We're down to the Final 4 teams in the 2015 World Championships, and the stage now moves to Brussels, Belgium for this week's semifinal round. With only Korean and European teams remaining in the tournament, all eyes will be on Saturday's affair between SK Telecom T1 and Origen.

SK Telecom T1 head to Belgium staring down perfection. They've gone through the first two rounds of the tournament with a spotless record, first by going 6-0 in the group stages, and then sweeping their quarterfinal series in London against the Taiwanese champions, ahq e-Sports Club. Former world champions back in 2013 who missed out on the tournament last year, the Korean superpower has returned to the world stage with a vengeance this campaign. After only dropping three games back in their 2013 title run and the odds-on favorites to take home the Summoner's Cup trophy for a second time in franchise history, SKT are on a mission to recapture what they believe is theirs.

Origen is in the complete opposite position of SK Telecom T1. Instead of a historic franchise that has been around for over a decade, Origen as an organization was only founded this year. Although they are a team of four veterans who have already played at the World Championships and a talented rookie, Origen were still handed the difficult task of working up the ladder from the very bottom of European circuit. They began their journey to Worlds in Europe's minor league this spring before being promoted to the premiere league in the summer. Now, once considered an underdog to even make it out of their difficult opening group, they've made it all the way to the semifinals with only a single (massive) roadblock remaining from reaching Berlin and playing in the 2015 Summoner's Cup Finals.

Matchup to watch: Easyhoon (and/or Faker) vs. xPeke

This was supposed to be the central part of my article where I described the conflicting paths that two world champions, Faker and xPeke, took in the 2015 season. Following a disappointing 2014 season that saw him not even get a chance to defend his world championship, Faker decided to rebuff massive contracts from the Chinese region's LPL to stay in his home country of South Korea and stick with SKT T1. He didn't want to leave his team and country knowing that he failed in 2014, and Faker returned this year with a renewed mentality to win back everything that he lost.

xPeke took a different road. He failed with Fnatic, the team he became famous on and won a world title with, and made the decision to leave the organization that he called home for four years. xPeke wanted to build an empire that he could call his own, creating Origen alongside his Fnatic teammate Soaz and starting his conquest of Europe. Win or lose, this year and the beginning of Origen couldn't be called anything short of a massive success for xPeke. They ran through the European Challenger scene, were a top team in the summer EU LCS season, and then proved their salt by taking the defending champions, Fnatic, to a five game series in the playoff finals.

Then it was announced that Easyhoon was likely starting the semifinals in lieu of Faker and my whole long spiel about the emperor who stayed with his kingdom was going to face off against the emperor who decided to leave his home to try and craft something original.

Well, that's great. Uhm, eh — alright. While Easyhoon isn't a world champion nor one of the most known players of all-time in either the western or eastern region, he is, in my opinion, the best Emperor of Shurima in League today with his Azir play. Sure, he doesn't have the same star power as Faker — and really, no one playing today does — but that shouldn't takeaway from his talents. Easyhoon, for all the time he's spent on the bench this summer, is still arguably one of the best mid lane players in the world. It was Easyhoon, not Faker, who swept the KOO Tigers in the spring finals of Champions Korea and got through the MSI group stages without a single loss.

If the match is Easyhoon vs. xPeke, expect two players that are similar in style going up against each other. xPeke will be happy to farm up through the first 20 minutes, playing ultra defensively while his side lanes do the leg work, and Easyhoon will be glad to do the same. These two players, although this might not sound like their most exciting quality, are two of the best farming players in the world. If the game was simply killing minions while players occasionally tried to kill you, then this pair would be on the top of the rankings. When Riot decides to make their second game, Farming Simulator 2016, you can expect xPeke and Easyhoon to be on the cover of it, blankly looking into the camera as they farm minions and other neutral monsters.

Get excited! Yay! Farming!

X Factor: Bang

In the case that SKT T1 are actually starting Easyhoon and aren't just trying to kill my preview article — I'm watching you, kkOma — then the key player in this series is going to be Bang in the AD Carry role. When Faker steps out of the lineup, it pushes Bang into the position of being one of the primary carries on the team as Easyhoon prefers to play a defensive, wait-until-40-minutes-and-then-fight style that leaves him in the center of the map for a majority of the early-game.

Bang isn't really considered one of the elite carries in the world, but that is due to the team he's on. He plays on a team with MaRin and Faker, two players that enjoy having the focus and gold funneled into them, leaving Bang in the position of playing the utility role. However, when Bang is actually given the reins and is told to be the carry, he can deliver as good as anyone at the AD carry role currently. Currently, Bang is the best solo queue player in Korea, routinely having a few accounts in the Challenger ladder and usually at least two in the Top 10.

The main facet about Bang's game that you need to know about is his micro. There are players like Deft that excel in team fights, and there are others, like Bang, who I think are better in skirmishes. In small, chaotic fights that SKT T1 set up over the course of a game, Bang knows how to take advantage of those scenarios. His micro and skill on agility marksmen like Kalista, Lucian, and Ezreal have kept him relevant over the past three years on three different teams. When you watch Bang in the game, he can be in a situation where it looks equal and it ends up with him picking up a double kill. That's because his micro allows him to dodge shots, take little to no damage, and then output all of his strength to win the matchup. In the skirmishes that SKT T1 excel in forcing and converting on, it sets up situations where Bang can outplay his opponent in a split second duel.

Niels, Origen's rookie, has has been on fire throughout the tournament as his team's leading carry. With the decision to put Easyhoon in the starting five, it will be up to Bang and his carrying talents to neutralize the Danish phenom and blast his way into the Summoner's Cup Finals.

Key Strategy: Dance with the Baron

SKT T1's quarterfinal matchup was a battle of the two best teams when it came to controlling dragon. This semifinal clash will between the pair of squads that excel when it comes to playing around the Baron.

For T1, the Baron is a signal that the game is over for the opposing team. When SKT T1 grab the first Baron on the map, it generally means that they've already taken command over the turrets and dragon. When they have those objectives taken care of, they move onto the Baron and take down the gigantic purple monster for the necessary buffs to fully tip the game into their favor. The 20 to 25 minute mark is the mid-game for almost every team in the world; that's the late-game for SKT T1. When SKT T1 get the Baron around that mid-game mark, that's when the late-game truly begins and the next three minutes is a survival trial for the enemy team. If you can hold on for the next three minutes, congratulations, you get to live for a few more ticks of the click. If you aren't so lucky and get overwhelmed in your base, it's all over.

Origen play a relaxed style in the early-game, but are proactive around the Baron when they do start turning the wheels. The problem is, when Origen are usually doing their moves around Baron and utilizing their teleportation summoner spells to stretch the map, SKT T1 are already finished with the game and halfway through their next victory. To have a chance in this series and not let the SKT T1 Baron Power Play steamroll them, Origen are going to have to be bold in the lane phase and try to gain early advantages. There will be nothing scarier for Origen than looking at the clock, seeing it's 20 minutes and realizing that they've already lost all their outer turrets, two dragons, and gave zero vision around the Baron pit.

Conclusion

First off, I think this is going to be an entertaining series. Origen are the heavy underdogs (with fair reason) and that should help them in the series. The team we need to see from OG is not one that is scared of playing SKT T1. They've already surpassed all expectations for the year and are now in the semifinals playing with house money. A win against SKT T1 would be one of the biggest upsets in the game's history and give them a chance to play in the finals.

Against the Flash Wolves in the quarterfinals, it felt like Origen were playing more to not lose than to actually win. They got through their Taiwanese foes by beating them in the late-game and making overall fewer mistakes than their opponents. That plan won't work against an SKT T1 squad that don't make many mistakes, if any at all. Waiting until the 40 minute mark isn't going to work for Origen this time around, so I hope we see a dynamic and offensive Origen in the lane phase, trying to push Easyhoon early with ganks and trying to get a lead in the first 15 minutes. Provided OG can do that, and we might have a match where we see it go to five games.

Still, in the end, I am going with SK Telecom T1 to make it to their second Summoner's Cup Finals in three years. They can play a slow game. They can play a fast game. They'll beat you in skirmishes. They'll beat you in objective control. The only team I can see beating the current SKT T1 is a group that are all-time greats at teamfighting and can beat the Korean champions in 5v5 battles. That's the only the true weak point I see in T1, and I don't see Europe's runners-up being that squad to beat them in that category after ahq e-Sports Club, an expert teamfighting team, got blown out in the round of eight.

I hope for a close series.

I think Origen are a legitimate, well-constructed team.

In spite of that, I firmly believe that no one is stopping SK Telecom T1 from retaking their throne, regardless who they start in the mid lane.

Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter.