Edward Gaming – The perfect combination of Koreans and Chinese.Winner of MSI by beating the legendary Faker Leblanc.
As for their world performance.It is hard to get a grasp for EDG since the only comparable opposition for them was SKT which quite frankly demolished them and an extremely questionable Bangkok Titans second game when the wildcard was up like 6k gold.
For EDG something broke in that 0-3 loss to LGD.The team that had an amazing record in LPL being only rivalised by SKT in korea and FNC in Europe, plummeted to an LGD surprise.
Fnatic had an amazing start to the tournament by destroying IG in the very first game of worlds.Followed by 2 unconvincingly performances (mainly the yasuo pick and their desire to hard engage on tahm kench with an annie support).Bounced back in day 2 of games with an unorthodox kennen ad carry pick.
Let’s discuss Kennen now:I believe he is a weak solo laner for now but he excels in the support role paired with Kalista.He is extremely zhonya dependent ap carry and his laning phase is not strong enough to assure that he can get his items.He ain’t no Rumble.Kennen NEEDS items.
Notable draft problems
The Koro1 incertitude.
Apparently AmazingJ was much better on the carry toplaner patch hence his inclusion in the decisive IG game which brought EDG into worlds and subsequently the first 6 games.We know Koro1 as an amazing gnar player who fell off a little bit.
We have no idea what is Koro1’s actual level right now or preffered picks.
Potential picks that might appear:
LeBlanc - both midlaners have an insane LB, and seems to have repacked the champion post his distortion buffs.Can be used as a soft counter to Azir.
Ekko – PawN wants him mid Huni wants him toplane.Febi might also learned it to flex
The Kennen – top/mid/adc/support.It’s crazy how much kennen can be flexed by FNC.Although the adc preference is a bit questionable and cheesy I feel it might be able to squeak a game past EDG.
Elise – RO can outright win the game on Elise, while Clearlove is not a slouch.Although both team would be fine trading elise for rek’sai.
Lulu – really dangerous since both Rekkles and Deft play jinx/tristana.I still feel Rekkles is hiding the insane tristana in the back pocket.
Gankplank – will not make it past ban phase although Morde might
I feel Morde is manageable due to his innate weakness as a tower pusher and extremely kiteable
Darius – Huni was not impressive at Darius however both toplaners are known Gnar maestros so picking the hand of noxus might go straight into a difficult lane.
Kalista – Deft’s prime champion in my opinion should not get his hands on it.
Shen and Tahm Kench- both supports but could be flexed.Shen helps out the aggressive proactive style FNC showed in the summer split while tahm kench is proving to be an amazing protect the carry pick.
Jinx – can be an issue paired with kench
Azir – neither pawn nor Febi should play the shurima emperor.Or maybe if they trade for victor.
A lot of issues arise in this pick and ban scenario since the teams are incredible good and contenders for the crown.It will not be easy and extremely powerful picks have to go through.
It’s going to be an extremely close series most likely.
Match-up to watch – Reignover vs Clearlove
The Korean jungler improved tremendously since he came in Europe.He is no longer GameOver…well maybe for the opposition.
Clearlove is an outstanding successful Chinese jungler winning 24 out of 38 tournaments he participated in.
How FNC wins : Abusing the Reignover-Huni synergy that worked so well.
How EDG wins : Smart plays around the Toplaner.( ps. Don’t let him hanging vs teams who have a good jungler-top synergy)
I feel the midlane and bottom lane are pretty close in skills so the game will breakdown to the toplaners with jungle assistance.This being said I give a slight edge to Fnatic (60-40%) and to the fact that they have blue side 3/5 games.Since red side is kinda forced to ban Gp and Morde.