Only 8 teams are left in the League of Legends Worlds Championship and with the first-ever Swiss Stage over, things will get heated more than ever in the quarterfinals. Gen.G, who went undefeated so far, will go up against the Chinese #2 seed BLG, in a rematch from MSI earlier this year. Will Gen.G get their revenge or will BLG prove they are stronger?
Let’s break the two teams down, their path to victory, and set our expectations for the match.
Even though Gen.G were the first seed from the LCK, not many thought they would be a dominant force at Worlds, considering their recent performance at MSI where they finished fourth. They quickly proved everyone wrong, getting a quick 3-0 by beating the likes of T1 and G2.
That being said, they still have to face the LPL squads, and with all four of them getting through the Swiss Stage, it was bound to happen to have Gen.G go up against one of them.
BLG is a familiar opponent they played against at MSI and lost to in the playoffs bracket. A quick 3-0 showed that the LPL was much stronger during that period. The Korean team, however, seems to have evolved throughout the Summer Split, jumping on a great growing trajectory.
Not only is the team very clear at playing the overall macro game but even the players are making fewer mechanical mistakes. Gen.G’s greatest weakness in the first half of the season was Doran, who was exploited in a top-lane-oriented carry meta. While there are still some carry picks available, he’s much better at stabilizing the lane. In addition, he also improved a lot, and with the other four players already playing close to peak level, this Gen.G lineup is a scary one at Worlds.
On the other hand, BLG have slightly regressed compared to how they were at MSI. Not on a mechanical level, but their coordination seems to be off at times, giving enemies more openings to exploit.
Another thing is that top laner Bin hasn’t really been able to exert the same level of top lane dominance. I think this is due to the top lane meta evolving and BLG shifting their attention toward a bot-lane carry meta with Elk, who deals over 33% of the entire team’s damage.
It will be thrilling to see whether BLG will try to give more leeway to their top laner or if they want to focus on the bot lane matchup. Jungler Xun will be a key in this matchup, especially as he goes against someone like Peanut, who is known for being an enabler throughout his career.
This year’s Worlds has given us a lot of surprises which have thrown some of our expectations out of the table. That said, our LoL Worlds Power Rankings are still somewhat relevant and accurate, especially in the top half of the standings.
The Worlds quarterfinal between GEN and BLG is going to be hard to predict because both teams have the potential to beat each other, and it will highly depend on how the two teams show up on the day. Based on what we saw so far and how the overall meta is, I would probably favor GEN slightly, especially given that they will have side selection in Game 1.
BLG will be able to fight closely in most games of the series, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at least get one win in the series. 3-1 is what I’m predicting but I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to go to Silver Scrapes.
