Dubbed the "black horses" of the tournament by Dyrus during a recent interview, the North American team comes into the tournament as the ultimate underdog to the four other regions. People either think they will be absolutely crushed, losing to China in easy 2-0 in the first round before getting eliminated from the tournament by Europe in the loser's match, or that they will be able to maybe sneak a victory here and there, possibly beating Europe and then get destroyed by one of the Asian teams.

If this was TSM vs. Frost or World Elite, the fans predicting they would get crushed might be right, but with the best five North American players all together, facing against equally inexperienced teams when it comes to working together, it's hard to count them out just yet. All five will need to be at their absolute best, working together as a team to overcome players with maybe more mechanical skill, but don't be too surprised if the black horses can cause some havoc in the brackets.

If you showed the Korean roster to anyone three months ago, no one would argue that these are the five best players at their position. Now, in the midst of the semifinals of the Spring season of Champions, there is some doubt if the Korean fans picked the strongest line-up. Madlife and Insec aren't really debatable, continuing their strong play in the Spring season with not too much competition, but the other three positions might not be so clear.

Shy is one of the elite top laners in the world, but his sister team's Flame has been the best player in Champions this season, leading everyone in MVP points heading into the semifinals. Pray, who was recently eliminated from Champions, could have been replaced by Imp, the mechanically gifted ADC who carried his overlooked MVP Ozone team to the semifinals. Finally, Ambition, one of the most stable mid-laners in the world, doesn't look as shiny next to Faker, the rookie of the year in the Spring season, leading his new team SKT #2 to the semifinals.

Flame, Imp and Faker might be the better players than their all-star counterparts, but in my opinion, Korean fans shouldn't be too worried. Flame might be better, but Shy is no downgrade, having more international experience. Picking between possibly the two best top laners in the world is like picking between a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. The same with Pray, having been in the World Champions last year, against Imp who has never played on such a big stage as the one in Shanghai. When it comes to Ambition, he and Faker are polar opposites. If you want huge plays and someone to carry your team, Faker is the one you should pick, but Ambition is the better pick for an all-star game, not needing to be the play maker and happy to hold the mid-lane by himself while Shy, Insec and Pray pick up the kills.

No, seriously, where is Garena? The least talked about region of the five, this will be a great opportunity to see how the Southeast Asia region stacks up against the rest of the world. The Taipei Assassins were able to win the world championship last year, taking down a favored Frost in the finals, but the main reason it was a surprise to some was how little we get to see of the Garena region. While we have coverage for the Chinese and Korean scenes, even having English casts for the Champions league in Korea, the Garena region is a mystery to most.

When it comes to the GPL, we usually just assume that the Assassins beat everyone, the Singapore Sentinels came in a distant second place, and the rest are canon fodder. With how the all-star voting went, the Garena region will be the team most hurt by the rules, only being able to send three players from the Taipei region. Mistake, Toyz and Stanley will lead the team, but their success will come down to the Sentinel players HaRleLuYaR and Chawy. While they would have had a stronger chance of winning the tournament with a team consisting of solely Taipei Assassin and Sniper players, the including of two Sentinel players will give us an idea how strong the SEA league is beyond their championship team.

To the surprise of everyone, the Chinese fans picked a line-up consisting solely of World Elite and Invictus Gaming players, the two most popular teams in China. The favorites of the tournament, playing in front of their home fans, the biggest question will be if the two teams can co-exist long enough to bring home the championship and assure their region another spot in the finals. A few months ago this award wouldn't seem like that big of a deal to iG or WE, both as the heavy favorites to make the World Championships from China, but with the emergence of OMG in the LPL, IG and WE could find themselves in third place of their region come World Championship time.

Led by Misaya, early reports seem to be good for the Chinese team. They started to work together for all-star game a week ago, wanting to put on a good show for the fans in Shanghai. There has been heavy tension between the two teams, iG screaming and throwing their victory in the faces of World Elite after beating them in the StarsWar final, but they seem to be getting along on the surface, posting pictures of PDD and Misaya arm wrestling for the captain spot on the team. It might be laughs and games now, but if they drop the first game of the tournament to North America, will the two emperors of China be able to keep their cool and not blame their counterparts for the loss?

You can't have a LoL article without using the word 'synergy'. Really, any interview with pro players or an article about teams, the word synergy will probably be used fifty times. The most important part of succeeding in League, communicating with your teammates and being on the same page is the key to success when it comes to winning at a high level. The European team, on paper, is basically Gambit Gaming on steroids, replacing Darien with Soaz and Genja with Yellowpete, but the their biggest problem of the entire tournament comes down to if the team can communicate well enough to win.

AlexIch and Edward should be alright communicating with their new allies, but Diamondprox might have a problem when it comes to talking to his top laner and ADC. I'm sure they will have code words or simple English to tell Diamond when to gank or what to do, but the language barrier is one issue that Europe and SEA that the other three regions do not. While the Koreans speak Korean, Chinese speak Chinese, and the North Americans speak English, SEA and Europe will need to do their best to overcome the problems they have with various countries representing their teams.

One of the key factors going into these games will be the training and research each region will have managed to accrue before their big games. The Chinese team seems particularly well positioned. With the entire squad coming only from WE and iG, Team China All-Stars have been able to use their team composition advantage to scrim full rosters from other Chinese teams in the LPL. If reports are to be believed, they have been able to put up a fierce fight against the likes of a full, co-ordinated OMG roster who are currently one of the top 3 teams in China.

That is not to say that all hope is lost however. The EU Team has had much time to scrim other full EU lineups and seem to be going strong. The NA team have the harsh taskmaster of Liquid112 to keep them in line even when they miss their plane flight and the Korean All-Star team has even played exhibition matches against the secondary Korean All-Star team broadcast on OGN (and kindly rebroadcast by MonteCristo). If there's one thing to be sure, it's that none of these teams are taking this lightly.

The All-Star Games will be played on the Frejlord Patch (v 3.06) with Trundle, Lissandra and Sejuani disabled. While we won't get to see the latest champion to the League in action, that's not to say this patch won't bring with it its own surprises. For one, the mana nerfs to Lulu will mean she has slightly less dominance in lane while the buffs to Quinn mean that there is the possibility of players using her as a counter pick as players such as Misaya have been experimenting with her. But the biggest change of all will be the Zed buffs in this patch, which were rapidly followed by a string of nerfs in the most recent patch. Expect Zed to be constantly fought over in the pick/ban phase, while teams also fight over the power of Rumble and Twisted Fate to take advantage of their power one last time before the most recent nerf patch comes into effect.

The All-Stars Event will also feature a competition for each role (Top, Mid, Jungle and Duo Lane). While details are still yet to be released, it seems that we may yet get to see a continuation of the 1v1 duel that Wickd and sOAZ played to determine who the best EU top laner was. Have you ever wondered if Doublelift was overrated compared to Asian AD Carries? Does your room mate disagree that Misaya is clearly miles above everyone else and you want to put him in his place? Do you just love to watch trash talk? Boy, has Riot got the right event for you!

But while we focus on the star players that make up the All-Stars, let us not forget about the coaches. One of the most overlooked roles on a team, they have perhaps the most important role on a team. They rarely get any screen time, few people even know their names, and they almost never get any credit. But coachs are one of the most important roles any team can have. Coaches are there for more than moral support, theroycrafting or researching other teams. Coaches are there to teach players things they could never learn themselves or never recognise themselves. Dignitas recently creditted ODEE with showing them where the breakdowns in communication in-game where occurring and how to fix it. When WE won IPL5, they thanked their coach for spotting the flaws in their game they were overlooking from tunnel-vision. Even things as minor as better hotkey control are due to a coach's guidance.

Fans all around the world celebrating their favourite players and teams.

In every way shape and form.


What more do I need to say?

The All-Stars Event starts at 05:00 GMT (+00:00) (log into TL to see the time in your local time). Tune in and watch all five regions go head to head!