We’ve now known who is going to Worlds for a few weeks, and all the power rankings have been written. The top 20 lists were compiled. The discussions have begun about who is the favorite to win the World Championship. Is it G2? Are we still in the Chinese Era? Is SKT coming back to reclaim the throne? All those questions fly around the esportsiverse and then it happens: the groups are drawn. Now comes time for the real heroes like me to pontificate.
In all seriousness though, now that we know the groups, what do we make of them? I have some thoughts and I’d like to take you on a magical journey through my expectations of the play-in and group stages now that we know for sure who will be there. I’ll start with the play-ins, and I’ll go ahead and make some assumptions about where the play-in winners end up during the main stage. Given how limited some of them are in what groups they can end up in, it has a very decent chance of being correct.