As with any hype during the calm before the storm, analysts, journalists, and fans discussed their thoughts and opinions of how Worlds would play out. While some of those held true to the thoughts of the community, there were quite a few things that really stood out. We'll dive into four of those things that really threw us off.
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Clash of styles / adaptation
When the analyst desk went on about how the top teams "downloaded" the knowledge of other teams and made jokes on Faker's hugs stealing the skills of his foes, this wasn't far from the truth. One of the most exciting things about the scarcity of international competition is to see the playstyles of all regions clashing together (Read more on that here). The key thing we've noticed is that the adaptability of these world class teams are incredible; bashing heads with one ideal playstyle per region was not going to fly.
Unlike the Season 2 World Championships, we saw serious increases of aggression coming out from every region. The variety of which teams played outside of their respective championship league was remarkable. The European teams were trying their hand at split pushing to counter teams that weren't European, North Americans were building around teamfighting and attempting Korean style pick compositions, and The Koreans were quick to adapt China's three-man dive and early proxying into their repertoire.
The region that seemed to alter their playstyle the least were the Chinese, who had a playstyle that turned out to be very powerful right off the bat. However, this isn't to say that they lack variety. The teams hailing from LPL are already known to have some of the strangest champion picks, with Royal Club being the most guilty representation of that. Despite this, Royal Club, aside from a few odd picks here and there, picked relatively standard in their important matches. This goes to show that their standard play is to be feared and any opinion of them being a niche team that relies solely on cheese and confusing their opponents is silenced.
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PHOTO - lol178.com
Miscalculated bot lane performance
It's safe to say that practically all predictions for bottom lane performance (bar Uzi and Tabe) were miscalculated. In the semi-finals where NaJin Black Sword faced against SKT T1, most had assumed that SKT T1 was the stronger team since we haven't seen NaJin Black Sword play in Korea outside of NLB this season. Their supposed crutch was going to be Pray and Cain, both of whom were caught off guard by the strength of Piglet and Mandu coming into this tournament. With the focal point set on Faker and occasionally Bengi, this was not expected. Now, the team looks nearly invincible and without a weak point to abuse; who knows how Royal Club are going to fare against them.
The second most shocking bottom lane performance would probably be the European teams heading in from Group B. Even though Genja scored the highest KDA (5.2) on his team, the same could not be said for his support, Voidle. Genja made a powerful showing in teamfights and innovated builds no doubt, continuing his use of strange builds and making it work for the team. Ultimately, he lost his lane many of the times to other teams in the tournament. A lot of this can be attributed to Voidle, who died 15 times over the course of three games and had only played Sona for the entirety of the tournament.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Fnatic's bottom lane of Puszu and Yellowstar, only troubled by Royal Club's duo of Uzi and Tabe. A lot of people had tunneled on how fantastic Rekkles' performance was with Fnatic in the prior season. The hype was high due to him nearing the age of legality to participate in the LCS. However, Puszu has shown that he wants to maintain his spot on the roster and has exceeded all expectations in terms of performance. While not always showing the highest farm, Puszu's teamfight performance has been by far the most impactful of any AD carry. Yellowstar has made a fantastic transition from AD Carry to support as well.
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Royal Club's lane domination over Fnatic
While Fnatic's forte is certainly placed in their teamfighting ability as well as their excellent assassinations between solo laners, we've seen them do very well against their counterparts in the European LCS, as well as the prior matches in the tournament. When Europe is already considered the region to allegedly contain the best mids and xPeke outperforms those mid laners, you have an expectation that simply wasn't met against Royal Club and one that threw everyone off.
In a similar fashion to the underestimation of Mandu and Piglet, the focal point for Royal Club was in the bottom lane instead of the middle lane. No one knew the potential of Whit3Zz' Orianna in the middle lane. It wasn't simply xPeke getting beaten in lane early on; he was getting devastated, with nearly a double farm advantage for Royal Club's midlaner. xPeke even ended up dying 1v1 on one occasion without interference of the jungle. Unfortunately for xPeke, the rest of his team shared the same fate.
sOAZ, even prioritizing the ultra safe Zac as one of his picks, had trouble holding his own in lane and often found himself the target of punishment. Puszu and Yellowstar, who were having an incredible run, couldn't hold a candle to Uzi and Tabe. Needless to say, the results of the laning phase were utterly shocking in how absolutely one-sided it was, especially when you consider that Royal Club's teamfight is so strong. Having such a powerful laning phase and teamfights made them look nearly invincible, despite Tabe confessing that they made several mistakes in their series.
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Sloppiness in Drafting
We aren't in the mind of the players, but even post-interviews suggest that some teams really messed up in the picks and bans phase, facing huge handicaps before the game even began. The most noteworthy one to touch on is probably Cloud 9 against Fnatic. xPeke has a habit of washing away the idea of a counter lane and winning with just about any champion against any other champion. So why, then, was Kassadin consistently left open? The players themselves are probably not entirely sure aside from overconfidence.
Kassadin literally encompasses what xPeke is known for and not banning it out was completely disrespectful. If xPeke can win against champions that counter Kassadin, then why would it be any different for champions whom Kassadin fares alright against when leaving it open? While it wasn't the only reason Cloud 9 lost, it was certainly a catalyst for it. Faker getting Ahri so many times was also questionable. Sure, he's incredibly strong on multiple champions, but why would you not ban out a champion that he has consistently shown absolute domination on?
While we aren't in the minds of the players and teams or their coaches and analysts, some of these do seem rather questionable. It may be their job, but under the pressure of Worlds and the importance of the matches, it only makes sense to think these teams made mistakes before the game even started.
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