Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship
By Josh Tyler
11. Splyce
Qualified via
LEC 2019 Regional Finals Runner-Up
Roster
Top – Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss
Jungle – Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir
Mid – Marek “Humanoid” Brázda
ADC – Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup
Support – Tore “Norskeren” Hoel Eilertsen
How they got here
Splyce has always been a strong team in European League of Legends and 2019 was no exception. Finishing the spring regular-season and playoffs in fourth place, Splyce was in a good position to recover and make a hard charge for the LEC’s third Worlds seed.
Unfortunately, despite a strong showing in the regular season where they finished in third place, Splyce was shocked in the first round of the LEC Summer playoffs when they were swept by the upstart Rogue team. This loss relegated them to a path to the World Championship that would have to go through the regional qualifiers, starting all the way in the first round.
They survived a scare against Origen in Round 1, winning in Game 5 on the back of Kobbe‘s stellar Kai’Sa game. They then proceeded to take out Schalke in the second round, securing their spot at the World Championship. With a chance to clinch the second seed, however, Splyce fell short against Fnatic.
Player to watch
Kobbe is one of the most criminally underrated AD Carries in Europe and – controversial statement warning – I think he’s the best ADC that Europe is sending to the World Championships. He’s far better at acquiring gold and outputting damage than Fnatic’s Rekkles, plus his laning stats are far superior. With an exploitable top laner in Vizicsaci and a rookie mid in Humanoid, the team should lean on Kobbe to carry.
Best case scenario
Obviously, Splyce should be favored to make it out of play-ins and should be hoping for a good group draw in the main event. If they can get a soft group, this team has the talent to make it to quarterfinals, but I’m not sure if they can pull out a win in a five-game series against the world’s best teams.
Worst case scenario
I don’t think there’s any world where Splyce doesn’t at least get to play in the knockout round of play-ins, but there is a very real chance they could get a poor draw (like against Damwon, Clutch, or a sneaky UoL team) and get eliminated in play-in knockouts.
Prediction
They’ll make the main event, get placed in a stacked group, and bow out before the quarterfinals.