by Saturday, October 26 – 12:00 CEST
With the League of Legends World Championship group stage behind us, the eight remaining teams now travel to Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain, for the playoffs.
The LoL Worlds quarter-finals will take place over two separate days, with the first two fixtures on Saturday, October 26 and the remaining two on Sunday, October 27.
The opening fixture of the LoL Worlds playoffs features Invictus Gaming and Griffin, who are bound to make sparks fly in the Spanish capital.
Invictus Gaming
+130 at BetOnline
The reigning world champions and one of the most feared League of Legends esports teams on the planet will enter the playoffs after a tough run in the group stage that exposed many weaknesses of the Chinese roster.
While still a very respected team, it’s easy to see Invictus Gaming are not nearly as strong as they were last year when they produced one of the most dominant playoffs runs in the history of the tournament.
The biggest concern we have with Invictus going against Griffin is the mismatch in the jungle. There is no denying Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning is one of the best junglers in the world, but we don’t believe he showed enough throughout the group stage.
And while we can expect Ning to play much better in the playoffs, he still lacks overall quality compared to the likes of Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong.
On a more positive note, Invictus have a rather big advantage in the top lane, where they have Kang “TheShy” Seun-kok. He is an elite player and arguably the best top laner in the world. TheShy is, in our eyes, a class above Choi “Sword” Seong-won, but the question remains: can TheShy finally step up and carry his team?
Griffin
-156.25 at BetOnline
Griffin impressed with their performance in the group stage, where they finished as the top seed above G2, Cloud9 and Hong Kong Attitude to establish themselves as serious contenders for the title.
While the organization continues to work on resolving their issues with the departure of former coach cvMax and the accusations of their management forcing players into unfair contracts, the roster of Griffin seems to be unfazed by that.
The Koreans will enter the quarter-finals fixture as rightful favourites. While Invictus Gaming have some extremely good individual players, Griffin are no pushover in that regard either. Furthermore, we see Griffin as a team with far superior teamwork, better organization and superior execution.
Griffin’s biggest win condition is their jungler Tarzan, but their bot lane should not be overlooked either.
Invictus vs Griffin betting predictions
Griffin -1.5 at +118 with BetOnline
Expect Invictus Gaming to struggle all across the board. While they are stronger in the top lane, it’s the other lanes and their overall approach to the game where they will come short.
Mid lane will see a clash between Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon and Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, which is a toss-up between two world-class players who have both performed very well so far. Bottom lane could also seen as a 50/50, but if we were to pick a side it should be Griffin.
Although they are the reigning world champions, there is something about IG that does not inspire trust. They have elite players in all positions, but their teamwork (or lack of it) is a concern.
Griffin, meanwhile, looked exceptionally strong in the group stage, where they displayed all the qualities required to win a championship. And if they can keep up the rhythm, we would not be surprised if the Koreans came out of the quarter-finals with a clean sweep.
