Photo: Riot Games

The 2017 League of Legends World Championship is about to begin — sort of.

This year’s tournament introduces a new phase called the Play-In. It’s where teams from international regions (formerly known as “wild cards”) compete for a spot in the Group Stage.

For many fans, the Play-In might not be that exciting. If TSM isn’t playing, they’re not interested.

There are a few well-known teams from major regions who will have to qualify for Groups through the Play-In: Cloud9, Fnatic, Team WE. But most predictions have all of those teams breezing their way through their competition.

I can’t disagree. Everything points toward an easy qualification for the big three, leaving just one spot for the rest of the Play-In teams to fight over. Maybe it will result in a more competitive Group Stage. Right now, it’s less exciting.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned watching Worlds over the past few years, it’s this:

Upsets happen.

So what would it take to make the Play-In phase more exciting? It’s time for some bold (but not crazy) predictions.

Group A: Team WE will lose a game

My first bold prediction is that a team will lose a single game. I’m a madman; I must be stopped.

The thing is, Team WE really is so good that predicting they’ll lose a single game to Gambit Esports or Lyon Gaming is bold.

This is a team that many are predicting to make a deep run into the knockout stage. They have two players in the Worlds 2017 Top 20 list — jungler Condi at No. 18 and ADC Mystic at No. 11. For much of the regular season, Team WE was seen as the best team in China.

I won’t be so bold to predict the team won’t finish first in their group, but I think there’s reason to believe they might drop a game in Group A.

Group A is the most stacked group in the Play-In. Beyond Team WE, Gambit Esports and Lyon Gaming are two of the most promising teams from the international regions. Both teams are packed with star power, from the legends of Moscow 5 to the LLN’s favored sons.

As good as Team WE is, there’s a reason they’re in the Play-In. They lost two consecutive best-of-fives to their LPL competition and barely secured their spot at Worlds in the Regional Qualifier.

Team WE has weaknesses, the biggest of which is probably their love of waiting for the late game. They like to draft multiple losing lanes and rely on their scaling picks to win them games. If a team is strong enough early, they could beat Team WE.

I’m going to get specific: Gambit Esports will win one game against Team WE. EDward will be the hero, setting up all kinds of kills with his roams, and Gambit will win before WE can scale. That win will help Gambit qualify for the Play-In eliminations.

Group A final standings: 1. WE (3–1) 2. GMB (2–2) 3. LYN (1–3)

Group B: Cloud9 will go undefeated

My next bold prediction isn’t about who will lose a game; it’s about who won’t lose one.

After faltering in the Summer Split playoffs, Cloud9 had almost a month to practice for their Regional Qualifier match. They made the most of that opportunity and soundly defeated Counter Logic Gaming to earn their spot at Worlds.

Despite their victory over CLG, I get the sense that faith isn’t too high in Cloud9 right now. Most predictions I’ve seen have them winning their group, but most have caveats about how they could drop games.

I don’t think Cloud9 will lose a single game in Group B.

Their players just straight up outmatch all of their opponents in the group; there isn’t a single player on Team oNe Esports or Dire Wolves who can handle C9 individually. Neither team has ever performed well internationally; it’s ONE’s first appearance at an international event, and Dire Wolves has done nothing but disappoint OCE fans on the big stage.

Mid lane will be especially brutal. Almost-MVP Jensen should dominate Brucer and Phantiks and carry C9 to victory all by himself.

Cloud9 had to love this group when they were drawn into it. It’s one of the best possible outcomes for the team, letting them dodge scarier opponents like Gambit and 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor.

Those teams might have stopped them from going 4–0 in the group, but Cloud9’s current competition won’t.

Group B final standings: 1. Cloud9 (4–0) 2. ONE (2–3) 3. DW (1–4)

Group C: Fnatic will be forced into a tiebreaker

Like Cloud9, Fnatic had to be ecstatic when they were drawn into Group C. They too dodged the scariest teams in the Play-In and instead will face Kaos Latin Gamers and Young Generation.

Fnatic should win this group easily. But this isn’t an article about safe predictions. EU hasn’t looked great going all the way back to Rift Rivals, and some of the biggest upsets at Worlds have come against European teams (looking at you, Alliance).

Some people think Rift Rivals didn’t matter, that it wasn’t indicative of EU’s level as a region. I’m not one of them. Fnatic looked especially rough, with terrible objective control and over reliance on comfort picks.

Fnatic looked better in the Regional Qualifier, but just before that dropped a key series to Misfits Gaming.

So I’m going to predict that Fnatic will have to play a tiebreaker, which alone would be a huge disappointment for the team. I’ll say it will be a tiebreaker for first place though, so even if they lose they won’t fail to make it out of Group C.

It’s dangerous to have so many people telling western teams they’re going to have such an easy time in the Play-In; it could lead to overconfidence. Cloud9 could fall victim to this as well if they’re not careful.

Someone’s going to come out of the Play-In humbled by one of the teams they’d written off. I’m predicting it’ll be Fnatic.

Group C final standings: 1. FNC (4–1) 2. YG (3–2) 3. KLG (0–4)

Group D: Hong Kong Attitude will take first place

When the LMS snagged a third spot at Worlds this year, some people were angry.

The region’s top seed, the Flash Wolves, are a superteam; the LMS is the smallest of the five major regions, and most of its stars are on the Flash Wolves.

Despite this, the Flash Wolves have never really lived up to the hype. They’ve dominated the LMS for three years running but have little to show for it; they’ve earned a nickname as the “SKT-killers” for winning a handful of games against the world champs, but they’ve never beaten them in a multi-game series.

Last year, the Flash Wolves failed to make it out of groups at Worlds, finishing 2–4.

So expectations aren’t too high for Hong Kong Attitude, LMS’ third seed, heading into the Play-In. But there’s reason to think they might surprise.

Head coach Pak Kan “Tabe” Wong joined the team in May and brought big changes. His radical new philosophy? Whichever player on HKA had the highest solo queue ranking for their role got to start.

It meant the talented young mid laner Kwok Wa “Gear” Lam was benched for the unproven Xiao-Xian “M1ssion” Chen. After a slow start, this trial-by-fire approach earned HKA a victory over top seed J Team in the Regional Qualifier and eventually secured them a spot at Worlds.

With wide champion pools built in solo queue, HKA can play just about any team comp you can think of. That versatility is what I think can lead them to upset Group D favorite 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor.

Winning what most consider the weakest Play-In group might not seem like much, but it would mean that for once, an LMS team other than Flash Wolves might earn some time in the spotlight.

And if you didn’t already have enough reasons to root for Hong Kong Attitude, they’ve got the greatest logo of all time.

Group D final standings: 1. HKA (4–1) 2. FB (3–2) 3. RPG (0–4)

These are bold predictions, and chances are, most of them don’t come true. But there’s a reason the Play-In stage exists: it’s designed so teams that didn’t perform as well as their peers don’t get a literal free pass to the Group Stage.

It’s designed with upsets in mind.

If a team like Fnatic or Cloud9 comes into the Play-In expecting to stomp, they might end up fighting for their life.

There’d be no better introduction for the Play-In stage than to knock out one of the household names for under performing and taking their opponents for granted. I’m fairly confident that Team WE, Fnatic and Cloud9 won’t do that.

But then again, the only predictable things about Worlds are that SKT wins, and TSM doesn’t make it out of groups. Everything else is up in the air.

And if any of those three teams did get knocked out, or even came close, you can’t say it wouldn’t be exciting.