11 interesting matchups to lookout for this Season 4 World Championship

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

In less than a week, the 2014 World Championships will be under-way. Nine months of preparation and hard work all comes down to one last tournament. We look at some of the more interesting matchups in the group stages of League of Legends’ biggest tournament.

In no particular order, here we go:

Namei vs Imp

China has a long and proud history of producing top notch AD Carry talent. WeiXiao and Uzi have been labelled as the best AD Carry players in the world by many and have been the poster boys of China’s success. The rest of their ADs aren't slouches either, with Kid performing excellently in the sporadic international tournaments that Invictus Gaming attended and LGD’s XQ looking like a rising star.

The new star in town is Edward Gaming’s Namei. The former Positive Energy player has won three straight LPL titles and has been instrumental in EDG’s rise to the apex of China. Driven with the notion to be the next WeiXiao, Namei has come into his own with impressive displays in both splits this year. With WeiXiao retiring earlier this year due to erratic managerial and coaching decisions from World Elite, it’s up to Namei to prove to the world that he indeed is the heir to WeiXiao’s legacy as one of the greatest AD Carry players of all time.

While his local pedigree is unquestioned, Namei’s international achievements are lacking; much of this is to do with neither Edward Gaming nor Positive Energy qualifying for any international tournaments. His only significant interregional competition was against the newly-restructured CJ Entus Blaze as part of the super-charged Oh My God team at the 2013 World Cyber Games. While Namei’s performance wasn’t bad, the exceptionalism we expected from him didn't materialize. The World Championships will be the perfect opportunity for him to rectify that.

One of the more interesting opponents Namei will be facing is Samsung Galaxy White’s Imp. Ever since MVP Ozone’s upset victory over CJ Entus Blaze Imp has been consistently regarded as a top 2 ad carry in Korea. While Piglet and Deft have better results, Imp’s tendency to win his lane has been a core part of White’s overall gameplan. It’s clear that the battle between Namei and Imp will not be decided in laning phase as White’s dominance will go unquestioned during group stages simply due to the difference between Mata and Fzzf.

No, what is most intriguing about this matchup is the two different playstyle of AD Carries. Namei plays like a mini-Deft, a more consistent and impressive team fighting ad carry whose job is to dish out damage via excellent positioning. This style is the safer and more reliable of the two but it does have a tendency to lose lane in Creep Score. Well known proponents of this style include Sneaky, Genja, Deft and Weixiao. Imp on the other hand, plays a more restrained version of UZI. His tendency to go bezerk has won White multiple games but his aggression sometimes has put them in sticky situations that they would rather not be in. The style usually wins lanes pretty but has a reputation for being ineffective in games where the team is losing. Doublelift, Wildturtle, and UZI are all known to use this style. The clash of the two will be very interesting to watch.

Shook vs Meteos

Meteos’ position as the best jungler in North America is no longer unquestioned as Cloud 9’s dominance of the North American LCS ground to a halt this Summer Season. Nevertheless, he still remains the best jungler from North America attending the 2014 World Championship. Over the past year, Meteos has grown considerably as a jungler, no longer is he limited to a farm centric, carry orientated playstyle for which received criticism for. He has over the 2014 Season developed multiple play styles that have allowed Cloud 9 to continuously stay at the top of the North American LCS.

As Cloud 9’s match against Alliance will most likely be the deciding match in Group D, the Shook/Meteos matchup will most likely set the tone for the two games. Shook’s hype as the best jungler in Europe plummeted after Alliances unconvincing start to the 2014 European LCS Spring Split, but his summer performance has brought him back into the conversation as one of the best junglers in Europe.

As the midlane duel between Froggen and Hai will most likely go the way of the European, it’s up to Meteos to ensure that Cloud 9 manages to keep Froggen down and allow Hai to roam and force teamfights where Cloud 9 excels at as the other lanes are relatively even (though it is certainly arguable that Balls has been performing better than Wickd as of late)

Shook’s job is to stop that and make Hai, the shotcaller of Cloud 9, go on tilt and make poor judgement calls. The interactions between the two junglers will be crucial to determine who gets out of Group D (barring an upset against Najin White Shield).

Winds vs Insec vs Amazing vs Svenskeren

One of the more interesting facets of Group B is the jungler matchups. Winds, Amazing, Insec are all competent junglers who have the ability to carry games. The lack of Koreans in Group B makes this group very interesting in the possible outcomes that it can produce .

Winds in particular is a very interesting case. If TPA are going to upset this group, it’ll be at the back of Wind’s jungle pressure. The former Gamania bears jungler has proven that he can out-jungle both Bengi and Pomelo at Allstars and lift his team to victory in consecutive GPL tournaments. Winds has been hyped by many SEA analysts as a world class jungler, he’ll have the opportunity to prove himself to the rest of the world on Thursday.

Amazing’s hype has deflated since his not so amazing performance in Team Solomid, nevertheless, he can still be a force if given the right champion. His time on the Copenhagen Wolves has shown that he can perform if given the right conditions, but the right conditions seem to be fewer and fewer lately. Fans of Team Solomid will be hoping that his champion pool has drastically improved and his confidence reawoken as they head into Group B.

Despite moving from Korea to China, Insec’s over-aggression still plagues him. Although still one of the top junglers in China, Insec’s bloodlust has often cost Starhorn Royal Club games. Insec’s aggression complements and perfectly defines the Starhorn all in playstyle. Generally agreed as the strongest jungler in the group, Insec should have no difficulty against the rest, but his and Starhorn’s playstyle may slip up too many times against more map pressure oriented teams.

SK Gaming has managed to come this far due to their smart strategical calls and well co-ordinated map pressure. Since Jesiz isn’t exactly the star mid laner that other European teams like Fnatic and Alliance possess, Svenskeren has had to step up to aid the team where necessary. He’s a solid jungler but his international status is untested, how he does versus the rest will the real test of his talent. That is, of course, after he serves out his three game suspension.

Gogoing vs Soaz

The best Chinese Top Laner presently versus historically the best European Top laner will be a key matchup in Group C, as Fnatic and OMG are expected to be competing for the 2nd position in the group.

Gogoing recently has been on fire, as he and Cool have carried OMG’s weak botlane into the World Championships. His Ryze in particular has been terrifying and has almost solo carried games for OMG. Unquestionably the best toplaner in China presently, Gogoing should have a relatively easy lane against a struggling Soaz.

Soaz has, indeed, been struggling lately as the games at playoffs showed. Despite an adequate performance against Alliance and Roccat at Gamescom, Soaz hasn’t been the super confident playmaker that he was in Season Three. With the top lane meta game returning to his favoured AP and Assassin based champions, however, the Frenchman could easily turn it on at the World Championships.

Rekkles/Yelllowstar vs Deft/Heart

Fnatic’s bottom lane has been their shining spark throughout their turbulent Summer split. Despite Rekkles’ tendency to be irrelevant when Fnatic are behind, he and Yellowstar have been the constant performers that Fnatic have relied on again and again. Their tendency to always win lane has allowed Fnatic to focus on the top half of the map and help out a struggling Xpeke and Soaz. They’ll face their toughest challenge yet against Samsung Blue.

Deft and Heart meanwhile, aren’t particularly known for winning lane. Sure, they do fine but Deft’s key strength has always been sublime positioning in teamfights. If Western pros are truly as mechanically skilled as the Korean ones, Rekkles and Yellowstar should win lane against one of Korea’s more accomplished duo lanes. If any lane is going to win, it will be this one.

It will be interesting to see how Europe’s best bot lane does against a Korean one that isn’t known for its laning phase. It’ll also be interesting to see if Yellowstar can out smart Heart in the battle of the supports, as laning phase is largely defined by the skill of a support player.

Corn vs Bjergsen

With SK Gaming recently rocked by a suspension of Svenskeren, an integral part of their team and one that helps alleviate SK’s weak early game, the battle for the pole position of Group B should be contested by Team Solomid and Starhorn Royal Club. One of the key match ups that will help decide this head to head will be the battle of the mid lanes.

Bjergsen and Corn are both very similar players. Both of them had an early slump at the start of the season due to the farm oriented metagame that dominated late spring and early summer and they’ve both seen a resurgence of strength thanks to the metagame re-shifting to include more and more assassins and burst mages.

Corn’s Fizz is especially noteworthy as the midlaner of Starhorn has displayed prowess on that champion during the LPL Summer split and who can forget about Bjergsen’s Syndra and Zed? This battle of assassins will be explosive and will probably go heavily one way or another.

Ggoong vs Froggen

Froggen is undoubtedly the best mid laner in the West in Season 4, so we know that he is pretty dang good. The question is of course, how good?

Europe’s days as the talent generator for mid laners is all but over. Gone are they days of the names Alex Ich, Froggen and Xpeke invoking fear and earning respect around the globe. The advent of Faker and Dade had made many look to Korea as the forefront of mid lane dominance and many have stated that Rookie, Ggoong and Pawn are all better than the West’s strongest mid laner. Facing Najin White Shield in the group stage will be Froggen’s first chance to prove them otherwise.

This matchup is vital for Alliance. Froggen has historically dominated or kept even with his opponents in Europe and Alliance are probably not prepared to deal with the consequences if Froggen loses to Ggoong. Froggen is Alliance’s primary shotcaller and their captain and although Tabzz has stepped it up for Alliance and carried major games, the mid lane matchup remains the most crucial one.

Westdoor vs U

If ahq are to upset Group A and clinch a spot in the bracket stage of the 2014 World Championships, it’ll be at the hands of Westdoor. Consistently hailed as the best mid laner in Taiwan, Westdoor finally has the chance to break out of his home country and play in an international stage. An assassin specialist, the mid laner has performed well on Fizz, Zed and Twisted Fate throughout his GPL Career and has acted as the main carry for Ahq.

Westdoor’s consistent reluctance to adapt to the meta may very well work in his favour since assassins are returning to the midlane metagame. I don’t think he’ll be able to beat Dade at his own game but he could upset U. U’s champion pool worked very well during a farm oriented metagame but we do not know how good his assassins are. Westdoor may be able to snowball and carry his team to victory if he can outplay U.

Rekkles/Yellowstar vs San/Dada7

The best European botlane versus the worst Chinese one at the World Championships. Need I say more? Dada7 is quite possibly the worst support player attending Worlds. The downgrade from Cloud/Lovelin to Dada7 is enormous and has left OMG fans annoyed and worried and although he has found a niche with tanky support champions such as Braum and Thresh, his tendency to walk into bushes and facecheck them hasn’t quite left him yet. I don’t really want to continue lambasting Dada7 so I’ll just stop here but no matter how many times he changes his name, his play has never really impressed me.

Rekkles and Yellowstar should really crush OMG’s botlane. If they don’t, well either China has exceptional bottom lanes or Europe’s bottom lanes are just bad and European fans ought to be worried about the state of their bottom lanes. Yellowstar and Rekkles have unquestionably been the dominant bottom lane in Europe this summer. Fnatic’s chances at the Season 4 World Championship will be severely hindered if the best European lane can’t beat China’s worst.

Dade vs Cool

China vs Korea: Part 2. This year, Faker is unable to make the World Championships, but he and Cool have been tussling on the Korean ladder for some time. Arguably, Cool’s outstanding 20/1/8 Yasuo performance in LPL Summer Playoffs was due to the massive quantity of games he put into the champion in Korean solo queue, including a fair selection of games against Faker himself.

Cool is the strongest contender the Chinese stage has to offer against Dade, and even with OMG struggling to find a sense of purpose in many of their games, their mid laner has strong-armed his way to victory. This matchup will largely be influenced by jungler interference, but seeing these two mid lane mastermind duke it out both in the 1v1 and across the map will be a sight to see.

Cool may have a larger champion pool to draw from, but Dade will not be easily banned out, and his power on his best picks is not to be questioned. Even if this duel is Dade-favored, both players have similar styles and a tendency toward roaming. If Twisted Fate and Yauso aren’t contested by both sides, color me surprised.

Zero vs Lustboy

The last both of these Korean supports played in OGN, they weren’t rated among the best in their position. In the short time that Zero and Lustboy have played in the LPL and the North American LCS, they have gained a lot of attention. Zero has a bit of an advantage in that he has been playing in LPL and has established a reputation as the strongest support in China on StarHorn Royal Club. With time, it is unclear if Lustboy would develop a similar reputation in LCS, but it’s obvious he stands out.

A lot of both Zero’s and Lustboy’s praises have come from their ability to correct the mistakes and balance out their aggressive lane partners. Both players favor Nami for her disengage and reset capabilities, which allows Zero and Lustboy to quickly turn a situation in cases where UZI or WildTurtle over-commit. Zero and Lustboy hold the reins, and UZI and Wildturtle lead the charge.

Both supports also have to contend with something of a language barrier, though it has been said that Lustboy’s English is stronger than the English of either UZI or Zero, which is supposedly the bot lane duo’s language of choice when they communicate. Zero will have the advantage of stronger synergy, however, having played more games with UZI than Lustboy has with Wildturtle; since the duo is arguably the most successful bottom lane in LPL, they have found a system that works.

Though this matchup will likely be influenced by both junglers and the AD carries in question, the more subtle war over vision and team fight control could be the difference in a TSM or StarHorn victory. Zero has a chance to prove himself against an ex-CJ support under eerily similar circumstances.

Image credits: OnGameNet, Riot Games/LoLesports, Tencent Games, Garena