At the top of the expected list of teams to go deep in the World Championship lay SKT T1, Edward Gaming, and LGD Gaming. KT Rolster, Invictus Gaming, Fnatic, ahq eSports, and the Koo Tigers rounded out the list of teams that would have a reasonable shot at making the semifinals.
No one would have listed either the Flash Wolves or Origen to go deep in the tournament. Even if either team somehow made it to the bracket stage, they would probably draw tough opponents in the first round and exit quietly, with other teams proving too strong for the two underdogs to fight through.
Yet somehow, one of these teams will be one of the top 4 teams in the World Championship.
Both the Taiwanese Flash Wolves and Europe’s Origen have been unexpected and pleasant surprises during the this year’s season-ending tournament, providing the viewers with some of the most entertaining and thrilling games of this year’s World Championship. These teams might not match the same firepower as the other quarter-final match ups, but they're sure to provide sparks in an exciting best of five.
FW vs. OG
Hermit and the Drafts of God
Origen was not supposed to make it out of the group stages. They were placed in a group with Chinese juggernaut LGD Gaming and Korean titan KT Rolster, and few predicted them to make it to the quarter-finals. Their play in the European finals was stellar, but something about the team didn’t seem to gel, and the third seed from Europe came in as one of the dark horses of the tournament, despite being placed in one of the most difficult groups.
Shortly before the World Championship, former head coach LeDuck stepped down and Origen moved their analyst Hermit into the head coach position. Prior to Hermit’s arrival, the team had questionable drafting at times in Europe. Origen didn’t always have a cohesive plan, and the team sometimes lost due to sloppiness in their draft phase.
This all changed in the first week of the World Championship. Faced with a completely new patch, the team needed to adapt well, or lose games due to mistakes made while drafting. Hermit, in his first stint as head coach, needed to perform.
In their first match, they faced off against LGD, a team who was one of the three favorites to win the World Championship, and who, man-for-man, arguably had the most talented roster in the world. Origen was immediately written off of the match, and they were expected to get crushed.
Interestingly enough, LGD, on blue side, banned out both priority picks Gangplank and Darius. This gave Origen freedom to ban both Lee Sin and Rek’sai, two of jungler TBQ’s most preferential picks. Although LGD would immediately get Lulu, a notable flex pick for the team, a problem remained for LGD. What would their jungler, clearly the weakest link on the team, pick with his two best champions now gone?
Origen then picked away Elise, yet another strong jungler in the patch, and Kalista, both picking it for Niels and away from Imp, who is one of the scariest Kalista players in the world. LGD would immediately reveal their hand with a Juggermaw composition, picking Braum along with the Kog’maw for extra protection. Origen would then make the interesting decision to pick Orianna, a safe pick for xPeke, along with Annie as a support pick. This left Soaz with the counterpick in the top lane.
LGD would then choose Vi and Malphite for their jungle and top lane. LGD’s composition was scary with the Kog’maw, but notably had a significant lack of damage besides Imp. Soaz would make an interesting decision and draft Vladimir as his last pick, a counterpick to the Malphite. Origen had a very threatening triple threat composition, despite lacking in tankiness, in almost direct contrast to LGD.
It turns out that this countered LGD perfectly. TBQ was rendered useless for the entire game on Vi, not being able to get any ganks off. Soaz would continually put splitpush pressure with his Vladimir, and Acorn’s Malphite could do little against it. xPeke would put consistent pressure with his teleport, and GodV’s ignite Lulu was unable to follow. In the end, LGD were simply ran around the map until they made a fatal mistake being caught in a four man shockwave, after which Origen ran over them the rest of the game. Origen had, against all odds, taken their first game.
Their next match against Team Solomid was a much easier prospect for the Europeans. The struggling North American squad looked poor in the weeks leading up to Worlds, and were simply outplayed by KT Rolster in their last match. It seemed to be no problem for Origen to easily take the game and start their World Championship going 2-0.
Their draft against TSM was just as brilliant as their draft against LGD in the previous day. Origen, who were on blue side, focused on banning out Bjergsen’s champion pool, recognizing that he was the primary playmaker on the team. They would then first pick the Kalista, the champion that Niels had done so well on previously. This left up both Elise and Darius, which TSM proceeded to pick up.
Origen would then immediately counter the Darius pickup, taking both Lulu and Braum in the next rotation. The amount of kiting that was possible against the Darius was unbelievable, and without natural gapclosers it didn’t seem likely that Darius would make it into Origen’s more vulnerable lineup. Following TSM’s pickup of Tristana and Alistar, Origen would surprise everyone with an Anivia pickup in the midlane. As ridiculous as it sounds, it worked wonders against the playstyle that TSM wanted to play. Not only was Dyrus’s Darius rendered completely useless, but Santorin’s low-gank playstyle and the passivity of TSM allowed xPeke to freely farm up and be relevant in the lategame. TSM simply could not engage into the massive disengage that Origen offered, and simply rolled over and died after the first fifteen minutes of the game.
Their last match of the first week was up against KT Rolster, the Korean squad who had utterly dominated in their first two wins. Their pick-heavy style proved to be deadly as they quickly would snowball their victories, including a notable beatdown of LGD in the day before. This was not a team that was underperforming by any means, and Origen again looked a lot like the underdogs in this match.
KT would ban away the Kalista and interestingly, the Braum, two picks that Origen proved competent on in their previous game. This gave Origen the freedom to ban Azir and Lulu, and then gambled that KT would ban either Gangplank or Mordekaiser, instead of first-picking them. KT would do so, and the Koreans picked the Elise first. Origen, on their next rotation, picked Gragas and Thresh, two incredibly safe picks that didn’t reveal their hand.
KT would then put Arrow on Kog’maw, his preferred champion over the previous two group stage games. This proved to be a massive mistake, with Origen picking Twisted Fate, Sivir, and Fiora to put pressure on Arrow when immobile and make repeated picks on him. Although the Fiora pick into Ssumday’s Olaf proved difficult for Soaz, Origen simply ran KT around the map with their global pressure and picked off Arrow when necessary. Arrow and Nagne’s Ekko couldn’t keep up with the CS advantages that Niels and xPeke got against them, and they simply didn’t have enough damage to beat the Origen’s mobile squad. After Origen made a daring Baron call, KT couldn’t keep up, and Origen finished the week 3-0.
Origen went into their first week with plans against every one of the teams they played against. They countered their preferred playstyle and played a smart, slow game to throw the other teams off. Even though their drafts in the second week were not as strong, as shown with their 1-2 record in the second half, Hermit’s impact on the team should not be underestimated.
Flash Wolves: Gifted Life
The Flash Wolves may have just gotten lucky with the group they were in. Sitting in what was called “The Group of Life”, they were supposed to a stepping stone in Counter Logic Gaming’s path to the bracket stage. The few who paid attention to the Taiwanese scene would have pointed out that the Flash Wolves were not a team to be underestimated, but few listened. The hype was all built for the top North American seed to advance easily, and few thought CLG would falter at the last minute.
Despite this, the Flash Wolves came in as most of the remnants of the Gamania Bears, a team who unfortunately drew SKT T1 in the quarterfinals of the Season 3 World Championship and never got a chance to play in a competitive game. The squad also won IEM Taipei in a reverse sweep over the favored Taipei Assassins and went to the semifinals in IEM Katowice, dispatching both Cloud 9 and SK Gaming before losing to TSM. This was a team that was experienced in international tournaments, and would not falter easily.
The Flash Wolves certainly didn’t help their cause in Week 1. Despite playing a brutal game against CLG, the Taiwanese second seed gained a sizeable gold lead after great fighting. Unfortunately, subsititute AD carry KKramer was caught by not one, but two cocoons, and in approximately three minutes the Taiwanese squad had their Nexus in ruins. After putting beleaguered AD carry NL back into the lineup, they faced the Korean KOO Tigers, who were massively favored to win the matchup. However, a careless pick/ban phase against the Taiwanese team gave Karsa his Nidalee, NL on his pocket Varus pick, and Maple on the nearly permabanned Gangplank. The Flash Wolves would simply poke the KOO Tigers off of their turrets and win the game from behind.
Then came the games against Pain Gaming, the Wildcards from Brazil. The Flash Wolves were run around the map in two very stressful games against Brazilians, losing the first game and nearly dropping the second. Their play against Pain was most definitely not pretty, and Karsa’s spectacular Lee Sin play saved Flash Wolves from being disastrously 0-2 down to the Brazilians. They didn’t look good, and it was questionable whether they could take down CLG, who had crucially won the first game against them.
Everything changed after that first game against Pain. The Flash Wolves were crisp against CLG, and despite a shaky start from Maple’s Leblanc, were able to snowball victories off of mistakes from CLG and clutch Dark Bindings from SwordArt’s Morgana. NL, who had been mocked ceaselessly for being a poor player, even got a Pentakill on Jinx to close out the game. Following this, they had one last game against Koo, who had already secured their spot in the bracket stage. The Flash Wolves overcame the odds once again and absolutely crushed the Koreans, off the back of a stellar performance from Maple’s Leblanc, securing an unexpected first place out of Group A.
The Flash Wolves may have been helped out by CLG’s complete collapse in the second week, but for most of the group stage they were on the ropes. They didn’t secure their spot in the quarterfinals until the last game over Koo, and seemed to ramp up in strength as they played more games. They have shown volatility, beating the Koo Tigers 2-0 but nearly losing to Pain Gaming 0-2. The biggest issue the Flash Wolves have had is their inconsistency and poor reactions to slow play. Pain never let the Flash Wolves play their game as they slowed down the pace of the game so considerably, and the Flash Wolves would seemingly freak out not knowing what to do. Despite this, they have some of the highest highs of any team in this World Championship, and their dominant beatdown of the KOO Tigers show how well this team can play when they are at their best. When the Flash Wolves win games, they are controlling the pace of the game, winning with great teamfighting and coordination but also having the objective focus expected from a Korean team. They may be the weakest #1 seed in the quarterfinals, but they certainly are dangerous when they are allowed to play.
Origen: Veterans on a New Team
When famous Fnatic midlaner and former World Champion xPeke announced that he would be forming a new amateur team under his own banner, few expected them to make it this far. In one year, the team made it from the European Challenger Circuit into the Bracket Stage of Worlds, and it’s astounding how far the team has made it.
However, once you look at Origen’s roster, it no longer seems surprising that they’ve made it this far. Four of their five players have already represented Europe or North America at Worlds, with AD carry Niels being the only player who was completely new to the international stage. The team that many called the “old Fnatic” have made it, and after long thought it seems almost destined that this team would do so well.
Origen’s Worlds campaign looked bleak for them. With LGD and KT Rolster in their group, there seemed to be little chance that a European team would make it out over either a Chinese or a Korean team. Many wrote the veterans off, thinking that they were left without a chance in this group stage.
Four straight wins later, Origen was guaranteed a spot out of their group. Empowered by the home crowd in Paris cheering them on, they drafted nearly perfectly over the first three games and won by countering the strategies of the titans of their group. No doubt the team was aided by LGD’s untimely collapse in Week 1, but it was still a monumental effort for the team to have done so well over their first four games. Yet, worryingly the greatness of their first week was underscored by how poorly they showed up in the second week of Group stages.
The first match was a 55 minute brawl against a struggling TSM. While Origen could have and probably should have closed the match out much earlier, they appeared lost in the late game and moved a little too slowly. WildTurtle’s Jinx grew to scary levels as Origen failed to make any progress until very late in the game. Origen may have beat TSM, but it was far from the intelligent shot-calling the team made when playing against KT Rolster.
Next up, against 0-4 LGD, already out of the tournament, they were snuffed out rather easily. LGD played seemingly to their original form and absolutely dominated Origen’s bottom lane, with xPeke on Orianna this time falling too far behind GodV’s famous teleport Diana to make any impact in the game. This loss could be attributed to LGD suddenly playing as how they were expected to play, but Origen’s play was clearly off. Soaz on Malphite didn’t have the same split-pushing threat as he did in the first week, and xPeke, quite frankly, was useless. With Origen’s bottom lane shut down so hard it seemed as if there was no coming back against LGD.
Finally, they would battle for the first seed in the group against KT Rolster again. Their first match against the Koreans was the best game of the first week of Worlds. This time, however, KT, led by Ssumday’s Darius, simply ran amok over the map with superior global pressure. Soaz had an awful game on his top Kennen, finishing 0/9/3. While KT were a little sloppy and over dove several times while closing out the game, they still ran over the Europeans, despite Niels’ heroic efforts on Kog’maw, finishing 12/3/4. Soaz lacked the pressure that he did earlier and xPeke was once again ineffective.
Origen’s week two play was strikingly worse than their week one play. As a team, they appeared to be one of the best teams at Worlds with their intelligent week one performance. However, they stuttered at the finish line. If they can draft as well as they did earlier, draw the game out and intelligently play the map, they should win handily. Otherwise, it’ll be a disappointing end to what was a promising campaign.
The Matchups
Top Lane: Steak(FW) vs Soaz(OG)
Steak has been more of a joke than an actual player for most of his career. With his crazy hair, his hilarious name, and his quite awful play in game, he was little more than a symbol for why Taiwan sucked as a region, as questionable as that comparison proved to be. In this Worlds he was not expected to be much of a player at all, but as a punching bag for players like Smeb to commence open season on.
However, Steak is also his team’s captain, and a big reason for their success in thee game. No one else has the capability that Steak has to call the shots for his team. He is effectively Taiwan’s version of Hai, the mechanically incompetent player who makes it up with his ability to lead the game.
Steak’s play this tournament has been rather surprising. He hasn’t had overly terrible games, and has not fed his lane opponent so much that the Flash Wolves could not recover. He’s been, for the most part, just ok. His synergy with his team has been enough to lead his team into the Bracket Stage.
Soaz has had a farm more inconsistent performance than his opposite laner. At his best, he did not dominate his lane, but provided enough split push pressure to throw off Origen’s opponents. He hasn’t been dominant so much as a necessary part to his team’s success, a strange departure from the Soaz who made his name in Europe as one of their best top laners.
However, his historical weakness of tilting seems to have annoyingly risen once again. It’s hard to forget his 0/9 game against Ssumday, and though Steak isn’t a better player than him, a poor performance would spell bad news for Origen.
In most circumstances, Soaz wins this lane easily. He is hands down the better player on the map. However, his role hasn’t been that of a dominant laner rather than one of Origen’s cogs, one of the keys to their success. Whether he transitions into the carry that he is famed to be is uncertain.
Jungle: Karsa(FW) vs Amazing(OG)
When people talked about the best junglers at Worlds, it seemed to be preceded by the disclaimer that “the Jungler pool this year is relatively weak”. While that is true compared to years before, Karsa has shown up as one of this year’s star junglers. His role has been absolutely crucial to his team’s success, and he has yet to have a bad game. He has shown mechanical prowess on champions like Nidalee and Lee Sin, and his Lee Sin heroics were the reason why Flash Wolves held out vs Pain Gaming in their second game.
If there is one weakness that Karsa has, it is his tendency to doubt himself and occasionally disappear. During the majority of the Summer Split, Karsa was not the same player that he was when he emerged as the best jungler in Taiwan. It took until Regionals for Karsa to return to form, and it was a fantastic return. If Karsa disappears again, however, the Flash Wolves chances against Origen are reduced to nil.
Amazing, after his stint with TSM, has quietly remade himself into one of the best junglers in Europe. His play has seemed much better, and his pathing decisions are some of the best in the West. He also has the experience that Karsa does not, this being his second time playing in the quarterfinals of Worlds. However, this tournament has been nothing spectacular from him. He hasn’t shone nearly as much as he did in Europe, and that might be because of Origen’s focus on team play in this World Championship. In general, he’s been a solid player.
Based off of their play in groups, Karsa should be heavily favored here. His elevated level of play is the biggest reason why the Flash Wolves got out of the group stage, and while Amazing isn’t a bad player, he hasn’t shown up the way Karsa did in his first six games at Worlds. Karsa being more impactful than Amazing is one of Flash Wolves’ biggest win conditions in this match.
Mid: Maple(FW) vs xPeke(OG)
Maple is famous for arguably being the best mid laner in Taiwan. His assassin play has been impeccable and while he had a shaky first few matches, his Leblanc play in the last game against KOO showed what happens once he is allowed to take over a game. If he delivers, he’ll be the major carry threat that the Flash Wolves have. Also, his synergy with jungler Karsa is one of the best mid-jungle synergies at Worlds.
xPeke, on the other hand, has been rather quiet this Worlds. Despite being famous for being a clutch player, and his heroic Game 1 shockwave against LGD giving them the game, he hasn’t been particularly standout in any of Origen’s wins. He’s just there most of the time, quietly being impactful with his teleport usage. However, when he fell behind in the last week of groups, he was a major liability to his team, and simply was not useful at all. He needs to do something on the map in order to be useful, and as good as his play in Week 1 was, it doesn’t seem like this Worlds is where xPeke can shine.
Maple has been consistently the better player, and this matchup should be in his favor. If xPeke gets his famous “Worlds Buff” he could match the explosive Taiwanese youngster, but overall his individual performance has been quite lackluster.
AD Carry: NL/KKramer(FW) vs Niels (OG)
The Flash Wolves will probably use NL instead of KKramer for their AD Carry. NL has quietly had a fantastic tournament, getting a penta kill and a quadra kill already on Jinx. He seems to have fixed a lot of his positional mistakes, and has in general been an actual carry threat for the first time in a long while. NL may not be mechanically the best player, but he has the better synergy with his team. KKramer was quite awful in his debut against CLG, and it’s unlikely that he’ll play given that the Flash Wolves have just played better with NL.
If there is a hero for Origen emerging in this World Championships, that player is none other than rookie AD Carry Niels. Despite being the youngest player on his team and the only player who hasn’t been to a previous Worlds, he has been the primary carry force on Origen, with his play being in general a superior version to Fnatic’s Rekkles. He has also displayed a cool head under pressure, where an ordinary rookie would be wracked with nerves. If anyone on Origen's side is to be feared, it is Niels.
Niels has been fantastic this tournament, and even though NL has been good, Niels has been the star of his team, unlike NL. Niels is also better in lane than NL is, and even though NL doesn’t need to succeed in the laning phase, Niels should have more impact throughout the game than NL does.
Support: SwordArt(FW) vs Mithy(OG)
SwordArt has also had a fantastic tournament thus far. His skill-shot accuracy on champions like Thresh and Morgana has been very high, and he has excelled in playing both a protective style for NL as well as a roam-heavy style when necessary. SwordArt will likely be one of the forgotten members on his team, but his performance is crucial to his team’s success, and if he has a bad series, like he did occasionally in Taiwan, his team’s morale will be hurt.
Mithy, along with Niels, has been one of the stars for Origen. Although not as brilliant as Niels has been, Mithy has been there with his AD Carry the entire time. Without Mithy’s support, Niels would not have succeeded as well as he did earlier. His synergy with Amazing has also been top-notch, and he has shown success when on heavy engage like his Annie against LGD and his shot calling has been a shining beacon for Origen's play
The two supports have been remarkably even over the championship. Both of them have been stellar, and it’s hard to reasonably see a difference between the two.
Staff Opinions
thejuju
This match is tough for me to call. On the one hand, Origen's play in week 1 was clearly better than the Flash Wolves, but their week 2 performance was questionable at best. If Origen can run the Flash Wolves across the map, I think they can take the match pretty easily.
On the other hand, the Flash Wolves have the better players on the map. Karsa and Maple are really good when they're on, and SwordArt is no slouch either. However, it's hard to say the same about NL or Steak, as good as they've been.
In the end, I think Origen's week 2 performance has sort of echoed the common trend of Western Teams at Worlds, overperforming in the first Week only to crash and burn in the second. The Flash Wolves have also seemingly gotten better and better, while Origen looked weaker and weaker. It'll be close, but the Taiwanese hope will edge out the Europeans in the final game.
739
Heart says FW, head OG. While I really believe that Origen will come out as favourites in this match, I really do hope that Flash Wolves will put up a good fight. Amazing vs Karsa is a matchup to follow with both junglers having a big impact in the early/mid game with potential of producing huge plays.
#FWWIN
Fusilero
I just don't think Flash Wolves can keep up with Origen's double teleport, split push oriented playstyle. I think Steak will lose ground to Soaz and Flash Wolves will collapse from that point. I'll give them a game based on Flash Wolves' strengths in a straight up fight oriented mid game and Karsa but unless the LGD/KT games reflected a complete collapse from Origen Flash Wolves should lose.
oo_Wonderful_oo
FW struggled big time against Brazilian tps, but considering that Origen barely closed game against TSM with 2 Barons due to latter being indecisive, it might be slightly overrated. If Steak and NL can hold their ground like they did in groups, then Flash Wolves might take it, but macrogame mismatch might be too big of a deal. Even though, I wanna believe.
Also FW isn't kind of team to collapse in bo5s (like IEM Taipei where they reverse swept TPA in finals), so even if Origen throws bunch of curveballs, Maple and crew won't be shattered.
keithasante
I don't even know what to say about worlds anymore, just picking with my heart. Vive le sOAZ!
Staff Predictions
thejuju (3-2) 739 (3-2) oo_Wonderful_oo (3-2) Zess (3-1) | AdsMoFro (3-1) Fusilero (3-1) keithasante (3-1) JonGalt (3-2) |
Has juju painted an accurate picture of the FW vs OG matchup? Why don't you register on LiquidLegends.net and keep up-to-date with the discussion on our forums!