Whenever you bet on a team, you want a team that gives you reliable results and good monetary flow. They need to fit at least one form of esports betting and be able to dominate the competition in one way or another.
In League of Legends, teams that dominate focus on several aspects of the game: gold control, map presence, team fight dominance, and lane pressure. These aspects win money for the bettors, and in 2019, there are going to be teams that are masters of this game style.
This list will encompass five of the best teams from all over the world. The regions I’ll be focusing on mainly are North America, Europe West—now known as the LEC—Korea, and China. I’ll be grading each of these teams on four things.
When I composed this list, I considered how well they can keep their gold flow going, their map presence throughout the game, the players they encompass, and the pressure they bring in early and late game. The teams that do this the best are the ones that deserve to be on this list. I’ll give you a breakdown of the teams, players, and some of their strengths here.
Despite their regional differences, each of these teams has one thing in common. They’re the top betting prospects for 2019.
Rogue is one of the new teams coming into a refranchised European competitive scene, and they’re going to pack a punch. Their mission was to create a team that will have competitive depth and presence, and they met those prerequisites.
They currently hold five major players in their roster: Profit, Kikis, Sencux, HeaQ, and Wadid. All five of these players are extremely strong in their own sense, and combined together, their results are projected to be high.
Profit is a Korean top laner fresh off of his time with ROCCAT, and all you need to look at to prove his worth are his results. He isn’t a one-trick pony and can range from playing tanks to switching to carries. Furthermore, his time on teams such as Ninjas in Pyjamas and SKT make him a top laner with a formidable amount of experience on the field.
Kikis’ jungle experience goes back to 2013, playing for Team ROCCAT, G2 Esports, and Team Vitality. He doesn’t really stick to one meta but plays several different champions, no matter how unorthodox. This unpredictability can give Rogue an edge over other teams that go by textbook plays.
Their mid laner, Snecux, is a European star of incredible experience. Having played for several World Championship qualifiers—such as Splyce and Misfits Gaming—Sencux’s knowledge of the game alongside the mechanics that have helped him become a top-three player will easily boost Rogue to a top contending team.
Finally, their bot lane duo needs no introduction. Both HeaQ and Wadid played on Team ROCCAT, and they’ll be starting together on Rogue. Wadid is a world-class support who made big moves for G2 Esports with his Tahm Kench and Braum.
Meanwhile, HeaQ, despite his underdog status, brings a whole skill set that will be dangerous to the newly formed LEC franchise. He likes to switch between mages and AD carries, giving him a diverse champion pool. Along with that, he’s deadly on Caitlyn, giving him an edge over other AD carries in the late game.
The synergy between these players should match up, and this will give them dominant control over all phases of the game. Sencux is the perfect mid laner for the mid to late game, while Wadid and HeaQ will be the firepower for all phases.
Furthermore, with Kikis and Profit holding down the front lines, their team fight presence is also extremely high. Overall, this team has the potential to be extremely strong. Will they be able to match the usual powerhouses of the LEC such as Misfits Gaming and Fnatic? We’ll have to wait and see.
But with the roster that they currently have, they’re going to have a top-six finish. Plus, with their new status in the LEC, you’re definitely going to want to put your money on this team because any win will give twice the reward.
Since their arrival into the NA LCS, 100 Thieves has been a top-three team in North America. They have a consistently strong roster and some of the best work ethic and talent we’ve seen. And when you combine work ethic with talent, you can create an unstoppable force.
This is what 100 Thieves is aspiring to do. They want to create a team that is strong on all fields and provides consistent results for their fans and bettors. With the acquisition of two-time World Champion and former SK Telecom 1 AD carry, Bang, this might very well be possible.
100 Thieves already had an extremely stacked roster in the 2018 season. They had Ssumday in the top lane, AnDa in the jungle, Ryu in the mid lane, and Cody Sun and aphromoo in the bot lane. Despite Cody Sun and Ryu’s departures, 100 Thieves is on track to be an even stronger team next year.
And it’s all thanks to a few picks they’ve received. During the offseason, they notched themselves two Korean carries—Bang and Huhi. Huhi was a major player for Counter Logic’s Spring Split run in 2016, taking down Team SoloMid’s roster in a nail-biting 3-2 win that left CLG with a trophy.
His ability to play the late game near perfectly and work around the strong players in the early to mid game makes him a very flexible player that can be depended on at all stages of the game. Furthermore, mishaps from the enemy team can usually result in a free kill for Bang since his in-game knowledge is just as good as Faker’s.
With two Korean stars now on the roster and a diehard owner ready to back them, I don’t see why 100 Thieves won’t be going deep into this year’s season.
Throughout the years, Fnatic and G2 Esports have contended for the one spot at the EU LCS—now refranchised into the LEC. But with the arrival of Misfits Gaming, the dominance may have shifted to only one team.
Their first year into the EU LCS, Misfits Gaming managed to qualify for the World Championship in their first run ever. They had an extremely strong team that consisted of names like Alphari, PowerOfEvil, Maxlore, and the AD carry that led them all, Hans Sama.
This team also managed to make it through to the Knockout Rounds, where they made history by being the first rookie EU LCS team to ever go five sets with a former World Championship team, a.k.a SK Telecom 1.
Each player on that team showed what European dominance was. They controlled the map early, and they held onto the momentum in the late game. It was only thanks to SK Telecom’s Bang that SKT was barely able to edge over a gold deficit and near defeat to take them down.
But now, with only two of the original five players remaining on the roster, it seems like Misfits Gaming’s time is over, right? Wrong. This year could be the year that Misfits Gaming wins Europe a second World Championship title.
Over the offseason, MG acquired some of the biggest names in esports, both in Europe and internationally. They managed to grab Febiven, a former EU LCS mid laner for Fnatic who nearly took FNC to the finals of the 2015 World Championships.
Alongside this pick, they also signed sOAZ, another former Fnatic mid laner who was teammate to Febiven in FNC’s glory days. But their biggest grab of all was GorillA, a world-class support whose legacy would have far extended past its current status had it not been for SKT.
GorillA has taken almost every single major team to the World Championship, his most recent being Longzhu Gaming—now rebranded to Kingzone DragonX. He holds some of the best mechanics known to supports around the world, and his selflessness and map presence make him equally dominating in the teamfights and the roaming phase of the game.
They’re filling three of the spots with newer and stronger players that will provide high return in the later future. One of the things that Misfits Gaming does so well is that they exert strong map pressure that returns well for the later stages of the game.
With the new group of players coming in, this playstyle should be even stronger later on. After all, Misfits Gaming’s GorillA was known for his strong roaming potential and team fights. Febiven is a mid laner that can snowball even one kill.
Therefore, combine GorillA’s roaming potential with Febiven’s ability to capitalize on a kill, and you have a duo that can dominate every aspect of the mid game. Furthermore, sOAZ is one of the best front-liners in the game, and he’ll match well with GorillA for the fights.
They have a world-class team, and of the teams going into the newly franchised LEC, I think this team has the best shot at making it to the Mid-Season Invitational.
Last year, Invictus Gaming made history by being the first Chinese team to ever win a World Championship. Now, they’re going into 2019 with the same roster and just as dominant of a mindset. The reason IG was able to win a Championship in the first place was because they knew their worth, and right now, their confidence is at an all-time high.
They have three MVP contenders on their team: their top laner TheShy, mid laner Rookie, and AD carry JackeyLove. These three combine to create an extremely deadly team that even the best of China will struggle to beat.
The best part about it? Not a lot of fans believe in this group of players, making it a dark horse that you can capitalize off of. They’re bound to upset the flow of things and show off just how strong they are. After all, they took out tournament favorite Invictus Gaming and then followed by sweeping out G2 Esports.
Then, in the finals, they swept European powerhouse Fnatic to win the finals. They’re simply unstoppable, and it seems like no team knows this. TheShy’s mechanics are unmatched right now. In fact, it’s safe to say that he’s the current best top laner in the entire world.
He can easily alternate between tanks and carries, but when he’s on a hybrid bruiser/carry like Camille, Irelia, or Aatrox, TheShy can easily take over the game within the first fifteen minutes with little to no help.
Meanwhile, their mid laner, Rookie, went up against some of the best in the game and won. He was able to go head-to-head with RNG’s Xiaohu, who was considered the best mid laner in China at the time, and he certainly held his own against Korean competition, taking down KT Rolster’s Bdd in what seemed like a one-sided performance.
Finally, there’s JackeyLove, an AD carry whose proficiency on a variety of champions has given IG the opportunity to work around different team compositions. And when I say that JackeyLove has a proficiency, I mean he has an extremely strong proficiency for each champion he plays.
In the 2018 LPL Spring Split, JackeyLove only lost one match on Varus out of fourteen, accumulating a 93% win rate on the champion while having several other champions at a near 100%, if not 100%, win rate.
His delicacy and precision on champions like Varus and Kai’sa make for some nice plays in the mid to late game and give Invictus Gaming a cushion to fall back on because if TheShy and Rookie fail to perform, they can always count on JackeyLove to carry them to the finish line.
Don’t sleep on this team. They’ve already started out strong, and they’re keeping the same roster for this year’s Spring Split. If there’s one team you want to keep your eyes on, it’s going to be this Invictus Gaming.
Once known as the best in the world, SKT took a sharp fall after diving into the lower rankings of the Spring and Summer Split. Afterwards, they failed to qualify for Worlds, and their star duo of Wolf and Bang left the team, leaving Faker as the only remaining player from the 2015 deam team.
But SK Telecom made some moves over the offseason, and these moves might prove to make SKT a betting option for the 2019 season. Perhaps their biggest pick was Khan, the star top laner from Kingzone DragonX who single-handedly dismantled SKT in the 2017 Summer Split finals.
Afterwards, they managed to grab Clid, a map-priority jungler, as well as Teddy, a lowkey AD carry whose knack for carrying late game team fights has made him a top pick among most Korean teams. But perhaps their biggest pick was Mata from KT Rolster.
What SKT lacked in the past few years was a solid, consistent lineup with strong support plays to help build up their playmaking ability. While Wolf was a great support to Bang, he could only do so much due to most of his attention going to his AD carry.
With Mata being more of an all-around player, SKT will find that it’s much easier for Mata to take control of the game and dominate wherever needed. Mata is going to be able to use this all-type playstyle to make plays all across the map while keeping Teddy healthy for the mid to late game.
Plus, combine that with Clid’s priority dominance and Khan’s early to mid game carry potential, and you have a perfect team that can rally behind SK Telecom’s main force, Faker. Despite the meta not backing Faker, this Korean veteran is still putting up good stats and leading his team.
He’s going to be the team captain for this year’s run, and he has a lot of talent to work with. If SK Telecom’s synergy can rebuild through the likes of Mata and Clid, then there’s a very good chance that SKT can go back to dominating the LCK like it once did, making this team a viable betting option for you to choose.
The Spring Split is starting up for the League of Legends competitive scene, and you know what that means: plenty of matches. With four major regions and dozens of smaller regions underlying them, there are hundreds of matches to choose from every month and even more teams to bet on.
You can put your money behind newly formed muscle team 100 Thieves or back former North American champions Team Liquid. You can root for the new LEC powerhouse, Misfits Gaming, or go with a traditional backing of Fnatic.
You can support Invictus Gaming, the new face of China, or you can put your trust in Royal Never Give Up, the team that shaped China’s legacy. You can choose to side with the new face of Korean gaming, KT Rolster, or you can go with tradition and choose SK Telecom.
There are so many options to choose from this year, and with so many major moves across the platforms—such as Bang to 100 Thieves and GorillA to Misfits Gaming—there’s no doubt that 2019 will be just as, if not more, action-packed as 2018.
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