The League of Legends World Championship 2019 is moving forward to Madrid with the quarterfinals kicking off the knockout stage. Down to the eight best teams in the world, four will see their seasons end with difficult best-of-five series ahead of them.
With four exhilarating series coming up this weekend, here is a look at each exciting match-up in the LoL Worlds quarterfinals bracket, with most series difficult to call.
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Griffin (1.66) vs Invictus Gaming (2.12)
Saturday, October 26th, 12pm CEST - live stream and betting
What a game to get things started. Reigning World Champions Invictus Gaming don't appear to be on the same level as last season but you cannot forget that IG weren't overly impressive in the 2018 Group Stages either.
On the other hand, Griffin have suddenly emerged as strong title contenders after they decimated Group A in Week 2. They are perhaps the opposite to IG considering the Korean team is always impressive in best-of-ones, having topped the LCK Spring and Summer Splits in the regular season only to fall in the Playoffs finals when things move into best-of-fives.
That's what makes this match so difficult to call as it's hard to predict how both teams will make the leap into multi-match series. Griffin's performances against Cloud9 and G2 were extremely clean with very few mistakes but if IG's solo-laners Kang "TheShy" Seung-lok and Song "Rookie" Eui-jin perform at their best there probably isn't a team in the world who can stop IG.
The true key to this battle will be in the jungle. Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong is considered by many as one of the best junglers in the world while IG have been rotating junglers with Gao "Ning" Zhen-Ning seemingly a double-edged sword. There's no better way to shut down solo-laners than jungle dominance which is why Griffin have the edge.
FunPlus Phoenix (1.58) vs Fnatic (2.23)
Saturday, October 26th, 5pm CEST - live stream and betting
As the LPL champions, FunPlus Phoenix were a team to be feared heading into the tournament. However, an underwhelming performance in the relatively weak Group B has flames behind the Phoenix's seemingly simmer out.
Meanwhile, Fnatic had an extremely difficult group with SK Telecom T1 and Royal Never Give up to contend with but went on a sensational run in Week 2 to escape the group and proceed to the knockouts.
The truth is, FPX could be a one-man team with Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang being crucial to their success. Tim "Nemesis" Lipovšek was phenomenal against Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok so he shouldn't have any trouble in this match-up either. It could be worth backing Fnatic here.
SK Telecom T1 (N/A) vs Splyce (15.00)
Sunday, October 27th, 12pm CEST - live stream and betting
The outlier of the LoL Worlds 2019 quarterfinals bracket, it's hard to imagine anything but a convincing SKT win in this case which is why we aren't accepting bets on the LCK team coming out on top.
That's not a knock on Splyce either, they are certainly a strong team in their own right but after a shaky performance in the Play-Ins and a rather easy group we haven't seen the European first-seeds truly be tested.
On paper, Splyce are probably the weakest team in the Quarter-Finals whereas SKT are looking like tournament favourites following their domination of the stacked Group C. It's been a long-time coming but the record three-time World Champions have been reborn and finally look like a team that can lift the Summoner's Cup once more.
Damwon Gaming (1.96) vs G2 Esports (1.76)
Sunday, October 27th, 5pm CEST - live stream and betting
Finally, we have a very juicy tie between Korea's third seed and Europe's first seed in a tie that is much closer than it initially appears.
G2 have actually admitted in interviews that they struggled in scrims against Damwon Gaming who have the individual talent to stand up to G2's "super-team" roster. Top-laner Jang "Nuguri" Ha-gwon and mid-laner Heo "ShowMaker" Su terrorised solo-queue before impressing in the Group Stages and will undoubtedly cause Martin "Wunder" Hansen and Rasmus "Caps" Winther problems.
However, DWG's ADC Sin "Nuclear" Jeong-hyeon has been inconsistent at times as we all know how well Luka "Perkz" Perković performs when the pressure is high. It's fair to say G2 weren't at their best in the Group Stages but the talented roster has always shone in best-of-fives where they can flex their creativity.
The LEC and MSI champions didn't have to show any new picks in the Groups Stage and you can be sure that they have some surprise picks up their sleeves ready for when the time is right.
Looking for tips? Check out Boukev's LoL Worlds quarterfinal predictions ahead of the weekend's matches.
Pictures: LoL Esports Flickr
