EPT
We are hurtling towards Worlds at the speed of light, but before that, the six best teams from each of their respective regions will rendezvous in Shanghai for a shot at becoming the champions of the second Mid-Season Invitational.
A lot has changed since the last MSI. Korea has rebuilt off their losses and once again solidified themselves as the best region in the world. Meanwhile, it seems like an age since EDG lifted the MSI trophy as China took hit after hit at international events. Taiwan has continued its steady climb towards recognition and Europe has grown bold in its victories. While North America rallies towards another fierce battle, the International Wildcard scene sends forth another sheep looking to find its carnivorous touch. These are the views from the six (teams in Shanghai).
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The Red King Returns
After SKT’s successful tour for world domination, they’d be forgiven for taking the early season lightly. Losing Marin to LGD was a blow, but their acquisition of former Najin e-mFire top laner Duke promised to make their transition as smooth as possible. However, SKT were a mere shadow of their former selves in the early season. None of their 2015 strengths appeared to have transferred over to their new roster, as they looked out of sync. Only when they played their quintessential 'Protect the Bang' composition did they resemble a team. Something had to change, and once again it was Bengi who was dropped for the second Spring season in as many years.
Blank’s arrival was unremarkable, to say the least, but when SKT went into IEM Katowice at their lowest place in the season, he finally sprung to life. He followed up his IEM exploits with some solid performances, helping SKT get back into playoff contentions. While they were never outright favorites in any of their matches, they took down Jin Air, KT Rolster and the ROX Tigers with some of their best performances to clinch their spot at MSI.
Star Player: Bang
Oh, how the times have changed. For so long it was Faker carrying the banner for SKT, and while he remains a big part of the team, he’s no longer the linchpin of the SKT team. For sure, there have been periods where Faker was not as dominant as another member of SKT, but never for this long, nor ever at this magnitude.
Bang’s climb to the top has been a long time coming. He was always a consistent player with some highlight reels of his own, but on last year’s iteration of SKT, he was third in line to carry a game. When it was required of him, he always had the necessary skill to carry games. His Lucian performance versus CJ Entus in the Spring semifinals comes to mind, but this year he has well and truly been the star of the side.
When the chips are down, it’s Bang who SKT often call on to lead them to victory, and that might be the greatest praise of all.
His Ezreal is among the best in the world, and his Kalista and Lucian have been feared for over a year now. Ever since the days of SKT T1 #2, no matter how dire things would appear there was always the hope that Faker could turn the game around with an exemplary play. And while that remains a possibility, Faker is no longer the first name that comes to mind when a game winning play is required. Instead, when the chips are down, it’s Bang who SKT often call on to lead them to victory, and that might be the greatest praise of all.
Weak link: The Top Side
Much of SKT’s problems have been around the changes on the top side of the map. Marin was the main shot caller of the team last year, and Bengi built his gameplay off a staple of Rek’sai, Gragas, and Elise. With Marin no longer on the team, and the jungle meta shifting away from a supportive playstyle, Bengi also had to make way for new blood. While there were definite growing pains, slowly but surely, Blank has developed into a respectable jungler. He’s not perfect, though. He could learn a thing or two from Bengi when it comes to his pathing, but he is proficient on the meta carry junglers, and that’s ensured he remains ahead of Bengi in the pecking order, at least until the meta shifts again.
Duke has been somewhat of an enigma on SKT. At times, he's appeared lost within the team; unable to create the right teleport engages, and at other times, he’s shown glimpses of his impressive form on Najin. Make no mistake, however, when SKT are soaring at their highest, it's Duke leading the charge. Even in the LCK Final against ROX, Duke showed both sides of his play as in game two he almost singlehandedly lost SKT the game after a wayward Poppy ultimate landed Pray’s Ezreal behind his carries just as SKT were finally regaining control of the game.Then in the next game, he pulled off a sublime Poppy ultimate, removing Pray from the team fight and singlehandedly winning SKT the game.
Prediction
It would be an upset, to say the least if SKT were to lose again at MSI. While Korea was bouncing back from the loss of dozens of their players last year, this year they come into MSI as firm favorites. With their performance in the LCK Finals, I’m of the firm belief that SKT will win MSI fairly convincingly, but it won’t be as easy a run as some might expect.
The Reborn Pack Hunts
Flash Wolves spent the entirety of the regular season second to the dominant AHQ Esports Club. They had some teething issues coming into the new split. They swapped between two top laners in MMD and Rins and also failed in their attempt to integrate a new ADC into the roster in Breeze. Ultimately, Flash Wolves settled on the more conservative, low economy MMD rather than the higher maintenance Rins. With the roster stabilized the team started to find good form in the second half of the regular season going on a ten game winning streak and finishing the regular season in second place. Still, in spite of the second place finish, there were expectations that Flash Wolves could win the playoffs even over the dominant 25-3 AHQ.
What happened in the playoffs, however, no one expected. Flash Wolves didn’t merely win the playoffs; they comprehensively crushed it. They went undefeated as Machi and AHQ put up little to no resistance. Flash Wolves secured their spot at the MSI as the definitive best team in the LMS.
Key player: Karsa
Karsa was the biggest reason for the Flash Wolves' dominance. He didn’t merely beat Taizan and Mountain; he thoroughly crushed them. The high damage carry jungle meta suited Karsa perfectly as he continually read and shut down any ganks from the other junglers giving Flash Wolves unassailable leads that they could snowball into victory.
With the meta being so jungle dependant Karsa’s performance will be key. He has proven that he is a world-class jungler, but Taizan is a rookie while Mountain has always been a weak jungler that was particularly neutered when the meta shifted away from his favored tank junglers. With the likes of Trick and Blank being stronger and more suited to the current jungle playstyle at MSI, it’ll be a much more significant test of Karsa’s skill.
While his favored champion of Rek’Sai isn't the strongest champion in the meta, coming into MSI the rest of the jungle pool is favorable for him. Nidalee and Elise are his second most played champions in his career, and he demonstrated strong Graves and Kindred performances notably going 14/2/8 on Graves against Machi in the playoffs.
What may be an issue though is that the meta favors farming, games can pivot off simply which jungler had the more efficient jungle route to maximize their farm. Karsa isn’t particularly inclined towards that playstyle often eschewing farm for ganks and counter ganks. This worked well against domestic junglers where he has more familiarity with their routes and playstyles but against international junglers he’s not as familiar with it’s possible that his more risky approach could backfire. Karsa can be the driving force which takes Flash Wolves far into this tournament, but such a risky playstyle can go the other way. Failed attempts to desperately fish for ganks can cause him to fall behind the more farm oriented likes of Trick and Blank.
Point of concern: Side lanes
Flash Wolves have grown in many ways. Maple, SwordArt, and Karsa continue to grow as players developing their approach to the game. However, they remain unable to rid themselves of the eternal bugbear that gnaws at them which is their complete lack of side lane pressure. Flash Wolves have been forced to take some drastic approaches to cover up their side lanes to the point of trading inhibitors in lane swaps so MMD can freeze while NL can remain grouped to push lanes.
Flash Wolves have always been good at covering up this issue, whether through intentional sacrifices to get their strengths ahead or by having Maple and SwordArt roam to protect their side lanes. The issue is that it makes them predictable. Flash Wolves’ early game objectives are always the same.
To prop up their side lanes, Maple is often left on his own to minimize the early game resources he takes away from supporting the side lanes. In the LMS where Maple is dominant, this is no issue. He outclasses the other mids and therefore doesn’t need assistance. But coming into MSI with Faker and Perkz this isn’t as likely to happen. Faker and Perkz are both incredibly strong laners who have stable side lanes meaning that they can call on the help of their team to pressure the isolated Maple.
In the bot lane, NL remains. While improved, his laning is sub-par, and his positioning remains suspect. Even as Flash Wolves dominated the rest of the map in the playoffs, he continued to get caught. As always there’s the occasional spark of brilliance from NL but it remains mired in a swamp of mispositioning and poor judgment.
Expectations
The greatest benefit for Flash Wolves coming into MSI is that their biggest competition in G2 Esports will be coming into with limited practice. Without scrim partners available in Europe, G2 opted to take a break instead of preparing for MSI. Meanwhile, Flash Wolves were able to keep practicing as there were LMS teams still around during the off-season to scrim with. A fully practiced G2 would be a serious threat to Flash Wolves and may even be favored against them but as it stands it’s easier to side with the team that’s had the edge in preparation.
With that in mind, a run for second place is realistic for Flash Wolves. However, the chances of Flash Wolves winning it all seem remote. SKT should have few issues with Flash Wolves unless some miraculous performance from Karsa leads them to victory. The best Flash Wolves should hope for is a distant second to SKT.
Cinderella At The Ball
In just one split G2 went from a challenger team to representing Europe at the MSI. It’s a Cinderella story that very few saw coming. A roster that seemed to be born to play together and a player turned coach looking to prove himself to the world. Their rise has been meteoric, and they don’t look like slowing down.
Their roster on paper looked solid enough to be an also-ran, but they could do no wrong as they tore up the EU LCS and landed themselves in first place after the regular season. On the back of some impressive performances from Trick and Perkz, they took down Fnatic and followed that up with a dismantling of a rampaging Origen squad. Cinderella has made it to the ball but is the clock about to hit midnight?
Star Player: Trick
Trick began his career as an underling to Ambition on CJ Entus. His time on the squad was fairly uneventful as he had very few opportunities to prove himself. However, he has shone brightly with his new found freedom on G2, as he leads the pace for the team’s decimating early game. He is adept on several of the meta carry junglers with his Nidalee almost always forcing a ban and his Graves proving to be deadly. He’s nowhere nearly as proficient on Kindred, but he recently picked up the champion and is no doubt working to add her to his repertoire.
Wherever Trick goes it seems as though trouble seems to follow him as he hacks his way through the jungle. He has the most kills of any jungler in the League as well as the highest gold share. Make no mistake, when G2 are rolling, it’s Trick leading the charge and that’s when they’re at their most deadly.
A Cause For Concern
G2’s lack of practice in the lead up to this tournament has been painfully obvious. While other teams found practice in their respective regions, G2 chose to take a vacation, and that could come back to bite them. Several patches have passed since G2 last played and they’ll need to adapt quickly if they are to stand a chance at MSI.
Another thing to note is whether their playstyle is effective against superior opponents. Often, G2 relies on both the mechanical prowess of their players and their ability to out skirmish their opposition. At MSI, both Trick and Perkz will face far tougher opposition than they did in their region. It’s apparent that G2’s strengths lineup with other team’s strengths and it will be interesting to see how Trick and Perkz matchup against other teams and whether G2 can succeed when their star players aren’t as comfortable.
Prediction
Despite these concerns we can’t just ignore a split's worth of evidence that proves G2 are a strong team. Their most interesting matchup comes in the form of Flash Wolves who mirror G2 in their strengths and weaknesses and will very likely be the team that they’ll have to take down if they want to go any further in the tournament. However, simply off of their lack of practice I will tip the Flash Wolves to pip them at the finish line leaving them with only a bronze medal in this tournament.
What Is Dead May Never Die
Royal Never Give Up has seemingly had two different seasons. One, initially, was focused on MLXG’s enormous pressure on the enemy jungler. Acting as a battle ward, MLXG allowed RNG to dominate early skirmishes, snowballing towards a swift Baron take and the end of the game. However, after getting upset by Fnatic’s Rift Herald usage at IEM Katowice, RNG has returned to China and found out that using one strategy is just not enough.
Funnily enough, the point of stabilization came from the most unexpected place. Subbing underperforming Wuxx for one of the most historied AD Carries in LPL history, NaMei, resulted in RNG rebounding and getting enough victories to secure first place in Group B. After scrapping a victory over World Elite, RNG, with Wuxx back, dominated EDward Gaming in finals 3-1, courtesy of Xiaohu completely outperforming PawN. Pawn simply couldn't match Xiaohu on his signature Azir, Lissandra, and Leblanc. With their victory, RNG secured NaMei's fourth LPL title and are eager to get their revenge on the rest of the world in Shanghai this week.
Key Player: xiaohu
Once known as Angelbeats, xiaohu was always hailed as one of the finest talents in China. Right now it seems like xiaohu is entering the point of his prime. Going from ravaging ADCs all across Summoner’s Rift on Leblanc to controlling the field on Azir and Ryze to his absolutely stunning engages on Lissandra, xiaohu is a force to be reckoned with. He dominated the LPL playoffs by decimating his lane opponents and then leading his to victory in team fights.
Banning out xiaohu might look solid on paper, but giving MLXG and Looper complete freedom in pick/bans could come back to bite teams. Xiaohu is the playmaker for RNG, and he can do a lot with little and even if you ban out three champions and take the fourth, he can still default to nearly anything else in the pool and then make you regret your decisions.
His matchups against Perkz and Maple are likely going to be highlights of the tournament to find out the most worthy challenger to Faker at MSI. The Shanghai crowd will support the Chinese talent until the end, and it’s about time for a Chinese team to make a statement and lead the Mainland to the top once again.
The Hidden Trap: Lane Swapping
RNG’s lane swapping has improved drastically since Katowice, but their macro play still looked better with NaMei in the starting five. Assuming that Wuxx is going to start simply by being the more dangerous ADC from those two, some of RNG decisions might be weaker macro-wise than the better lane swapping teams at MSI.
Watch out for Rift Herald and MLXG’s pressuring the map with the buff advantage. RNG have learned from their past mistakes at IEM Katowice, and they'll be looking to punish teams that overlook them.
Prediction
After the 5.18 disaster at Worlds followed by a series of poor performances at IEM, most experts have become pretty careful in predicting Chinese teams overall placements.
Royal Never Give Up’s drastic improvement in lane swap, Mlxg’s unpredictability and their ability to find proper team fights across the map look good on paper.
Now Mata’s squad looks poised to finish second. Their convincing victory against EDG in finals looked pretty solid, which gives me hope. Getting into playoffs shouldn’t be an issue and assuming that RNG are going to get 6-7 victories in the best-of-one round robin, they’re going to dodge SK Telecom T1 in the semifinals for an appearance in the Final. That's where their run will end, however, as they stand next to no chance of beating SKT.
The Bruised Warrior Rises
At the beginning of the season, it was so easy to discredit Counter Logic Gaming as a 4th or 5th place team. With other teams consolidating talent and the loss Pobelter and Doublelift, it seemed CLG was set to continue spiraling downwards after a poor Worlds performance. The new blood, Huhi, and Stixxay were considered downgrades in every sense of the word. But after a few rough starts at the beginning of the season, CLG managed to find some cohesion, going 13-5 in the Spring Split with a first round bye going into playoffs.
Their playoffs weren’t any easier than their split, as they faced off against Team Liquid, defeating them in a hard fought five game series. After Team SoloMid had swept Immortals in an unexpected and surprisingly decisive victory, CLG was once again set to clash with their old rivals in TSM. With games that could have gone either way, CLG once again pulled out the victory with another five-game series, emerging 3-2 victors and booking their place at MSI.
Star Player: aphromoo
The rock of CLG, aphromoo has been a diverse and capable player not only in this current season but in previous seasons as well. In the Spring split as well as playoffs, aphromoo proved again and again that he was able to provide incredible map pressure and roams while still helping Stixxay out in lane. His Alistar is respected enough to either be banned or picked away from him, and his Bard and Morgana are his most played from the Spring split, proving to suit their disengage/pick comp style well. The captain of CLG is able to adapt playstyles on the fly and create the win conditions needed for his team to succeed in the long run. And as long as the rest of the team listens to his calls and his plays, they should make a strong showing of themselves.
Player to Watch: Xmithie
It’s always easy to find mistakes in a jungler's play, but sometimes the jungler is actually at fault. Such is the case with CLG for when they are doing well; Xmithie does well because he has the support of aphromoo along with being able to apply significant pressure to his laners. However, when he gets put behind, or the team is put behind, he almost always flounders, never quite being in the right position. His two most played champions are Elise and Rek’sai, both of which have a decent place in the meta if he can protect his jungle and gank his lanes appropriately.
A great pocket pick for him is his Nidalee, and it's a champion that he’s been able to exert extreme amounts of pressure with. If he relies on his team and is careful of his positioning, Xmithie will be able to take control of not only his jungle, but the opposing jungler as well. Unfortunately, for Xmithie, he's up against some of the best junglers in the world, and the meta favors them far more than it favors him at the moment. MLXG, Karsa, Trick and even Blank are all performing, and Xmithie will have to work hard to stay relevant, or CLG could find themselves knocked out in the group stage once again.
Flavour of the Month: Stixxay
When a player goes off like Stixxay did, it’s either a trip to the moon or a fizzled out streak. Since it’s just the start of this streak, the entire fan base will be watching Stixxay with careful eyes to see if he’ll keep up his momentum, carrying his success from the final games versus TSM straight into MSI. If he's able to correct his positional errors, he should be able to perform on his comfort picks like Lucian, Caitlyn, and even Tristana. Let’s just hope his nerves don’t fizzle out as this is only the second time he's been on an international stage.
Prediction
Against some strong opposition in Royal Never Give Up and SKT Telecom, CLG has their work cut out for them. There’s also a potential tilt factor against Flash Wolves as they face off against them for the first time after FW knocked them out of Worlds, but I have a strong sense that CLG will finish a solid 3rd behind RNG and SKT.
The Struggle of the Runt
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gs2oZcr.jpg)
Supermassive won TCL despite finishing just third in the regular season, by beating Team Turquality, Team Aurora, and Beşiktaş.Oyun Hizmetleri to secure the place at International Wild Card Invitational.
In Mexico City, the Naru-led team advanced into the semifinals after a cutthroat best of one round robin where they dropped games to other favorites, INTZ e-sports, as well as the Saigon Jokers. They managed to exact their revenge on the Jokers in the semi-finals, however, sweeping them aside in a 3-0 and followed that up with a convincing win against Hard Random 3-1 in the finals to secure the second straight MSI spot for the TCL. Thaldrin and Dumbledoge are going to participate in their second MSI in a row as well while it’s the first international tournament for FabFabulous and Naru since their unfortunate trip to the World Championships in 2014.
Key Player: Naru
Consistently high on the EUW Challenger ladder, Naru has been the best mid laner in Turkey for a few seasons now. Some challengers appear here and there, but it’s rarely enough to shatter Naru’s reign of terror. From the zone control mages, Azir, and Lissandra, to the fearsome assassins LeBlanc and Kassadin - Naru can deliver on a plethora of champions and styles.
Naru’s decision making is pretty subpar, though, which gives his enemies openings to use against him. Considering that he’s going against the finest mid laners in the world in Faker, xiaohu, Perkz, and Maple, even Huhi will be a tough challenge for Supermassive's fearless mid laner.
But he’s the only hope.
Points of Concern: Their Early Game
Simply put, Supermassive isn't a strong early game team. Naru and Achuu usually want to scale; Thaldrin is playing tanks, and Stomaged prefers junglers like Kindred - who wants to get her marks going as soon as possible. That give enemy teams freedom to exploit, and while the TCL is pretty forgiving, the likes of RNG, SKT T1, FW, G2 or CLG won’t let Supermassive run away with their “please, don’t touch us for 20 minutes” comps at all.
Even INTZ didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
Prediction
Supermassive will go 0-10
This isn't a bold prediction, and despite paiN Gaming showing, that the very best wildcard teams might have enough powder to snatch some victories from the weaker premier regions' squads, Supermassive looks outclassed everywhere at MSI. And while they looked solid enough to win IWCI, Hard Random, INTZ, and even Saigon Jokers showed Supermassive’s black holes to the entire world.
Thanks for participating!
In just one split G2 went from a challenger team to representing Europe at the MSI. It’s a Cinderella story that very few saw coming. A roster that seemed to be born to play together and a player turned coach looking to prove himself to the world. Their rise has been meteoric, and they don’t look like slowing down.
Their roster on paper looked solid enough to be an also-ran, but they could do no wrong as they tore up the EU LCS and landed themselves in first place after the regular season. On the back of some impressive performances from Trick and Perkz, they took down Fnatic and followed that up with a dismantling of a rampaging Origen squad. Cinderella has made it to the ball but is the clock about to hit midnight?
Star Player: Trick
Trick began his career as an underling to Ambition on CJ Entus. His time on the squad was fairly uneventful as he had very few opportunities to prove himself. However, he has shone brightly with his new found freedom on G2, as he leads the pace for the team’s decimating early game. He is adept on several of the meta carry junglers with his Nidalee almost always forcing a ban and his Graves proving to be deadly. He’s nowhere nearly as proficient on Kindred, but he recently picked up the champion and is no doubt working to add her to his repertoire.
Wherever Trick goes it seems as though trouble seems to follow him as he hacks his way through the jungle. He has the most kills of any jungler in the League as well as the highest gold share. Make no mistake, when G2 are rolling, it’s Trick leading the charge and that’s when they’re at their most deadly.
A Cause For Concern
G2’s lack of practice in the lead up to this tournament has been painfully obvious. While other teams found practice in their respective regions, G2 chose to take a vacation, and that could come back to bite them. Several patches have passed since G2 last played and they’ll need to adapt quickly if they are to stand a chance at MSI.
Another thing to note is whether their playstyle is effective against superior opponents. Often, G2 relies on both the mechanical prowess of their players and their ability to out skirmish their opposition. At MSI, both Trick and Perkz will face far tougher opposition than they did in their region. It’s apparent that G2’s strengths lineup with other team’s strengths and it will be interesting to see how Trick and Perkz matchup against other teams and whether G2 can succeed when their star players aren’t as comfortable.
Prediction
Despite these concerns we can’t just ignore a split's worth of evidence that proves G2 are a strong team. Their most interesting matchup comes in the form of Flash Wolves who mirror G2 in their strengths and weaknesses and will very likely be the team that they’ll have to take down if they want to go any further in the tournament. However, simply off of their lack of practice I will tip the Flash Wolves to pip them at the finish line leaving them with only a bronze medal in this tournament.
Royal Never Give Up has seemingly had two different seasons. One, initially, was focused on MLXG’s enormous pressure on the enemy jungler. Acting as a battle ward, MLXG allowed RNG to dominate early skirmishes, snowballing towards a swift Baron take and the end of the game. However, after getting upset by Fnatic’s Rift Herald usage at IEM Katowice, RNG has returned to China and found out that using one strategy is just not enough.
Funnily enough, the point of stabilization came from the most unexpected place. Subbing underperforming Wuxx for one of the most historied AD Carries in LPL history, NaMei, resulted in RNG rebounding and getting enough victories to secure first place in Group B. After scrapping a victory over World Elite, RNG, with Wuxx back, dominated EDward Gaming in finals 3-1, courtesy of Xiaohu completely outperforming PawN. Pawn simply couldn't match Xiaohu on his signature Azir, Lissandra, and Leblanc. With their victory, RNG secured NaMei's fourth LPL title and are eager to get their revenge on the rest of the world in Shanghai this week.
Key Player: xiaohu
Once known as Angelbeats, xiaohu was always hailed as one of the finest talents in China. Right now it seems like xiaohu is entering the point of his prime. Going from ravaging ADCs all across Summoner’s Rift on Leblanc to controlling the field on Azir and Ryze to his absolutely stunning engages on Lissandra, xiaohu is a force to be reckoned with. He dominated the LPL playoffs by decimating his lane opponents and then leading his to victory in team fights.
Banning out xiaohu might look solid on paper, but giving MLXG and Looper complete freedom in pick/bans could come back to bite teams. Xiaohu is the playmaker for RNG, and he can do a lot with little and even if you ban out three champions and take the fourth, he can still default to nearly anything else in the pool and then make you regret your decisions.
His matchups against Perkz and Maple are likely going to be highlights of the tournament to find out the most worthy challenger to Faker at MSI. The Shanghai crowd will support the Chinese talent until the end, and it’s about time for a Chinese team to make a statement and lead the Mainland to the top once again.
The Hidden Trap: Lane Swapping
RNG’s lane swapping has improved drastically since Katowice, but their macro play still looked better with NaMei in the starting five. Assuming that Wuxx is going to start simply by being the more dangerous ADC from those two, some of RNG decisions might be weaker macro-wise than the better lane swapping teams at MSI.
Watch out for Rift Herald and MLXG’s pressuring the map with the buff advantage. RNG have learned from their past mistakes at IEM Katowice, and they'll be looking to punish teams that overlook them.
Prediction
After the 5.18 disaster at Worlds followed by a series of poor performances at IEM, most experts have become pretty careful in predicting Chinese teams overall placements.
Royal Never Give Up’s drastic improvement in lane swap, Mlxg’s unpredictability and their ability to find proper team fights across the map look good on paper.
Now Mata’s squad looks poised to finish second. Their convincing victory against EDG in finals looked pretty solid, which gives me hope. Getting into playoffs shouldn’t be an issue and assuming that RNG are going to get 6-7 victories in the best-of-one round robin, they’re going to dodge SK Telecom T1 in the semifinals for an appearance in the Final. That's where their run will end, however, as they stand next to no chance of beating SKT.
At the beginning of the season, it was so easy to discredit Counter Logic Gaming as a 4th or 5th place team. With other teams consolidating talent and the loss Pobelter and Doublelift, it seemed CLG was set to continue spiraling downwards after a poor Worlds performance. The new blood, Huhi, and Stixxay were considered downgrades in every sense of the word. But after a few rough starts at the beginning of the season, CLG managed to find some cohesion, going 13-5 in the Spring Split with a first round bye going into playoffs.
Their playoffs weren’t any easier than their split, as they faced off against Team Liquid, defeating them in a hard fought five game series. After Team SoloMid had swept Immortals in an unexpected and surprisingly decisive victory, CLG was once again set to clash with their old rivals in TSM. With games that could have gone either way, CLG once again pulled out the victory with another five-game series, emerging 3-2 victors and booking their place at MSI.
Star Player: aphromoo
The rock of CLG, aphromoo has been a diverse and capable player not only in this current season but in previous seasons as well. In the Spring split as well as playoffs, aphromoo proved again and again that he was able to provide incredible map pressure and roams while still helping Stixxay out in lane. His Alistar is respected enough to either be banned or picked away from him, and his Bard and Morgana are his most played from the Spring split, proving to suit their disengage/pick comp style well. The captain of CLG is able to adapt playstyles on the fly and create the win conditions needed for his team to succeed in the long run. And as long as the rest of the team listens to his calls and his plays, they should make a strong showing of themselves.
Player to Watch: Xmithie
It’s always easy to find mistakes in a jungler's play, but sometimes the jungler is actually at fault. Such is the case with CLG for when they are doing well; Xmithie does well because he has the support of aphromoo along with being able to apply significant pressure to his laners. However, when he gets put behind, or the team is put behind, he almost always flounders, never quite being in the right position. His two most played champions are Elise and Rek’sai, both of which have a decent place in the meta if he can protect his jungle and gank his lanes appropriately.
A great pocket pick for him is his Nidalee, and it's a champion that he’s been able to exert extreme amounts of pressure with. If he relies on his team and is careful of his positioning, Xmithie will be able to take control of not only his jungle, but the opposing jungler as well. Unfortunately, for Xmithie, he's up against some of the best junglers in the world, and the meta favors them far more than it favors him at the moment. MLXG, Karsa, Trick and even Blank are all performing, and Xmithie will have to work hard to stay relevant, or CLG could find themselves knocked out in the group stage once again.
Flavour of the Month: Stixxay
When a player goes off like Stixxay did, it’s either a trip to the moon or a fizzled out streak. Since it’s just the start of this streak, the entire fan base will be watching Stixxay with careful eyes to see if he’ll keep up his momentum, carrying his success from the final games versus TSM straight into MSI. If he's able to correct his positional errors, he should be able to perform on his comfort picks like Lucian, Caitlyn, and even Tristana. Let’s just hope his nerves don’t fizzle out as this is only the second time he's been on an international stage.
Prediction
Against some strong opposition in Royal Never Give Up and SKT Telecom, CLG has their work cut out for them. There’s also a potential tilt factor against Flash Wolves as they face off against them for the first time after FW knocked them out of Worlds, but I have a strong sense that CLG will finish a solid 3rd behind RNG and SKT.
Supermassive won TCL despite finishing just third in the regular season, by beating Team Turquality, Team Aurora, and Beşiktaş.Oyun Hizmetleri to secure the place at International Wild Card Invitational.
In Mexico City, the Naru-led team advanced into the semifinals after a cutthroat best of one round robin where they dropped games to other favorites, INTZ e-sports, as well as the Saigon Jokers. They managed to exact their revenge on the Jokers in the semi-finals, however, sweeping them aside in a 3-0 and followed that up with a convincing win against Hard Random 3-1 in the finals to secure the second straight MSI spot for the TCL. Thaldrin and Dumbledoge are going to participate in their second MSI in a row as well while it’s the first international tournament for FabFabulous and Naru since their unfortunate trip to the World Championships in 2014.
Key Player: Naru
Consistently high on the EUW Challenger ladder, Naru has been the best mid laner in Turkey for a few seasons now. Some challengers appear here and there, but it’s rarely enough to shatter Naru’s reign of terror. From the zone control mages, Azir, and Lissandra, to the fearsome assassins LeBlanc and Kassadin - Naru can deliver on a plethora of champions and styles.
Naru’s decision making is pretty subpar, though, which gives his enemies openings to use against him. Considering that he’s going against the finest mid laners in the world in Faker, xiaohu, Perkz, and Maple, even Huhi will be a tough challenge for Supermassive's fearless mid laner.
But he’s the only hope.
Points of Concern: Their Early Game
Simply put, Supermassive isn't a strong early game team. Naru and Achuu usually want to scale; Thaldrin is playing tanks, and Stomaged prefers junglers like Kindred - who wants to get her marks going as soon as possible. That give enemy teams freedom to exploit, and while the TCL is pretty forgiving, the likes of RNG, SKT T1, FW, G2 or CLG won’t let Supermassive run away with their “please, don’t touch us for 20 minutes” comps at all.
Even INTZ didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
Prediction
Supermassive will go 0-10
This isn't a bold prediction, and despite paiN Gaming showing, that the very best wildcard teams might have enough powder to snatch some victories from the weaker premier regions' squads, Supermassive looks outclassed everywhere at MSI. And while they looked solid enough to win IWCI, Hard Random, INTZ, and even Saigon Jokers showed Supermassive’s black holes to the entire world.
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