In the League of Legends, the first teams have now been eliminated at the World Championship, and one group has already been played out. And a trend is emerging: LoL is back to how it used to be at Worlds 2020. Asia is in the lead. The teams from Europe and the USA are at least one class below.
This has been the case in LoL for the last few years: For a long time, teams from China and South Korea have dominated League of Legends. The World Champion has been from Asia since 2012, with only Fnatic from Europe securing 1st place in 2011 – but at that time, LoL was still in its infancy.
Between 2012 and 2017, not only did all World Champions come from Asia, but also the finalists. In 2014 and 2017, the top 4 spots were occupied by Asian teams, and the West played no role at all.
In 2018, this suddenly changed. China and South Korea were weakening. Ultimately, Invictus Gaming, a team from China, won, but 3 teams from Europe and the USA finished in places 2 to 4. Many Western fans rubbed their eyes in disbelief: What was going on all of a sudden? Was a turning point coming?
In 2019, South Korea was stronger again, and once again a team from China won the Worlds. But the Europeans from G2 Esports made it to the finals and looked for a long time like they could really become World Champions. It seemed that at least this one team, G2 Esports, was on par with the Asian stars.
G2 Esports was the “super team” from Europe because before the season, the strongest team in Europe reinforced itself with the best player of the second strongest team in Europe: A very special situation to finally compete with Asia internationally.
Here’s how it looks for the USA in 2020: The current Worlds threaten to be painful for Europe and North America.
The USA is already backed against the wall in the group stage:
- Team Liquid is already eliminated. Their journey ends here today. They squandered strong performances against Suning and G2 Esports because they couldn’t reliably defeat the exotic team “Machi Esports” from Taiwan, losing once. With a 3-3 record, Team Liquid proudly flies home, but they are indeed flying home.
- Team Solo Mid is still winless at 0-3. They actually have hardly any chance of advancing, although they are nominally the top team in the USA.
- FlyQuest was pretty much done after the draw; they are in a brutal group with tournament favorites Top Esports and strong DRX from South Korea. There likely isn’t a way out for them. It would be a sensation if they advanced. They currently sit at 1-2.
It seems unlikely that either of the last two US teams will reach the quarter-finals. The hopes of the US stars are likely to be dashed quickly. That’s how it was in 2019: It was already all over after the group stage.
Here’s how it looks for Europe: For Europe, things have been mixed so far:
- The Mad Lions have already been eliminated in the preliminary round.
- Rogue will likely crash in Group B; they would need to win against the co-favorites from DAMWON Gaming (Korea) or JD Gaming (China). Both seem hard to imagine. They currently sit at 1-2 and are on the verge of elimination.
- Fnatic is in a “anyone can beat anyone” situation with Gen G and LGD Gaming. It seems like a 50/50 chance of who will advance. Fnatic has been strong so far but has already lost one game to LGD. With a 2-1 record, they are doing quite well, but nothing is guaranteed.
- The hope of Europe was clearly on G2 Esports. Although they managed to qualify for the quarter-finals today, they have already lost 3 of their 7 games. With a 4-3 record, they seem surprisingly beatable.
Caps spectacularly escapes death against Suning:
Top favorites from Europe lose 2 games in a row against China
What is wrong with G2 Esports? Before the tournament, G2 Esports was considered the only team from Europe that could compete with the stars from Asia. They proved this right in their first match against the Chinese team Suning. They could be beaten: Everything seemed to be going well.
But then G2 Esports inexplicably lost to the American team Team Liquid, who claimed that win. Jungler Broxah could hardly believe his luck afterward and beamed in interviews.
Broxah surprisingly won with Team Liquid against G2 Esports:
Today, G2 Esports lost twice: the rematch against Suning and the tiebreaker against the Chinese both went to their opponents.
As a result, G2 Esports is now only in 2nd place in their group.
The play of Suning’s toplaner “Bin” sealed the fate of G2 Esports. Badly:
In the quarter-finals, an absolute heavyweight could already be waiting for the team. And G2 Esports does not seem ready if Top Esports or DAMWON Gaming, the two still undefeated teams in the tournament, are lurking.
Perkz doesn’t seem to mind, though. When asked which of the two killer teams he would prefer to see, the botlaner replied, “He doesn’t care at all.”
But if G2 Esports is already failing against Suning, even one of the weaker teams from Asia, then the Worlds 2020 will likely be very bitter for Europe – just like it used to be for all those years.
Bookmakers clearly see Asia in the lead at LoL Worlds 2020
This is how it looks for the favorites now: G2 Esports has already experienced a downturn in the betting odds:
- Before the Worlds, they were at 1:8.5 and still in the strong range, considered co-favorites.
- Now they have plummeted to 1:21.
- The two favorites, Top Esports (1:2.62) and DAMWON Gaming (1:3), are still favored more clearly than before.
- The 6 teams with the best chances of winning the LoL Worlds 2020 now all come from Asia.
At the moment, it looks like the World Championship is already over for the USA in the group stage, and for the European teams, it’s probably the end in the quarter-finals.
The most exciting story about how one arrived at the LoL Worlds 2020 likely belongs to the coach of Dragon X. He is something like the “Jürgen Klopp” in Asia, but with a real weakness in impulse control. He was actually permanently banned from LoL – he allegedly strangled one of his players:
LoL: Coach was permanently banned for violence against players – Can now win Worlds
