Heading into the 2016 League Of Legends World Championship, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the players expected to compete for the spotlight – the tournament’s MVP contenders. Bjergsen’s ability to lead Team SoloMid through the group stages, Smeb’s tendency to reduce his lane opponent to tears, Forg1ven’s debut appearance against the rest of the world – it’s all been said and done. Just as a player is capable of winning you a game, equally a weak link can cost you dearly on the biggest stage LoL eSports has to offer.
Worlds 2016, as the previous season’s slogan suggests, will mark the rise of new legends to the summit of the competitive scene – but what of the inevitable villains of the World Championship? Last year’s sinners were easy to identify – if you possessed a Chinese passport, the likelihood was that you’d thrown the game for your team somewhere along the way.
With the Chinese teams not expected to sandbag as desperately as they did at the Season 5 Championship, which of 2016’s suspects are most likely to throw a game and earn themselves a spot in the League of Legends hall of infamy?
Looking at you Trevor…
5. AHQ Westdoor
Representing Taiwan, AHQ'S Westdoor is one of the most unreliable players on show at Worlds 2016. The epitome of a hit or miss mid laner, whilst Westdoor is the true carry of AHQ, his team are rarely on his wavelength. He has the potential make great plays for his team, but they often end up being epic throws.
Westdoor looks rusty at the moment, his laning phase has deteriorated significantly. Unless AHQ's sub, Chawy, steps in and plays instead, it looks unlikely that the Taiwanese team will make it out of groups.
4. IMay AmazingJ
The only top laner of the list, we've seen AmazingJ solo carrying games in the Chinese LPL, but similarly we've seen him single-handedly losing games as well. AmazingJ is a player where his performance could be predicted with the roll of a dice.
Placed in a group in which he has to fight SKT's Duke, C9's Impact and FW's MMD, the outlook looks bleak for the Chinese outsiders. Then again, the likelihood is that AmazingJ will be behind straight from the off against each of his opponents, so there won't be any lead to throw? Every cloud...
3. CLG Stixxay
Counter Logic Gaming could easily have had three contenders on this list, HuHi, Darshan and Stixxay. Though Stixxay has the potential to carry games, as shown by his strong performance at the Mid-Season Invitational, his tendency to get caught out during crucial moments of games became a far more frequent trend during the NA Summer Split.
According to Aphromoo, Stixxay is a better version of Doublelift - true in the sense that both share the same interest for risky plays that lead to potential throws.
2. SKT T1 Blank
The Korean tale of the 2016 LCK playoffs portrays an SK Telecom T1 roster playing without a jungler against KT Rolster, resulting in a 2-3 loss - SKT made it through worlds thanks to points from last split.
Blank is a feast or famine jungler, playing a game where he will either make all 3 lanes win or he will be a spectator throughout the match with no presence whatsoever.
1. G2 Perkz
"My Azir is bad, my Ryze is worse, you guessed it right, it's G2 Perkz."
Perkz is not the main carry for G2 Esports - not even the secondary carry of the team - those pedestals are held by Zven and Expect, in the bottom and top lanes respectively. He may not have the potential to carry games, but he certainly has the potential to throw them.
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