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Three Reasons why Mammoth will,or Won’t win The League of Legends World Champsion

By s. samek

Riot Games
Riot Games /
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We continue our break down why each team can, or cannot win the League of Legends World Championship, now moving on to Mammoth.

Mammoth will represent the Oceanic Pro League, or OPL, at the League of Legends World Championship in 2019. Let’s dive into some reasons why this team could win Worlds, or why they might be sent home packing early.

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Why Mammoth will win Worlds

1. Unknown

When you think of the OPL the team that comes to mind is the Dire Wolves, but the Dire Wolves won’t see any international play this year.  The Bombers represented the OPL at MSI 2019, while Mammoth takes a turn at worlds.

So who is this mysterious team anyway? Well, Mammoth is the first place team from the OPL Split 2 Playoffs, where they started as the second seed. With wins over Order and Chiefs in the playoffs, they were able to win their spot at Worlds.

The roster is made up of Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami in the top lane, Leo “Babip” Romer in the jungle, Stephen “Triple” Li  in the middle lane and a bottom lane duo of Calvin “k1ng” Truong and Mitchell “Destiny” Shaw.

They don’t have any experience against teams at this tournament. While this could be seen as a disadvantage, this keeps their strategies a secret since no one has played against them before. Thus it makes it harder for opponents to prepare for them as they could come up with anything. Fear of this unknown team may lead you to know ho they are when they lift the trophy on stage.

2. Champions

They are the OPL champions and the best team to hail from Oceania. They made the playoffs in both splits, however, they had a much better summer. In Split 1 they finished the regular season in fourth place with a fifth-place finish in the playoffs.

In Split 2 they went 16-5, which tied Chiefs for the best record in the OPL, though Chiefs had a 2-1 head-to-head advantage to gain the top seed.  Chiefs might have been the better overall team by record, but Mammoth knocked them off when it mattered most in the finals. 

I think if you can claim a spot as the  best in the region, even a minor one, you can fight for a title.  Mammoth fits that description.

3. Brackets

This might require a bit of luck, but it isn’t impossible. Mammoth got a decent draw in the play-in stage, finding themselves in Group A with Clutch and the Unicorns of Love. It’s much easier for them to play those teams now than it would be in play-ins knockouts. Should they avoid Damwon and Splyce in that round they should be ok.

Mammoth can also go into any of the group stage groups if they make it to the main stage. If they get a wide-open group like Group B it’s possible that they could come in second and make it to the quarter finals. Then they just have to start surprising people.

Why Mammoth won’t win Worlds

1. No experience

Mammoth is not only brand new to the Worlds stage this tournament is also their first international showing. Playing at Worlds is nothing like playing just a regular-season OPL game.

Even individually, those players with experience at Worlds don’t have a history of success. Triple and k1ng did go to World’s last year with Dire Wolves, but it wasn’t great. They went 1-3 and failed to get out of the play-in stage.  I think will a field of teams that have been there before the new teams might not know what to expect and will struggle.

2. Not highly rated

Mammoth is not one of the favorites coming into this tournament. In fact in our ranking list they came in 24th, that is dead last.  This wasn’t helped in the position rankings as so far  Mammoth has the 23rd ranked jungler, and Fudge was named the worst top laner at worlds. Maybe rankings are overrated, but it still is hard to think that if you have the worst players and are the worst team you’ll have a chance at the championship.

3. Fail in Play-ins

As I said before the play-ins don’t look as bad as they could have been for Mammoth. This doesn’t really make it any easier though. Clutch is playing well when they need to and won’t be an easy out. Unicorns of Love might be a dark horse candidate and won’t be a team that will take  Mammoth lightly. The most likely happening for Mammoth is they fail to get a win in this group and go home in last place.

Damwon,  Splyce, and even Hong Kong Attitude would most likely be the teams waiting for Mammoth if they take second in the group by surprising Clutch, or UOL. Those would be tough challenges as well before a lot of talented teams would be ready to eliminate them in the group stage if they somehow pull off an upset.

Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship. dark. Next

Mammoth is at Worlds so they have a chance. I think thats worth celebrating. Anything this team accomplishes at worlds looks to be an extra side of icing on their season’s cake.

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