In this post, we will try to predict how things could unfold this weekend, but those familiar with the European League of Legends scene will understand that a lot of surprises are to be expected this weekend.

Group A:

Fnatic:

We all expect Fnatic to go through, they were the winners at Season 1 and everyone surely wants to see them at Season 3. During Season 2 things didn’t work out exactly as planned for Fnatic, facing the departure of long standing members Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak, Peter "Mellisan" Meisrimel and Manuel "LamiaZealot" Mildenberger. After the departure of said players and the acquisition of new ones, Fnatic seemed to finally reach their top form once again by the end of last year, where they managed to claim 1^st place at Dreamhack Winter, as well as 2^nd place finishes at IGN Pro League 5 and Intel Extreme Masters Season 7 Cologne. A lot of people attributed this success to their young ADC Martin "Rekkles" Larsson, but unfortunately for Fnatic, Martin is too young to participate in Season 3, meaning the team had to look for a suitable replacement before the offline qualifiers came around. The chosen one was no stranger to the scene, having played for aAa and SK Gaming in the past Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim seemed like a suitable replacement. The time to test the new lineup came at Intel Extreme Masters Season 7 Katowice, held last week and where Fnatic managed to show some great performances to secure a 3^rd/4^th place. All in all, it is going to come down to how good the team can coordinate, but if we see them play as they have done in this past couple of months, they sould be the clear favorites to advance in 1^st place.

Giants Gaming:

What can be said about the Spaniards, they surely are the best team within the country, and one of the top tier 2 teams in the whole EUW server. They have been training hard for this, scrimming with good results against the top teams around the continent, and ending their practice with a 3 day bootcamp in Madrid. The main problem for the team is their own lack of consistency, sometimes they play great, and when that happens they can beat anyone, but other times they can just play like if it was the first time they are playing together. Their chances of qualifying will also rely heavily on the performance of their Solo Top player Samuel "Samux" Fernández, who will have to show some great plays if he wants to see his team going through. Another key aspect will be how good their temporary ADC Ángel "BLITX" Ionesi can perform during the qualifier, because even though he played for them during the last Dreamhack Winter event, he doesn’t have as much experience as his teammates.

Team Alternate:

If we are to judge by lineups, one could say Team Alternate surely has a big chance of securing the 2^nd spot in the group, they have a lot of inspanidual skill and very experienced players in their roster. Unfortunately for them, they have underperformed drastically during the last months, never achieving the results that everyone hoped they would achieve. Whether Team Alternate can advance from the group or not, will greatly depend on the performance of their AP Mid player Carl "ForellenLord" Lückmann, who during Season 2 had an ELO peak of 3000, thus earning himself the status of solo-q hero. The team will also depend on the plays orchestrated by their experienced jungler Alvar "Araneae" Martin, who surely has the offline experience, having played for teams like SK Gaming and Natus Vincere in the past.

Anexis eSports:

Last but not least we have the old ‘Kiedyś Miałem Team’, who was not so long ago picked up by German eSports organization Anexis. The team hasas many chances as Giants or Team Alternate to qualify, they have the experience, and they surely have the talent. The team has been present at various online events, but we haven’t seen much of them at offline events, as even though they qualified for some offline events like Intel Extreme Masters Season 7 Singapore, they never actually made it to the live event. During their online performances, their Jungle player Remigiusz "Overpow" Pusch has shown he will be a key aspect to their chances of qualifying. He plays some really good Cho Gath in the jungle, and seeing the recent trend of high health champions, Cho Gath could very well be a top pick for him. A lot of their chances will also come down to the performance of their bottom lane with their ADC Krzysztof "ArQuel" Sauć and their fairly new Support Mateusz "eRot1c" Kurdasiński.

Final Group A Predictions:

If all goes as expected Fnatic should qualify in first place, and considering Team Alternate has underachieved in the last months, the second place will go to Giants or Anexis.

Group B:

Curse.eu/LoLPro:

Even though they are the fan favorites to make it out in the top spot of this group, the truth is they have had quite a big lineup change and they haven’t played any official matches recently for us to fairly judge their chances. Only 2 players remain from the original roster, and those are their jungler Tobias "Malunoo" Magnusson and their AP Mid player Vytautas "extinkt" Melinauskas. Ultimately, it will probably come down to whether these 2 players and their new ADC player Algirdas "Sleper" Saliamonas can carry the team to victory or not, as their other 2 additions are nowhere as experienced as these 3. If what we at MYM have heard from different sources is true, this team could very well be the disappointment of the event. Still, no one should count them out as they surely have a talented roster and the motivation to make it to Season 3.

Team Acer:

Even though they have had an stable roster for quite some time now, I still think Team Acer should be considered the underdogs in this group. Sure, they have the teamwork, and sure they have some talented players, but at the end of the day I don’t think they have enough raw talent to compete with that of other teams in this group. Maybe if they had been placed in Group C I would be writing something else. Still, if im proven wrong and Team Acer does indeed make it out of the group, it will surely be thanks to their powerful AP Mid player Victor "Citizen Wayne" Toll, who can be considered as the star of the team, and also the one with the biggest offline experience of them all.

Millenium:

Easily the favorites to take the 1^st place in this group, as well as one of the 5 spots at Season 3. What can I say about this team, they have such a talented roster all the way from the top lane down to the bot lane, passing by mid lane and the jungle. It is really hard to pick a key member here, as they are all in an insanely high skill level. The only thing I can see stopping Millenium from flat out stomping this group is their Top Laner Aurimas "Angush" Gedvilas, not because he doesn’t have the skill, but because he has been underperforming in recent times. Surely if Aurimas can connect his A game, Millenium will make it out of this group.

DragonBorns:

Probably one of the fan favorites in this group thanks to having Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak in their roster. Truth be told, Maciej is light years away from the stunning performances he put up during Season 1 and which rocketed him to fame, but he is still a force to be reckoned with in the Mid lane and if we see him play Gragas we will surely be in for a delight. That said I believe DragonBorns has a high chance of making out of this group, but it will greatly depend on how well their Jungler Ram "Brokenshard" Djemal can perform. If the people we have talked to within the professional scene are to be trusted, DragonBurns will surprise in this group taking 2^nd place.

Final Group B Predictions:

First place will go to Millenium unless something goes terribly wrong. 2^nd place is harder to predict, but will most likely go to either DragonBurns or LoLPro. I don’t have many expectations for Team Acer, but they could very well surprise.

Group C:

Copenhagen Wolves:

Copenhagen Wolves are the clear favorites to win this group, but they could very well see themselves surprised in the blink of an eye. There are a couple of factors to consider; first and foremost, their star player Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg is unable to play in the qualifiers due to the age restrictions, and will therefore be replaced by Viktor "cowTard" Stymne, who is a very good player but not up to the standard of Søren.  The second factor also has to do with lineup changes, this time affecting the support role within the team as just on January 16^th their Support player Christian "XL Winner" Andersen announced that he would be leaving the team, thus forcing the team to bring in their LoL manager Martin "Deficio" Lynge as the new support for the team. All in all, Copenhagen Wolves can still be considered as the favorites for the group, but they will surely have to battle harder after these roster changes.

The Mighty Midgets:

Judging by some of the names on this roster, they should be able to claim at least the 2^nd place of this group. The team is probably unknown for many, even though they had a brief period within the famous German organization Mousesports back in December. The star player in the team is without a glimpse of a doubt their AP Mid player Amaury "Moopz" Minguerche. Amaury is the most experienced player in the roster, having played for the likes of Sypher and Millenium in the past. He also achieved the MVP award at Gamers Assembly last year while playing for Sypher, in a tournament his team finished in 1^st place over the likes of AbsoluteLegends and CLG.eu. All in all, if Amaury can perform well I have no doubts his team will make it out of this group

TCM Gaming:

I don’t have much to say about this team, as they are pretty unknown to a lot of us. As such, I would say this team can be considered as the underdogs of this Group, and could very well end up taking on of the spots granting access to the playoffs. They have just been picked up by the UK based organization TCM Gaming, which means we should probably give them some credit. The fact that they are unknown and the fact that they just signed a new deal with TCM can both surely play in their favor.

aAa:

One of the only teams I would almost discard completely for the chance at qualifying for Season 3. The roster is nowhere near the level of the one which achieved a 2^nd place  in Season 1, and when you add to that the fact that their jungler and one of the most experienced players on the team, Damien "Linak" Lorthios just got banned, their chances become almost non-existent. If they manage to surprise, it will surely be thanks to their AP Mid player Tony "ShLaYa" Carmona, who is the most experienced player on the roster following the bane of Linak. Their Top Lane player Simon "fredy122" Payne could also pleasantly surprise many. Only thing going in favor of aAa is the fact that they have been bootcamping prior to this event.

Final Group C Predictions:

My money is clearly on Copenhagen Wolves and The Mighty Midgets to advance from this group. I think The Mighty Midget can very well take first place, while Wolves may have to settle for 2^nd place. TCM is really unknown to me and many others, so they could as well surprise us. aAa is out of the picture for me, but one never knows.

Group D:

MYM:

Our team can clearly be considered as the favorites to win this group. The team has shown strong performances in the last couple of months, and has also gained a lot of offline experience travelling to the last 3 Intel Extreme Masters 7 events in Singapore, Cologne and Katowice, where they achieved 1^st place, 3^rd/4^th place and 5^th/6^th place respectively. All of the members have shown great plays lately, but one that has stood out constantly is Marek "Makler" Kukier, who has carried the team to victory in various matches. The only concern I can see for our team is Team Solo Mebdi, as the latter has a good record against our team, and could very well surprise us during the group stage. In case of finishing in 2^nd place, there is a high chance our team will play Fnatic in the playoffs, and there things get a bit more tricky.

Team Solo Mebdi:

Just as I had typed a wall of text for Team Solo Mebdi, news have arrived that they have been disqualified from the Qualifier.

Mousesports:

Following the disqualification of Team Solo Mebdi, Mousesports should clearly take the 2^nd spot on this group.

EloHell:

Judging by the names, this can be considered as one of the weakest teams to represent the colors of EloHell. Much like TCM, this team is full of unknown players to the competitive scene. I believe that their lack of experience coupled with the strength of the other 2 teams in this group will prevent EloHell from doing much damage in this group.

Final Group D Predictions:

If all goes as expected, our League of Legends team should be able to top this group. 2^nd place will surely go to Mousesports even after suffering a last minute lineup change. I don't see much hope for EloHell this time around.