League of Legends LXVIII: "MY PICK'EMS!" Part II: Who Didn't Get Out of Groups?

[Joran]

Nice, congrats.

Worlds Finals was disappointing, but the rest of the tournament was pretty cool. I've enjoyed the missions, too. Might have to get that Mic Drop emote...

Semis and Finals were all turbo-stomps, which is disappointing. On the plus side, Riot released the K/DA song, had a great opening ceremony, and the K/DA music video was a huge hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOxkGD8qRB4

This year, it really feels like League of Legends animation took a huge leap forward.

P.S. Whoever had the idea for the neon/blacklight for Akali is a genius. It's the most striking part of the video.

[mrcarter11]

QF's were really all I found interesting this year. Groups really weren't bad, but for the most part went as expected with the standout exception of GenG getting smacked around for the entire stage. Semi's and and up were pure stomps. All in all, with the exception of the QFs, I thought it was a pretty generic worlds. The KDA stuff really didn't do anything for me.

[Joran]

QF's were really all I found interesting this year. Groups really weren't bad, but for the most part went as expected with the standout exception of GenG getting smacked around for the entire stage. Semi's and and up were pure stomps. All in all, with the exception of the QFs, I thought it was a pretty generic worlds. The KDA stuff really didn't do anything for me.

Two of the Groups went entirely expected; the other two went full clown fiesta.

Fnatic/IG group went according to plan: Fnatic 1st, iG 2nd, everybody else (100T, Grex) losing.

KT/EDG group also went mostly expected with TL putting in the TSM special.

The other two were crazy.

RNG was in a tiebreak scenario with C9, Vitality was strong, and Gen G (defending champions!) were completely surprisingly stomped. This was a complete surprise.

The Afreeca group was crazy, with Afreeca starting out 1-2 and then clutching out 3 straight wins. Flash Wolves looked to be in the clear of G2, but then lost to the Buffalos, which forced a tiebreaker,.

Normally, the big upsets happen week 1, with the surprises and then the Koreans adapt and crush everyone. That simply didn't happen this year. Also, there was several meta changes at worlds with play-ins being Aatrox vs. Urgot in the top, then it becoming much more solo carry oriented, then a ton of counter-picks everywhere.

Probably one of the greatest Worlds ever in terms of fun in watching, albeit the semis and onward being a bit of a letdown.

[mrcarter11]

Two of the Groups went entirely expected; the other two went full clown fiesta.

Fnatic/IG group went according to plan: Fnatic 1st, iG 2nd, everybody else (100T, Grex) losing.

KT/EDG group also went mostly expected with TL putting in the TSM special.

The other two were crazy.

RNG was in a tiebreak scenario with C9, Vitality was strong, and Gen G (defending champions!) were completely surprisingly stomped. This was a complete surprise.

The Afreeca group was crazy, with Afreeca starting out 1-2 and then clutching out 3 straight wins. Flash Wolves looked to be in the clear of G2, but then lost to the Buffalos, which forced a tiebreaker,.

Normally, the big upsets happen week 1, with the surprises and then the Koreans adapt and crush everyone. That simply didn't happen this year. Also, there was several meta changes at worlds with play-ins being Aatrox vs. Urgot in the top, then it becoming much more solo carry oriented, then a ton of counter-picks everywhere.

Probably one of the greatest Worlds ever in terms of fun in watching, albeit the semis and onward being a bit of a letdown.

With the exception of the GenG group, they all went pretty much as expected for me. I got the order for the group right for the other three teams, just thought GenG would be able to keep their gauntlet play going instead of reverting to summer season. The tie breaker wasn't expected, but the shake out was pretty consistent with what most expected I think. AF are streaky and I think that showed at worlds pretty well. Even out of groups...

I'm curious what the actual diversity at worlds was. Felt like it was a lot of the same picks per stage, so there was adaption but I didn't think it made worlds the best in terms of watching. I was really hoping the QFs would be the start of something interesting, not a flash in the pan.

[Yael]

Newest champion is Neeko, a jungler.

Her kit is... Confusing. Another trickster-style champion (like Shaco) to roam the jungle and mindgame all the way to Iron IV :D

[Emmerlaus]

I wish I knew how to be a jungler then... She seem so much fun to play with! I like the idea of a trickster. The best I can do is teemo to make people chase me lol

[Ashen Lilies]

What I'm seeing is that she's actually designed to play as a roaming midlaner or a support, not a jungler.

Some Rioters have said that she can jungle, but I'm guessing her clear is not that great, so you better make those ganks worth it, sort of like how Camille jungle is

[Nadevoc]

The disguise-as-an-ally thing is interesting, but I'm not sure how useful it'll be at a lot of levels of play. If Darius starts running in to gank your lane when the enemy Darius is still visible top, it's obviously Neeko. So probably most useful midgame (when it's more common to have someone out of sight for more extended periods) or late game (when you could disguise as a hypercarry to make it harder for the enemy assassin to choose the right target, or a tank so they're scared of jumping on you). Charging your ult while shifted could be really strong, but I have to wonder how often you'll give yourself away by simply not having used any of your disguise's abilities or by taking damage. Basically, it seems like mostly a gimmick instead of real power (which is probably a good thing).

Blooming Burst triggering the rebloom on large monsters means she might be workable as a jungler, but we'll have to see. But yeah, she was billed as a mid laner.

[Ashen Lilies]

It's notable that both her teaser and her gameplay video call particular attention to brush jukes as a core method of deception - allied champion comes into the brush, disguised Neeko walks out of the same brush - enemy is JEBAITED.

It's definitely a very interesting kit, that I'm very fond of. She's a short-ranged control mage along the lines of Lissandra, who relies on deception as her primary method of gapclose. It's nice.

[Ivellius]

Does look pretty neat. I'm hopeful the bloom will let her jungle, but we'll see. Interesting looking kit, though.