Week One of Worlds has concluded and we’re slowly seeing where the teams stand amongst eachother in terms of competition. Korea is still dominating for the most part. Meanwhile, North America is off to another strong Week One of Worlds. Europe has an unlikely hero in Misfits, while Fnatic is slowly bleeding out, and the hometown of China has looked really good aside from EDG struggling.

Our own Thomas Baker gave his spin on his “OP 5” from the first week, and I’ll be looking at the under-performing five. Those who made this list primarily had decent expectations coming in to do really well but have struggled. They’ll need to step up huge in Week Two for their teams to have any chance of making it to the bracket stage of Worlds. Let’s take a look:

TOP: Paul “sOAZ” Boyer (Fnatic)

Soaz is one of the more veteran players attending Worlds this year. He’s always been a rock steady performer for his team, especially when it comes to Worlds. The mighty have fallen as Soaz has not looked good at all in his first three games this year. The team as a whole seems to have had some longing issues that have been taken to Twitter as of late.

In three games, Soaz has 2 kills, 16 deaths and 6 assists. His KDA of 0.5 is the second lowest among top laners. The Fnatic strategy usually revolved around getting bot and top ahead while leaving mid to play safe, but at Worlds top lane has been feeling the “Dyrus” treatment. It’s a mix of poor play and lack of assistance as Soaz was heavily punished in their first match against Gigabyte Marines. The lane swap prevent Soaz from getting a single cs until 5 minutes into the game.

In the next two games, Soaz would get counterpicked against Immortals and Longzhu Gaming. Cho’gath into Jayce is a really rough lane, but even mid-late Soaz’s impact was not felt. In the game against Longzhu he was put on Mao’kai against a Nasus who could freely farm with no real threat from Mao’kai.

Heading into Week Two, Fnatic is 0-3 in their group and will need to go undefeated to have a real chance of getting out. Soaz will need to step up and show why he used to be one of the most dangerous top laners in Europe.

Jungle: Hung “Karsa” Hau-Hsuan (Flashwolves)

Karsa has been a staple for Flash Wolves in previous seasons. His aggressiveness paired with a strong mid lane presence has been the vocal point of Flash Wolves’ success. While Karsa is still a very smart and aggressive jungler, his mid-late game play has cost his team. Time and time again he’s been getting caught out during crucial moments. It was his deaths against TSM that stalled the game out longer. He also had a crucial death against Misfits that basically lead to them taking Baron control. Karsa also got caught face checking mid against WE that once again lead to a baron take.

Not many junglers were hyped up this year when the meta shifted to more tank junglers, but Karsa was being hyped as one of the better junglers entering the tournament. His first blood percentage is still highest among junglers, but his 1.3 KDA is lowest among all junglers in the tournament.

It’s interesting to see Karsa in a jungle meta where it’s more of a supportive role. He’s still making plays early, but translating it to victories has been a struggle for him. He can’t keep getting caught out during crucial moments if Flash Wolves has any shot of making it out.

Mid: Lee “Scout” Ye-chan EDG (Edward Gaming)

Scout came in touted as one of the better mid laners out of China. A former sub of SKT, Scout has been known for his aggressive laning and playstyle. This style was punished for the most part. Against Cloud 9, it was the Shen pick that negated much of his aggressiveness and punished him for overstepping on a trade with Jensen in the mid lane.

For whatever reason, EDG has been content to let Scout play Lucian in all three games. While Lucian does have his strong points in the early-mid, his weaknesses have shown in the late as EDG has failed to close out games with it.

With a big lead against AHQ early, EDG gave up some crucial team fights that allowed AHQ to stall. With each team fully built, the side of AHQ was free to stack armor as EDG had no AP threat due to the Lucian being mid. Scout would eventually get caught out around mid where AHQ would than win the game.

It’ll be interesting to see if EDG plays something other than Lucian going forward. It’s had the early game presence at times, but it just hasn’t worked in getting the win. Scout in particular will need to play phenomenal against the likes of Faker and Jensen for EDG to turn their group around.

ADC: Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (Samsung Galaxy)

Ruler came to Worlds after finishing rank one of the Korean solo que ladder. He was being preached as one of the best ADC’s of the tournament. He was looking to improve from last years performance where some minor mistakes might have cost his team a World championship.

The first week of the tournament was not a good start for Ruler or Samsung Galaxy as a whole. They were dominant against Europe’s G2, but were dominated by China’s Royal Never Give up, and had a surprisingly close match against Turkish team, 1907 Fehnerbace. It’s hard to stand out as an ADC on a struggling team, but outside of laning phase Ruler hasn’t looked impressive.

He currently has one of the lowest KDA’s among ADC’s at 2.4 and has the 2nd lowest damage per minute numbers. In a meta where teamfighting and bot lane is extremely important, Ruler’s impact hasn’t been felt. In their match against RNG, the bot lane of SSG seemed outmatched by the hometown heroes.

Ruler will need to step up to have a bigger impact in Week Two. Samsung had a somewhat similar slow Week One last year, so I’ll be interested to see how they step up.

Support: Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Jie (Flash Wolves)

SwordArt received much criticism after being named as a top 20 player at Worlds by some people. SwordArt hasn’t done much to backup these statements as he hasn’t looked incredible by any means.

SwordArt may be suffering the same fate as Karsa; the meta has shifted into a spot where he doesn’t look comfortable. His best plays have been on engage play making supports such as Alistar, Tahm Kench and Thresh. His Taric is the only champion that allows him to still engage for his team.

SwordArt and Flashwolves have a tall task as they have dropped to 0-3 in a group where teams aren’t the strongest. If there was one team I think that could still make it out despite being 0-3, it would be Flash Wolves. They have showed prowess and grit to be able to compete with the teams in their group. It’s the small macro decisions and mistakes that have cost them. SwordArt will need to shotcall a lot better, but there is a chance even if it may be slim.

Looking for a podcast covering EU and NA LCS? Check out LCS Weekly on SoundCloud. You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Thomas!

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Christian!

Cover photo by Riot Esports