Last year, Immortals were regular season wonders only. They were phenomenal in both the Spring Split and Summer Split in 2016, going a combined 33-3 and looking like an unstoppable freight train in those games. Something happened to this team when it came time for the playoffs though. They were bounced in the semifinals by Team SoloMid in spring and Cloud9 in summer and that forced them to have to go through the North American Qualifier in order to make Worlds.
They couldn’t get past Counter Logic Gaming in the qualifier and that meant that despite such a superb record, they didn’t end up making it to Worlds last year. This year, things went better in the playoffs. Although they finished 8-10 in the Spring Split and missed out on the postseason, they made it to the Summer Split Finals and that gave them enough points to automatically qualify for Worlds.
Now, it’s up to Immortals to show us what they are made of in their second international appearance. They lost to Korean bottom feeders Kongdoo Monster at IEM XI Gyeonggi last year and will need to perform better than that here in China.
Opening Betting Odds to Win 2017 League of Legends World Championship
Immortals +3800
Top Lane
The ‘Flame Horizon’ days are behind us, but there’s no doubt that Flame still has a lot of talent and can carry his team to a victory on a good day. Flame prefers to play strong champions where he has the advantage on his opponent in the laning phase and is better on those than he is on more team-focused champions.
His champion pool is rather limited despite his vast experience. His best champions this last split were Renekton, Jarvan IV, and Shen and he really struggled on any other selection.
He is in a very unenviable position in this group. Fnatic and Longzhu Gaming both have top laners that are better than he is and although GIGABYTE Marines don’t, they have a jungler in Levi that will look to apply consistent pressure to his lane.
Jungle
Between spring and summer, Immortals made a move that was considered a downgrade by many at the time. They swapped junglers with Counter Logic Gaming, getting rid of Dardoch for Xmithie. However, that move turned out to be a shrewd one as Dardoch was let go of by CLG just two months later.
For his part, Xmithie played rather well. He was reliable on a team-focused selection like Gragas, but not as good on carry champions. Xmithie doesn’t have the champion pool that other top junglers have and that limits what Immortals can do as a team.
Mid Lane
Pobelter is the longest-tenured member of Immortals and took some major steps forward this season. He isn’t the flashiest player and no one will call him one of the top mid laners, but he does what this team needs him to do.
This season, he has played Taliyah more than any other champion and used her to great success. Immortals went 8-3 when he was on the Stoneweaver and used her Weaver’s Wall to great effect. He’s not the type to take over his lane though and that gives the opposing mid laner freedom to farm.
AD Carry
Cody Sun has been fantastic on some of the hypercarries that have dominated the current meta. He was great on Jhin, Tristana, and Twitch in the regular season of this most recent split and dominated on Kog’Maw in the playoffs.
He has been a nice surprise after bouncing around the second division of League of Legends for a few years. You can make an argument that in this current meta he has been just as good as the more established Sneaky and Doublelift.
Support
If you look up the definition of a playmaking support, you’ll find a picture of Olleh. Olleh was voted the best support of the split in North America and liked to play Thresh a lot. However, his best champion was Bard.
Not many supports can play Bard well. He has a different style than most traditional supports and you have to know how to use his Magical Journey ability to use him correctly. Olleh did just that and Immortals went 10-1 when he was on the champion this split. Don’t be surprised if it’s a target ban against him.
Prediction
Immortals doesn’t have much of a chance to win a group that has Longzhu Gaming, but they can get second place if they can best Fnatic and withstand the early game pressure of GIGABYTE Marines.
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