At an international event like the League of Legends World Championships, there are usually some obvious power imbalances, but there are always a few key group stage matchups that could go either way, unpredictable games that will have huge effects on the later stages of the tournament.
At Worlds 2015, two of those key matchups are Counter Logic Gaming vs. the KOO Tigers in Group A, and KT Rolster vs. Origen in Group D. Both are scheduled for their first meetings on Sunday, October 4.
Let’s get ready for the matches with some head-to-head comparisons of the teams. I also ran a reader poll to get some popular opinion on these two matchups, and I’ll share the results below.
On August 19, Riot Games announced that the 2015 League of Legends World Championships would be played on patch 5.18. This was literally game-changing, because every competitive region but China had wrapped up its professional play on either 5.14 or 5.15, just before patch 5.16’s “Juggernauts” changes ushered in a sweeping set of item additions and champion reworks, noticeably shifting the metagame.
How will patch 5.18 affect the Worlds landscape? How do teams adapt? Does a brand new meta narrow the gap between top and bottom teams, or widen it? Who will benefit most from patch 5.18, and who will suffer?
Here are some thoughts to chew on as we await the full answers to those questions.
You’re bored of picking winners and losers. We all are. So here are a couple of more interesting questions:
Which champion will have the highest pick+ban rate during the group stage?
Which player will earn the most solo kills during the group stage?
How many wins will the Wildcard teams earn, combined?
Think you can call it right on these and 11 other questions? Think North America can make better predictions than Europe? Go ahead: make your predictions. (And don’t forget to select which region you’re from if you want bragging rights!)
The results will be posted on Wednesday, September 30. Once the group stage is over, I’ll compare your predictions with the actual results, and we’ll see how close we came!
