Things We Learned from Worlds Week 2

Sunday marked the end of the Group stage of the League of Legends World Championships. While some of our way-too-early conclusions proved true, we learned a lot of new things from Week 2 of Worlds.

The Gap Between Korea and The Field Narrowed, But Only Slightly

After Week 1 of Groups, it looked like the gap between the LPK and the rest of the world was finally starting to narrow. Then the Korean teams went 9-1 in Week 2, with all three teams finishing top of their groups.

The Rox Tigers continued to show some weaknesses, needing a tiebreaker to win their group, just edging out Albus Nox Luna. Tigers will be going into Knockouts as the Korean team many will be expecting to crack first. That being said SKT and Samsung seemed poised for another deep run, and there currently aren't any other teams looking consistent enough to knock either team off that trajectory.

Europe Still Has Some Life

No one would have predicted that any of the European teams would make it to Knockouts, let alone as a No. 1 seed, but H2K did just that. H2K went 4-0 in Week 2, taking advantage of a weaker-than-expected group. They went from looking like a team that had no business at Worlds to Europe's best hope to win it all.

Splyce and G2, however, were only able to capture a single victory combined. For Splyce, Worlds proved to be a valuable experience, and gaining that lone victory can be considered a step in the right direction.

The story is quite different for G2, who came into Worlds as the No. 1 seed and a shoe-in for the second seed in the group. Utter disappointment is the phrase most will use to describe G2's Worlds, and they will have some tough questions to answer in the offseason.

North America Whimpered Into Knockouts

North America's story was the exact opposite of Europe's coming out of Week 1. Unfortunately for North American fans, it ended even worse than it did for Europe. All three NA squads went into Week 2 with more than just a shot at making into Knockouts.

CLG were the first out of the gate but after a great start in Week 1, Week 2 found them playing for their tournament lives against Rox Tigers. Had CLG won, they would've secured the second seed and knocked out one of the tournament favorites. Instead, they lost to the would-be first seed and ended up on the outside looking in.

TSM were in a similar do-or-die scenario in the final game of Group D against Royal Never Give Up. Unfortunately, their first loss of the tournament would come back to haunt them as they lost out to RNG for a second time, allowing RNG to avoid the tiebreaker and take the group's second seat. TSM will be under heavy scrutiny, as many expected them not only to get through Groups but to be competitive in Knockouts as well.

Luckily for NA, Cloud 9 were able to ensure a North American representative made it to Knockouts, though they needed some help doing so. C9 started out the day with back to back losses to SKT and Flash Wolves, the latter of which was a team they beat in Week 1. Luckily for Cloud 9, Flash Wolves' abysmal first week made sure the gap between the two teams remained close, despite those losses. Ultimately, it was Cloud 9's victory over I May followed by some help from SKT, which saw them through to Knockouts.

Albus Nox Is No Longer The Best In Europe But Still Deserves Respect 

Albus Nox continued their dream run at Worlds, coming within one victory of finishing first in their group. They garnered another win over eventual group winner Rox Tigers and heaped further misery on CLG. They have a long way to go to be viewed as a legitimate contender for the title, but anyone who thought Week 1 was a fluke was proven wrong.

Albus now heads into Knockouts as the most successful wild card team ever. Regardless of what happens going forward, they can chalk this Worlds up as a resounding success.

The LPL Squads Are Still Inconsistent At Best 

The biggest question marks of the tournament continued to be the LPL squads. Summer Split champions Edward Gaming were first up, continuing Week 1's inconsistent form. They beat INTZ, only to lose to eventual group winners, but previously windless, H2K. However, they were able to squeeze by ahq e-Sports with a late-game comeback to force another match with H2K for the No. 1 seed. It proved to all be for naught, though, because they lost handily to H2K. Not exactly what we expected from the LPL champs.

Royal Never Give Up, China's Spring Split champs, had a similar rough road, losing both to a hapless Splyce and group winners Samsung Galaxy. Luckily, they were able to pull it together to win a solid match against TSM to eek out the group's second seed. Many expected it to come down to these two teams, just maybe not in this fashion.

I May finished out the LPL teams with some consistency, unfortunately not the kind Chinese fans wanted to see. They were able to snatch a win off the equally inconsistent Flash Wolves, but they did little more than that to finish up the group stages.

Flash Wolves May Be The Biggest Disappointment Of Worlds 

No team at Worlds had a bigger identity crisis than the LMS's Flash Wolves, a team that seemed destined to walk out of Groups, and some even hypothesized it could surprise SKT. Instead they find themselves wondering where it all went wrong. The painful part for Flash Wolves is that we saw flashes (pun intended) of brilliance from the team. However, they were never able to string those moments together into consistent performances, eventually finishing with just two victories.

Most painful of all is that most of those losses were winnable. Flash Wolves found themselves drawn into many a long match that they couldn't seem to finish, letting teams like Cloud 9 and I May back in after gaining leads. In the end, region-mates ahq came closer to Knockouts than they did, and that alone will have the team thinking hard about changes for next season.