Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship
By Josh Tyler
1. SK Telecom T1
Qualified via
LCK 2019 Summer Champion
Roster
Top – Kim “Khan” Dong-ha
Jungle – Kim “Clid” Tae-min / Kang “Haru” Min-seung
Mid – Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok
ADC – Park “Teddy” Jin-seong
Support – Lee “Effort” Sang-ho / Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong
How they got here
After missing the World Championship for the first time in the organization’s history in 2018, SKT rebuilt their entire roster around Faker to reclaim their dominance. And boy did that ever work.
With the revamped roster, SKT won both the LCK Spring and Summer Split Finals, defeating Griffin in both series. Yes, they did have a pretty major setback to start the summer, leading them to swap famed support Mata for long-time substitute Effort, but the move worked swimmingly. They proceeded to rattle off nine straight wins, make playoffs, run through the Gauntlet, and win the whole damn thing.
Player to watch
Although it’s easy to look to the League of Legends GOAT Faker here, I’m going to say jungler Clid is the make-or-break player for SKT. His jungling is so insane and he does such an incredible job of setting up his teammates as the supportive jungler, enabling his carries, he’s probably the best at that in the world.
Best case scenario
This team, frankly, has no holes. If you want to point to the inexperienced Effort, I get it, but the fact of the matter is his team has been incredible since he joined the squad, making him the small piece that makes the whole machine go. They match up extremely well against the other teams in the tournament and I think they are the favorites to win Worlds.
Worst case scenario
Like FPX, SKT losing in the group stage or even quarterfinals is unthinkable. Also like FPX, yes, they can potentially get unlucky during a series, but the only teams that could beat them at their worst are probably the very best teams, who they won’t face until the semifinals.
Prediction
They’ll win the World Championship.
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The League of Legends World Championship begins on October 2 with the play-in group stage. Stay tuned for further coverage of the World Championship and tune in to the group draw live on September 23, 2019, at 10:00 EST.