Worlds 2020 Semifinals Previews
From twenty-two teams to only four, the journey to having their first World Championship title for these four organizations is getting closer and closer. Two more Best of Fives, and one of these four can raise the Summoner’s Cup, and bring pride to their home. The competition is becoming hotter than ever, and now I will introduce the upcoming matches that you won’t want to miss.
G2 Esports vs Damwon Gaming
Starting the Semifinals is the rematch of the Quarterfinal of Worlds 2019, G2 Esports vs. Damwon Gaming, the last hope of LEC vs. the last hope of LCK (again). This, without a doubt, will be the most exciting match of this Worlds so far, and will determine which region is better. Damwon Gaming, a Korean team, looks almost unstoppable against traditional slow-paced playstyles with only one loss so far in Worlds. G2 Esports, the LCK’s kryptonite and undoubtedly the best Western team of all time. Both teams are coming into Semifinals with a 3–0 against two other Korean seeds, and will fight the last LPL team in this World’s Finals.
There’s no doubt that Damwon Gaming is currently the best team so far performance-wise. After losing 3–1 to G2 Esports in last year's Worlds Quarterfinal, they’re looking for revenge here in Semifinals. In general, the World's meta is really on their side, and I don’t think any teams can adapt to power picks like Damwon Gaming can.
All power picks are scary in their hands?
Able to play aggressive level 1?
Great at 5v5?
Flexible on every champion?
The answer to all of them is “yes” for Damwon, and their execution is above phenomenal. You can’t even play safe and hopefully catch their mistakes, as they rarely appear to make them. Like Top Esports, the players are wonderful from top to bot lane, and it’ll take too much time to talk on each individual player on the team. In my opinion, they’re not only just the favorite, but I do think they can get the Summoner’s Cup, and bring back pride for Korea after two years of Chinese domination.
However, Damwon has to go through a great-looking and funny team from Europe, who are looking for a second attempt in the World Finals: G2 Esports. Many people including myself believe that G2 has a playstyle that can beat Korean teams, and potentially create an upset to eliminate the tournament’s favorite. Their playstyle doesn’t go for objectives in the early game and usually gives the opposing team a lead first. However, they love getting towers, and usually find kills in the mid-game. That’s why I rate their macro decision after 15 minutes and trying to be aggressive at unexpected times as very high skill, and unique compared to the other three teams. Their midlaner, “Caps,” is at the peak of his career and looking to be the first western player to appear in World’s Finals three years in a row. G2's ADC “Perkz” shows lane dominance against arguably the best ADC, in Korea and proves he can adapt to the meta.
Despite performing decently on farming and scaling, jungler “Jankos” is still my only concern for G2, especially against an even tougher matchup of “Canyon.” I want to see Jankos play engaging and ganking junglers because that’s his comfort, and we saw that type of champion does work in the FNC vs. TES series. In the end, they’re still G2 Esports. The more pressure on them and the tougher the opponent is, the better performance they give, which can lead to their best series of all times. It will be interesting to see how far they can go with this dream team roster.
Suning vs Top Esports
Up next, it’s the last LPL Civil Wars between 3rd seed LPL Suning and 1st seed LPL Top Esports. Suning is coming in as the first seed in Group Stage, and successfully upset 3–1 against the favorite 2nd seed LPL team, JD Gaming. Meanwhile, Top Esports came in as the first seed in Groups, and pulled off the first-ever reverse sweep at Worlds 3–2 against second seed LEC team, Fnatic.
With Suning vs. Top Esports, we already have seen this match not too long ago when they were against each other in the LPL Summer Semifinals. The result? It was a dominating 3–0 performance for Top Esports, and many people will think the result would be the same with this match. However, that series was a different Suning, where they play individual games with questionable macro decisions mid and late game. This Suning is a different one, more mature and decisive in their gameplay. Two of the rookies, toplaner “Bin” and ADC “Huanfeng,” are at their top performance with so many highlights. Their Vietnamese jungler, “Sofm,” is a genius of jungle timing, and can read the opposing jungler like a book. This team has been wonderful so far, and I believe that they are truly the tournament's dark horse.
However, their opponents, Top Esports, is the first seed of LPL and won the Summer Split for a reason. All I can see in this roster are fantastic players from top to bot that can carry the game for losing lane teammates. Their vision controls were amazing; every place the opponent tries to attack, it seems like they can read it before and prepare for it. Their 5v5 teamfights are god-tier in mid-game, and it’s one of the factors in why they were able to reverse sweep. All five players for me did a perfect job in their roles, and it will take a lot of time to highlight all of them. They’re the true favorite coming to Worlds, and winning this Semifinal will be a big threat for the other bracket winners.
A few interesting stories will be coming up in this match. Suning’s ADC “Huanfeng” trained under Top Esports’ ADC “Jackeylove” on their previous team IG, so this will be a great chance for Huanfeng to prove that he can surpass his mentor. Two former legendary Flash Wolves players and friends from the same high school, SN’s Support “SwordArt” and TES’s Jungler “Karsa,” are currently experiencing their first time in Semifinals, and will battle it out to determine who will go the furthest. SN’s jungler “Sofm” is representing his home country Vietnam, since all the Vietnamese teams were unable to play in this Worlds. All the hometown fans are looking up to him and cheering all the way to bring pride home.
