Surprise, surprise. The greatest team in League of Legends history is the favorite to win another World Championship. SK Telecom T1 has won three of the last four titles and is a slight favorite over compatriots Longzhu Gaming and Samsung Galaxy to claim this their fourth title in five years.
Despite its status as the favorite, SKT enters Worlds with a few big question marks. They have not gotten consistent play from either the top lane or the jungle and that came back to bite them in the LCK Summer Split, leading them to finish in fourth place in the regular season.
Still, no team rallies like SKT does. This team has an unparalleled record in five game series and kkOma is undisputedly the best coach in the world. They will be heavy favorites to win Group A despite the presence of Chinese champions Edward Gaming.
Opening Betting Odds to Win 2017 League of Legends World Championship
SK Telecom T1 +145
Top Lane
For most of the year SKT juggled Untara and Huni in the top lane, but the team opted to bring Huni to Worlds instead of Untara. The move came as somewhat of a surprise as Untara was the more preferred option during summer. Untara was more consistent and didn’t have the awful performances that Huni did against some of the best teams in Korea.
Bringing Huni means that SKT wants a top laner who can take over his lane and bully his opponent. SKT was an uncharacteristic 7-9 with Huni in the lineup for Summer Split, but Huni was great for this team in the Spring Split. He wasn’t great on either Fiora or Rumble in recent weeks, but played well on picks like Gangplank and Poppy in spring. Additionally, he was very good on more team focused champions like Maokai and Shen then.
Jungle
This is the position that has plagued SKT all summer long. SKT seemed to solve their jungle woes in the offseason when they signed the supposed best jungler in the world, Peanut, and he was fantastic throughout the Spring Split and at MSI.
However, the Summer Split proved to be a difficult one for Peanut. He continually looked lost and fell behind, causing the team to turn to long-time jungler Blank instead. Blank was able to help this team rally after a poor start. He isn’t the playmaker that Peanut can be, but was consistent and was able to help out in a big way in team fights and that’s all SKT needed from him.
SKT brought both Blank and Peanut to Worlds and although Peanut is the nominal starter, don’t be surprised if Blank ends up starting most of the games if Peanut struggles even once.
Mid Lane
What more can you say about Faker? The undisputed best player in the world continues to pick up praise and accolades from all sides. He can play any style on virtually any champion and very few mid laners can even hold their own against him.
Faker tried to lead the team to victory against Longzhu Gaming, but his other two lanes fell behind too far for the team to overcome.
He is legendary for his pocket picks and creating new metas by selecting scarcely used champions. His play on Karma in the mid lane helped spark a dramatic shift and every mid laner felt the need to add the champion to their repertoire. Faker will have one or two picket picks in store for Worlds.
AD Carry
Bang largely goes unappreciated despite being the AD Carry for the best team in the world. He has been with SKT since shortly after its inception and has been a part of their last two world titles.
He mostly chose more standard AD Carry champions in the Summer Split, but was phenomenal on Tristana and Xayah when he used those hypercarries. He also helped bring Twitch back into the meta after this play on the champion at MSI.
Much like Blank, SKT knows what it’s going to get out of Bang. He is rock solid and great in team fights, but isn’t a power carry like some others present at Worlds.
Support
Wolf is probably the best support in the world. He is one of the glue guys for SKT and he is considered almost as irreplaceable as Faker. Wolf always seems to be in the right place at the right time and has the skill to play any type of champion you want him to.
He has been paired with Bang in SKT’s bottom lane since October 2013 and played with him briefly on NaJin Shield too. It’s rare that you see a bottom lane that has been together for so long and their chemistry is remarkable.
Prediction
The expectations for SKT are clear, World Championship or bust. That’s the standard that SKT has set and they are the favorite once again. No team has adapted better to patches than SKT and the format at Worlds favors them. There are a few teams that can knock them off, but no team will be favored against SKT.
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