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League of Legends World Championships: Semi-final preview and predictions

League of Legends Worlds stage (Photo: Twitter)
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21st October, 2016
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We’ve got three matches out of four right in the quarterfinals, and the teams in this round are fighting for a chance to hoist the Summoner’s Cup.

The Koreans have dominated the tournament, occupying three of the four semifinal spots.

While I did have Albus NoX defeating H2K, it was merely just an underdog story that got quashed after the hype.

League fans will be converging towards Madison Square Garden, with the iconic location hosting the tournament’s semifinals.

With that, let’s get into the matches.

Game 1
SK Telecom T1 (Korea) vs ROX Tigers (Korea) – Best of 5
Saturday, October 22 – 9am AEDT: https://www.twitch.tv/riotgames

SK Telecom T1
Top Duke Lee Ho-Seong
Jungle Blank Kang Sun-gu
Mid Faker Lee Sang-hyeok
ADC Bang Bae Jun-sik
Support Wolf Lee Jae-wan
Coach kkOma Kim Jeong-gyun
Sub bengi Bae Seong-ung
ROX Tigers
Top Smeb Song Kyung-ho
Jungle Peanut Han Wang-ho
Mid kurO Lee Seo-haeng
ADC PraY Kim Jong-in
Support GorillA Kang Beom-hyeon
Coach NoFe Jeong No-chul
Sub Cry Hae Seong-min
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Both teams come into this match having gone 3-1 in the previous stage against two Chinese teams (EDG and RNG).

Look for this game to be a master-class in League of Legends. Circumstances have this game as the semifinal game, but both teams are deservedly the top two teams in the world. With every player popping off, both teams showed little signs of weakness in their previous match.

Both teams are playing out of their minds, which makes this a tough one to call. SKT have the experience and the skill to win this one, but with news of ROX disbanding after this tournament, that may just be the motivation to push them over the line.

Prediction: SKT win, 3-2. It will be a back and forth, and it will the game that everyone wishes was the grand final, but here we are. While PraY and Smeb are playing at the top of their game, the cogs on the SKT wheel are just powering through with calculated plays, a sweet macro game and map control.

Game 2:
Samsung Galaxy (Korea) vs H2K Gaming (Korea) – Best of 5
Sunday, October 23 – 9am AEDT: https://www.twitch.tv/riotgames

Samsung Galaxy
Top CuVee Lee Seong-jin
Jungle Ambition Kang Yeong-jae
Mid Crown Kang Chan-yong
ADC Ruler Park Jae-hyuk
Support Wraith Jo Yong-in
Coach DoGGi Choi Wee-beom
Sub CoreJJ Kwon Ji-min
H2K Gaming
Top Odoamne Andrei Pascu
Jungle Jankos Marcin Jankowski
Mid Ryu Ryu Sang-ook
ADC FORG1VEN Konstantinos Tzortziou
Support VandeR Oskar Bogdan
Coach Pr0lly Neil Hammad
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This match is a testament to Pr0lly’s prowess as a coach. Formerly playing in the North American LCS under the CompLexity organisation, Hammad has shaped this team into the last hope for the west.

FORG1VEN is looking to stamp himself as not only the best ADC in Europe, but the best ADC in the west, consistently outperforming his opposition, which shows in their 5-2 groups result and the demolishing of the Albus NoX botlane.

Samsung, on the other hand, dispatched Cloud9 with ease. Every player is playing like a demon possessed. Samsung have the motivation. After being booed during their stage introduction at the Chicago Theatre, they showed why they’re to be feared as the third best team in the world’s strongest region.

Prediction: Samsung win 3-1. While I have SKT to win the first match, I don’t think the fairytale Ryu vs Faker redemption story is going to take place.

Writer’s note: I have created my full tournament predictions here. Overall, my picks have placed me in the top 35 percentile for correct picks in Groups and Knockout stages, while placing in the top 25 percentile overall. The picks were locked before the stages begun, so my picks have not deviated, or I haven’t changed picks based on predictions made by other players.

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