Worlds 2020 Play-In Team Breakdown: PSG Talon

We look at PSG Talon, their path to Worlds 2020, and how they might fare in the play-in stage.

As Worlds 2020 prepares to kick off on September 25, we need to preview some of the teams that fans of professional League of Legends might be a bit less familiar with. Today, we look at one of the play-in teams, PSG Talon.

The second seed from the PCS league from Southeast Asia, PSG Talon is made of the remnants of last year’s Worlds team Hong Kong Attitude, augmented with several veteran players. Now that they’ve made it to Worlds 2020, let’s take a look at who they are, how they got here, and how far they might go.

The Season

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PSG Talon was actually founded in June of 2020, a rebranding of Talon Esports that had, themselves, just been formed in early 2020. Including members of last year’s #3 seed from the LMS, Hong Kong Attitude, PSG Talon finished the regular season 14-4 as the third seed in the PCS behind J-Team and ahq eSports.

Shockingly, neither of those top two teams from the regular season managed to make it to Worlds 2020. In the second round of the playoffs, PSG Talon took down the second-seed and long-time Worlds representative, ahq.

In the third round, PSG Talon took down Machi Esports, who took down the number one PCS team J-Team, winning the series in a fifth game to secure a spot at Worlds 2020. The two teams would meet again after Machi emerged from the lower bracket to reach the PCS finals. In the rematch, though, it was a much more one-sided affair as Machi won in a three-game sweep.

The Roster

Top Lane – Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang

The long-time top laner of the Flash Wolves, Hanabi joined PSG Talon before the 2020 season and has played the role of stable, veteran top laner properly. He averaged under 2 deaths a game in the regular season with a ton of games on Ornn and Renekton. He’s not the guy this team will be leaning on to win matchups in the top lane, but he’s never going to cost them the game.

Jungle – Kim “River” Dong-woo

On the other end of the spectrum, we have River, an unproven talent at his first Worlds and spent most of his career on lower-tier leagues like the LJL or as a sub in the LMS. Unlike Hanabi, River has made his name on flashy picks, mainly Lee Sin, Graves, and now Lillia.

However, River will not be appearing in the play-in stage due to visa issues. Instead, he will be replaced by ahq’s jungler and PCS MVP Hsiao “Kongyue” Jen-Tso. River may be able to re-join his team should they advance to the group stage.

Mid – Park “Tank” Dan-won

Another scrappy player who has bounced around in wildcard regions, Tank will be making his Worlds debut in 2020. Although he has put up some monster KDA numbers and his damage-to-gold ratio is among the highest for mid laners, he has been shown to have somewhat of a limited champion pool (Syndra, Azir, and some Zoe and Orianna that’s clearly at a lower level). Like River, Tank will be delayed from play-ins due to visa issues and will be replaced by another ahq player in Chen “Uniboy” Chang-Chu.

ADC – Wong “Unified” Chun Kit

The hits keep coming to PSG Talon as they lost their starting ADC Wong “Unified” Chun Kit, who has been the team’s leader and best player. He was slated to make his second Worlds appearance after last year’s appearance with Hong Kong Attitude, but will be replaced by fellow PCS representative Machi Esports’s substitute AD Carry Chen “Dee” Chun-Dee.

Support – Ling “Kaiwing” Kai Wing

Another Worlds veteran, Kaiwing graded out as one of our lower-rated supports at Worlds 2020. He’s basically a Bard and Thresh two-trick and put up some mediocre laning stats despite the fact that he was playing with his long-time lane partner Unified. With that synergy now broken up, will Kaiwing’s level of play dip even further?

90/50/10 Predictions

90% odds that…PSG Talon makes top three in their group and plays in a knockout round to advance to groups. Even with all the chaos surrounding their visas, I just thing PSG has too much talent and experience on their team. Plus, they got drawn into the easier of the play-in groups.

50% odds that…We will get to see at least one of the three players subbed out play at Worlds 2020. Visa issues are tricky, especially in the time of COVID, but from all accounts it seems fairly likely that at least one member will be able to re-join the team if PSG Talon stays alive in the tournament long enough.

10% odds that…PSG Talon makes it to the group stage. Sorry, but all of the roster issues are going to make it impossible for this team to continue to hone their synergy and scrim against quality opponents. Even if they get all the visa issues sorted out, the uncertainty is going to take a toll on the players who are wondering who might be playing the game tomorrow.