Given how EU/NA seem to have no desire other than farming for 20~ minutes bar a few games I feel like banning Trist will be one of the easiest ways possible to get Western ADC's out of their comfort zone - pick Kog and realistically, what're they going to pick? Corki seems the most likely given his spike in popularity every time Worlds comes around, awaiting the buffs!

Twitch seems to have fallen out of favour but like Kog as you said is still a Korean staple. I'm really hoping Western teams adapt to the Korean meta as we've seen how badly we get fucked when all we want to do is farm and then get rolled once laning ends.

Still, I haven't watched any LPL at all and my memory of OGN is already terrible so Worlds will be refreshing because International competition, woo! All I know is the favorites are Samsung and whoever finishes top of the LPL.

 

So... Riot announced they're region locking the LCS next season. Guess they agreed that having 8 of the 15 players representing NA at Worlds not actually come from NA was bullshit. Wish it'd come earlier, but at least they announced it before another mid-tier CN/KR team can win the expansion tournament and stomp NA all the way to Worlds 2015.

The TL;DR is that at least three players must come from that team's region, with exemptions for current rosters. That means no more LMQ/EG team import bullshit. And no more EU/KR imports for TSM/CLG.

 

Yup, great move by Riot. It's completely reasonable to require a majority of players on a team to originate in that team's region.

 

Great decision. Will hopefully stop NA LoL from turning into what NA starcraft is, a bunch of 2nd tier Koreans stomping everyone.

 

It's probably coming too late for Starcraft, but Blizzard actually announced similar rule changes for the WCS a few days ago.

 

Heh. I wrote an article about that. Visas will probably do the trick for the moved folk.

 

The sixteen teams for Worlds are now locked in.

Code:

GPL (SEA):	Taipei Assassins, ahq e-Sports Club
LCS (EU):	Alliance, Fnatic, SK Gaming
LCS (NA):	Team SoloMid, Cloud 9, LMQ
LPL (CN):	Edward Gaming, Star Horn Royal Club, OMG
OGN (KR):	Samsung Galaxy Blue, Samsung Galaxy White, NaJin White Shield
Wildcard:	Dark Passage (TR), KaBuM! e-Sports (BR)

It's a really strong lineup and should make for some great games. The actual group draw gets revealed tomorrow, but we already know that Alliance, TSM, EDG and SG Blue are in different groups thanks to seeding.

Korean dominance seems assured. EU's three year streak of having a top 4 team at Worlds might finally end. Will NA even be able to make it to the knockout stages without a bye?

 

Alliance definitely have a shot at top 4, I don't think that Chinese teams are really very far ahead of the western teams. I'm going to remain hopeful that someone can stop the Koreans, EDG and Alliance can definitely take games of them imo.

 

No shit it's presumptive. It's tentative speculation based on incomplete, unconfirmed information. It's the dictionary fucking definition of presumptive.

What's your point?

 

Kabum win worlds easy. Br es numero #1.

 

It'd be nice to see C9 and grudgingly enough TSM get far in worlds, even if I think we'll lose early on.

 

...huh?

Probability doesn't come into it. It's a competition, not a coin flip or a dice roll. Blue, White and Shield don't suffer a handicap because SKT T1 K raised the trophy last year.

 

I would probably permanently swith to LAN if the BR team plays Mordekaiser in the tournament at any point.

 

Are you kidding? If you watch any OGN at all you'd know how terrifying the top Korean teams are. If you want an example of how dominating they are, all you need to do is look at All-Stars. The former World Champs at that point were already a B-list team in Korea which is just shown by how badly they got spanked by the Korean representatives in the OGN circuit and yet they still pounded the other All-Star teams into the ground. Again at IEM another B list team, KT Rolster smashed the European teams, one of which is Fnatic whome they beat 3-0; you know one of the European representatives for World's.

I can guarantee you that at least one of the Finalists will be a Korean team, but I'm fairly certain it will actually be a 'teamkill' at the Final. I would love for Alliance or LMQ to take World's in some sort of underdog story but if you look at the teams objectively, the Koreans taking S4 Worlds is very likely.

@Oz Pretty much. I've had the Najin Sword and Shield icon for months. Watch-sempai please.

 

The NA meta of 'lets not ban Tristana guys' continues. I don't even know what CA smoked in the breaks but it must've been good stuff to give Double Trist again.

Happy for Aphro, annoyed at CA but CLG played well - finally. I hope that comp doesn't make it to Worlds, such a dull strategy however smart it may be.

Keane... That was very unique, I liked it. Shame his build-path was delayed by a lack of global gold and CLG had two of the biggest cock-blocks to Hecarim; Ryze and Alistar. Add in a Ziggs and Keane became a non-factor.

 

Keane looked really good, but it's hard to tell how much of that is simply because Link looked so weak.

Mixed feelings overall on the result. I'm happy for Seraph and Aphromoo, but I always enjoy having new blood in the LCS. At least we still have the expansion tournament.