Esports News: With various off-season moves by key contenders, now is the time to look at who will be considered the top five teams in the World when it comes to League of Legends in 2018.
Samsung Galaxy look to stay #1
Reigning League of Legends World Championship winners Samsung Galaxy enter 2018 as the favourites to win it all, given both their performance at Worlds coupled with their ability to keep their roster intact. Many wondered who would leave Samsung Galaxy after the year was over, but the core decided to stick together in the hope of achieving greatness once again.
Top laner CuVee’s continued rise into the realm of the World’s best Top laners has been the key to Samsung’s late 2017 success. Joined with the continued brilliance of Jungler Ambition, Samsung breezed through Worlds, even with questions about their Mid lane champion pool depth hanging over them. Samsung can become an even more dominant team next year should they fix their minor issues moving forward.
Longzhu can build on fine Summer Split
After winning the Summer Split of Korea’s LCK, Longzhu had a disappointing end to their 2017 season with a 0-3 loss to eventual winners Samsung Galaxy at Worlds, which saw them finish in 5-8th place. Longzhu also had concerns within free agency, but were able to retain four of their previous squad members while adding Peanut to the Jungle position. Peanut was a top Jungler when he joined SK Telecom, but he struggled mightily to find himself with the already established juggernaut of a line-up. Thus far in pre-season, Peanut appears to be back to his old form, completely dominating the enemy Jungle and allowing other aggressive players, such as Top laner Khan, to play a similar style too.
Ultimately, Longzhu have two wild cards who are supported by three of the most consistent top tier players in the game in GorillA, PraY and Bdd. This gives them an incredible base moving into 2018, particularly now Peanut is starting to fire again too.
Faker still the focal point for SKT
SK Telecom T1 enter the 2018 season with significant uncertainty in terms of the Jungle and Top lane positions. Forever a revolving door, those lanes continue to be shuffled around while the core of Faker, Bang and Wolf remain solid. Faker has been and will always be key to this team’s success, with his presence alone solidifying SKT as a top three side.
In 2017 SKT had three first-place finishes in the LCK Spring Season, LCK Spring Playoffs and the Mid-Season Invitational. That was one fewer than the previous year as SKT finished second in the World Championship, losing to Samsung Galaxy in the Finals after winning Worlds, over the same opponent, in 2016. A slight drop off, maybe, but worth watching to see if it becomes a trend.
Team Liquid could dominate the NA LCS
After an off-season full of complete roster overhauls, no team appears better set to dominate the NA LCS than Team Liquid. Liquid have put together an all-star line-up, with three core members coming over from Immortals, while also adding superstars Impact and Doublelift. It’s difficult to see a way in which such a star-studded roster could fail, given the wealth of talent from top to bottom that also includes consistent show callers Xmithie and Olleh. An incredibly well-rounded squad, Liquid will look to put their previous failings behind them as they look for greener pastures in 2018.
Karsa a useful addition for RNG
Over in China’s LPL, Royal Never Give Up now appear to have a two-headed monster in the Jungle, with Mlxg being joined by Karsa from Flash Wolves. Karsa has been one of the standout players within the LMS for quite some time, displaying continual brilliance both within the LMS and on the Worlds stage.
Karsa is a consistent threat and will in all likelihood see more playing time than Mlxg given his consistency. However, what Mlxg allows you to do is bring in a super-substitute, similar to SKT’s strategy over the past few years, who can study the enemy Jungler’s pathing before subbing in with potential off-meta picks to boot. Look for RNG to build on their 3rd-4th place at Worlds, starting with the 2018 LPL Spring Season, especially with star players Uzi and xiaohu returning to the line-up too.
Until they are decisively defeated, Samsung Galaxy will always be the one to watch, but there is now a feeling that the teams below them are closing the gap. This should set up a fascinating year in League of Legends.
