Their offline records against foreign teams are incredible, but they seem to be struggling against the home opposition.

World Elite versus OMG World Elite versusOMG

Competition is fierce. Only one will stand victorious in the end.

Royal HZ versus Invictus Gaming Royal HZ versusInvictus Gaming

WE or will they get back on their winning streak? Will they manage to spoil the plans of their rivalsWE or will they get back on their winning streak?

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The first stop of the IEM League of Legends circuit will visitShanghai, China and will provide the battlegrounds for arguably the best teams in the country at the moment:World Elite,OMG,Royal HZ andIG.Considered by many to be on par with the Koreans regarding mechanics and overall skill in the game, the Chinese have been given yet another chance to showcase their style of play. After a three day qualifier featuring the best of their "Challenger" scene, only eight teams out of the initial 32 progressed forward to the second stage of the tournament.Joining the other eight teams to form the Round of 16, onlyRising Stars Gaming andTeam World Elite Academy made it to the Round of 8 where they were sent home after facing giantsWorld Elite andInvictus Gaming.The "do or die" match in the final stage of the qualifier was betweenPositive Energy andRoyal HZ. Both competitors are participants in the four-way-tie for the second place in the Summer split of the LPL and tension was high as qualifying for the IEM represents not only a better financial opportunity, but a psychological advantage during the season and bragging rights. Unfortunately,PE fell short and lost two games in a row and were out of the tournament. With the final four in place, the stage is set for an exciting clash between China's finest.The semi-final pairs have been determined as follows:OMG vs.Team WE andInvictus Gaming vs.Royal HZ. The tournament structure will be a best-of-three semi-finals and best-of-five final match. If history is to be taken in regard, then we have to note that Chinese teams do tend to bring their A-game in such formats as seen at theSeason 2 World Finals andIPL 5.Both members of the highest competitive echelon in China have a long standing history starting from the Spring season of the LPL. Statistically speaking, this match favoursOMG given their streak against their opponents. The winners of the Spring split have lost only two games during the regular playing stage and one game in the playoffs toWorld Elite so far. Their total record is 4-2, including a best-of-three LAN win which sentMisaya's men to the 3rd/4th place match. Their "freight train" composition consisting of the Hecarim, Graves and Thresh combo has become a trademark for the Chinese around the world and has brought them not only the Spring split title, but a comfortable first place with a 5-1 record in the current half-season.On the other hand,World Elite does have more LAN experience in general under their belts. Just as in sports, e-sports also adopts the "winning-cycle" phenomena. Mere months ago,World Elite had a monstrous 40+ game winning streak and topped the leader boards in most ELO-based team rankings. A direct comparison can be made to football teamBarcelona. The Catalonia-based team has had it's most successful span starting from early 2004 to 2012. Just asWorld Elite, the football team seemed unstoppable on paper, but the win-lose cycle is never far behind. Despite still being strong in thePrimera Division (LPL ), the team faced their first signs of defeat againstInter andChelsea, just asWE has had its share of defeats againstOMG,IG andRoyal HZ at major tournaments likeStarsWar 8 andGigabyte StarsWar League 2. It will be up toMisaya to motivate his team properly and show once again who the dominant force in China is.Both team are currently tied in the LPL with a 4-2 record or a 66% rate. If we take a look at the numbers once more we would see that there is a clear favourite here in the face ofIG. Internationally always being in the shadow ofWorld Elite, they have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with and it was not surprising to see that the All-Star team chose its final members from their line-up. The team lead byPDD has lost only once toRoyal HZ and with an overall record of 5-1 against them in theLPL (both in the Spring and Summer splits) they are a clear favourite to take the game. It is also worth mentioning thatIG are right behindWE when it comes to big tournament wins and international scene experience with 6 titles in their trophy cabinet and participation in theSeason 2 World Finals.After a rather disappointing, close to 50%(15-13), record at the Spring season of theLPL,Royal HZ are back with a bang in the Summer. Housing arguably the best AD Carry in China along withWeiXiao,Uzi, the team, similarly to their direct opponents are in the four-way-tie for the second place. Despite their strong results at the beginning of this split, they have rather unconvincing showings in big tournaments with their best results being two runner-up placings atnVidia Game Festival 2013 andTGA Grand Prix Winter 2012 with both finals being lost against the monstrous back thenWorld Elite. The offline record of this match-up is 1-1 withIG having the edge as their latest win againstRoyal HZ came just two weeks ago. IfRoyal are to break their non-number one curse, they are to thoroughly prepare and bring their absolute A-Game toShanghai.Just as any other Chinese competition, theIEM Shanghai will definitely bring exciting games and interesting results. Up for grabs will be 30,000$ with 18,000$ going to the overall winner of the tournament. ESL will be providing an English stream with commentary which you can find here . WillWorld Elite come back to their unstoppable form or willOMG continue their reign over the "Middle Kingdom"? Is there enough strength and determination inRoyal HZ to break the non-winning curse or willIG dispose of their opponents for the sixth time? The answers to these questions can be found in just a couple of hours!