While Group C has been a very competitive group so far, it has slowly but surely become a two-team race at the end of the first half of the round-robin. At a perfect 3-0 is the Korean champions in SK Telecom T1, and behind them, trying to steal the first seed, is the Chinese second seed in Royal Never Give Up. With Fnatic and Clutch Gaming looking to play spoilers, which players have stepped up so far in the first half of round robins? Take a look with another edition of the OP5! If you missed Group D’s edition of the OP5, you can check it out here!
Top: Xie “Langx” Zhen-Ying (Royal Never Give Up)
While Group C is filled with amazing top laners like Kim “Khan” Dong-ha and Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, Langx is able to just beat them out for the spot in the OP5. Throughout the whole group stages thus far, Langx has been outperforming his opponent in every game and has been a key playmaker for RNG. His play thus far has been awarded as he picked up both Player of the Game honors in RNG’s two victories thus far.
Despite a close game against SK Telecom T1, Langx and the rest of RNG sit in 2nd. However, they still have a great shot at ending the group in 1st as long as Langx is able to continue dominating the top lane.
Jungle: Kim “Clid” Tae-min (SK Telecom T1)
Continuing his amazing play from Korea, Clid takes the OP jungler spot for Group C. While most of his games have been on Lee Sin, a champion he is very comfortable with, Clid has still shown that he is the best jungler in this group. With his play on Lee Sin (1/0/6 and 4/2/13), Clid has been dominating the jungle and has played a large part in creating huge leads for his laners.
While SKT had a close call against Royal Never Give Up, if Clid is able to maintain his level of play, SKT won’t have much to worry about. With the 1st seed still up for grabs, SKT will need a great performance in the final day of matches to protect their spot. But as long as Clid plays as he has, anything is possible.
Mid: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom T1)
The Unkillable Demon King has finally made his return to the Worlds stage. With two deathless games on Tristana (9/0/8) and Akali (7/0/1), Faker has provided the world with a great reminder as to why he’s the best player of all time.
With three games remaining in the round-robin, the question at this point isn’t if Faker can keep it up. Instead, the question will become, how far can Faker go? As SKT continues to dominate and win games, don’t be surprised to see Faker do better and better. It’s been two years since the last time Faker was at Worlds; now that he’s back, he wants to win it all once again.
ADC: Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao (Royal Never Give Up)
Uzi takes the OP ADC spot as he shows that you don’t need fancy mages or Yasuo’s to succeed in the bot lane. With three games on Xayah so far this group stage, Uzi has consistently outperformed his lane opponent regardless of whether they were playing Lucian or Morgana.
While RNG would have preferred being 3-0 and taking the 1st seed, they’ll have to settle with the 2nd seed for now. However as long as Uzi continues to dominate the bot lane, a 1st seed spot going into the playoffs is still very possible. With last year’s performance still fresh in the minds of many, Uzi doesn’t have a lot of room for error. He’ll need to continue playing at a high level if he wants to make up for his performance last year.
Support: Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming (Royal Never Give Up)
Much like group D, behind a great ADC is an equally great support. This was once again the case as Uzi’s support Ming takes the spot for OP support. With stellar games on Blitzcrank and Karma, Ming has been doing a great job of ensuring Uzi comes out of laning phase with an advantage. Along with that, Ming has had a great kill participation so far this tournament at a solid 70%.
Again, much like Group D, while the pressure is high for ADC Uzi to perform well, Ming will need to continue performing well to ensure that Uzi is able to live up to expectations.
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Featured image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr.
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