Way-Too-Early Conclusions from the First Week of Worlds

The weekend is finally over, and what a crazy four days of League of Legends. The first week of competition is hardly the perfect measure—just ask North American teams about their epic collapse in groups last year. The tournament drastically changes once we get out of the best of ones, but it is still fun to predict where things will go from here.

The LCK is still the strongest region, but the gap is narrowing

LCK came into Worlds as the favorites once again, with Korea owning the last three titles, including two for SK Telecom T1. While all three teams from Korea are all at the top of their groups, none have provided clear separation.

While certainly not the time to panic, there are reasons to be concerned. SK Telecom T1 dropped a match to an otherwise struggling Flash Wolves seemingly never able to get their feet under them, ultimately failing to be the single undefeated team after the first weekend.

Faker, however, still looked to be at the top of his game, silencing many who thought this version of SK would be weaker than previous teams, meaning things are looking positive for the two-time champs.

Samsung Galaxy also looked solid, only losing to North American champs Team SoloMid, who entered the match looking to make up for their surprise loss to Royal Never Give Up. Bjergsen destroyed Crown in their matchup, drawing comparisons with famed mid laner Faker. Despite this, TSM was slow to close out, and Galaxy will likely learn from their mistakes in this one.

But the most worrying signs come from favorites Rox Tigers...

Rox Tigers early game will be their undoing

Rox came into Worlds as the favorites of many to win the whole thing after finally turning their regular-season dominance of the LCK into a championship in the Summer Split. Unfortunately, so far they have looked like a shell of that team, owing much of their woes to abysmal early play.

Their problems started right off the bat against Counter Logic Gaming, losing the gold advantage from the start and never being able to recover. CLG took advantage of the early mistakes and made Rox look pedestrian at best.

In Rox's match against winless G2 eSports, the same early-game problems reared their head again, with Tigers needing a sublime baron steal by Peanut in the 22nd minute to turn the tide in what was looking like a certain G2 victory.

And this contender for play of the tournament from Smeb didn't hurt, either.

These examples are just a small reminder of how good Rox is. But they will most certainly need to fix their early-game woes if they hope to move deeper in the tournament.

Europe is in shambles

Speaking of G2, their problems were indicative of the entire European region. Of all the EU LCS teams in Worlds, only H2K were able to pull out a victory in Week 1, which came against International Wild Card team INTZ e-Sports. H2K look to have the best chance of turning things around, currently sitting third in their group.

G2 came closest to victory in their aforementioned match against Rox Tigers, which unfortunately says more about Rox's play than G2's. Both G2 and Splyce find themselves at the bottom of their respective groups, with clearly better teams above them. Neither looks likely to make it out of the group stage.

This is North America's year

North America's story is the opposite of its counterparts in Europe, with all three teams tied for the top spots in their respective groups. Most importantly, they have all turned in statement performances that they can build on to finish out groups.

Team SoloMid shrugged off a shaky start against the LPL's Royal Never Give Up to decisively win their next two matches—and all this while dealing with a less-than-100 percent Bjergsen, who was out with the flu.

RNG's Uzi went as far as to pick TSM to win the group, per ESPN. It is a testament to the experience of TSM and the overall talent the team has that having their top player, and primary shot-caller, unable to speak has had such little effect on their play.

Equally, Cloud9 looks on their way to making a deep run at Worlds, suffering their only loss at the hands of defending champs SK Telecom T1. However, it was their marathon match with Flash Wolves (the second-longest in World's history) that cemented their standing. After playing from behind the entire game, they took advantage of Flash Wolves' reluctance to end things by turning a Baron/Elder Drake combo into a full-base wipe and a victory.

CLG has made us forget all about Immortals

The most surprising thing to come out of North America may be Counter Logic Gaming. A team that many thought "took" Immortals spot at Worlds had most saying, "Immortals who?" by the end of the weekend. CLG dominated hapless G2 in the opening match while losing a back-and-forth game with Russia's Albus NoX Luna.

However, it was their dominant performance against favorites Rox Tigers that had everyone wondering if all three NA teams could make it out of groups for the first time in the 16-team format. Huhi showed why he is a force to be reckoned with, punishing Tigers for not banning his signature Aurelion Sol and creating the blueprint for taking advantage of Rox's weak early game.

The strongest LMS team isn't Flash Wolves

Of all the performances at Worlds, Flash Wolves have been the most perplexing. Perennial favorites in the LMS, Flash Wolves looked poised to easily walk out of their group along with SK Telecom T1. Unfortunately, they stumbled out of the gate, falling apart toward the end of their game against LPL squad I May and followed that up with a heartbreaking marathon loss to Cloud9.

Despite all these missteps, they managed to wrap up the weekend with a gritty win against defending champions SK Telecom T1, leaving us wondering which Flash Wolves we will see the rest of the tournament and if region-mates ahq e-Sports Club may be a safer bet to exit groups.

The LPL is sliding under the radar

By all accounts, the LPL is delivering what we expected of them. Both Spring Split champions Royal Never Give Up and Summer Split champions Edward Gaming are tied at the top of their respective groups. Meanwhile, relative LPL newcomers I May find themselves with a decent shot at exiting a competitive group but will need Cloud9 or SK Telecom T1 to slip up.

It is likely that at least one LPL team will move onto knockouts, with Edward Gaming looking the most likely and RNG and I May getting a chance to spoil someone's party in their respective groups.

Albus NoX Luna is the best team in Europe

That's right—the best team in Europe doesn't even compete in the EU LCS. Russian team Albus NoX Luna is tied at the top of their group with a legit shot of moving on. Their performances haven't been stunning, but they've done what it takes to win. They will need some luck and will probably need to figure out the formula for punishing Rox's early game (see a theme yet?), but things are looking positive.

One would be remiss not to give a shoutout to INTZ e-Sports out of Brazil, who, while predictably stuck at the bottom of their group, started out the tournament with a stunning upset of LPL No. 1 seed Edward Gaming.

There are still a lot of games to be played, but if Week 1 is any indication, we have a lot of surprises ahead of us. It will be intriguing to see which teams make the necessary adjustments throughout the week leading up to the final week of the group stage.