5 things we learned from League of Legends’ first weekend of Worlds

The League of Legends World Championships roared into action this past weekend with lots of excitement and plenty of surprises. The competition thus far has been strong, and this year looks to be unique in how evenly matched many of the teams are across the regions. Each of the 16 teams have taken at least one loss, but some of them have no wins, meaning that just about any squad has the potential to pull a big upset when the second round robin matches begin on Thursday.

With such a wide open field at this point, it’s truly a championship where anything can happen. Here are five key takeaways from the first matches of the group stages.

1. The wild cards mean business

Wild indeed! INTZ of Brazil and Albus Nox Luna out of Russia have made this the most impressive showing for non-major regions to date. INTZ’s debut match was a thorough trouncing of Edward Gaming, the top seed from the LPL and a likely contender for the Worlds title. The amazing top-jungle synergy of Yang and Revolta secured many fans for the scrappy crew. The remainder of their matches were losses, but they have proven to the rest of Group C that they aren’t a pushover.

Albus Nox Luna turned in its own upsets in Group A, beating out both North America’s Counter Logic Gaming and Europe’s G2, as well as putting the ROX Tigers on the back foot for a good chunk of their match. Mid-laner Kira and support Likkrit have been aggressive and unpredictable in their game styles, and it’ll be fascinating to watch which squads can adapt to what they bring to the Rift.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

2. Europe is struggling

Of the three EULCS squads at Worlds, only one has a single win to its name. H2K played a steady match and picked up a win against INTZ, but struggled to stand up against either Edward Gaming or ahq. Yet at 1-2, H2K is the top European team in the group stage standings.

Splyce, a scrappy crew of very young talents, was not expected to have a big impact on the international stage, at least not at this point in their careers. Their 0-3 results in the Group of Death (going up against Team SoloMid, Royal Never Give Up and Samsung Galaxy) isn’t much of a shock. But the abysmal results for G2 were a big disappointment for the region. The two-time European champs are sitting at the bottom of Group A at 0-3. Given the similarly rough performance by G2 at the Mid-Season Invitational, this first week has cast serious doubts on Europe’s skill level compared with the other regions.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

3. Faker is not struggling

SK Telecom 1 probably had the most question marks going into the group stages, and that’s no shock given the squad’s history. They’re two-time champions, and the first team to return for an attempt to defend its title. But with roster switches between Blank versus Bengi in the jungle and some skeptics saying that Faker’s legendary prowess might be fading, few analysts were picking SKT as a real contender to win it all.

The Korean team has quieted those critics. All of SKT looked on point with clean, methodical and technically exchellent gameplay against Cloud9 and I May. The team did see its first loss at the hands of Flash Wolves, but Faker and his teammates have proven that they are still one of the best.

4. Mid-lane champion select is key

The meta is always a bit chaotic when teams from different regions clash, and the mid-lane has turned out to be one of the clutch choices in champion select. Right out of the gate, Syndra has been one of the top champions for all squads. Especially after an unfortunate in-game bug meant that Aurelion Sol, one of her best counters, was disabled for multiple days, Syndra was of the highest priority.

All champions are back in action going into the second week of group stages, and mid-lane power will continue to be a critical part of team building. Both Syndra and Aurelion Sol will likely remain heavily banned or picked up early. Cassiopeia and Vladimir have also made some notable appearances, but the hope is that the size of the power list at mid will open up chances for surprise pocket picks or player specialties in other roles to make it into the compositions.

5. Watch the junglers

Many of the most-talked about players going into the matches in San Francisco were solo laners, but the junglers were the ones who consistently made the most impactful plays. Even in losses, we saw amazing work from players such as Team SoloMid’s Svenskeren, Samsung’s Ambition, G2’s Trick and I May’s Avoidless.

Given the open field, jungler support and skills could be one of the biggest factors in deciding which teams will end at the top of their groups and secure spots in the knock-out stage.