Worlds Group Selection

End of Autumn Season

Vainglory8’s regular season has come to a close for the year with some of the most entertaining weekends of Vainglory. Spring season to Autumn has shown us the growth of a lot of teams, with a lot of surprises. TSM continued to dominate during the splits, getting first during Spring and Summer. Going into each of the unified live finals, Cloud9 showed up to play winning both. Going into the last weekend of Vainglory8's autumn season, there was a lot that needed to be determined. In EU, we had the fight for the worlds spot between G2 esports and SK gaming. In NA we had Rogue, TSM, and Tribe with the best shot of taking 1st place this weekend and securing a worlds spot. After the NA stream ended, the Vainglory Worlds group selection was set to take place revealing our group of death and a group that has it “ez”.

Okay, so I want to get to the good stuff on group discussion, so let me be brief about the review of weekend number four of Autumn season. In EU, both G2 and SK gaming win in day one to set up an extremely hype semi final. If SK wins, they secure the worlds spot. If G2 wins, they need to win one more game after that to tie SK. G2 beats SK gaming 2–0 in the semi’s and secures a win against Mousesports in the finals to completely knock out SK gaming. The final points were 41 for both G2 and SK. Since G2 just beat SK, they win the tie breaker. In NA, things are a little more complicated. Rogue played Cloud9 in day one. The Cloud9 team that showed up this weekend was a completely different Cloud9 team that showed up for the rest of Autumn. I think they wanted to get a serious weekend in before they start scrims for worlds. Rogue was so close to winning this series and then possibly steam rolling the rest of the competition to secure their spot in worlds.

For Tribe, they had to make it past TSM in day two and try to win out in order to secure a spot out right. TSM, and VONC specifically, came to play in that series beating Tribe 2–1. With that, TSM secures their world spot and faces off against Cloud9 in the finals. TSM does not try at all in this series (note VONC playing crystal Rona), which allows Cloud9 to move back into second place. So here we are, finishing in the worst situation where SEMC has to pick between Tribe and Rogue. Here are the points in both regions.

As you can see, Rogue did finish higher than Tribe for the Autumn season. Unfortunately for Rogue, the wild card was not solely decided upon this season. I will probably do a whole write up and another segment of “Endless Opinions” about this decision so I won’t harp to much on this topic. SEMC said Tribe had a better overall year, so they deserved the final wild card spot.

So here we are, Autumn is over and we get to watch the selection live on stream. This is our March Madness people, and boy was I stoked to see who would fall where. Let me break down the overall rules of Worlds. I am going to apologize for the amount of pictures I am about to embed, but who doesn’t love a picture book!? So, we have a total of 12 teams representing 6 regions across the globe. Some of these pictures will be coming from the kind youtube user who posted the selection stream, alhunterrvg. If you want to rewatch it, click the link.

Four groups of three teams will represent the brackets (Group A,B,C,D), and no two teams from the same region will be in the same group. This is so we do not have the chance of TSM, Cloud9, and ACE all being in a true group of death. NA and EA, which arguably are the strongest regions, will have the most teams representing their regions with 3 each. So yes, if you can do simple math, over half the playing field is coming from two regions. A lot of people would like to see another EU team in the mix, but they did not win any of the Unified finals so only one team will be representing that region. The rules will be simple. Each group will play a best of one, double round robin to determine which two teams will move on in the tournament. Here is the graphic of all the groups.

Final Groups

Group A

Cloud9 was the first team picked during the selective process. Obviously, Cloud9 has won both unified live finals and are a favorite going into worlds. I think they are probably thrilled looking at these match ups.This may be the “ez” group overall. The guys from Cloud9 are a legit team. They have been playing together for a long time now. They always play better on stage, so I am pumped to see them dominating group stage. But for Elite8 and Red Canids, they are probably just as pumped. They both have a really strong chance at getting second in this group. Red Canids won the Autumn season in South America region and have been showing their dominance throughout the region for sometime. Elite8 isn’t necessarily the strongest team in SEA with Impunity in group C and even Renegades who will play the 5v5 exhibition match placing higher than them. In my opinion, I think Elite8 is the weaker of the three teams. I’m going to have to go with Red Canids getting second in this group.

Group B

This group is a little more difficult when it comes to figuring out which team will come out on top. Luckily for G2 and Detonation Gaming, I think they will both beat the second Chinese team that still needs to qualify. So the major discussion is going to be whether G2 or Detonation can get the first place spot to try and make the quarterfinals easier for them. Detonation is a team that secured the first wild card spot a little while ago from SEMC. In this latest season, the East Asia region was all over the place. Detonation finished third behind a team we won’t even see at Singapore. That team is GG Newtype 2nd who finished 2nd behind worlds favorite ACE Gaming. Then the defending champions, Rox Armada, finished fourth with a unsteady roster. I still think Detonation is a really strong team but who actually places first is a tough one. I’m actually going to cheer for G2 and put them winning their group.

Group C

The second half of groups is when things start to get really exciting. When we look at Group C, a lot of people want to say this is considered a strong contender for group of death. I think it does give Group D a run for their money, but fall just short. I still consider this Group C a very difficult group. Let’s start with Impunity for SEA. Like I mentioned about, Impunity is probably the strongest team representing their region in worlds this year. Unfortunately, we do not get to see Renegades, who finished a full 12 points ahead of Impunity in the last season. They have been dominating the SEA scene, so Impunity will have to step up in this group to make the region proud. Anything can happen when you are the home team and have the crowd cheering you on.

Next, we have the second wild card team, Tribe. Tribe acquired the Immortals roster that finished second in the summer season. These players have a reputation of preforming like gods on the live stage. DNzio is an entertaining player and it will be fun to see him on the live stage once again. Maybe his Skaarf will make a return in December. Zio on Skaarf=GG

The last team is a pretty interesting one. Rox Armada is a team that used to be so dominating. They won worlds last year with Mango, Druid, and Willy. Willy is no longer with Rox and Rox has bounced around with a few different captains. They will actually be playing with pQq who is a fantastic player. Druid, who has been battling a sickness, has not been playing much last season. He is suppose to travel and represent his organization with his team. So with a month to prepare, I still expect Rox Armada to be a very strong team that will set the meta. I think Rox Armada takes first with Tribe coming out in second.

Group D

Here it is ladies and gentleman, the group of death! As Flashx said, “It wouldn’t be Worlds if TSM wasn’t in the group of death..” But is that not what we want!? The best competition to absolutely fight to the death in opening rounds. Now, if we maybe had a different team instead of Hunters in this group such as G2 or Impunity, the group would be crazy. Hunters is one of the OGs in Vainglory competing along side Ardent and Gankstars in the VIPL. Like Iraqi said on the desk, Godfather is a fantastic player who has teammates that mesh well with him. I think Hunters would need to be in a group with teams like Canids and Elite8 in order to get out of groups.

TSM is going to have a challenging group stage, which I am actually okay with. I think if they get some L’s under their belt and push their limits early on, they may play better after groups. TSM historically has had some let downs on the big stage. They have fell short at both live finals and even had high hopes going into worlds last year only to fall to a very strong Armada team. The players from TSM will have to be on their mental game, as much as their mechanical.

ACE Gaming is also having a roster switch leading up to worlds. Their captain position has changed with reigning MVP Willy coming in to take scarshield’s place, or whatever name he goes by currently. This is interesting to look at considering Willy has not been seen as a top tier captain currently in EA. He had problems with Rox Armada and wanting to step away from the game. I am curious if this will effect ACE Gaming going into worlds. They have a month to get their synergy down so I think they should still be considered favorites for worlds. Yet with these changes, I think TSM is going to be strong enough to win their group.

December 14th cannot come any sooner. Not only for the intense competition, but also for the first showing of 5v5. If you have not registered, make sure you do so at 5v5.vainglorygame.com for early access and unlock a “Founding 5v5” Player badge.

Thanks for reading my brief overview and initial reactions of the groups! As always, if you want a more in-depth conversation about Vainglory, come subscribe to our podcast Time For Rolling Esports Podcast. Also follow us on Twitter at TFR_eSports. Big giveaway going on there so check it out! Cheers!