apdo's team is 양학하러왔습니다
translates to "We Came To Slay The Peasants" which is a badass name but everyone calls it apdo's team. bracket stage for qualifiers:
17th October 2013 19:00 KST
Group A: KT Rolster A vs. Lovelife
Group B: Mook vs. Prime Sentinel
Group C: CTU vs. 양학하러왔습니다
Group D: 쌈마사카 vs. 경찰은룰루맛몰라
Group E: Team OP vs. Xenics Blast
18th October 2013 19:00 KST
Group F: Alienware vs. Sirius Altair
Group G: Xenics Storm vs. 러키러키
Group H: Alienware Rangers vs. IN Gaming S
Group I: FOR N GUYS vs. SK Telecom T1 #2
Group J: Incredible Miracle vs. Prime Optimus
my thoughts follow
a: should be a roll by kta, they've been on and off but they're settling in with ssumday in the top lane and riris' champion pool is massive now
b: difficult to call, mook has looked really good against teams like jin air but prime sentinel has an incredible coaching lineup
c: one of the biggest matches of the bracket stage, ctu has more experience but apdo's team has apdo
d: kind of disappointing that neither of these teams are _really_ champions potential, i'd rather see them mixed round a little
e: paragon is back on team op, xenics blast is still not looking like the best team but we'll see if manyreason improved in the offseason
f: highlight match of day 2 for sure, both have gotten good results in amateur circuits and they have a lot of potential
g: new storm lineup is really stacked, this should be a roll
h: alienware's b team isn't really that good but neither is in gaming s, i wouldn't expect too much
i: complete roll by team marin
j: super interesting match, i think it will be a roll either way. i WANT optimus to win so we see mkp again, and they have a good shot since IM is really weak right now
the insane part is that only two of these teams are going to be in champions. just shows you how ridiculously stacked korea is when it comes to talent
seeded teams:
SK Telecom T1 #1: still recovering from worlds, but they have time to catch up to the other teams who have been practising against good opposition instead of shitty worlds teams
KT Bullets: i'm not convinced honestly, they had so long to play against korean teams while worlds was happening and from what i've seen they haven't improved
Samsung Galaxy Ozone: expecting nothing from them, they've regressed to relying on imp to carry, just like the old days
CJ Entus Frost: really, REALLY excited to see how they incorporate maknoon into the team, but honestly i am skeptical
Jin Air Falcons: reapered's mid lane is probably the weakest of his three commonly played positions, but roar back on AD is good and his new jungler is pretty good too
CJ Entus Blaze: tipping them as the strongest team out of the gate, 'neo blaze' is steadily improving as cpt jack and baeme undergo secret training, while emperor adjusts to lustboy as a support and ambition expands his champion pool
NaJin White Shield: pretty happy with their improvement but they are not a championship team until nofe stops being chinese and zefa stops being inconsistent
NaJin Black Sword: they looked good at worlds but they haven't had any quality practice until recently, and they looked mediocre in WCG qualifiers (though it's clear that no team really wants to go to WCG other than samsung blue given the sacrifice of quality practice)
qualified teams:
Samsung Galaxy Blue: watch these guys, they demolished skt t1 (albeit an skt t1 that wasn't trying too hard) and wonseok has improved so much in mid lane. deft meshes with his new support chunyang a lot better than he did with flahm
Jin Air Stealths: i'd put these guys on shield's level at the moment, which is to say 'pretty good' but once again, inconsistency
LG-IM #2: they looked good last season but they've fallen off the radar recently, didn't play much good opposition in the qualifiers so who knows how they'll do
Must Study Hard, Team NB and Virtual Throne Gaming Raon: finally in champions, they're a solid bunch of rookies but they won't win champions