Worlds 2024 Power Rankings

Worlds 2024 will start this Wednesday. As the very best teams in the world will be facing each other for the most prestigious League of Legends trophy, Sheep Esports reporters have ranked together the teams we expect to be the strongest. Sorry for those who wanted us to stick to leaks...

This take would've been a no brainer without their loss on game five, during LCK Summer final. And that is precisely why Gen.G are our favorites to win it all. Indeed, it would not be relevant to base our power ranking on a single game five loss. All over the year, the Tigers dominated and even during whole summer except finals. Starting in Spring, the team only lost one match of the entire split (against KT Rolster, 0-2 on Week 4) before lifting the cup. Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon and his team mates kept their momentum at MSI where the midlaner won its first international trophy.

They even ended the tournament undefeated. Soon after, during Summer Split, the Tigers broke the all-time record of invincibility on series matches with 24 consecutive wins. LCK Summer was looking like a remake of Spring since they only lost to KT Rolster again, on week 8, but since the team failed in Grand Final against HLE (2-3), they ended the split on a sour note. Even though Gen.G is known for choking when it comes to Worlds - as they were also among the clear favorites in the last two editions - this year the team benefits from a World champion's Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu buff on the international stage, as they already broke the curse at MSI partly thanks to it.

Last year it was their launching program but in 2024, Bilibili has just taken over the Chinese league. The LPL first seed came even close three times to taking over the international stage, no doubt they will at least come close to own this edition of Worlds. If BLG has nothing left to prove domestically, the organization is still looking to open its track record internationally. Actually, every player is looking to finally win their first Worlds trophy as they're the only team from China/Korea participating without any Worlds champion. But still, they're the worldwide team coming in with the best shape after Summer, since they didn't just crush the entire split as Gen.G did, they also crushed playoffs, all the way onto lifting the trophy in the end.

With two of the very best solo laners in the world, BLG 3-0'ed twice Weibo Gaming and won with only a little fright, 3-1 against Top Esports. The Chinese first seed little change in the roster seemed to work the right way, since just before the playoffs, they decided to recruit Yan "Wei" Yangwei as their starting jungler and relegate Peng "XUN" Lixun as a sub. We shall if this move will enable them further than regionally as the former RNG player and double MSI champion is undoubtedly more experienced against Korean teams...

Hanwha finally came to Life this summer. Indeed, the team will be representing LCK as the league's first seed this year. After a thrilling Best-of-Five that went all the way into the last game against Gen.G, HLE finally won on silver scrapes. The org, Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo and Park "Viper" Do-hyeon finally got to lift their first LCK trophy and with it, naturally, will carry their region's hope for the Worlds to come.

If the AD Carry already did it - with EDG in 2021 - this is a brand new status for the midlaner who won it with DRX as a clear underdog in 2022. But he already proved it: when Zeka has its momentum going, there's no stopping him whoever stands in his way. Oh, and Yone will be meta, a godsend for the LCK's Summer Final MVP... With the other three players formerly playing with Chovy in Gen.G, no doubt they will try to prove once again that they were not the problem, by winning the trophy that eluded them all so many times.

Obviously, offering the 4th spot in our Power Rankings to T1 may seem incongruous given the team's recent performances. Lee “Faker” Sang-heyok and his team showed major shortcomings during the LCK Summer Split playoffs, losing heavily twice to HLE (3-0 then 3-1) and finishing “only” third. The team also came close to missing out on this year's competition, securing their ticket to Europe in extremis. Beaten by Dplus KIA in the Upper Bracket of the Regional Finals, T1 needed five games to defeat KT Rolster in the match that qualified the winner and eliminated the loser.

Individually, some players appeared to be under-performing. Faker, in particular, seemed outmatched by his direct rivals in his home league. Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, a contender for the title of world's best player in recent years, has also faded in recent months. The problem is that T1 is T1. The most successful team in the competition, the one that always wakes up when they enter the Rift to play Worlds. This ability to transcend themselves cannot be ignored in our Power Ranking. In fact, the collective found itself in a very similar situation to last year: with the same roster in 2023, T1 had already struggled to qualify and arrived without the favourite label. And yet, remember who ended up lifting the trophy... They just like those odds.

Since 2021, Top Esports have been facing a rather annoying problem: the team struggles to deliver when it matters the most. The 2024 LPL season once again reinforced this unfortunate pattern. At first, TES played at an excellent level, comparable to Bilibili Gaming. Gao “Tian” Tianliang pulled off one of the best splits of his career this summer and was named MVP of the regular season. Tian “Meiko” Ye was one of the league's – perhaps even worldwide - best supports this season. But just like in the last two years , TES failed to capture the title. Top Esports finished 2nd in Spring, then, more importantly, only 3rd in Summer.

This reputation of chokers, which sticks to the skin of the team, of Tian, but also of Wenbo “JackeyLove” Yu, plays a significant role in determining where to place TES in our ranking. The team has displayed two contrasting performances at recent international events. A very bad one at the MSI, when TES was crushed 0-3 by G2 Esports. And a much better one at the Esports World Cup, when the Chinese put an end to Gen.G's unbeaten run, before taking their revenge on the Samurais. TES are fifth in our rankings, but they could just as easily be eliminated in the Swiss Stage or accomplish the complete opposite, and win the tournament.

Year after year, the West's best hope at international events continues to be the same: G2 Esports. Nearly unbeatable in the LEC since 2022, the Samurai have pushed their dominance to the maximum this season. G2 completed the Grand Slam on the Old Continent by winning every possible title: all three splits plus the Season Finals. While Rasmus “Caps” Winther once again showed his edge over his local rivals on the midlane, it was probably Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik who shone the brightest this season. On the toplane, “BB” showed impressive consistency, even when he found himself on the weakside.

On the international scene, this iteration of the G2 roster - unchanged this year - has yet to prove itself. The King of Europe was pitifully eliminated from the Swiss Stage at Worlds 2023, before managed a partial comeback at MSI. Despite losing their first encounter with T1, G2 delivered a convincing performance and then crushed Top Esports in the Loser Bracket. But they were then swept aside and eliminated by the reigning world champions in the rematch, before losing a few months later to TES in the Esports World Cup. The scrims champions will therefore have to raise their game to become world champions, or at least restore a little hope to the region.

After last year's loss in quarter finals against the Worlds champion T1, Li-Ning Gaming kept going with the same roster and only replaced Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong with Wei "Weiwei" Bohan for 2024. Despite the disappointing result of Spring (seventh-eighth), LNG kept hoping and eventually reached the upper bracket of playoffs with their second place finish in the Summer's Rumble Stage, losing only one game. Still, their hope didn't last too long with Top Esports sweeping them (3-0) followed by their 3-2 loss against Weibo Gaming.

If it could seem like the 3-0 against T1 from last year completely traumatized them, since they have not been able to win a single BO5 in the entire year, LNG finally awoken when it mattered the most. Indeed, the team just swept out of nowhere the summer runner-up, WBG, in Regional Finals. That recovery is enough to place LNG that high, since the team's individuals skills are already obvious with players like Gala, Scout or Zika that are aknowledged among the best at their respective roles. All they needed was that small confidence boost.

The LPL's surprise strikes again. Indeed, as last year, the team barely made it to Worlds by qualifying with a second place finish during the Regional Finals. Weibo was even more on the edge than last year, since this time they faced Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk's JDG and went all the way to five games to be finally recognized as LPL's fourth seed. Five games, it also has been their mojo all summer playoffs long. Tarzan and Co indeed completed their lower bracket run by defeating LNG and TES, both on silver scrapes.

However, the step was too high as they got crushed by BLG in the final but the team's run was still one for the books, as WBG eventually became LPL Summer Split 2024's runner-up this summer, thanks to that momentum. As they already created surprise last year, by making it to Worlds Grand Final, all they lack is a last breathe when it matters the most, since Chen "Breathe" Chen doesn't seems to be enough. If Light and Tarzan were outstanding recently, the team can also count on the veteran Xiaohu, still looking for his only missing trophy, But this team really seems capable of the better and the worse, up to them to show their best shape this time again.

Eventhough Dplus KIA are LCK's third seed, they're the last asian major team of our ranking. Indeed, unlike Weibo or T1, Dplus are not a team known for upsets and they also are the only team from LCK/LPL with a rookie among their ranks, and they have two. Choi "Lucid" Yong-hyeok and Jeong "Moham" Jae-hun come out of their first year in the Korean league, and eventhough they did great - the jungler was named Rookie of The Year - this lack of experience can be difficult to overcome while facing high pressure in the prestigious tournament.

Still, the team can count on two Worlds champions to guide them: Heo "ShowMaker" Su and Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon. Kim "Aiming" Ha-ram also looks like he is on his prime and could be a big source of motivation for his young support. Obviously, it is common knowledge that the franchise player of the team will not accept to play a minor role in the tournament, as he should be frustrated after failing for the first time in his career to reach Worlds' playoffs last year. Let the Show begin.

The LCS first... wait, they left winnions destroy their Nexus in Grand final? Well, the LCS second seed should've learn from their mistakes. Despite that unfortunate episode, Team Liquid dominated North America all year long. And unlike the recent years, LCS was good looking. At MSI and EWC, the team anihilated Fnatic which has been Europe runner-up all year long. If they don't look as sharp as G2 yet, they're without a doubt the closest Western team to them over the course of 2024. They also sent good signals during MSI by delivering a good battle against T1 on game 2 of their BO5, and then winning game 3.

That confidence boost allowed them to come back in summer and completely own their region during group stage, going undefeated (7-0). Even if FlyQuest was the only team to contest their dominance in playoffs, firstly by pushing them into game five and then, by winning the trophy in the grand final, Liquid have just been better overall in 2024, especially pushed by their Worlds champion Jeong "Impact" Eon-young, that eventually was named MVP of the Summer Split. The only question mark of the team belongs to Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon. The jungler still has to prove that he can be a reliable and consistant advantage for his teammates, as he hasn't always been a gift to them.