?With Worlds just a day away, let's look at some potential matchups and clashes of regional playstyles that will commence in just one short day. Who has an advantage against who and what seperates the way the regions play?
Due to the lack of concise information about the SEA contestants, we've decided to disclude them to provide a more quality analysis.
THE BULLDOZERS
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Europe is a scene deserving of this name due to their general teamfighting nature. Throughout the majority of League of Legend's eSports history, Europeans were renowned for their teamfighting capabilities. Teamfighting has been a preference for most European teams with the exclusion of early-age Moscow Five, who invented a playstyle very similar to the ones China uses today.
For an example, we'll take Fnatic. Fnatic during Season 1 were the first to pull off a double AP composition that inspired the strategy to work. With strong area of effect and crowd control, Fnatic dominated any 5 on 5 encounter. Even today, xPeke roams a lot more than most mid laners and other Europeans have followed suit. Between Fnatic, Lemondogs, and Gambit Gaming, expect to see passivity until an all out battle ensues favorably for the Europeans.
Do note that since we don't know too much about the SEA contestants or wildcards, we'll focus on the primary four regions entering the tournament for a more accurate analysis.
Most ideal matchup: The Dismantlers (KR)
Speaking strictly playstle, Europe has the upper hand. Their mass grouping style and ability to move on the fly to assist in teamfights counters Korea's playstyle of picking people off and seizing advantages because of it. We should see Korea having their toughest matches against the Europeans for this reason.
THE DEPRIVERS
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China gets their name due to the unique playstyle that has developed in the isolated environment of China. Ever since the start of the spring split, China has favored high mobility invasions and heavy dive compositions. For this reason, they are able to push the opponents off of their towers and far out of experience range. On top of that, their heavy waveclear champions allow them to shove and invade, starving the enemy jungler as well.
This starvation method allows for even unfavorable skirmishes to give China an upper hand if they are a head, resulting directly from having a larger gold pool. However, the downside is that it is snowbally in either direction. China must make the enemies suffer early with their deprivation tactics or risk snowballing negatively to the point where there's no Plan B with their compositions.
Most ideal matchup: The Bulldozers (EU)
Since Europe is so prominent in their teamfighting capability and preferences, this gives China the edge and nearly a hard-counter in terms of playstyle. Europe relies on getting farmed up and committing to large teamfights, which China simply doesn't allow to happen. If you can't acquire gold when it matters, it doesn't matter how well you teamfight when the time comes.
THE DISMANTLERS
The Koreans get this title because it's quite literally what they do. They operate like a swarm, putting enemies in uncomfortable positions and capitalizing on them quickly. Koreans habitually pick off their foes in unsuspecting attacks and are fully capable of following up with a dragon or tower when things go according to plan. Since they have the mechanics and infrastructure to perfect this strategy, it makes it extremely deadly for the other contestants.
To compliment this hyper-paced approach, we'll be seeing Koreans using hard pushing AD carries like Caitlyn due to the indirect nerfs to Vayne and Twitch. The Koreans will use their sixth sense to determine when an unsuspecting victim will meet his miserable fate and already be in position to take down those objectives and utilize every second with the upmost efficiency.
Most ideal matchup: The Chameleons (NA)
While one might initially think this is simply due to the infrastructural or mechanical differences, we can see this matchup being favorable for Koreans specifically due to playstyle. While the NA has a wide variety of playstyles, Korea will attack the one most prominent, which is the outdated push strategies used more than a month ago in Korea. After all, it's not without reason that the Korean interviews dictate that they want to face Cloud 9.
THE CHAMELEONS
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Out of the "major" regions and categories, North America is probably the one, once again, to be depicted as the underdog. Compared to last year, they pack a much larger punch. The tools given by constant practice in the LCS have allowed the teams to adapt much quicker and become much stronger mechanically. Their playstyle is a melting pot of other playstyles applied with a little hint of unique flavor.
The most recent and most common adapted habit is the fast pushing strategy. Many will knock Saintvicious for his declining play, but the jungling game has been stepped up tremendously by others in the region, which may account for the comparitively unimpressive performance. With the adaptability of Meteos, TheOddOne, and Xmithie, these guys may just pull out new tricks and thrive with them.
Most ideal matchup: The Deprivers
While China has undoubtedly garnered much of the western world's attention in recent times, their playstyle is weak against the farm gods of North America relative to other regions. With the experienced jungle lineup North America has brought for worlds, the defenses will be high and difficult to penetrate for the aggressive Chinese. Territory will not be so simple to take from North America's grasp.
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This is an editorial piece on analysis by Michale 'Drexxin' Lalor. To see more of his work including interviews, features, and LPL Coverage, follow him @GGDrexxin.
