Photo courtesy of ESL
We take a quick look at IEM Katowice 2016 groups that will fight for an outstanding prize pool.
With Intel Extreme Masters World Championship just around the corner, it’s time to consider the groups and each team’s chances to succeed. With eight teams overall, groups look as follows:
Photo courtesy of ESL
Let’s take a look back at teams’ history and achievements. While Group B looks tough and unpleasant for all of the teams in it, Group A is more of an unknown, mostly because of their inconsistency.
ESC Ever
Starting as a challenger team from South Korea, ESC Ever had no real success in Challenger Korea Spring 2015 Series 1, finishing 5th-8th. The second series were even more devastating for them.
Tides turned when Ever finished with a score of 8-3 and advanced to 2016 LCK/Spring Promotion, however they still lost 3-1 to SBENU Sonicboom. Korea’s great upset happened when Ever was invited to the 2015 LoL KeSPA Cup, where they beat both SK Telecom T1 and CJ Entus in order to secure 1st place.
The sweet topping was their victory over others at IEM Cologne in December 2015, which yielded them 1st place.
Ever's current roster is as follows:
- Top: Kim "Crazy" Jae-hee
- Jungle: Kim "Ares" Min-kwon
- Jungle: Lee "Ryan" Jun-seok
- Mid: Kang "Tempt" Myung-gu
- ADC: Lee "LokeN" Dong-wook
- Support: Kim "KeY" Han-gi
- Support: Eun "Totoro" Jong-seop
Origen
The team that probably needs no introduction to veteran League fans, was formed by Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez after his departure from Fnatic.
Starting in Challenger Series, Origen finished 2nd in both 2015 EU LCS Summer Split and 2015 EU LCS Summer Playoffs. Looking strong and determined, they qualified for 2015 World Championship and finished 3rd-4th. While this looked perfect for them, Origen has been slacking throughout 2016 EU LCS Spring Split with definetely unexpected poor performance. Notably though, Origen claimed 1st place at IEM San Jose in 2015.
Current roster for Origen is:
- Top: Paul "sOAZ" Boyer
- Jungle: Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider
- Mid: Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage
- ADC: Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen
- Support: Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre
- Sub/Jungle: Lauri "Cyanide" Happonen
- Sub/Mid: Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez
Royal Never Give Up
Founded by former Royal Club player, Xiao "Godlike" Wang, has not achieved as much as other teams so far. They are also the LPL counterpart team to Star Horn Royal Club. It's worth mentioning that Royal Never Give Up holds famous Korean players, such as Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok, Choi "inSec" In-seok or Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong. In fact, those are the only Korean players among other seven members of the team.
They finished 9th in 2015 LPL Summer Split but managed to qualify for 2016 LPL Spring Split. Most notably, they have placed 1st in 2015 National Electronic Sports Open, and on top of that, just before the end of 2015, they were 1st in World Cyber Arena 2015.
The roster Royal Never Give Up represents now consists of:
- Top: Yan "LetMe" Jun-Ze
- Top: Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok
- Jungle: Choi "inSec" In-seok
- Jungle: Liu "MLXG" Shi-yu
- Mid: Zhou "Sask" Yi-Xiang
- Mid: Li "xiaohu" Yuan-Hao
- ADC: Zhu "NaMei" Jia-Wen
- ADC: Wang "wuxin" Cheng
- Support: Le "Leyn" Yi
- Support: Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong
Team SoloMid
After a not-so-good Summer Split, where they placed 5th, and a disastrous 2015 World Championship finishing at 13th-16th, Team SoloMid has changed their roster drastically. Coming into the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split, the team has been inconsistent. They lack communication and we can only blame it on them having a new roster. They are currently the reigning IEM Katowice champions and, if they would like to retain their title, something has to be done.
Their current roster is made up of:
- Top: Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell
- Jungle: Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen
- Mid: Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg
- ADC: Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng
- Support: Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim
SK Telecom T1
One of the most recognized teams in the world, and the only to win World Championship twice, SK Telecom T1 has many titles and achievements. Not only that, their key player, the most hyped and recognized, is Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok. Almost a month after the World Championship, Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-Hwan, Im "T0M" Jae-hyeon and Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon left the team.
After that, SK Telecom T1 decided to recruit two new players: Lee "Duke" Ho-seong and Kang "Blank" Sun-gu. What's intriguing is their current performance in LCK. Compared to the last year, it's definitely worse. But, with their domination of 2015 LCK and 1st place at 2015 World Championship, SK Telecom T1 is definitely a rival to watch out for.
The current roster of SK Telecom T1 is:
- Top: Lee "Duke" Ho-seong
- Jungle: Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong
- Jungle: Kang "Blank" Sun-gu
- Mid: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
- Mid: Lee "Scout" Ye-chan
- ADC: Bae "Bang" Jun-sik
- Support: Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan
Fnatic
Highly reputable European team that has an astonishing achievement of qualifying for all six LCS championships and winning 5 of them, dropping only one to Alliance.
After the World Championship, where they finished 3rd-4th, three players left the team. Those players were: Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon, Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin along with former Captain, Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim. Huni and Reignover both joined Immortals, NA LCS team while YellOwStaR moved to Team SoloMid.
After deciding on the new roster, Fnatic has decided on the players that will represent them in EU LCS:
- Top: Noh "Gamsu" Yeong-jin
- Jungle: Lee "Spirit" Da-yoon
- Mid: Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten
- ADC: Martin "Rekkles" Larsson
- Support: Johan "Klaj" Olsson
Qiao Gu Reapers
This Chinese LPL team has been there for some time now and just before 2015 has acquired known Chinese ADC, Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao.
They have scored 1st in 2015 LSPL Spring Playoffs and 2nd in both 2015 LPL Summer Split and 2015 LPL Summer Playoffs. They have also placed 2nd in IEM Cologne in 2015. They are currently 5-0 in 2016 LPL Spring Split and are looking very strong compared to the other teams.
After their 3rd place in 2015 Season China Regional Finals, they have also placed 2nd in IEM Cologne in 2015. Qiao Gu are surely looking forward to IEM Katowice and the plan is to seize the stage and lift the trophy.
The player roster of Qiao Gu Reapers is:
- Top: Bao "V" Bo
- Top: Wang "Alone" Zi-Jun
- Jungle: Baek "Swift" Dae-Hoon
- Mid: Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang
- Mid: Kim "BoriSal" Yeong-hoon
- ADC: Feng "Peco" Qing Yu
- ADC: Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao
- Support: Zhang "Mor" Hong-Wei
- Sub/Mid: Bae "dade" Eo-jin
Counter Logic Gaming
With their mediocre performance in recent games in the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming has been a rollercoaster through all these years of existence. They had downs and ups. In their fullest called a golden-age by their fans and then slowly going down, but in the end managed to stay relevant.
One of the most important moments during the offseason for Counter Logic Gaming was probably the release of Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, player who had been with the team since 2013. He later joined their long-time North American rivals Team SoloMid.
Finishing 1st in 2015 NA LCS Summer Playoffs and 9th-12th in 2015 World Championship, CLG will surely look for a victory at IEM Katowice to prove their worth and satisfy their large fanbase.
In the end, CLG's final roster looks like that:
- Top: Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya
- Jungle: Jake "Xmithie" Puchero
- Mid: Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun
- ADC: Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes
- Support: Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
- Sub/Mid: George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis
Please note that semi-finals will be played in a Best of Three format and the finals will be determined by Best of Five. League of Legends prize pool is currently as high as 100.000 dollars.
