burgevin
Mid: Sang-wook
"Ryu" Yoo
ADC: Petter
"Hjarnan" Freyschuss
Support: Raymond
"kaSing" Tsang
Edward Gaming -
The Korean Exodus
While Edward Gaming does have a history as a Chinese team, it really made a name for itself this past year by recruiting top-tier Korean players by paying them exorbitant amounts of money. The team dominated China for the whole Spring Split and much of the Summer Split before faltering towards the end of the season and ended up losing a quick 3-0 in the semi-finals to rival LGD Gaming. Even with their loss, they managed to secure the No. 2 seed out of China and are considered one of the three strongest teams in the world. Each of their players could arguably be in the top three at their role in the game and they are all mechanically gifted skirmishers. In the top lane they have two potential starters with
Koro1 and
AmazingJ. Koro1 was unstoppable in the Spring Split, but possibly due to illness he has been sharing the role with AmazingJ towards the end of the Summer Split.
Pawn and
Deft are their two Korean imports stripped straight out of the 2014 World Champions Samsung White and their sister team Samsung Blue. Pawn is known for his reckless, play-making style, if he gets ahead he will ensure Edward Gaming crush their competition. The pure skill of the rest of the team allows him to make risky plays without too much consequence.
Players:
Top: Tong
"Koro1" Yang
Top: Waiho
"AmazingJ" Shek
Jungle: Ming
"Clearlove" Kai
Mid: Won-seok
"PawN" Heo
ADC: Hyuk-kyu
"Deft" Kim
Support: Tian
"Meiko" Ye
Bangkok Titans -
"So you're saying there is still a chance?"
No. I am not saying there is any chance that the Bangkok Titans get out of Group C. They qualified through the second International Wildcard tournament that took place in Turkey, and honestly are by far the weakest team at this years competition. I really do not know what to expect and haven't watched any of their games, so it is hard for me to say who you should look out for. Hopefully this proves to be a good learning experience for the team and they can go back to their region and learn from their experience at Worlds.
Players:
Top: Pawat
"WarL0cK" Ampaporn
Jungle: Chayut
"007x" Suebka
Mid: Nuttapong
"G4" Menkasikan
ADC: "Juckkirsts
"Lloyd" Kongubon
Support: Sorawat
"Moss" Boonphrom
GROUP D(EATH)
LGD Gaming -
"Did you see TSM cry?"
LGD Gaming are coming into Worlds as the No. 1 seed out of China and are up there with SKT T1 as the favorites. After a few struggles to start the split with no coach, they found stable footing by letting their top laner
Acorn coach. His coaching improved their team play for most of the split but still only left them in the middle-upper part of the pack in the LPL. The team hired a real coach towards the end of the split and has been soaring ever since. There have been a number of "Top 20" players at Worlds lists and it is not uncommon to see four members of LGD in the Top 10.
GODV is arguably the strongest mid laner in China,
imp is a superlative ADC and is the first player ever to secure #1 finishes in the LCK, LPL, and win a World Championship,
Pyl (pronounced "P-Y-L") is the team's shot caller and is a master at slick rotations. Their jungler is a known weak point,
TBQ is pretty much just serviceable and does nothing too stellar.
Players:
Top: Cheon-ju
"Acorn" Choi
Jungle: Zhu
"TBQ" Yongquan
Mid: Shen
"GODV" Wei
ADC: Seung-bin
"imp" Gu
Support: Chen
"Pyl" Bo
kT Rolster e-Sports Club -
"In many ways they'll miss the good old days, Ssumday, Ssumday"
I didn't type that wrong! KT Rolster is finally at Worlds, they have a storied history of just barely failing to reach Worlds and have gone through many different players over the years. The addition of former SKT T1 support
Piccaboo allowed them to excel towards the end of the Summer LCK Split after losing two star players to China before the start of the Spring Split with Rookie and Kakao both leaving. Their game plan typically revolves around getting their superstar top laner
Ssumday ahead in the early game and allowing him to split push and carry the team to victory. He is well known for play carry top laners and the meta is looking perfect for him to excel and carry his team out of the Group Stages in what some are saying is the hardest group in the tournament.
Players:
Top: Chan-ho "
Ssumday" Kim
Jungle: Dong-bin
"Score" Go
Mid: Sang-moon
"Nagne" Kim
ADC: Dong-hyeon
"Arrow" No
Support: Jong-beom
"Piccaboo" Lee
Team SoloMid -
Bjergsen and The Four Wards
Everyone's favorite team/reality TV show subjects have made it to Worlds for the 5th time! TSM has been around roughly as long as CLG in the North American scene and has one of the largest fan bases in the world known for chanting "TSM TSM" at inappropriate and bizarre times (like at tournaments they aren't even attending). TSM has been near the top of the NA scene for a long time and this year has continued that trend with them finishing in first during the Spring LCS Split. They looked strong going into the Mid-Seasonal Invitational but under performed after Fnatic's Huni picked the rare Cassiopeia top lane and tilted them off the face of the planet. They struggled through the Summer Split all the while telling fans that they were not taking the competition seriously and would still perform in the playoffs. It looked like they were holding true to their promise after winning the quarter and semi finals handily. They then got swept in an embarrassing fashion by CLG in the finals, but still qualified as the No. 2 NA seed based off of circuit points. The team is carried by NA's best mid laner
Bjersen, but has had troubles at nearly every other position at some point in the past year. They have been marked for death in this tough group and they always put on a good show win or lose, so be sure not to miss their games and the ensuing drama!
Players:
Top: Marcus
"Dyrus" Hill
Jungle: Lucas
"Santorin" Larsen
Mid: Søren
"Bjergsen" Bjerg
ADC: Jason
"WildTurtle" Tran
Support: Jang-sik
"Lustboy" Ham
Origen -
Fnatic v1.0
Origen is basically a Fnatic off-shoot, compromised of two former Fnatic stars
xPeke (famous for his
backdoor and one of the most hype moments in all of e-Sports history) and
Soaz who is one of the best top laners to ever play League. They are backed up by a hand-picked roster of European players. Origen burst onto the scene just this year and are one of the "youngest" teams to be featured in this tournament. They earned an LCS spot after auto-qualifying by being the best challenger team coming into the Summer Split and went on to place second in the regular split. They made it to the finals against Fnatic and took games off them for the first time all split, despite falling short losing the series 3-2. They managed to run the European Gauntlet including an exciting series against Team ROCCAT to qualify as Europe's No. 3 seed. They have a number of talented individual players, but their team play and rotations has been suspect on occasion. Unfortunately their weakness looks like it might be xPeke in the mid-lane, who is in the twilight of his long career.
Players:
Top: Paul
"SoaZ" Boyer
Jungle: Maurice
"Amazing" Stückenschneider
Mid: Enrique
"xPeke" Cedeño Martínez
ADC: Jesper
"Niels" Svenningsen
Support: Alfonso
"mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez
AND WE ARE DONE! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please PM me. I will be looking to add additional information and tidbits. If you are new to watching League e-Sports just post in the thread, everyone will be glad to help you out.
