Only three regions can win the League of Legends World Championship this year. North America failed to place a team in the knockout rounds of Worlds for the first time ever, leaving Europe, China, and Korea as the only regions that can produce this year’s champion. Korea and Europe both sent all three of their teams to the Quarterfinals, but China only sent two after Royal Never Give Up were stunned by Fnatic in their final game of the Group Stage. The loss meant that the greatest AD Carry of all time would once again fall short at Worlds, and it was one of his most disappointing defeats ever.
2019 League of Legends World Championship Quaterfinals Betting Odds
Invictus Gaming +127
Griffin -160
Last year’s world champions needed to defeat Team Liquid on the last day of the Group Stage to secure the final spot in the knockout rounds. There’s no doubt that IG are incredibly talented, but this team has not had the same synergy it did last year. IG’s lanes are constantly trying to push with TheShy and Rookie typically playing aggressively in the early game, and the coordination with the jungler has been lacking.
Ning is likely to be the starter in the jungle since he is more explosive. Leyan is not as talented as Ning, but he is more patient than his counterpart, and he has generally been the better option when Invictus try to team fight.
Invictus don’t want to get into many team fights with Griffin while the two sides are relatively even in gold and items. Griffin are one of the best teams in the world when it comes to coordinating massive brawls, and IG will look to avoid that by getting ahead in the early game.
TheShy is likely to take strong champions into the top lane with an eye on dominating his lane counterpart. Top lane has been Griffin’s weakness all year, and neither Sword nor Doran can compete with TheShy on a micro level. TheShy needs to get ahead for Invictus to win. If he doesn’t, Griffin is likely to win the series rather handily thanks to their preternatural coordination.
FunPlus Phoenix -145
Fnatic +115
This is my favorite bet of the Quarterfinals. I love FunPlus Phoenix in this spot. Analysts are dismissing the LPL champions after they stumbled twice in what was seen as the easiest group, losing to Splyce and J Team. FunPlus needed to win a tiebreaker with Splyce to win the group, but I attribute those shaky performances to international jitters. FunPlus are far more talented than Fnatic, and they should cruise to a victory provided they have a solid read on the meta.
Doinb is a much better mid laner than Nemesis, and I like GimGoon in his top lane match-up against Bwipo. My only two concerns are the bottom lane and FunPlus’ read on the meta.
LPL teams have a history of struggling to adapt to the meta at Worlds, and FunPlus somewhat fell victim to that in the Group Stage. They used champions like Mordekaiser and Galio, and they were punished for those choices in their two losses.
Lwx made some careless mistakes in the Group Stage, and he can’t afford similar errors in the knockout rounds. Rekkles is an experienced veteran that can punish, and Hylissang can be fantastic on strong supports.
With all those caveats out of the way, I still love FunPlus, and I think this team should be closer to -175 to advance given their talent and how little I think of Fnatic.
G2 Esports -125
DAMWON Gaming -105
This is the most hyped match of the knockout rounds. G2 Esports won the Mid-Season Invitation to bring prestige back to Europe. They have the five best players at their positions in all of Europe, and they have set the meta on a regional and international stage.
DAMWON are an awful match for G2 though. This upstart LCK side has been talked about all year due to the incredible mechanics of top laner Nuguri and mid laner Showmaker, and they have a fantastic jungler in Canyon. They can match up with G2 on an individual skill basis, but their big weakness is their inexperience. Old strategies like switching lanes have caught them off guard, so look for G2 to use some of those old tricks to their credit.
I’m going to go with G2 here, but I don’t feel great about it. Nuguri and Showmaker can both win their lanes hard and stun the European champions.
SK Telecom T1 -3800
Splyce +1140
SKT should have no trouble sweeping Splyce. Splyce are by far the weakest team left in the competition, and they are just happy to have made it this far. They were placed in the weakest group at Worlds, and they probably wouldn’t have made it out of any other group.
There is no area where Splyce is better than SKT. SKT can beat them in the early game, mid game, and late game, and all of their laners are better too.
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