The LoL Worlds 2019 are coming. For 7 years, Asian teams dominated the World Championships of League of Legends. 2019 is supposed to be different. After a strong season, G2 Esports’ jungler, Jankos, declares his team the favorite. Either they win or Fnatic. It seems that Europe no longer fears the Asian teams.
Who is G2 Jankos? The Pole Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski is the star player of G2 Esports, the dominant team of League of Legends in Europe in recent months.
G2 Esports won both splits in the European LoL league LEC in 2019, eliminated the strong Koreans led by Faker at the “MSI,” and ultimately won the tournament. And G2 Esports was already one of the surprise teams of the LoL Worlds 2018.
Jankos is considered one of the key players. He was voted MVP of the current season. Thus, he is the best player in Europe.
Jankos speaks with the Polish site eweszlo.pl about the current situation before the World Championship.
Either we win the LoL Worlds or Fnatic
This is what Jankos says before the World Championship:
“I think Europe will win the Worlds – either us or Fnatic.”
At the moment, Jankos is focusing on the group stage and his own training. The group stage of the Worlds is critical, as you never know what can happen in a single game.
Regarding the opposing teams, he says:
“I think we can beat anyone. We have played against IG, RNG, and SKT. We managed to beat SKT, and they are number 1 in Korea, so we can probably beat teams like Griffin and DAMWON as well.
The big unknown is the players from FunPlusPhoenix in China, who look really strong. Jankos would like to face them. He has never played against them.
Jankos says that G2 Esports wants to tone down the aggressiveness. They want to be calmer and take fewer risks.
That’s why it’s special: Jankos’ statement shows the changed world of League of Legends since the Worlds 2018. While Asians were considered clear favorites in the World Championships for years, this year is more balanced.
And G2 Esports sees great chances for themselves.
Power dynamics in LoL have shifted
This is how it has been all these years: Since 2018, the power structure in LoL seems to be somewhat out of balance. For the last 7 years, Europe hardly played a role:
- In 2011, Fnatic won the LoL Worlds, back then it was only about $100,000 prize money.
- Starting in 2012, the prize pools rose to millions, but European teams no longer reached the finals:
- Between 2012 and 2014, the finals of the LoL Worlds were a matter between South Korea and China.
- Between 2015 and 2017, the finals were even only between two Korean teams each time.
What was different in 2018? At the LoL Worlds 2018, the Korean teams suddenly disappointed across the board. Two European teams, Fnatic and G2 Esports, made a big impact. However, it wasn’t enough for victory, which went to the Chinese team Invictus Gaming.
If Wunder wants to play WoW all day, he should do so
This is what he says about the WoW situation: His teammate Wunder got the team G2Esports a $1000 fine from Riot Games. Jankos says it was due to a picture circulating of Wunder playing WoW Classic on a Riot PC. That just can’t happen.
Even if Wunder should play WoW all day, Jankos still trusts him enough that he is the best top laner. If Wunder needs that to take a break from League of Legends, he can do it.
As a team, they often go out to eat or to the movies, but they still play a lot, probably more than others.
Jankos himself probably enjoys playing WoW Classic as well.
Who are the favorites?
What do the bookmakers think? Jankos names G2 Esports and Fnatic as his favorites. For bookmakers, the circle of favorites at the LoL Worlds 2019 is currently large (via nicerodds):
Both teams are indeed among the extended favorites, but 8 teams are relatively close together:
- SK Telecom T1 with star player Faker
- Funplus Phoenix – the big unknown from China
- G2 Esports – Jankos’s team
- Royal Never Give Up – the favorites before the LoL Worlds 2018
- and Invictus Gaming – the actual champions from 2018
- Griffin – the number 1 team from Korea, who looked so strong all year
- Fnatic, the second team from Europe
- and Damwon Gaming, the third team from Korea
The odds range here between 5.5 to 1 (SKT) and 11 to 1 (Damwon Gaming). After that, there is a significant gap.
However, the betting odds do not indicate a clear favorite.
Last year, the LoL Worlds were so crazy that of 3.8 million participants, only one was still in the running very early. However, he also could not predict the final matches correctly.
G2 Esports could make LoL history in 2019
That’s why G2 Esports could make history in 2019: No team has managed in history to win both splits at home, the MSI, and the Worlds.
G2 Esports only needs the Worlds for this “perfect run.”
If G2 Esports succeeds in winning, it would be an incredible season and they would clearly show that something has really changed in the LoL world.
Jankos says:
“Last year, RNG won both splits and the MSI. But at the Worlds, they were eliminated by us. I hope we will be the first team in history to achieve the “full run.””
