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1. Elements. As noted by others they're the best team in Europe and while Rekkles isn't an enormous upgrade he's still a fantastic player. Hard to see anyone knocking them off.
2. SK. Three of the strongest players in their respective positions (Top, Jungle, ADC) and strategically very sound. There's a question over WDF but I don't see him being worse than Jesiz. If they don't implode from the toxicity they'll be a legit contender.
3. Roccat. A real wildcard for me. They're full of players with very pronounced strengths and weaknesses. I think they can find a style that works for them, but I don't expect it to come easily or quickly. I expect them to finish lower in the regular split but make a solid playoff run (something they've done in the past).
4. Gambit. Ordinarily I wouldn't take too much from IEM but Gambit looked solid. Diamond and Ed looked like they'd turned back time, Cabochard was able to get a decent lead in nearly every game and Pinoy held his own against one of NA's best botlanes. Their decision making and teamfighting looked flawed and I've never been sold on Niq, but there's hardly a swathe of quality below them.
5. MYM. I've never really rated Super Hot Royal Club. Feels strange putting them this high but the bottom half of EU looks decidedly weak. Putting them here on the basis of their huge improvement in 2014. Make or break time for Selfie too.
6. UOL. There's a fairly big drop off to UOL but they have at least shown promise. Their fairly comprehensive dismantling of Millenium was exactly what you'd expect a mid tier EU team to do to a bottom feeder, so mid tier is where I'll put them.
7. H2K. I want to be hyped by Ryu, but he's not the guy who pushed Faker to his limit in 2013. Really from 7 down could end up in any order.
8. CW. Will this finally be the split where Youngbuck gets relegated? Magic 8 ball says "outlook unclear".
9. Fnatic. Feels so weird putting them this low, but it's hard to have any confidence in their line up. A mixed language team with players who don't have pedigree. Might surprise but I wouldn't bet on it.
10. Giants. Zzzzz.
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1. SK
2. Elements
3. Roccat
4. Fnatic
5. MYM
6. UOL
7. Gambit
8. H2K
9. CW
10. Giants
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1. SK
2. ROCCAT
3. Elements
4. Gambit
5. UOL
6. MYM
7. H2K
8. Fnatic
9. Giants
10. CW
I hope CW get 10th, I've had enough Youngbuck and Unlimited in my LCS forever.
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http://fragbite.se/lol/news/36489/nukeduck-i-had-a-lot-of-time-to-think-about-my-mindset-and-behavior
According to Nukeduck Gambit, Elements, fnatic, MYM and SK are the better teams. Word on Reddit is Horo is killing it in scrims, but we heard that before the epansion tournament as well, when people where saying Ryu is average and Horo is really good.
Appearently fnatic is doing good in scrims too, but tbh I had them on my 2nd highest tier before. So no really surprise here for me. I mean Febiven is prob easy top 3 mid in the region, best support EU handpicked his ADC, so botlane should be fine too. And the Korean in Toplane appearently is really good too.
I'm pretty hyped about the new season. Lots of new talent esp in the mid lane.
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1. Elements
2. SK
3. UOL
4. Gambit
5. ROCCAT
6. MYM
7. CW
8. H2K
9. Fnatic
10. Giants
I think there will be a large gap between the bottom 5 and the top 5 teams.
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I'm going to go very bold here
1. SK - Best toplaner & ADC EU, with the second best jungler and a wildly talented (if unproven) midlaner. It might be too much to ask them to win the first split with such major changes, but on raw talent I think they can do it. One might argue that nRated is the weak link, but I think he is perfectly solid.
2. ROCCAT - Strengthened in every position that needed strengthening. Nukeduck is, in my opinion, as good as Froggen while Woolite/Vander is potentially as strong as the much fabled Rekless/Nyph and FORG1VEN/nRated. Jankos is the best jungler EU, no doubt about it and while Overpow is lane switching, his play style should translate pretty well to top. As long as he can go even, this team really has no obvious weakness.
3. Elements - Certainly no weaker than they were last year, however the competition has become significantly stronger. Very clear weak link in Wickd, and their shotcalling issues and tendency to only play one way (extremely passive) will hurt them I think. Should still come out of the split with a good record, but I don't think they will consistently beat SK or ROCCAT.
4. UOL - Individually, these guys are monsters. PowerOfEvil and Vizicsacsi should match up favourably with anyone in the league. I had significant questions over their ability to play as a team at the level required to do well in LCS however their performance at IEM San Jose has me convinced that while they aren't going to be challenging for the win, they are an outside chance at worlds qualification and should finish high on the LCS table.
5. MYM - Another team that has significantly strengthened their lineup with the addition of respected Korean jungler H0R0. Nisbeth is completely unknown, but the rest of the team are all above average in their roles. I'm picking they will cause a few upsets over the top 3 teams, but will also drop games to teams they shouldn't be losing to due to inconsistency.
6. Gambit - Their performance at IEM Cologne showed some promise, but the same flaws that have held them back for several years now were again on show. Their shotcalling and decision making were outright poor at times, and their tournament win had a lot more to do with the competition being weak than Gambit looking particularly great. NiQ is still the obvious weak link, and while P1noy looked good at IEM, his hyper aggressive style is not likely to work particularly well against the likes of Rekless or FORG1VEN. I think Gambit will still be competitive with the top teams at times, but ultimately will fall short.
7. Fnatic - Scrim results are supposedly surprisingly good, however we all know scrim results mean less than nothing (see: CLG). The two Koreans, Reignover and Huni, are completely unknown and untested however the European core of the team (Febiven/Steelback/Yellowstar) are all strong players. I personally believe Febiven has the potential to equal the likes of Froggen and Nukeduck, and will grow to that level relatively quickly in this split. That being said, communication issues are undoubtedly going to hinder this team's progress.
8. H2K - If they had kept Febiven, they would have been placed much higher than 8th. Ryu is a very good individual player, but the Millenium experiment showed that he is not quite the same player he was in OGN, and additionally that communication is absolutely going to be an issue. The core of the team is still the same, and that could lead to some big upset wins however I can't see them staying clear of the promotion tournament this split.
9. Copenhagen Wolves - A good pickup in the offseason to replace the departing Woolite with Freeze. Nearly a like-for-like swap in terms of talent, however CW's problem has never been in the ADC position. Every other position is extremely weak, and the only thing stopping me from placing them 10th is their collective LCS experience.
10. Giants - Pepiinero is clearly the best player on the team but is nowhere near top class. Every other play on this team is bad, there's really not much more I can say about this team.
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The talk of Fnatic being better than expected is nice to hear. A team with their history should never be a bottom-feeder so while I'm not particularly rooting for them to win, I do hope they're competitive with the top teams
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Its just a shame that an organization that won worlds put so little effort in searching new players to replacing there former players. Korean Imports entering a competition outside Korea has proven to be little or not effective at all. They passed up Tabzz for Steelback, who has little professional gaming experience, and overrall is just not as good compared to other EU adcs. Febvian was not a bad pickup, but i highly doubt anything great will come out of him.
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Average Win Totals:
14.9 - Elements
11.6 - SK Gaming
11.6 - Roccat
10.7 - Unicorns
10.7 - MYM
9.8 - Gambit
7.8 - Wolves
5.9 - H2K
5.0 - Fnatic
2.0 - Giants
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On January 10 2015 08:31 MajorityofOne wrote:
Nice analysis...I feel like I have some tiny bias against SK, I've just seen them fall short so many times that even though logic tells me theyre one of the favorites I cant get behind them winning. Im a fan of FORGIVEN and can definitely see him keeping their bot lane competitive against some of the on-paper stronger duos.
Hard to know what to make of Gambit and Roccat after IEM. If Diamondprox retains the form he had at IEM during the split then that alone makes them a threat, but they've got 3 question marks who looked good at IEM against a pretty weak field. Roccat is really being hyped and Nukeduck probably makes them better, but IEM was pretty ugly.
Fnatic being in total flux makes this such an interesting split. One of the mainstays at the top is in a state of total transition.
1) Elements
2) SK
3) Roccat
4) Gambit (I'm an optimist)
5) MYM
6) H2K
7) Fnatic
8) UOL
9) CW
10) Giants
Bahahahahaha WOW. Yeah I had NO grip on Europe before the split. Elements and Roccat. Oh boy. And is that our LCS finalists Fnatic and UOL in the 7-8 spots, out of the playoffs? MYM 5th? Yeah. You didn't think a list of picks could be this good, but here it is boys.
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On January 10 2015 01:10 Kenpark wrote:
Great read !
I dont think SK will be that strong. Forgiven's biggest plus is his strong laning phase, but you cant be a dominant botlane with nRated as your support. Also I think Watdefox is the weakest of all the new mids minus maybe Pepi. I'd def rate PoE and Febiven over him not to speak of the established mids like Froggen, Selfie and niQ.
They still seem to adapt pretty well to patches and have good macro strategies, so def a top 3 candidate.
My tier list:
Tier 1: SK, Elements, Roccat
Tier 2: Gambit, Fnatic, MyM, UoL
Tier 3: H2K, Giants, CW
Pretty bad as well lol. My SK prediction wasnt so off I guess. And lol thinking niQ is good.
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EPT
