5. Invictus Gaming
Qualified via
LPL 2019 Championship Points
Roster
Top – Lee “Duke” Ho-seong / Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok
Jungle – Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning / Lu “Leyan” Jue
Mid – Song “Rookie” Eui-jin
ADC – Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo
Support – Wang “Baolan” Liu-Yi
How they got here
The defending World Champions, most people would probably not have them rated this highly given the turmoil they experienced during the summer. It was all smooth sailing during the spring, though, as they finished second in the regular-season standings and capturing the LPL Spring Split Championship with a win over FunPlusPhoenix.
After a disappointing run at MSI where they went 9-2 in groups before being upset by Team Liquid in the quarterfinals, Invictus slumped in their return to China, going 9-6 (22-19 in games) before bowing out in the first round to LNG Esports in the first round. While they have been slumping for most of their recent games, it is important to remember that this team still has the same core that won Worlds just one year ago.
Player to watch
Jungler Leyan, who was thrust into the role in his rookie season due to the team’s aforementioned underperformance, in particular by starting jungler Ning. He’ll have to show vast improvement to his game if he wants to not be the factor that holds IG back from a second championship.
Best case scenario
They go back-to-back. Again, they’re bringing in four of the five players in their starting roster who were part of the team that won the World Championship a year earlier. They were dominant in China up until things shifted at MSI. Who’s to say they can’t shift back?
Worst case scenario
They don’t make it out of groups. I think this is incredibly unlikely given the pure talent and experience they have, but if they get a tough enough group (for instance, a G2/IG/Damwon draw is possible) they might be in trouble.
Prediction
They’ll lose in quarterfinals.
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