Flash Wolves have dominated the LMS these last two years. They have now won four straight domestic championships, only dropping one game in the process. Flash Wolves set a new standard during the 2017 LMS Spring Split, going undefeated through the regular season before beating ahq e-Sports for yet another title.
Their play has been sporadic on the international stage. For whatever reason, this team continues to be able to beat the undisputed best team ever, SK Telecom T1, but falters elsewhere. Flash Wolves finished third in the Group Stage at the last two Mid-Season Invitationals, but got bounced by Counter Logic Gaming in 2016 and were hammered by SK Telecom T1 this past year.
Flash Wolves are looking to prove themselves at Worlds after a very disappointing performance on this stage last year. However, they are placed in a tough group as Team World Elite has beaten them in three out of four meetings this year, while they went 1-1 against Team SoloMid at MSI.
Opening Betting Odds to Win 2017 League of Legends World Championship
Flash Wolves +2400
Top Lane
Flash Wolves have not changed their line-up in a long time and haven’t needed to with how great they have been in domestic play. That starts up top with MMD, who has been with this team since June 2014.
MMD was one of the players who popularized Kled in the Mid-Season Invitational, throwing other teams for a whirl with the off-meta selection. Like the rest of the players on this team, Flash Wolves don’t ask him to hang back and just lane for the most part, and expect him to play aggressively.
Jungle
Karsa might be the biggest playmaker on Flash Wolves and is considered one of the top junglers in the world. He is known for his early game aggression, constantly bullying enemy junglers in their own camps. His play on Rek’Sai has been superb this season and he has been great on Elise too.
Impressively, he has been fantastic on Gragas too. Although Gragas isn’t his typical kind of champion, Karsa was a smashing success on the champion in summer, boasting a 7.8 KDA on him.
This is an area where Flash Wolves have a big advantage on two of the other teams in Group D. Karsa is significantly better than either Maxlore of Misfits or Svenskeren of Team SoloMid, so look for him to select a carry champion in those games.
Mid Lane
Maple is one of the few mid laners around to have gone toe-to-toe with Faker and lived to tell the tale. He is far and away the best Taiwanese mid laner there is and has had success against many of Flash Wolves opponents in international tournaments.
He has an incredibly diverse champion pool and showed off his talents by picking seven different champions at MSI. Maple is great on magic champions like Syndra, LeBlanc, and Ryze, and has added support mid laners like Taliyah and Galio to his repertoire.
Maple will have his hands full in this group with so many teams that rely on their mid laner. He will need to be up to the task.
AD Carry
Betty is the newest member of Flash Wolves and has been a solid AD Carry since taking over for NL. He more than held his own at the Mid-Season Invitational, and played great on traditional AD Carries like Ashe and Varus.
Teams are going to ban Ashe away from him. Betty has been very reliant on the champion this season and Flash Wolves went 10-0 in Taiwan in summer with him on that champion. Additionally, he has not played any of the hypercarries popular in the current meta and that could be something other teams exploit.
Support
SwordArt is a legend. He is the shotcaller for Flash Wolves and this meta plays to his strengths very well. He is fantastic on initiate supports such as Thresh and Alistar, having played those two champions more than any other during his professional career.
In addition to those, he is also amazing on both Blitzcrank and Braum. With such a deep champion pool, it’s impossible to target ban heroes away from him in order to get an edge. He is the best support in this group and will prove it.
Prediction
Flash Wolves are a team that is notoriously hard to predict. This might be the only team that could either win its group or finish last in its group without anyone being surprised either way.
BookMaker is your one stop shop for all your eSports betting needs. We will have betting lines available on every match of the 2017 League of Legends World Championships. Open an account and get in on the action today!
