The 2018 World Championship is in full swing and each team has a shot at becoming the next World Champion. However, this is also the time in which bettors are coming together to play and hopefully make a fortune during their sitting.
However, because the World Championship holds so many different teams at the event, it can be hard to choose some strong teams to bet on who will provide a strong return. Also, since the Groups Stage is in full swing, matches will be coming out left and right and that means games back and forth for the bettors.
Right now is the ripest moment for the bettors at the World Championship. The Groups Stage holds dozens of matches throughout the week and if picked right, you can make a fortune during this time period. Here are the odds and predictions for each group.
The Taiwanese powerhouse that holds several of the nation’s best players has been making a very strong impact right now in their own group. Leading the group in wins and losses, Flash Wolves could very easily take down the hierarchy of Chinese and Korean teams that are still standing today.
At their very best, Flash Wolves has matched South Korea Telecom and in today’s time, they aren’t any different. They’ve already taken down Afreeca Freecs in their own match against them—Afreeca Freecs is one of the Korean teams that made it to the World Championship this year.
They’ve got the momentum in their hands and they’re looking to carry it to the very end of the finish line. This won’t be a problem, considering that they have their star mid laner, Maple, to help them finish off any uncertain matches while also having SwordArt, a support player who’s become sort of a carry in his own way.
Keep your eyes on Flash Wolves because right now, the way they’ve been playing could very well lead them to pulling off the second Taipei Assassin’s run, only this time, it would be the Flash Wolves leading the charge.
G2 Esports is a European team that has been known to dominate the EU LCS but they haven’t boasted the best record at the World Championships. They’re looking to change that this year. They’ve already pulled off a win versus Afreeca Freecs and had a close match versus the Vietnamese powerhouse, Phong Vu Buffalo.
Despite being from the EU LCS, G2 Esports has created its own hefty resume to prove why it can be a World Champion contender. They made the MSI Finals back in 2017 where they lost to South Korea Telecom when they were still considered the best team in the world.
They also dominated the entire EU LCS scene from 2016 to 2017. Not even Fnatic could take them down at this time and to this day, Fnatic still struggles to beat G2 Esports despite having the more dominant lineup.
G2 Esports is a crafty team, building the game on their own level in order to win but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some players that can do work and help them mechanically. They have Perkz, whose skill has been considered to be world-class at times.
They also have Hjarnan and Wadid, the infamous EU LCS bot lane duo that have done so much for G2 Esports in their short time on the team. These three players will be key points to G2 Esports getting past the Groups Stage and into the playoffs and who knows, maybe they’ll even make an appearance at the World Championship finals.
Not much is known about this Vietnamese team. However, what we do know about Phong Vu Buffalo is that they’re a team that have been a persistent threat on the international scene since their arrival in Group A.
They were able to take down G2 Esports before falling to Flash Wolves and the playstyle they play is similar to that of GIGABYTE Marines from last year who made a very strong entrance into the League of Legends World Championship.
Phong Vu Buffalo can do the same thing and although their players are fairly unknown to the rest of the world, they’re superstars in their own regions. The team finished first in both the Summer Regular Season and in Playoffs, making them a team that know how to win and they know how to win efficiently. All they need to do is apply this game to harder teams.
Being from the Korean region, Afreeca Freecs are already a strong team filled with players that are top ten in their respective role. However, just because they’re from Korea doesn’t instantly grant them a pass to the Knockout Rounds. They’re going to have to work for it.
This is their first year at the World Championship and it’s going shaky for them. They’ve suffered losses to both G2 Esports and Flash Wolves, two matches they could have won but they didn’t and now, they’re going to have to work even harder if they want any shot at clinching one of eight spots for the Knockout Rounds.
If they want any shot at making it, they’re going to need to utilize their top two players, Kuro and Spirit, to the best of their ability. Once they do so, they can start playing around their strengths and this can hopefully pull them a few matches to bring them to the top.
Korea crafts the teams into the best of the best but this can only happen if a team is playing the right playstyle that they’re used to. Right now, Afreeca Freecs isn’t playing in their right mind and they need to get it together quick.
There’s no doubt about it. Right now, Royal Never Give Up is a top two team in the world, matched only by KT Rolster. All of their players are top three in their respective role and their mid laner, Xiaohu can be considered to be the best mid laner out there right now.
They completely destroyed Kingzone Dragonx, once one of the best Korean teams in the history of Korea, at the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational to win it all and they’ve been consecutive champions in the LPL for the past few years.
Perhaps the best way to portray the strength of RNG is by looking back at their history. They completely dominated from the very first time they stepped out onto the stage and in 2014, they nearly took down Samsung White while going under the alias “Star Horn Royal Club.”
If we’re looking at stats and past historical data, then Royal Never Give Up would’ve won this World Championship by now. They have everything they need to win it. They have near flawless communication. Their defense is impeccable and they have some of the strongest names in the game right now.
Uzi is now a top three AD Carry, competing only against Rekkles and iBoy, but right now it looks like he’s on track to become the best AD Carry yet again and that’s not even considering the fact that RNG has LetMe and Ming on their side, two of the strongest supports and top laners to ever take place in League of Legends.
Royal Never Give Up is almost certainly going to make it into the Knockout Rounds and they’re almost certainly going to make it past the first round. Last year, they nearly made it to the finals but fell in the fifth and final game to SKT in the semifinals of the 2017 World Championship.
Now, with South Korea Telecom out of the way, this could very well be RNG’s miracle year. They’ve already won the Mid-Season Invitational. Winning the World Championship would be adding icing on the cake.
Cloud9 has been a pinnacle for the North American region, largely due to the fact that Cloud9 is the only North American team to time and time again actually win their matches and make it to the Playoffs of the World Championship.
This year could be very different. Right now, they’re placed in one of the toughest brackets in the tournament and they’re going to have to play some of the best League of Legends to make it out alive and have any shot at continuing their legacy.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t. In 2017, they were placed in a group with South Korea Telecom, ahq-Esports Club, and Edward Gaming, three of the best teams in the East, yet they still managed to accumulate enough wins and tiebreakers to give them the edge.
In 2016, they were also placed in a group with South Korea Telecom alongside Flash Wolves and I May. At the time, I May had completely wiped out the Chinese competition save Royal Never Give Up and Flash Wolves had come fresh off a historic season from 2015 but Cloud9 still managed to find a way through.
This year, Cloud9 could do the same, especially considering they’re holding a veteran roster in their hands. They’ve taken a solid win off of Team Vitality but fell to RNG, the Chinese powerhouse in their match against them.
Keeping this momentum on their hands, Cloud9 could very well steal other wins that we won’t see coming and we can thank their star-studded players, Jensen and Sneaky for this. The past years, they’ve come up huge in their matches and there’s nothing saying they won’t do it again.
However, even if they make it past the Groups Stage, the tricky part is making it past the first round which is something Cloud9 has struggled to do. But Cloud9 is full of tricks and this could very well happen.
Team Vitality is a new face to the World Championship as well but that doesn’t mean they’re out of the running. They had an extremely strong Summer Split, coming in third place overall for playoffs while accumulating enough points to reach the World Championship without having to play the Regional tournament.
Right now, they’re in one of the hardest groups in the World Championship alongside Cloud9, Royal Never Give Up, and Gen.G but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a shot at getting out. They’ve already proven to be a formidable foe.
They’ve boasted a win against last year’s World Champions, Gen.G. If they can keep up the playstyle that they had versus Gen.G, then they could potentially even take down Royal Never Give Up and boast one of the biggest upsets in history.
However, they’re going to have to take their game to a whole new caliber because making it out of Groups Stage and winning the World Championship are completely different things. Does Team Vitality have it in them? We’ll have to wait and see.
The former World Champions are going to have to prove their worth again if they want any shot at defending their title. They’ve already been put in one of the hardest groups in the World Championship Groups Stage and they haven’t had a good start.
They’ve suffered losses to Royal Never Give Up and Team Vitality, putting them at in a bad position where they’re going to have to play twice as hard in order to win. But can they do it? Of course they can. They’re Gen.G.
This team made it to the World Championship finals in 2016 and won the entire thing in 2017, upsetting Longzhu Gaming (Kingzone Dragonx) and South Korea Telecom along the way. They’re like a stronger version of Cloud9 and always manage to come up when needed the most.
They have last year’s MVP, Ruler, on their team as their AD Carry and he’s been showing up despite their shaky losses. They also have Cuvee and Crown who can transition perfectly between different playstyles and this can prove vital in any tiebreakers that happen to occur.
If they can’t make it past the Groups Stage, that’s going to be an upset no bettor will see coming but I highly doubt that’s going to happen. Gen.G. has always been at the end of the stick but they find a way to make their way to the top. This year will be no different.
Edward Gaming is one of the strongest teams on the Rift right now. They come from China, just like Royal Never Give Up, and they’ve been proving themselves to be a formidable foe for any opponent they come across.
First off, Edward Gaming has proven to be a strong Groups Stage contender, taking down names such as Team Liquid and MAD Team, two of the most prominent teams in their own region. Furthermore, Edward Gaming has also been active in playing their playstyle despite the opposition they face.
They have KT Rolster to worry about alongside Team Liquid yet EDG continues to play their own game and they play the game near pitch perfect. They focus on their best players and revolve their game around them.
Their mid laner, Scout, has proved to be more than a menace. He’s an actual threat to KT Rolster’s Ucal as they both have around the same stats and playstyle. He also took on Xiaohu and even won at times versus the mid laner.
However, it’s iBoy who’s proven to be the real hero of EDG. If anyone can help them win a World Championship, it’s going to be iBoy. During the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational, Edward Gaming took down SKT in the finals to win it all.
This shows that they definitely have a shot at winning this year’s World Championship. They’ve been playing around their star players recently and this will definitely guarantee them a ticket to Worlds. However, it’s winning the entire thing that matters.
KT Rolster needs no introduction. Right now, either RNG or them are set to be the favorites for this year’s World Championship. They’ve proven to be a formidable foe in the LCK and placed first in both the Summer Split Regular Season and the playoffs.
Each of their players are top three in their respective role and if it hadn’t been for South Korea Telecom, 2015, 2016, and 2017 would’ve been KT Rolster’s years. Now, with SKT out of the way, KT Rolster is set to take the stage and they can win it all if they keep playing their game.
Their biggest adversary right now is probably Edward Gaming but KT Rolster has taken down bigger fish and in their years, they’ve even boasted wins against RNG. There’s no doubt that KT Rolster can win this entire thing. It’s set in the lineup.
They have Smeb, who was considered the best top laner in the world at one point, as their starter for top lane. They have Score, a top three jungler in the world right now. They have Ucal who’s been putting results on the table since the start with PawN, a World Champion as a backup.
Finally, they have the notorious duo of Deft and Mata whose legacy will always be remembered due to their dominance during their time on Edward Gaming. There’s no doubt about it. Their entire team is stacked and no Korean team was able to down them this year.
They are set to make it to the Groups Stage and with no opposition except for Royal Never Give Up this year, they have the best shot at winning the entire thing. All they have to do right now is not choke their chance.
Right now, MAD Team has the worst chances at winning the World Championship according to the statistics but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a chance. After all, they made it to the main event after a strong season in their own small region where they faced off against the Flash Wolves powerhouse.
Despite their successful regional season, they haven’t had the strongest results in the Groups Stage. It doesn’t look like they’re going to be making it past the Groups Stage anytime soon but if they do, then any bettors who put anything on them will be able to make a fortune.
It isn’t a bad thing to put some money on this team. After all, they’ll have the highest return with little to no input. Putting in just one dollar will bring you out more than three times what you originally had so I’d say, take the risk. There’s little to no consequence if they lose.
This North American powerhouse hasn’t been performing too well as of late and it’s been showing through their results. They haven’t won very many games and the games that they have had any chance at winning, they’ve choked it out in the end.
This isn’t something to be surprised at though. North America has had a history of choking out crucial matches at times and Team Liquid is the staple of this. Despite being their first time making it to the World Championship as an actual major contender, Team Liquid has choked in their own region especially when they had their chance at winning it all.
In 2015, they were the favorites to win the entire Summer Split and make the World Championship but not only did they loss in the playoffs, they lost in the regional finals to Cloud9 who was at one point, tenth place in the Summer Split that year.
That being said, Team Liquid can’t be seen as a very reliable source. They’ve failed time and time again and who’s to say they won’t do it again? However, there’s still a small chance they could make it out of Groups Stage. After all, they have the strongest team in North America.
Their AD Carry can play like a top five player in the world at his best and their mid laner has had experience taking down Korean and Chinese superstars. That’s not even mentioning the fact that their top laner was a previous World Champion.
However, talent doesn’t mean everything. They’re going to have to prove it on the field and right now, they haven’t been doing that. Doublelift has been underperforming and Pobelter isn’t making the plays he usually makes.
Team Liquid has a lot of ground to cover before they can have any shot at making the Knockout Rounds. However, because of their drastically low odds, betting small on them could have a huge return just like MAD Team. It doesn’t hurt to bet a little because if a miracle happens, you’ll make a fortune for a very small input.
Invictus Gaming has proven to be a stronger team this year than any of their last performances at the World Championship. They’ve been known to not even make it past the Groups Stage but this year could be totally different.
Right now, they’re dominating their Groups Stage and it looks like they could easily take first place. This year, Invictus Gaming took first place during the LPL Summer Split Regular Season, losing only one match in the process.
They ended up losing to Royal Never Give Up in the finals of the LPL playoffs but it was in a close five games, not like the past few times where RNG swept IG off of their feet. Now, they’re producing the same results at the World Championship.
They took out Fnatic with fairly relative ease and also took down the wild card from Taiwan, G-Rex, without any opposition. They can credit their success throughout this season to their star players. China is known to produce some of the strongest mid laners and this is the case for Invictus Gaming.
Their star-studded mid laner, Rookie, has reached a KDA as high as 11.00 consistently and his arsenal of different champions such as Lissandra, Syndra, and Irelia have left audiences speechless. Despite Xiaohu being considered the best mid laner in the world right now, if he slips up, Rookie could very well take his place.
That’s not even considering the fact that their AD Carry, JackeyLove, has been having a field day, accumulating a total of forty-four kills and assists while only taking three deaths to compensate. There’s also Duke, whose time on Longzhu Gaming (now Kingzone Dragonx) has left him as a notorious top laner.
Invictus Gaming, like Royal Never Give Up and KT Rolster, is almost guaranteed a spot in the Knockout Rounds, especially with the way they’ve been playing. But the challenge lies in taking down RNG and KT Rolster because these two teams can be extremely difficult to play against. Is it impossible? Certainly not, but it’s going to be extremely hard.
There are a lot of reasons as to why 100 Theives isn’t expected to win the World Championship let alone make it past the Groups Stage. The main reason behind this is the fact that they’re a new team to the Worlds scene despite having players who have experienced this competition before.
They had a great season in the NA LCS but they fell short when it came to the playoffs and furthermore, their team has been known to choke away easy games. Right now, they only have two players who have truly experienced the dominance of the Korean players and knows how to counter them in some way: Ryu and Ssumday.
Furthermore, after their first few matches at Worlds, no player on 100 Thieves had a KDA above five, showing the poor performances all across the board that they had just given. The first few matches usually set the tone for the rest of the game and by the looks of it, 100 Thieves won’t be making it out.
They’ve already suffered a loss to Fnatic and their chances of beating Invictus Gaming are low. With only two making it out to the Knockout Rounds, I would say it’s time for 100 Thieves to start packing their bags.
If there’s one European team that can win the World Championship, it’s going to be Fnatic. They’ve already secured one Worlds title (Season One) under their belt and in 2015, they came very close to reaching the finals.
Yet again, Fnatic came out as the victor in both the Regular Season and in playoffs for the EU LCS and the team has never looked stronger than before. Every player they have right now is playing immaculate League of Legends.
Their star player, Rekkles, has battled against some of the best Koreans and Chinese at the AD Carry position and won! Their mid laner is considered to be a “baby Faker” and Broxah has become a viable jungler of all sorts.
Fnatic has come out of the Groups Stage time and time again and this year looks to be no different. They might have competition from Invictus Gaming but taking out the other two teams should be no trouble for them.
It’s making it past the first round of Knockout Rounds that matters but Fnatic can definitely do it. They came close in 2016 and 2017. With this year being the 2018 World Championship, the third time might be the charm.
The G-Rex is a wild card that neither the LMS region nor the world saw coming. They placed fifth overall in the LMS Split but they managed to destroy the Regional tournament to secure a berth in the Play-In Stage where they proceeded to take down everyone there and secure a spot in the main event.
However, their chances at making the Knockout Rounds look grim. Their players aren’t well-known in any aspect and they have little to no credibility to their name. G-Rex was only recently formed and they’re going to need to acquire a series of upsets if they want to make it.
Does that mean it’s impossible? No, it’s just going to be really hard. With such low odds, betting small on them would have a substantial return. This makes G-Rex a viable option if you really want a team to blow some cash on.
This year’s Groups Stage has left several people shocked and many leaping off of their chairs. They’ve already accumulated several upsets and highlight reels but most importantly, they’ve created a new sense of competitiveness never before seen at the Worlds tournament before.
The bettors this year need to know which teams are the strongest to bet on and which are the weakest. Teams like KT Rolster and Invictus Gaming are obvious favorites while names like 100 Thieves and G-Rex aren’t favored at all.
Of course, there is some middle ground with names like Gen.G and Cloud9 also being potential candidates but it comes down to the chances of them winning the tournament and the numbers say it all.
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