Three days in and both wild-card region teams, Brazil's INTZ and CIS' Albus Nox Luna, have wins in the first week of the group stage and are in contention to get out of their groups. ANX put a fright into South Korean champion ROX Tigers on opening night by winning the early game before falling off at the end, but nothing would stop it in its second match against North America's Counter Logic Gaming. ANX dissected a team known for its map play, and gave CLG its third loss to a wild-card team in the past year.
ESPN caught up with ANX's outspoken star support Kirill "Likkrit" Malofeev immediately after his team's first win of the competition.
"Thing is, CLG dropping game to wild-card team is nothing special," he said. "They actually had a chance of beating us, but Counter Logic Gaming is counter [logic] so you can't expect them to do the things we expect them to."
So far in this tournament, Likkrit's signature Brand has been diligently banned out the first two games, forcing him on different champions. Two games in and a victory already secured, he doesn't mind the attention he's getting from opposing clubs.
"It's all right because when you ban a champion, you ban it not only for your opponents but for you as well," he said. "It just shows that no one is ready to play Brand at Worlds at the moment except for me, so they're banning it out fast. It's a really good ban, and I appreciate it -- they respect it. They respect the Brand.
"Everyone has hard groups to play in except for ROX Tigers: They have a pretty easy group," he said. "So, thing is, current EU teams have problems. For H2k, they're really good at laning, but, when laning is over ... [yeah]. When you talk about EU teams, they don't have an opportunity to play versus better opponents than they are in their region. EU was always strong because of solo queue because it was the No. 2 solo queue in the world, but after all the changes Riot implemented it became like all other solo queues, except Korea. That's it."
Could Albus Nox Luna contend in the EU LCS if given the chance?
"Sure we would. The strongest opponents we've ever played with were low-tier LCS teams, so we didn't have an opportunity to improve because we [need] to play against stronger opponents," he said. "When we were preparing for Worlds, we were playing with low-tier Challenger series teams or Spanish teams -- no offense to them, but it's not top of EU LCS level. So in LCS, you have opportunities. In Russia, you don't. [We've been] the best team in Russia for two years. We haven't lost any single tournament [there]. So what can I say? In the EU LCS, we would [get] better.
"Would we be top three? I have no idea because I've never played in EU LCS. So we'll see."
I then gave Likkrit a list of players to give his opinion:
Forgiven
"GODgiven," he said. "I praise him. At the moment, he's best or second best ADC."
Mata
"Mata is considered by a lot of players to be a god," he said. "He's really good and might be the best support at this tournament."
Gorilla
"Gorilla used to be an inventor of a lot of stuff," he said. "If I remember, he's the guy who [brought back] Janna. I hate Janna."
Could he one day become the best support in the world?
"Yes, I can. When my father asked, 'Can you actually win the World Championship?' I answered him: 'You have to be a Korean.' You need to be a Korean to become the best, you know?," he said. "When you make [amazing] plays in Korea, everyone is hyping you. When you make crazy plays in Russia, no one blinks an eye because no one cares about Russian league.
"Can I? I think I'm physically capable. If I work hard, I'll have an opportunity to play in a region which is actually not wildcard, [and] I'll probably be considered one of the contenders."