Team Europe Team Europe

Team North America Team North America

Team China Team China

Team Korea Team Korea

Team South East Asia

Match 1: North America 2 - 1 China

Another take on things

I will not be as thorough as my colleague as I believe that I do share the more "common" opinion on the matchups. Instead, I'll provide justification with bullet points.



North America 0 - 2 China



- Logistical problems for the Americans - missed flights, late gathering of the team.

- Overall training regiment is inferior to the more disciplined and refined style of practice of their Chinese counterparts.

- The gaming environment favours heavily the Asians as their competitive league is far superior compared to the NA LCS, thus good scrimming partners will not be hard to find.

- Once again, logistics are in favour of the Chinese as they will not have to travel a lot to get to the arena, while their opponents will surely suffer jet lag and less practice time.

Match 5: Europe 2 - 1 Korea rematch

Another take on things

For the sake of argument I am going with a balanced or full victory in favour of the Koreans.



Europe 0 - 2 South Korea



- Europeans will arrive later at the venue, thus having less practice time.

- Better (not by a large margin) competitive league in South Korea, giving the edge to the Asians due to more practice time and better opponents in general.

- Despite being mechanically better, the European team lacks the team play potential to be able to overcome the Korean threat.

- Strict training regiment and scrim schedules for the Asians in comparison to the SoloQ way of the Europeans.

Grand Final: South-East Asia 2 - 1 Europe

Another take on things

This will definitely be a very interesting match given the opponents. I am definitely giving a decisive and clear victory to Europe .



- Europeans have a stronger league than the SEA region where a couple of teams dominate the top of the rankings.

- Europe has a strong positive record against SEA teams in international tournaments.

- Clear advantage in certain lanes.

- Better coordination between Mid laner and Jungler.

- Despite previous results, if EU and SEA reach the finals, EU will have a match advantage due to playing South Korea beforehand.

Overview

A collaboration between David 'Dopas' Pujol and Daniel 'd1dx' Yordanov.



The opinions presented above are courtesy of their respective owners.

First of all, let's take look at the five All-Star lineups:As you probably know the competition starts this Friday, 24 May. You can check the exact schedule here . Now let's dive in the predictions!Given the nature of the event, we have gathered the viewpoints of two of our editors. In the context of these unusual predictions, the key games would be the following:The Chinese All-Star team is widely considered the favorite to win the whole event whereas NA’s finest arrive as the underdogs. However, many fail to see the potential of the American lineup.This is the team that will have the most time to train (they gathered at the Curse gaming house for that), they have no communication issues and the players are really the best of the best: every single one of them got chosen by the fans.The Chinese team, on the other hand, had seen how all of World Elite 's members were voted into the All-Star. The rules, however, dictate that only three of them are able to compete in the event. That’s why two members of fierce rivals Invictus Gaming will fill in for them.This means that they aren’t truly sending the players Chinese fans believe to be the best of the best, and the rivalry between both of the region’s powerhouses could affect the performance of their All-Star team. Besides, they play in front of their home crowd, a fact that adds a lot of pressure to the players.Both teams have players of exceptional skill, which will make the games tight and very exciting to watch. Expect a close match-up, but do believe NA can pull off the upset!This would be the series that would come after Europe’s victory over South Korea in the second match of the tournament (NA vs China being the first), and after a Korean triumph over China in the losers’ bracket.In their second showdown, Europe’s finest would come on top again thanks to the versatility of Paul 'sOAZ' Boyer , who’s perfectly ready to face one of the best solo laners in the world; the strong performance of the Gambit Gaming core, featuring three players who know how to get it done against Korean rivals, will be a key factor as well.With Peter 'Yellowpete' Wüppen 's consistency in the AD carry role rounding up the European lineup, we got ourselves a rock solid team, with great individual skill. Communication won’t be a problem since these guys will be more focused than ever. They know each other very well on the fields of justice, so coordination will be natural and will help overcoming the language barrier.Despite the roster being limited to three Gambit players, the addition of Soaz will bring safety to the top lane, where Eugene 'Darien' Mazaev often gives up free kills; concerning the AD carry role, Yellowpete has a champion pool very similar to Eugene 'Genja007' Andryushin 's so it won’t be a problem for the Russians to get used to.Unfortunately for them, North American stars wouldn’t be able to carry on the momentum and would fall to the South-East Asian team (in tight games though). This would translate in SEA facing Europe in the Grand Final.To be honest, this matchup could go in any direction; what is for sure is that it would be a spectacular series and it would deliver some of the best League of Legends action we’ve ever seen. If only the final could be a best of 5 (or 7 even) series…Anyway, my prediction would be that Europe’s stars would arrive into the finals exhausted after their epic matches in the previous days. Details like the language barrier could affect the European team’s focus a little heavier due to fatigue, and SEA would punish the smallest mistake like Azubu Taipei Assassins did in games 3 and 4 of the Season 2 World Championship finals against formerWith a lineup featuring the core of Season 2 world champions (including former TPA support Chen 'MiSTaKe' Hui Chung ), SEA would come slightly on top of this clash to earn their region an extra spot in the Season 3 World Championship.These are predictions that have high chances of being wrong, but a lot of people don’t consider any path other than China winning, and that is a huge mistake. In sports, predicting always the favorites to win will result in bad bets very often.It is important to remember that the All Star tournament gathers the world’s finest and every match will be hard fought, so anything can happen. These are not the obvious choices, but chances that they become the right ones are very real, just like any other. Now it’s time for the players to do the talking!