League of Legends: Picking Worlds matchups like College Bowl games

Team Liquid vs. Fnatic

The Granddaddy of them all is one of the most well-known bowl games. It features teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12 usually between the champions of those two conferences, or their runner-ups.

In this case, I selected Team Liquid and Fnatic. Team Liquid as stated above won two LCS titles and deserves a chance to play in a solid bowl, even if it is short of playing in the playoff bowl games like many of the Pac-12 teams in football.

Fnatic is a very strong team and could be considered just short of being better than G2. They topped everyone in the LEC except G2 and they also show up well internationally, with both a runner-up finish and a World Championship title under their belt. They just maybe don’t have the split titles in 2019 that the top four teams have.

This is a classic LEC vs. LCS matchup which is always fun to watch. Then you also have Fnatic giving Broxah a chance to take on his new team before joining them. I think this would be a fun matchup to watch.

Royal Never Give Up vs. Griffin

Griffin and RNG are both great teams that are only missing winning their respective leagues from really being in the conversation as best in the world. Griffin is behind SKT and couldn’t beat them in the either splits playoffs, despite finishing ahead of them. RNG had a second-place finish in the summer after losing to FunPlus Phoenix.

Both teams could both benefit from a big win against a signature opponent and I think that whoever wins here would be able to comfortably say they have the right to rate higher in the second tier of Worlds contenders behind probably only the top four teams.

That and it would be exciting to see the bottom lane matchup of Uzi and Viper. Both rated very highly on our Worlds ranking list for bottom laner players and it would be a blast to watch these two titans go head to head.

Splyce vs. DAMWON Gaming

Two teams that started in the play-ins as third seeds from their regions and yet made it to the quarterfinals. This head to head matchup would be for the title of best performing underdog at worlds for the year 2019.

Hong Kong Attitude vs GAM Esports

Both teams struggled in their actual Worlds groups. Maybe something easier like a head to head matchup will let one team come out with a victory.

Cloud9 vs. J-Team

Cloud9 gets the best of the LMS, while the J-Team gets a shot to see if they can close the gap between the LMS and the LCS. Despite the LMS struggling against the LCS at Worlds this might be a pretty close matchup.

J-Team did dominate LMS and you bet come in hungry to beat major region teams. J-Team also had a better record at 2019 Worlds than Cloud9 at 3-3 against C9’s 2-4 making this seem like it’s less of a runaway, or automatic win for the LCS golden boys when it comes to performing at World Championships.

Clutch Gaming vs. ahq eSports Club

This is throwing a team a bone. Clutch had a rough group with SKT, RNG, and Fnatic, while AHQ got stuck with Team Liquid, Invictus Gaming and DAMWON Gaming in their group. Clutch would fight to keep the LCS undefeated against the LMS, while AHQ would try to spoil that.

There you have a few different matchups from Worlds that we could have seen if they were selected like college football bowl games. Are there any other matchups you would suggest for this format?