The League of Legends S15 World Championship knockout stage has started. On the last match day, two leading LCK favorites clashed in a domestic showdown. GEN and HLE battled through four games, with GEN reaching the semifinals and HLE sadly knocked out at the quarterfinals. Despite the anticipated outcome, HLE’s in-game performance was strong. Peanut and Viper maintained high levels throughout, and with stronger team support, victory was possible.

Viper completely burned out in this best-of-five series. Across four games, he nearly made zero mistakes, accumulating a scoreline of 28-8-24, boasting a KDA of 6.25, averaging 1114 damage per minute, with a damage share of 39.9%, and a damage conversion rate of 240%. Judging by his lane stats and overall performance, he outshined Rascal. Peanut also gave his all, keeping the pace high and aggressively contesting dragons, but unfortunately, the top, mid, and support lanes were underperforming.

Zeka played nearly 60 minutes on Kassadin but ended the match with only 31,000 damage. It's important to note that in this patch, Kassadin’s late-game damage is usually off the charts. In team fights, with his shield active, standing and dealing damage is enough to secure wins, but he had to dive in to push enemies. HLE lost to GEN, and the mid lane really took the blame. However, Zeus on the top lane wasn’t blameless either; he was solo killed by Nidalee within 2 minutes, was 0-3 at 9 minutes, was slow to assist in team fights, and had questionable ultimate accuracy.

In the deciding game, HLE was already committed to protecting Viper. They just needed a top laner who could survive lane and be useful in team fights to drag the game into the late phase where HLE could win. However, after picking Ornn, Zeus let his teammates lock in Senna, a lane opponent meant to gain an advantage. Zeus even sacrificed himself by roaming mid to help but was pressured heavily by Kiin’s Qiyana, taking over 20 hits and unable to farm properly after switching lanes.

If Zeus had played Ornn in the fourth game, team fights would have been a nightmare for the opponents. Ornn’s ultimate combined with Rell’s engage and the rabbit assassin diving the backline would have made it hard for Chovy’s Azir to survive. The choice of Senna was even proposed by Zeus himself. In a post-match interview, he took responsibility, saying he picked Camille because he believed that champion had an advantage against long-range heroes like Nidalee and Azir, and the team needed that type of hero.

Learning E at level one to roam and assist mid, Zeka played Kassadin for 60 minutes but only dealt around 30,000 damage. Didn’t Zeus notice that Zeka was performing poorly? When the team most needed the top laner to play tanky and stand firm, Zeus picked a fighter, then ran off to help teammates, effectively ruining himself. It seems the two mid and top brothers really didn’t want Peanut to fulfill his dream of winning a championship in his final dance.

After this match, Peanut officially bid farewell to the professional scene. The last of ROX’s five tigers has lost its final fang. Next year, HLE will likely undergo a roster rebuild. If Zeka stays, it’s recommended that Viper leave quickly. KT might be a good option, as BDD is honestly much stronger than Zeka, and KT needs a top-tier AD carry to help relieve some pressure from BDD’s damage output.

If that doesn’t work out, joining the LPL is also an option. With Faker retiring next year and BLG likely to disband, many top teams would be interested in a player of Viper’s caliber. As for Zeus, leaving T1 seems like a lose-lose situation. If T1 also fails to achieve good results at Worlds this year, he might as well humble himself, reconcile with T1, and return home, since his playstyle doesn’t really fit other teams.

Conclusion:

If HLE’s only problem was a weak mid lane, they might still have had a chance. But unexpectedly, Zeus also underperformed, being completely dominated by Kiin. The title of the best top laner in the world should now go to Kiin. Apart from some inconsistency from the jungler Clid, GEN shows almost no weaknesses. It feels very likely that GEN will be the world champions this year.

If the mid laners swapped teams, do you think HLE could have won?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!