Our LoL correspondent Eugenia Woo lists her teams to look out for after the first week of competition. If you’re new to the esport, have a look at her beginner’s guide to League of Legends.
My standings are mostly based on the results from Week 1, but like any other sports fan I’ve got my ride-or-die teams so those are going to feature heavily too! Check them out below.
SK Telecom T1 (South Korea)
Hailing from South Korea, SKT are the current reigning World Champions. They’ve won twice so far, and they’re a strong contender for a third victory, not only because they have arguably the best player in the world on their team – Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. He’s practically the god of mid-laners, and he’s probably made a pretty penny off doing commercials for various sponsors. He’s the Michael Jordan of LoL; everyone knows who he is, and they’d be stupid not to when he’s been hailed as a prodigy by almost everyone covering esports ever.
However, after the team’s shocking loss at the hands of the Flash Wolves yesterday, it’s been proven that gods too can stumble and the other teams definitely smell blood in the water.
Team SoloMid (North America)
These guys are probably the Knicks of LoL. They’re a strong team, but the consensus is that a lot of their fans are insufferable twats. TSM is one of the oldest organisations in esports, and they’ve got a packed roster this year that includes 2 top-tier laners – Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Peng “Doublelift” Yiliang. Both sit comfortably within the Top 5 in the world when it comes to their respective roles (allegedly), so it’s no surprise that this is the team with one of the best chances of putting up a good fight against the Korean and Chinese overlords dominating the scene.
Also, Doubelift’s trash talk game is right up there with the best of them, so that’s a win in my books.
ROX Tigers (South Korea)
These guys finished at the top of the Korean ladder last split, beating out SKT. For a lot of fans, they’re the ones tipped to win Worlds. It probably doesn’t hurt that they look like happy-go-lucky highschoolers out of your favourite slice of life anime either. ROX are fighters through and through, and they specialise in lying low before suddenly clinching victory on the back of explosive game-changing fights. Even though they’ve dropped a game to Counter Logic Gaming (in a fashion that was truly contrary to any logical thought), Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho is still one of the strongest players in the world right now and he’s nothing if not deserving of the adoration of the pro scene despite his unfortunate name.
Albus NoX Luna (International Wildcard – Russia)
ANX is probably the underdoggiest out of all the underdog teams here at Worlds. I’m not usually someone who roots for the underdog, but after a ridiculously entertaining set of victories over top-tier teams that vastly underestimated them, this team from Russia has made a huge splash in the scene and I can respect that. A lot of the team’s success has been attributed to Kirill “Likkrit” Malofeev, the team’s bloodthirsty support, and rightly so. Quoted as having done almost as much damage as his ADC at one point in the games, an anomaly considering his role, this guy is one hell of a playmaker and his skill with unconventional picks threw off G2 Esports (the top seed in Europe). I don’t know how far ANX are going to take their high-risk high-reward playstyle, but they have their eyes on the prize and they’re going to leave a lot of teams bruised and bloodied in their wake no matter the outcome.
Take the top lane with our old mates Bigpipe, the sweetest ISP in the land.