LoL: Our Expert Predictions for the 2020 Worlds Group Stage

Group Draw
Team WE Jiumeng picking TL for Group A (Image Credit: lolesports via flickr)

The groups have been finalized and Worlds action is set to begin this coming Saturday morning at around 10:00 CEST with a true David vs. Goliath matchup of Flyquest against Top Esports. Of course, it isn’t worlds without the annual pick’em where fans can try to predict the outcome of the Group as well as the knock-out phase.

We’ve had our own go and decided to reveal our bold predictions.

Worlds 2020 Group A: G2 All the Way

G2 MSI win
G2 win MSI in 2019 (Image Credit: G2 esports)

Sure, G2 had a shaky Summer Split but we believe that getting their ass handed to them in scrims against a bunch of Chinese squads will have woken them up and they’ll be in top shape once the action begins for them Sunday when they play Suning. G2 is also notoriously good against teams that like to play a slow and controlled game, which is what Machi Esports and Team Liquid embody. Therefore, we believe that G2 will easily top this group, Suning will slide into the second place, while Team Liquid takes third and Machi rounds out the bottom.

Worlds 2020 Group B: Sorry Rogue!

Damwon
Damwon win the LCK Summer title from home (Image Credit: LCK flickr)

We’re sorry to have to do this to the LEC representative, but we placed Rogue in the last place for this group. We just can’t see them beating a surging Damwon squad nor JD Gaming and if PSG Talon manages to keep their momentum from an amazing play-ins they’ll also be very hard to beat for the European team. Our prediction for this group is that Damwon, the strongest team from the LCK, will be first. JD Gaming could also take the top spot, but we placed them in second, while PSG and Rogue make the bottom pair.

Worlds 2020 Group C: Filled With Experience

Rekkles Fnatic Worlds
Rekkles will be facing off against other veterans in Doublelift and Ruler (Image Credit: lolesports flickr)

This is the ‘old-timer’ group with players like Rekkles, Doublelift, and Bjregsen. Peanut and Ruler are no strangers to the Worlds’ stage either, making this a group filled with experience. We believe that Gen.G will make it out in first place, having a previous World Champion on their team with Ruler just gives them that edge. Fnatic will likely come out in second since they’ve been in this type of group and situation before and always somehow managed to make it to the knock-out phase. LGD is the unpredictable dark horse of this group. Will we see Group-play-in LGD or playoff-play-in LGD? That will determine whether TSM gets third or fourth.

Worlds 2020 Group D: All About TES

Top Esports 2020 World Championship
Top Esports dominated the LPL with Karsa and JackeyLove at the helm (Image Credit: TES via Twitter)

This group is all about Top Esports, the favorites of the whole tournament. They’re going to be facing off against Flyquest, DRX and Unicorns of Love and we believe these teams shouldn’t be a deterrent from getting first place. The rest of the group is wide open though. DRX has some issues with Deft, their ADC, having an injured back. Unicorns of Love can take games with interesting drafts, much like they did in the play-ins and are always dangerous. Flyquest will probably have the worst time in the group, even if they’re playing to save the ocean. So, we have put TES at the top, DRX will squeak through second while Unicorns of Love and Flyquest will sadly have to go home by the end.

So there you have it our predictions for the world’s group stage, even if some of the choices truly hurt our hearts. We do hope to see some surprises – TSM finally making it out of groups? Doublelift using his flash? – since anything can happen once the Group Phase begins.

What were your picks? Do you have hope for Rogue to make it out of Groups? Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook. FOr more information regarding the play-in stage, as well as anything else related to League of Legends, make sure to keep reading on EarlyGame.

Sabrina Ahn

Sabrina Ahn is the League of Legends and Riftfeed Lead. During her time at Concordia University in 2014 she fell in love with LoL and is playing it since – how she hasn't lost her sanity is still unclear....