2021 World Championship Team Break Down

Infinity Esports
Liga Latinoamérica (LLA)
11-3 (1st in Summer)

This Costa Rican esports program has been dominant in their region as of late. With the exodus of some top tier Latin American talent from the region, INF has risen to the top with little pressure from other organizations. INF has done some exploration in terms of roster moves and trying out new players since their run at MSI but continue to fall back to a consistent roster that leans heavily on the late game play from their superstar ADC. INF will have a lot to prove on the world stage once again, but the real question is whether or not they can be more than a nice story. For this breakdown I will be covering their playoff roster as it will most likely be the roster we see performing at the World Championships.

TOP: Buggax: Buggax is a pretty interesting top laner to analyze. He has games on such a wide range of champions (he played 11 champions in 14 games in the Spring split of the LLA) and that could be an indicator of him being both a good and cad pick. The likelihood of another team “banning out” (or limiting the champion pool to choose from) Buggax is very small which should make him a better pick. But you do have the old saying of being a jack of all trades but being a master of none. I worry that Buggax will end up picking a lower tier champion and hindering the overall possibility of his team winning because of it. 

JUNGLE: Solidsnake: Make no mistake, this is the backbone for INF. Of all the player and role swaps they did in the Summer Split, they never once touched SolidSnake, there is a very big reason for that. Solidsnake has probably the best understanding of how to win the game and play out matches of almost anyone in LLA. He had a 9.0 KDA in the Summer Split of the LLA with 64 kills in 18 matches. While he will push the limits of his champion pool, we see far more consistent play and less total champions picked which gives me more confidence in how he will perform from a game to game basis. 

MID: cody: While I think this team is dominant in their region, I think they are going to struggle a lot in international play because of their mid laner. Looking through his matches played he can only really play one style. His control mage play is very strong but unfortunately for him that is not the strongest group of champions right now. Things like Orianna and Azir are safe fall backs but he is going out of his way to pick them. And while he will have huge KDAs on these champions, it  stems more from his lack of dying (averaging 2 or less deaths on any given champion) then it is racking up kills and assists. I see cody getting quickly outclassed and if he needs to face a player like Chovy to move on to the group stage, INF will be hard pressed to move on. 

ADC: WhiteLotus: Outside of SolidSnake, this will be the hope for the LLA representatives to make it out of play-ins. WhiteLotus will consistently sacrifice the early game in order to be on champions that have a lot of agency and play making in the late game. He will pick champions like Kai’Sa or Aphelios who traditionally are seen as the late game win condition and normally plays them at a very high level. He does a really good job limiting his deaths on most champions and can navigate team fights well. I think as a sleeper pick on slates he is a great pickup because his upside is so incredibly high. Especially if you can get him on a game where he does pick up his Kai’Sa where he averaged 6.5 kills per game through the Summer Split and Playoffs. High risk, high rewards for WhiteLotus here. 

SUPPORT: Ackerman: I was actually pretty surprised at how low of a team kill participation rate Ackerman had (68-69%). He likes play making champions with more of an emphasis on picks like Rell, Alistar, and Thresh over more mage type champions. I would expect him to play a little more conservatively against better teams so fully expect him to underperform in matches against HLE and LNG. 

This team was a lot of fun at MSI but I think we saw their ceiling there. They went 1-5 in their six matches and only picked up 1 win against the Japanese representatives of DetonatioN FocusMe and only really had one other good game to speak of in their 5 losses. Now in a group with both an LCK and LPL team, INF is going to have their hands full trying to pick up enough wins to get a play in match to move on to the group stage. I think they will have some exciting performances but my expectations are very low for this team overall. 

Cann’s Final Prediction: Play-In Stage Participant