Worlds 2020 Play-In Team Preview: Unicorns of Love
By Josh Tyler
We look at the Unicorns of Love, their path to Worlds 2020, and how they might fare in the play-in stage.
Our preview of all the teams that will be featured at the Worlds 2020 play-in stage continues. Today, we look to the CIS team Unicorns of Love, playing in Group B of the play-in round.
Unicorns of Love (“UOL”) are no strangers to the world stage, with four of their five members returning from the team that played at Worlds 2019. Now, it’s a whole different year for the Unicorns, so let’s look at their journey to Worlds 2020 and whether that journey will go beyond the play-in stage.
The Season
UOL has been dominant for all of 2020, winning both the Spring and Summer LCL titles. In the summer, they were also the top team in the regular season, ending the season unbeaten with a 14-0 record.
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While this team was challenged by RoX in the spring (the two teams shared the regular-season title with matching 13-1 records), they swept RoX in the Spring Finals to take the title. In the summer, RoX missed the playoffs entirely, allowing UOL to march through the playoffs to another title, dropping only one game in the finals to Gambit.
The Roster
Top Lane – Vladislav “BOSS” Fomin
BOSS was rated as one of the worst top laners in the world ahead of the World Championships, but he has the most international experience on the Unicorns of Love. In addition to his appearance at last year’s Worlds, he attended 2019 MSI with Vega Squadron. His most-played pick, by far, is Renekton, which he played 13 times in 2020 and has an 8.00 KDA on the croc, so expect for play-in opponents to ban that out.
Jungle – Kirill “AHaHaCiK” Skvortsov
Another member of last year’s Worlds and 2019 MSI with Vega, AHaHaCiK is not only a hard name to pronounce it’s also the name of a very good jungler. He had a KDA over 5.00 in 2020 and can play everything from Trundle to Lee Sin to Karthus. The one pick we haven’t seen him play this year, though, is Lillia, so I’ll be interested to see if he’s added her to his repertoire.
Mid – Lev “Nomanz” Yakshin
Nomanz is a seriously underrated mid laner and is actually god-tier on his signature Kassadin pick. He is 8-0 on that champion this year with almost a 10 KDA. But if you think he’s just a one-trick, think again, because Nomanz has played the meta picks (Azir, Zoe, Cassiopeia) and wacky picks (Ziggs, Vayne, Zed) so he’ll be a treat to watch as one of the best players from the wildcard region.
ADC – Ilya “Gadget” Makavchuk
The only member of this team not to attend Worlds 2019, Gadget was actually the Vega Squadron ADC back in 2019 and attended MSI before being replaced last year by Innaxe. While this is his first trip to Worlds, he’s no stranger to the international stage will be looking to prove his team made the right move bringing him back. The big pick for him will be Senna, as he has a 10-1 record and 9.25 KDA on her this year.
Support – Aleksandr “SaNTaS” Lifashin
Another player who made our list of the best players from wildcard regions, the Unicorns of Love support will have another chance on the international stage to show off on his signature Thresh and Nautilus picks. The one worry is that he may be a bit too one-dimensional as he hasn’t shown that he can pick up enchanter supports as well as his engage champions.
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90/50/10 Predictions
90% odds that…UOL will at least play for one of the final group stage spots. I doubt they’ll win the group outright and get the automatic spot in groups (the LPL’s fourth-seeded LGD Gaming will probably take that) but I think they’ll easily be the second or third team in Group B, giving them an excellent shot to face off against one of the top-two teams in Group A for a slot in groups.
50% odds that…Unicorns of Love make it into groups and win a few games that they shouldn’t. Probably against NA teams, denying them a shot of making it out of the groups.
10% odds that…UOL beats LGD and takes the number one seed for Group B. It’s Worlds, anything can happen!