Worlds 2015: The Top 5 Surprises of Week 1

The dust has settled and the League of Legends community has had ample time to come to grips with what transpired over the first 4 days of the 2015 World Championships. And yet, that still doesn’t make the sheer number of upsets and scrapped trends any easier to comprehend.

We saw favored teams crash and burn and even Wildcard underdogs rise to the challenge to claim a victory. If you’ve been away from the internet for a while or if you for some strange reason just haven’t been tuning in to the biggest e-Sports event of the year (2.5 million Twitch viewers at peak), then here’s a recap of the most shocking happenings at this year’s Worlds.

1.) Cloud 9 is Back

Let’s repeat this so everyone is reminded of where Cloud 9 were:

• After a complete and utter team collapse, the former two-time North American champs needed a tie breaker win just to finish 7th place and avoid relegation in the Summer Split of the NA LCS.
• They then had to climb the Regional Qualifier gauntlet from the bottom, having to reverse sweep both Team Impulse and Gravity Gaming then finally topple Team Liquid.
• Then they got drafted into one of the groups of death, facing the record-breaking European powerhouse Fnatic, the Chinese mavericks of Invictus Gaming and Taiwan’s ruling power, ahq e-Sports Club.

Now Cloud 9 are at the top of their group – 3 wins and 0 losses capped off by a mind-blowing pentakill from An “Balls” Le. They’ve dominated their group not by being the most skilled or most aggressive, but by being the craftiest. Their fast push strategy with Tristana and Azir have blindsided the opposition. And I guess coming in as the underdog of underdogs helped a lot as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adsx6Qkk6Hw

2.) China Majorly Disappoints

Invictus Gaming’s Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon disappointed after a loss to Fnatic on Day 1.

Before this tournament started, any analyst worth their salt would have told you that China was one of two regions slate to duke it out for the Summoner’s Cup, no questions asked. Some may have even said that China is the strongest it has ever been, with Edward Gaming coming out ahead of Korea’s #1, SK Telecom T1, in the Mid-Season Invitational.

As it stands however, the Chinese representatives in LGD Gaming, Edward Gaming and Invictus Gaming have scored a horrendous 3 wins and 6 losses. To put that into perspective, the only regions with a worse record are Wildcard regions.

LGD are receiving the brunt of the backlash after failing to pick up a single win in Group D, which nearly everyone predicted they would top without much trouble. Already memes are sprouting, with their acronym being twisted into League’s Greatest Disappointment, Lost Group D and so on.

IG managed a win over ahq, but have also been largely disappointing, sharing LGD’s bouts of awkward pick and ban phases. Edward Gaming have been the saving grace of the region, looking dominant until their rivals in SK Telecom got revenge on them.

As it stands, we’re not even done with Group Stage and this performance is already being hailed as one of the most embarrassing showings in the history of the game (for such a strongly projected region).

3.) The Metagame of the West

Origen are the 3rd seed out of Europe, but are currently undefeated in Group D.

A number of coaches from the eastern teams have praised the western teams for their understanding of the current metagame. After all, North America currently has a 6-3 record, and Europe stands at 5-4. Even Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has credited the west on their level of play.

It’s not only that NA and EU have a seemingly deeper understanding of lane swaps and how to play around early advantages. Western teams have also been drafting better team compositions. With picks such as Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez’s Anivia, Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaha’s Olaf and even a couple of Mordekaisers finding success, this can’t be dismissed as a fluke.

Another unexpected turn is the fact that the NA versus EU rivalry has been temporarily halted as both regions normally hailed as underdogs are rallying to topple China and Korea after years of being behind.

4.) “Strategic Diversity”

We’ve already touched on team compositions, but the sheer number of fringe picks or downright unexpected pocket picks has been absolutely insane this Worlds.

We saw an Olaf mid played to counter an Irelia mid. ahq’s Kang “Albis” Chia-Wei unbenched the Kench to eat his way to a victory. Renekton made a triumphant comeback as the OG top lane bully.

Just going by the numbers, there have been 59 different champions picked in only 24 games. 19 of those champions were in the mid lane alone!

Riot wasn’t kidding when it kept trying to shove its thrust for strategic diversity down our throats. Worlds has been the culmination of all their hard work. Juggernauts are running rampant, all manner of team compositions are being drafted, and the games couldn’t be more exciting.

5.) SK Telecom is on top… but not the way we expected

Sure, SK Telecom is still a favorite candidate to win this year. They might even be the best candidate at this point, being the only eastern team to still have all their hype intact. And yet as they stand undefeated atop Group C just as predicted, something is a little off about them.

Have you guessed it yet? It’s Faker.

The greatest LoL player of all time… just hasn’t been that great at this tournament. At least not yet. His KDA ratio is actually tied for the lowest on his team, at only 5.5. He’s also scoring less gold per minute and damage per minute than AD Carry Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and top laner Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-Hwan.

Is Faker in a bit of a slump, or is he just content with quietly conserving his strength until SKT make it to the Knockout Stage? Who knows? All I know is that for some reason, the Demon King isn’t showing the full extent of how monstrous he can be.

Choosing not to bare his fangs could be a strategical move… or it could also mean the teeth aren’t as sharp as they used to be.

Bonus List: Top 3 things to watch out for in Week 2

1.) China’s Revenge

China may be down, but don’t count the region out just yet. With nearly a week of practice under their belt, you can bet that these players from an ultra-competitive region have been drilled and drilled again by their coaches in order to fix their mistakes.

2.) New Western Strategies

With western teams looking to stay ahead of the competition, expect them to double down on their superior lane swapping and fast pushing, while still pushing the envelope in terms of what works in patch 5.18. Remember, Cloud 9 won on brains, not mechanical skill. In the smart man’s LoL tournament, the team with the new ideas will likely take the lead.

3.) Even More Pick Variance

New strategies means new picks, most of the time. 59 champions may be a lot for 4 days, but I think we can go deeper. Galio? Poppy? Probably not, but if the past days of competition have proved something, it’s that anything can happen.

Images taken from lolesports.com

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