League of Legends Worlds 2019: Group B preview – how do the teams stack up lane by lane?

Jungle

FPX: Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang
GAM: Đỗ “Levi” Duy Khánh
J-Team: Chen “Hana” Chih-Hao
Splyce: Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir

I’ve taken the controversial stance that Levi is the best jungler in this tournament, and this is only reinforced by how well his champion pool meshes with the current meta. His two most-played champs are Gragas and Lee Sin, both of whom he has over a 65% win rate on. He also got to play two games on Qiyana during the VCS season and playoffs, winning both.

Tian is unquestionably one of the five best junglers at Worlds, but he’s only played one game of Lee Sin and zero on Qiyana. Yes, he should be fine on Gragas (and another semi-meta pick Elise), but beyond that, his champion pool isn’t very nailed-down.

Hana has a similar jungle pool to Tian, just with a bit less polish. He played a lot of Sejuani and Olaf, who I wouldn’t expect to see much of at Worlds, along with the Gragas. The fact that his champ pool is a bit easier to pinch, combined with the fact he was rated the 18th best jungler before Worlds isn’t encouraging.

Finally, Xerxe could be the X-Factor for Splyce, as he is one of the most underrated junglers at Worlds. I rated him a top ten jungler coming into Worlds and with a very diverse champion pool this summer and in play-ins that included Qiyana, Elise, and Gragas. Xerxe is in a great position. The only downside is the fact that he doesn’t seem to be able to play Lee.

• Pure power ranking: Levi >> Tian > Xerxe >> Hana
• If playing Qiyana: Levi > Tian > Xerxe >> Hana
• If playing Gragas: Levi > Tian > Xerxe > Hana
• If playing Lee Sin: Levi >> Tian > Hana > Xerxe
• If playing off-meta champions: Levi > Tian > Xerxe > Hana

I would expect the highest priority jungler in Group B to be Graga.