Long post, tl;dr at bottom of each major bold section if you don't want to read it all, enjoy!
Groups announced, little behind, but here we go. Predictions are after the "let me talk about the groups first that no one will read" paragraph, labelled in bold
Group A:
Fnatic vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Zeta Division vs DRX
Group B:
Liquid vs KRU
Optic vs XERXIA
These are interesting. The double rematch from champions in group B, we all know how both of those went, or so I hope. Also Fnatic and DRX being in the same group, with some *weaker** teams with them.
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- More in terms of seeding than anything else - NIP looked good, but LOUD only dropping 2 maps in the whole season without any reasonable international results to show prior to it? Kind of shows you where Brazil still stands, looking like I'll be proved wrong, but just facing the facts here.
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- Also, I respect the Japan representation, but they have yet to really have any decent result, as a region, they are 1-6 against international competition. See if Zeta can do anything CR weren't able to... Get out of groups... (doubt it).
Group A Predictions
Fnatic, although likely 2 players down for at least the group stage, pending Derke's recovery (please be fast..), should get through group stage, only really tested by DRX - this will be a good rematch, would love to see it with the full rosters from both teams. DRX takes this one in a close 2-1. Fnatic closes the group out against NIP in the lower bracket.
DRX, looking once again really strong throughout the season are still yet to prove how good they really could be on the international stage, falling short to the Masters 3 winners in Gambit, and again, falling short to two top 8 finishers in Cloud 9 and Fnatic. They should get out of groups this time as I wrote above, pretty comfortably too.
tl;dr - DRX > Fnatic > NIP > Zeta
Group B Predictions
I said it already, lots of rematches to happen here, some good matches to follow either way those matches go, with the potential of TL vs Optic as well.
KRU looked very shaky throughout the season and even into the playoff stage, likely due to the news surrounding keznit, their star player. If this guy can show up again, I could really see them winning the whole thing. But you have to get through a pretty damn good group and then beat a regional winner (or g2) to have a decent chance at doing so. yikes.
They overcame their region with a lower bracket run in the LATAM playoffs. Unfortunately for them, they have to play through these groups while LOUD get a few days off as their regional brothers weren't able to take down NIP to give the the bye.
Optic, my god. - this team is looking scary - with guard somehow besting them in some crazy games. This team, rivalled in my eyes by only DRX for how good their quick executes late in a round are, are looking like another favourite for the title. Again, some tough competition to go through, but I'll keep it short and simple. FNS never loses (unless it's to guard, unlucky).
Liquid - do they deserve it? Probably not, they played like trash in the finals of EMEA, getting bested by FPX a second time and losing to the eventual champions, G2. I put in a previous comment that I don't really see TL making playoffs over KRU and Optic, especially. But, similar to what I said about NIP early in the post, looking at previous results, TL have achieved a top 4 finish in both international events they've gone to, who says they won't do it again? Me (oops).
XERXIA - Yeah, I don't really watch APAC matches, sorry, not much to say here. This is a tough group for them, good luck.
tl;dr - Optic > KRU > TL > XERXIA
Playoff Match Predictions
With Optic & DRX winning their respective groups with runner ups in Fnatic and KRU, I could see some matches going exactly like this:
Some prerequisites will probably have to follows by Riot prior to making the playoff bracket.
- Teams from the same group cannot be on the same side of the bracket.
- Group Winners also cannot be on the same side of the bracket.
- Teams from the same region cannot be on the same side of the bracket. The only exception I could see to this would be the obvious EMEA where there could be 3 teams in playoffs.
Following these, I've come up with this:
Guard vs DRX
G2 vs KRU
LOUD vs Optic
PRX vs Fnatic
^ the drx/kru combo could be swapped as well as the fnatic/optic combo. But based on my guess of seeding, that's how I got it.
Disagree with anything? I'd love to read some replies. I tried to be as unbiased as possible, and focus more on how strong teams looked in their respective regions as well as previous results.
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