As the quest for Worlds qualification ramps up, teams have one goal in mind. Cement their legacy as one of the best teams in the world and perhaps even the history of League of Legends. While this season’s contenders are yet to be decided, now would be a good time to look back at the 3 best World Champion Teams so far. What made those teams so great? Just how dominant were they? You’re about to find out, here are the three greatest World Champions so far in the history of League of Legends.

3.Samsung Galaxy (Worlds 2017)

Roster:

Top: Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin
Jungle: Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong and Kang “Haru” Min-seung
Mid: Lee “Crown” Min-ho
ADC: Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk
Support:Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in

The team deserving of the third spot was a tough decision between the Samsung Galaxy team of 2017 and the SKT Telecom T1 team of 2016. In the end, the spot went to Samsung for a few reasons. The first being that they had a more convincing playoff run against better teams than SKT. For SKT, the team won 3-1, 3-2, and finally 3-2 on the way to the championships with their strongest opponent being ROX Tigers. Meanwhile, the last other two teams they defeated, RNG and Samsung Galaxy, either had players in the process of falling off (Jang “Looper” Hyeong-seok for RNG) or simply had not yet reached their peak (Samsung Galaxy).

To compare, Samsung only lost once during playoffs in 2017, to Team WE, who were considered the best Chinese team at the tournament. Otherwise, they had very convincing 3-0 victories against Longzhu Gaming (now Kingzone DragonX) and SKT. Overall. The quality of teams that Samsung had to face in their run was much higher when compared to that of SKT’s 2016 run.

Another reason that Samsung takes this spot is due to their roster. Not only was it a great roster, but all the players peaked at the right time and allowed their great run to happen. CuVee and Crown peaked during the season and became some of the best players in their positions. Meanwhile Ambition looked even better in the jungle, becoming an amazing tank jungler that was able to completely control the momentum of the early game. Lastly, the bot lane duo of Ruler and CoreJJ  were finally able to find the synergy that made them the go-to bot lane pairing for the team, and their domination showed why. For these reasons, the team takes third on the list.

2.SK Telecom T1 (Worlds 2015)

Roster:

Top: Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan
Jungle: Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong
Mid: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Lee “Easyhoon” Ji-hoon
ADC: Bae “Bang” Jun-sik
Support: Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan

It shouldn’t be surprising that this SKT team made the list. While other SKT rosters (aside from season 3) always had questions surrounding their players, this roster was close to perfect. MaRin was one of the best carry top laners at the tournament, challenged only by fellow Korean top laners Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho and Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho. Meanwhile, Bengi had a return to form of his season 3 days, as he completely took over the map with his amazing jungle pathing and ability to predict the enemy jungler’s pathing. Then in the mid lane, the duo of Faker and Easyhoon was completely dominant as neither players seemed to ever lose lane. Lastly we had the bot lane tandem of Bang and Wolf, with what could be considered their best season, as Bang was able to be a hard-carry when needed.

Aside from their amazing roster, the team had an unstoppable run, losing only one game the whole tournament to KOO Tigers, their biggest competition that season, in the finals. Aside from that the team tore through AHQ and Origen in the playoffs and completely dominated EDG, H2K, and Bangkok Titans in groups. While the lack of Asian teams in their way can be considered, the team was simply too dominant for that to truly affect their run.

Overall, this SKT played the SKT playstyle the best. They had a top laner that could win his lane with close to no jungle assistance which allows the jungler to focus on protecting mid lane and allowing them to carry through perfectly timed ganks and counter-ganks. Meanwhile the bot lane is able to provide a consistent lane that never loses outright, on top of that, the ADC can still takeover a game and carry if needed.

1.Samsung White (Worlds 2014)

Roster:

Top: Jang “Looper” Hyeong-seok
Jungle: Choi “DanDy” In-kyu
Mid: Heo “PawN” Won-seok
ADC: Gu “imp” Seung-bin
Support: Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong

Was there any question that the legendary Samsung White team of 2014 was gonna be number one? Before all else, let’s just take a look at some of the teams they defeated on the way to the Summoner’s Cup. In groups, they completely decimated EDG, the best Chinese team and AHQ, the best Taiwanese team. Then in playoffs they had a convincing 3-0 victory against sister team Samsung Blue, the other favorites to win that year, and finished their run with the destruction of Star Horn Royal Club. At no point in the tournament did Samsung White look like they were struggling. But even in their loses (usually due to very bad and cocky drafting), they looked like they could legitimately still win those games.

Now let’s look at the players, and when you talk about Samsung White, you need to start with DanDy and Mata. This duo always took of map vision and left the enemy team blind, through their perfectly timed roams together. Along with this and his amazing play and shotcalling, Mata ended up being the MVP of the tournament. Meanwhile, imp the best ADC at the tournament, with his aggressive playstyle rewarding him with two pentakills the entire tournament (on Vayne and Twitch). Then there’s Looper who had the best use of teleport out of all top laners at the tournament and was able to play anything the team needed him to. Lastly there was PawN, whose masterful play on assassins destroyed enemy mid laners.

While League of Legends will have a long history ahead of it, it’s hard to imagine a team dominating as hard as Samsung White did. As a result, they cement their legacy as perhaps the greatest world champion team of all time.

Featured image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr.

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