Worlds 2016: Quarterfinals Recap

It’s stomp city here at quarterfinals, population: 4.

Samsung Galaxy (WIN) vs. Cloud 9
So… these quarterfinals matches started on a rather bad note. The fans, for whatever reason, thought it would be acceptable to boo SSG as they were introduced on stage. I was already rooting for Samsung, but after that “I wanted to see that place become a library,” and the Korean team did exactly that.
 

C9 fans right now. #Worlds pic.twitter.com/0rgq4rrbSN

— Trevor Henry (@RiotQuickshot) October 13, 2016

 
This has to be one of the most brutally one-sided series in the history of Worlds, it was just hard to watch. Cloud 9 lost in every way at all points of every game. SSG started off poorly coming into Worlds, but they have shown up as a potential grand finalists. They’re definitely making KT, and by extension, both sets of fans extremely proud.
 

SK Telecom T1 (WIN) vs. Royal Never Give Up
Surprisingly poor performance by SKT in game 1, Duke and Bengi just didn’t seem to have their head in the game. On the other side of the rift, Looper showed how powerful Jayce can be in the right hands. From poke winning engagements, to taking turrets incredibly fast, RNG’s top laner was on point.
 

Game 1 gave me excitement and hype. It has now been thoroughly crushed. RNG are just too chaotic to take down SKT. #worlds

— Trevor Henry (@RiotQuickshot) October 15, 2016

 
Aaaaand that’s where my praise for RNG stops, SKT came back ready to rumble and shut them down in 3 consecutive exceptionally dominate games. Funnily enough, they can attribute their wins almost entirely because of the two previously underperforming roles: top and jungle. While yes it was awesome to see Duke solo kill Looper multiple times, I’m more impressed by Blank’s total 180.
 
Coming into tourney I was ready to be done with Blank, and SKT entirely, because of his consistently poor performance and coach Kkoma’s refusal to get someone else, however he’s looked like a completely different person in the second half of Worlds. I still can’t believe he’s been able to shore up his early game weakness and show up as a playmaker in the late game. Anyway, this series has confirmed my prediction: 3rd time World Champion SK Telecom incoming.
 

ROX Tigers (WIN) vs. Edward Gaming
Interesting series for both teams. ROX had an explosive start but waned into a disrespect Fiora pick only to be shut down. Still, they came back and won the series convincingly, they looked as good as ever, and that’s awesome because I want some ROX Tigers skins.
 
EDG on the other hand had some glaring issues. Their toplaner, Mouse, unfortunately could not play, so they emergency subbed in Koro1. He’s a good player in general, but the team synergy simply wasn’t there. Although, that wasn’t even the worst of their problems if you can believe it. No, Clearlove was. Coming into the tourney he was #4 on LoLeSports top 20 players at worlds, and generally speaking he was slated as the best jungler at Worlds. In all of his performances thus far, he not only didn’t look the best, but he looked the absolute worst. Junglers from the worst of EU, NA, and IWC looked better than this “living legend.” Poor map presence and awful mechanics lost EDG this series, despite the very best efforts from Scout, Deft, and Meiko who all played out of their mind.
 

For the first time all 3 #LCK teams advanced to the Semi Finals. 3 out of 4 of the best teams in the world are from Korea. #GapIsClosing

— Trevor Henry (@RiotQuickshot) October 16, 2016

 

 
H2K Gaming (WIN) vs. Albus Nox Luna

These games are just slaughterhouses. Anx hope is bleeding onto the floor.

— scarra (@scarra) October 16, 2016

 
Pretty much the above tweet. ANX got destroyed, it was surprisingly not even close. I didn’t expect Albus to win, but man, that was rough. There’s a sentiment that if they had fixed their draft then maybe they could’ve pulled at least one game off but I don’t think so, H2K looked flawless. Well, except for when the opposing Syndra stole their baron, but that’s just tradition.
 

TL:DR
H2K + all 3 Korean teams go to semifinals.