EPTIEM Katowice LoL Preview
8 League of Legends teams roll in to Katowice, Poland to compete for a prize pool of 44,000 USD. The tournament will feature 5 European teams, 1 North American teams and the two Azubu teams from Korea competing for top honors. The tournament set up is a simple round robin group phase with the top two teams advancing to the semi-finals. Without further prattle, let us discuss the teams that will participate.
Group A:
Gambit Gaming (Ex- Moscow Five)
IEM Katowice will be the first tournament for the old M5 team to show off their new colors as Gambit Gaming. Their name may have changed but the players remain the same and they remain one of the top European teams. Alex Ich remains one of the best mid lane players on the world and his champion list is so expansive it is near impossible to ban him out. Diamondprox is arguably the best jungler in the western scene and he has transitioned from playing junglers like Shyvanna to support style junglers like Amumu, though his Lee Sin is still feared and is likely to be the target of many bans. Darien remains an enigma in the top lane, his play seems to have fallen off as of late, but is certainly capable of winning lanes and he remains integral to Gambit Gaming’s aggressive style of play. The bot lane duo of Gosu Pepper and Genja are potentially the weakspot for Gambit Gaming. Genja is one of the few AD carry players in the world that have builds all their own (see Triple Dorans Ashe, etc) and sometimes it works to his advantage but sometimes his item builds come at the detriment of his team who require Genja to be able to have the damage to turn teamfights in their favour. Gosu Pepper remains an elite support who is capable of both sublime plays and horrendous mistakes. His long-time pairing with Genja means they are one of the longest lasting duo’s in the scene.
Expectations:
Gambit Gaming will no doubt have ambitions to win the whole tournament, but with fnatic and two Korean teams, there is significant opposition. Group A is a very difficult group that should not be underestimated as MYM will be playing on home turf and Curse is an intriguing underdog. A semi-final appearance will be seen as the minimum expectation.
Prediction:
Gambit Gaming have looked really out of practice in recent weeks and their aura as a team that dominates at LAN events has dissipated given their performances at IPL5 and the S2 finals. Gambit Gaming emerge from their group after some tense games against Curse and MYM and a loss to Azubu Blaze. They are eliminated by Azubu Frost in the semifinals.
Curse.na
Curse Gaming are one of the few western teams that are absolutely in form right now having easily qualified for season 3 this past weekend. I’d favour them slightly more if they did not have Rhux subbing in for Nyjacky in Poland. Still the fact that they have been practicing hard for weeks means that they have no excuses for being out of shape. Voyboy has shown that despite being cast off from CLG.na he is absolutely a top laner to fear, playing a variety of champions to devastating effect. If Curse hope to emerge from this group, Voyboy have to be on point. Saintvicious remains the team captain and shotcaller. His play can be exploited at times and his calls are sometimes questionable, but to doubt the Curse jungler understands how to succeed in a LAN environment. Rhux will be expected to fill in admirably for the rising star Nyjacky which may be difficult for him given he is not a natural mid lane player. The bot lane of Cop and Elementz remains under scrutiny from fans, but this is a solid, if unspectacular pairing. Cop is a bit too passive for my liking, and Elementz’s support play can sometimes be headscratching, but they were very solid at the season 3 qualifier and I expect that to continue in Katowice.
Expectations:
Curse fear absolutely no one and they truly believe that they are currently the best team in North America. They have players with tons of LAN experience and talent, and they will target emerging from the group as a goal.
Predictions:
Curse with Nyjacky would be a different proposition than Curse with Rux playing mid lane; not to disparage Rhux in any way, but Nyjacky is an excellent mid laner and Rhux can only hope to live up to his caliber of play. Curse have the ability to beat all of the teams in this group, I just don’t think they will be able to. I think they will be competitive in all games but the fact they have not been preparing specifically for this tournament will hurt them.
MYM
Meet Your Makers will be the crowd favourite at Katowice, with the squad the featuring an all-Polish roster with the top Polish talent in the scene. It’s a roster with talent too as Makler is an underrated AD carry and together with Kubon and Czaru they are a team not to be taken lightly. What MYM will have are two advantages. First is home crowd advantage, they will enjoy tremendous home support and have not had to travel very far to Katowice. Second, they have been practicing for the upcoming European s3 qualifiers and should have been putting in the hours of practice to improve and qualify for season three. It’s also a roster that has been together for quite a while. Plus, they have had success in IEM tournaments, having won IEM Singapore and having beat CJ Entus and CLG.eu at IEM Cologne.
Expectations:
MYM will almost certainly relish their underdog role, the role that they succeeded at in Cologne. Their ambition will be to put on competitive games and hopefully pull another upset to escape the group stage.
Predictions:
MYM are outgunned in this group, no doubt, but they are talented enough to beat any of the teams in this group; they will not be favoured but they will not be pushovers either. I think they play competitive games, but fall short in the end.
Azubu Blaze
The senior and arguably weaker Azubu team will again terrorize a foreign tournament where they have had success since their arrival at the MLG Summer arena. In that time they have been surpassed by their sister team Azubu Frost and have struggled to replace Reapered, who is now starring for SK Telecom T1. Flame has been a weak point for several tournaments now and while he does show the odd spark of strong play he has really failed to fill the shoes of Reapered. If flame is the weak link the rest of the links remain very strong. Captain Jack is well known in the west for his highlight reel escapes and dodges, no doubt one of the best teamfighters in the world. Lustboy is a very good support that rarely makes mistakes and lets Captain Jack farm. Ambition is a very solid mid lane player though he hasn’t dominated recently like the way he has in the past, but this is due to the quality in play increasing rather than Ambition slipping. Hellios, for me, is one of the best junglers in the world, able to create amazing presence for his team and produce devastating ganks. The team also plays the vaunted ‘Korean’ style that emphasises early pushing and taking objectives and there are few teams in the world as adept in this style as Azubu Blaze.
Expecatations:
Azubu Blaze will expect to take home more money from foreign tournaments. They do it whenever they travel so anything short of a trip to the finals would probably be a disappointment.
Predications:
Yes, Blaze are not the juggernaut that they once were, however they are in season and are one of the top tier Korean teams. I believe that within their group there are teams that can give Blaze a good game, but none that can be considered favourites to take one. A semi-final game against fnatic or SK could prove very interesting. They lose in the finals to their sister team, Frost.
Group B:
SK Gaming
SK Gaming are a very hard team to predict. They were a somewhat surprise qualifier for season 3 and then they basically fell off the map and into a slew of roster changes. The last time SK played at a major tournament they put in a reasonable performance at Tales of the Lane, but that was early November and not much of them has been seen since. Ocelot remains their talisman and when SK are winning games Ocelot is playing well. He has a wide variety of champions but he’s always best when placed on champions that can make plays, such as Orianna. Kev1n is an enigma. In some tournaments he is an absolute monster, such as the s2 qualifier where his Gangplank reached raidboss status, in other tournaments he has been fairly anonymous. SK needs him to get back to his earlier form to have any chance of surprising in this tournament. SK’s new jungler is hyrqBot and to be honest I have not seen him play a whole lot, but he seems to be a middle of the road player, capable of big plays and agonizing misplays. The bot lane has seen the removal of Yellowstar and the arrival of CandyPanda who has floated around various teams for a while. Candypanda and Nyph are both solid, if slightly unspectacular players that are slightly outgunned in this tournament. It will be an interesting showdown when SK plays fnatic as their new AD Carry will play their old AD Carry.
Expectations:
SK over preformed to qualify for season 3, but we don’t really know where there current power level stands. They will be hopeful of toppling fnatic and emerging from the group.
Prediction:
It’s very hard to predict a team that hasn’t been seen much of for a couple months. I don’t think they can beat fnatic or Frost and will probably settle for 3rd in the group.
Fnatic
Fnatic were the 4th place team at the season 2 Regional Finals and their loss to CLG.eu seemed to relegate them into the second tier of European teams. Instead Fnatic stormed back producing great results from November on, taking down Dreamhack winter, placing 2nd at IPL5 and IEM Cologne. Clearly fnatic were a world class team with Rekkles at AD Carry and he received a lot of the praise, and admittedly he played extremely well. Rekkles is out due to age limitations and Yellowstar is in. No one doubts the talent of Yellowstar, what they question is his work ethic, which hopefully fnatic has sorted out in making him their fulltime AD carry. sOAZ is just short of being a world class top laner and draws respect bans on several of his best champions; his dynamic play often sets the tone for Fnatic. Cyanide patrols the jungle and while he tends not to get the credit that his solo laners get, his ability to maintain control of the game is vastly underrated. xPeke is a player that made a leap from being merely a good player to a great one in the second half of 2012. He doesn’t get mentioned alongside the Ocelots’ and Froggen’s as one of Europe’s best mid laners, but considering the relative success of his teams, he probably should. Yellowstar will look forward to forging a partnership with nRated, for my money the best support in Europe and one of the best in the world at his position. nRated’s knowledge of bot lane matchups is un paralleled and make the life of his AD carry massively easier.
Expectations:
Fnatic will come in to this tournament as arguably the best hope for a western team to win the whole tournament, considering they will be bootcamping for the upcoming season 3 qualifiers. They will look forward to facing Azubu Frost in their first ever meeting and it should be a fascinating encounter.
Prediction:
Fnatic should progress from the group; I don’t think SK are at their level. A potential matchup with Azubu Blaze in the semi-finals is mouthwatering. I make fnatic out to be a small underdog in such a matchup, but would not be stunned if fnatic do not miss Rekkles at all and continue to forge their reputation as an ‘S’ class team. I think they finish 3rd in a credible showing.
Absolute Legends
This feels like the 100th team that Absolute Legends has sponsored in League of Legends. This team of relatively unknown Polish players will feel right at home in Katowice. They are not in the season 3 European qualifiers so this is their big tournament to prove themselves. To be honest I do not recognize the team at all so I will not make any bogus statements about their players.
Expectations:
Put on reasonable games, showcase themselves to the home crowd, maybe steal a game here or there
Prediction:
A fairly ignoble exit from the group stage in last place
Azubu Frost
The reigning Korean champions, Azubu Frost are one of the true powerhouse teams in the League of Legends scene. Already qualified for the finals of the OGN Winter Championships, Frost appears to be the team to beat on the Korean scene. This will be the first time that Woong and co will travel to Europe but don’t expect any issues there. The team teems with talent including Shy one of the best top laners in the world that is capable of absolutely dominating games on a variety of champions. Rapidstar holds down mid and while is certainly not the flashiest player around, he is almost the definition of a solid mid player. CloudTemplar is in the jungle and while I’ve never been a huge fan of CloudTemplar, I think he’s (obviously) still really good; though his decision making could be better at times. The bot lane of Woong and Madlife is often credited as one of the best bot lane duos in the world. Woong is a capable AD, but he has his weaknesses and has been exposed in the past by teams willing to pressure him. The problem with pressuring Woong is that you also have to deal with the best support in the world in Madlife. Madlife is the gold standard in support play and could probably carry an average player to great heights, with the talented Woong, we see his potential emerge. Frost is an insanely good team with little to no weaknesses, though they have been pushed to the edge by Blaze and CJ Entus in recent competitions, Frost remains a titan that is not easy to topple.
Expecations:
They will have designs on the big prize at the end and it will be up to the other teams to stop them
Prediction:
One of the best teams in the world will be tested by Gambit Gaming, fnatic and Azubu Blaze, and I expect them to be tested, but I cannot predict another team than Frost taking home the victory and the grand prize. Expect an entertaining final between Frost and Blaze as those two teams tend to have weird and crazy games.
