League of Legends World Championship picks and predictions: LGD Gaming a strong early favorite

This year’s Worlds should be highly competitive, with dominant teams coming out of the Asian leagues, as usual, but some potential contenders from the West this year as well. After an undefeated European summer split, Fnatic looks to be the first Western team to win it all since it accomplished the feat back in 2011 at the first Worlds. Meanwhile, from North America, Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid look to continue strong finishes in the summer, while Cloud9 hopes to continue the magic that got it here in the first place.

We decided to compile all those picks from various experts for you, including our own picks for the group stages. Remember: the tournament starts as a double round-robin, meaning each team plays every other team in its group twice. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stages.

KOO Tigers are strong favorites in Group A, earning the No. 1 spot on 16 out of 21 ballots. CLG comes in as a solid No. 2, earning the other five No. 1 votes. Brazilian qualifiers paIN Gaming finds itself at the bottom of most ballots, but Brazilian announcers GSTV1 and Melao13 both predict a second-place finish.

Group B is the only pool with three different teams receiving first-place picks. Fnatic has the majority, with 12 out of 21, but Invictus is right behind with seven. The other two belong to ahq e-Sports Club, and even Cloud9 got some third-place picks!

Like the KOO Tigers in Group A, SKTelecom T1 received 16 first-place picks out of 21. Edward Gaming received the other five (like Counter Logic Gaming), but this is the only group with the same two teams on the top two spots of every ballot.

LGD is the only unanimous No. 1 in the field, and the Chinese playoff champions seem as strong a favorite as any to win it all. As for who advances with them out of Group D, each of the other three squads have all been picked by at least one expert.