After a year of lead-up, we finally have enough information about the 2015 World Championship that we can start to discuss the group stages. Though there are still a lot of questions regarding who will hoist the Summoner's Cup in Berlin, we can certainly take a look at the four groups that will be competing for a chance to move on to the next round.

Group A: Counter Logic Gaming, Flash Wolves, KOO Tigers, paiN Gaming

And the faithful shall be rewarded. Many North American fans had resigned themselves to sitting this Worlds on the sidelines, perhaps cheering for Fnatic — widely heralded as the West’s best chance against the Eastern powerhouses. But, with a groups draw that can only be described as miraculous, #FaithAge has a chance to keep rolling.

Many believe that CLG will have no one to blame but themselves should they fail to make it out of the group stage. With their strong late-game and crisp shot-calling, the KOO Tigers are certainly the heavy favorites to emerge victorious, but NA's first seed has a good chance to make it out of this group alive with quarterfinals berth.

To do it, they’ll have to topple two teams that shouldn't be taken lightly. The Flash Wolves may only be the second LMS seed, but the region has grown considerably in strength this year and it’s likely that the Taiwanese crew represent a much stronger threat than some analysts might assume.

As for paiN, the Brazilian squad out of the nascent CBLOL represent one of the tournament's biggest question marks. Though INTZ e-sports looked like the team to beat in the summer season, paiN had a convincing run through their qualifier, defeating Kaos Latin Gamers 3-0 to secure their spot on the world stage.

With that being said, CLG and KOO remain the favorites in the group. The most likely pitfalls for the NA roster are their tendency to play emotionally and tilt in certain circumstances, and transitioning HuHi to the jungle.

Group B: Fnatic, Invictus Gaming, AHQ, Cloud9

While much has been made about Group D, Group B may be the most competitive of the four. While IG and Fnatic represent the favorites, it’s definitely not a stretch to say that all four teams have a shot at advancing.

Throughout the year, Fnatic have been heralded as the best team in the West, with some believing that they may be the best team the West has ever produced. Their ability to dominate their region with strong individual play and superior macro abilities will be put to the test against a powerful early-game team like IG. We’ve seen Fnatic stretched to their limits in games where they are set behind by sloppy early plays, and it’s likely that the likes of Rookie, Kakao and Zz1tai will be the early-game punch needed to take down the first European seed on their home soil.

Though Invictus has suffered some consistency issues in the LPL, it's fair to say that their individual play will be enough to at least bulldoze their way to the Top Eight, and while Fnatic have been able to stretch out some early deficits and come back in Europe, it will be much harder to pull such a stunt against some of the world’s best.

The two other teams in the group will likely face even more adversity in the group stages, but many analysts have made the mistake of underestimating AHQ, and the LMS in general, as recently as MSI. Though they would eventually fall in the semifinals 3-0 to EDG, AHQ was in third place after the round robin, finishing with a 3-2 record. There’s no questions that the dominant LMS squad can take games off of the best teams in the world, and while their ability to snowball games with aggressive plays by Westdoor and the rest of the team will be limited at Worlds, it would be a mistake to count them out entirely.

As for Cloud9, they're the outside shot I mentioned. C9 only made it to Worlds off the back of an absolutely miraculous run through the NA Gauntlet after placing seventh in the summer split. Though Hai’s shotcalling could allow them to take games off the likes of Fnatic and IG, the team will really have to play some of their best League of Legends to make it to their third consecutive quarterfinal match at Worlds.

Group C: SK Telecom, H2K, EDward Gaming, Bangkok Titans

Among the groups that stand as arguably the most difficult, Group C features an hotly anticipated MSI rematch — SKT and EDG. A lot has changed since Tallahassee, with EDG failing to take the first seed in the LPL and dropping surprisingly quickly to LGD in the semis, but pawN is known for his play against Faker and despite SKT looking nearly unstoppable domestically, either team could probably take the group's first place spot .

That said, things will be tough for the remaining two teams. H2K and BKT both face an uphill battle to make it out of Group C, though H2K certainly looks more up to the task than the Titans. H2K actually brings another fun rematch to the stage, though one on perhaps a smaller scale.

Ryu will be looking for revenge in the mid lane against Faker, after the infamous Zed outplay in 2013 that has gone down in history as one of the greatest individual outplays the game has produced. H2K’s coach Pr0lly tweeted that if they face SKT they’ll first pick Zed no matter what, and give their Korean mid laner a shot at revenge, though whether it happens remains to be seen. Otherwise, H2K will likely struggle to matchup against the sheer mechanics of EDG, and the unstoppable synergy of SKT — but anything could happen.

As for the Bangkok Titans, things look grim for the tournament’s other International Wildcard team. Last year, KaBuM! took a surprise game off of Alliance, causing a surprising amount of turmoil in who escaped their group. But besides playing spoiler and perhaps winning a surprise game against a team that underestimates them, Thailand’s only shot in the tournament are underdogs, to say the least.

Group D: LGD, KT Rolster, Team SoloMid, Origen

In the tournament's final group, we have once against two clear favorites and an uphill battle for the others to make it out.

Coming into the tournament, LGD quite simply look like one of the world's best teams. They rolled over a stumbling EDG in the LPL playoffs and the Qiao Gu Reapers, who they took down 3-2 in the finals, did not even secure a berth at Worlds after struggling to adapt to 5.16 in regionals. The dynamic power of imp — probably the world’s strongest AD Carry at the moment — and Pyl is scary to say the least, and their solo laners Acorn (or Flame) and Godv are daunting to play against.

All that said, LGD probably have the edge to win their group, and can certainly make an argument for going all the way to the finals. But KT Rolster may have something to say about it. The third Korean seed looks even stronger than KOO heading into Worlds, and the team has made serious strides since the mid-season acquisition of Piccaboo. Whether they make it out of groups as the first or second seed from Group D, it would be a real surprise to see them falter, with Ssumday and co. likely to run over the two remaining teams.

Speaking of whom, TSM and OG will certainly struggle to topple the Korean and Chinese powerhouses in their group. TSM appear to be outclassed by their competition — the group boasts mid laners who can probably take Bjergsen down across the board, top laners who will take over the game if they sacrifice Dyrus to feed their mid-lane ace, and some of the best supports currently playing the game (especially Pyl and Piccabboo).

Origen is in a similarly unfavorable position, but the relatively new team is packed with vets who are unlikely to crumble on the big stage and may have the early-game chops and macro wherewithal to take a game off of LGD or KT. It would be a surprise for the second EU seed to push for the quarter finals, but it’s not out of the question.

Of course, a lot can change between now and Oct. 1. There’s still one more patch before Worlds — a patch which will cement the juggernaut changes that we’ve seen very few of these teams play with. And, upsets are a real possibility this year, which almost certainly boasts the least disparity between major regions since Korea took over in 2013.

League can often be very tricky to predict with total accuracy. And with a truly exciting October ahead of us, I for one am ready to be surprised.

Sean Wetselaar is a writer for The Score eSports, and a Toronto journalist. You can follow him on Twitter.