LPL Playoffs: WE vs. OMG Semi-Final Predictions

The Legacy

Two of China's favorite teams clash to determine who advances to the finals. One of them had dominate reign over China for an entire Season and then some. Season 2's strength of the AD carry as well as Weixiao being in his prime meant that World Elite was an unstoppable force that would crush the opposition. Teams started scrimming and strategizing, choosing their playstyle specifically for a chance to defeat World Elite.

The only other team that had such an incredibly large lead over their region was Counter Logic Gaming back in pre-season 1. With Weixiao seemingly immortal, there was nothing teams could do to stop his late game. Even if they managed to shut him down, Misaya, the other carry player, was absolutely unstoppable. His Twisted Fate was amongst the most feared in the world, and he was one of the first players who trained himself with such intensity that he could pull an instant gold card on a whim. At the time, no other player had been capable of counting the cycle of cards throughout the course of gameplay. This made for devestating and unpredictable plays, which are still reflected by Misaya's play today.



At long last, World Elite's reign came to an end after IPL5, where they took down Fnatic in the grand finals in what some considered the "sequel" to the Season 2 World Championships. Afterwards, World Elite started showing their vulnerability, falling to their main rival at the time, Invictus Gaming, in the GIGABYE StarsWar League, placing 2nd for the first time in ages.

Eventually, every king will fall off their throne, and for World Elite, their time was over: a new king of China would rise. However, they erupted out of nowhere and were largely unexpected to be favorites. OMG was the team to fill those shoes, and they did it in such convincing fashion, and so quickly, when teams like Invictus Gaming were ones that most would suspect to be a "runner-up". However, unlike a lot of other teams in the region who were training exclusively to defeat World Elite, OMG found success by training against and with a variety of different playstyles.

Fast forward to this year's LPL seasons where OMG have been dominating, placing 2nd in the groups in the spring split by one game to Invictus Gaming, but going ahead in the playoffs to win the entire thing. OMG's power continued to grow as they decisively reigned over the summer split group stage with an astounding 81% win rate (19% higher than the next three teams, Royal Club, Positive Energy, and World Elite.) It was clear that even if World Elite kept the heart of the fans, OMG was going to be the next big thing in China.

The match-up

Statistically, the matchup heavily favors OMG. The teams were 2-2 facing each other in the spring split, quickly degrading for World Elite into a 0-4 against OMG in the summer split. More worrysome is World Elite's win ratio from spring split to summer split, where they degraded from a 20-8 win-loss to a 13-8 win-loss. Not only were they falling behind as the once invincible team, but they've shown that others in China besides OMG have been surpassing them, too.

World Elite have always been a mixed bag, and to win against OMG, they are going to have to throw a curveball against OMG's consistent, solid play. OMG have shown that they are much more accustomed to playing against what they expect rather than situations that extend outside of their research. This was apparent when Royal Club played relatively normal at Worlds in comparison to the wacky stuff they managed to pull off and make work in their homeland at the LPL, which resulted in OMG's defeat early on in the playoffs.

For this reason, World Elite has an advantage. Due to the lack of tournament play in China, both teams are going in blind, meaning OMG loses the advantage of research and World Elite can rely more on their excellent mechanical prowess and talent. Misaya has shown he can play just about any mid laner, and he proved his point with his Sion play that teams found necessary to ban out. With all teams playing in the shadows, there's no knowing what Misaya will pull out this time around.

OMG are going to have to learn from game 1 and probably will lose their first game against World Elite. However, with the meta stagnating near this season's end, they've become strong with all the popular heroes while still being able to toss out innovation, meaning they should have the advantage in the long haul.

The Prediction

OMG wins 2-1 over World Elite. Anyone who's done their homework knows that lately, OMG has been slapping around World Elite, with their only major loss and exception this summer occuring at IEM Shanghai. If anything, this gives motivation for OMG to acquire revenge, not letting their throne become in reach for World Elite ever again. If World Elite can surprise OMG and force them into uncomfortable situations, the tables may be turned. However, if World Elite doesn't bring anything new to the table, OMG will make embarassing work of them.

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