Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The 2013 All-Stars Shanghai Overview


This weekend starts the 2013 All-Stars event in Shanghai, China. The All-Stars event allows one team from each region to fight against other regions around the world. The teams will consist of members of that region being voted in by the fans. The regions that are considered are North America, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Korea. Since Southeast Asia’s powerhouse team, Taipei Assassins, won the Season two Championships, Southeast Asia get a free entry into Round 2. The winners of the grand final of the All-Stars event will secure a spot into the Season 3 World Championships as a Bye position. With the matches being played to the best of three, the first round will also be a double-elimination. The event will also be played on the Frejlord patch, with Lissandra, Trundle, and Sejuani disabled.

For the first two days of the All-Stars event,  matches will start late at night for North America, which will be 10 PM PDT and 1 AM EDT and won’t end until roughly seven hours later. The final day of the event will start at 7 PM PDT and 10 PM EDT and end roughly eight hours later again since the Grand Finals will start at 12 AM PDT and 3 AM EDT.

The format of the brackets is considered as:

Round 1
North America vs China
Europe vs Korea
(Losers bracket of the Round 1)

Round 2
Southeast Asia will face whoever wins North America vs China
Europe or Korea will face whoever wins the Losers bracket of Round 1.

Round 3
The winners of Round 2 will face off in the Grand Finals of Round 3.


At the end of April ended the final All-Stars roster voting with China counting their votes. Being the first to know, North America and Europe received their votes in the middle of April, while Southeast Asia and Korea received them a week later. Here are the rosters for the All-Stars teams.

North America

Top: Dyrus
Jungle: Saintvicious
Mid: Scarra
AD Carry: Doublelift
Support: Xpecial
Coach: Liquid112

Most of us know that Dyrus is one of the most solid Top laners next to Voyboy in North America. Known for his awesome Shen, Singed, and Rumble play, Dyrus makes a perfect fit for North America. Even though Saintvicious is known most for missing his Smite and “confirming” stuff on his stream, Saintvicious has a wide knowledge of the Jungle and hopes to give the power needed to exceed with his amazing calls as the shot caller for North America. Scarra is best known for his informative streams and his amazing Diana, Katarina, and Gragas plays. Doubelift claims he is the best AD Carry mechanically and we’ll get to see it during their Round 1 match against China. Xpecial is best known for his Crescendos on Sona and is not scared to play an amazing Thresh during games. With team Curse’s manager, Liquid112, to coach the North American team, we shouldn’t underestimate North America in the All-Stars games.

Europe

Top: sOAZ
Jungle: Diamondprox
Mid: Alex Ich
AD Carry: Yellowpete
Support:  Edward
Coach: hxd

The French man himself, sOAZ from team Fnatic, won the spot to represent Europe for top lane as him and Evil Geniuses’ Wickd played out a 1v1 Top Lane match. sOAZ is best known for his amazing bruiser pool, like Jayce, Kha’Zix, and Zed, and his smart split-pushing tactics during the Spring LCS. The powerhouse team, Gambit Gaming, got its chance to send three of its members to the All-Stars roster. With some people saying he’s one of the best Junglers in the world, next to Korea’s InSec, Diamondprox will represent the European All-Stars as their Jungler. Bringing unusual champions to the Mid-lane, like Zilean and AP Master Yi, Alex Ich represents the Mid-lane for the All-Stars. In a bruiser-styled metagame, we’ll hope to see perfect double-bruiser team compositions from the European team between sOAZ and Alex Ich. On AD Carry for Evil Geniuses’, Yellowpete gets to compete for the chance of bringing Europe one step closer to the winners of the Season 3 World Championships. Yellowpete is best known for his Kog’Maw and Varus plays. The Thresh Prince himself, Edward from Gambit Gaming, is taking the spot as Europe’s Support. Edward can be very aggressive as a Support player and even considers himself as a “Support-Carry”. With Fnatic’s coach, hxd, it’s safe to say that the European roster is full of strong picks and we should definitely see them at least in Round 2 if they can beat the Korean team.

Southeast Asia

Top: Stanley
Jungle: HarLeLuYar
Mid: Toyz
AD Carry: Chawy
Support: MiSTakE
Coach: Puffs

Having two members and one previous member of the Season 2 World Champions, Taipei Assassins, on their roster and two members from the Singapore Sentinels, Southeast Asia is definitely one of the strongest rosters for the All-Stars event. In Top lane is Stanley, who is considered one of the best Nidalee players in the world. Stanley’s Jayce is strong and his Shen is even strongerWith HaRleLuYaR’s insane Lee Sin plays, the other regions should be scared if Lee Sin is ever picked. Bringing the most intense Orianna plays to the Season 2 Championship games, Toyz should not be overlooked, especially if given Twisted Fate. Hailing from DoTA2, Chawy will be playing on AD Carry. Chawy is best known for playing his AD Carrys as a Mid-lane plays Mid, with constant harass and always using his spells. Once played as the Support player for Taipei Assassins, and now for Taipei Snipers, MiSTakE can be best known for his Blitz and Janna plays. With Garena coach, Puffs, Southeast Asia should synergize their strengths and make no room to show any weakness if they wish to win the All-Stars event. Southeast Asia also should not let their Round 2 spot underestimate their opponents that win Round 1.

Korea

Top: Shy
Jungle: InSec
Mid: Ambition
AD Carry: PraY
Support: Madlife
Coach: Reach

Probably the most popular region, known for their insane early-game plays and cheesing, Korea is definitely a force to reckon with. Giving the highest plays with Singed, Jax, and Rumble, Shy is a tough Top-laner. Between himself and Diamondprox, InSec is classified as one of the best Junglers in the world. InSec brought Zed to the Jungle table and has almost perfect mechanics with Lee Sin. Considered as one of the most consistent Mid-laners, Ambition brings great Ryze, Orianna, and Diana plays to team compositions. With a narrow spot for the best AD Carry between many fans, next to Doublelift and WeiXiao, PraY’s mechanics can achieve an early First Blood with the help of his Support, Madlife. Madlife is known for his absolutely amazing and almost perfect Blitzcrank and Thresh plays. With a wide aggressive Support pool, Madlife is definitely one of the deciding factors on what other regions need to pick and ban if they wish to shutdown Korea. As a Starcraft: Brood War retired Pro player, coach for NaJin e-mFire, and now the coach of the Korean All-Stars team, Reach will definitely give Korea the chance they need to reach the Grand Finals.

China

Top: PDD
Jungle: Troll
Mid: Misaya
AD Carry: WeiXiao
Support: XiaoXiao
Coach: Aaron

Much like Europe’s All-Star roster, China also had the chance to get three members of a single team, team World Elite. But first, coming from Invictus Gaming, Top laner PDD is one of the highest ranking players on the Chinese server. PDD’s consistencies are sure to stick with him as he enters Round 1 against North America’s Dyrus. Known previously as ClearLove, Team World Elite's Troll can also bring Lee Sin to the table like the rest of the Asian All-Star Junglers. With Nocturne getting popular, we might see Troll play Nocturne in a composition or two. If there was a player that could bring more global pressure to a team, it’s definitely Misaya with his Twisted Fate. If China can secure Shen, Nocturne, and Twisted Fate in the same composition, it may be bad news for North America and possibly Southeast Asia in the first two rounds. Reaching number one of the Korean leaderboards, WeiXiao is going to be tough to beat; especially since Blue Ezreal now exists and Vayne is still a solid pick. WeiXiao gets the opportunity to be supported by XiaoXiao, a wonderful Sona and Lulu player. Not only are three members of team World Elite on China’s roster, but so is their coach, Aaron. Aaron will create opportunities that the China All-Stars team will need if they wish to secure the region’s spot into the Season 3 World Championship.