The bigger the stage, the importance of the draft rises. If the two teams’ abilities are near the same, the variables that take effect are the players’ conditions on match day and the outcome of the drafts. The draft shows which team prepared more, so not enough can be said about the importance of the draft.

Usually in important matches, the teams tend to pick “the champions we played well” and let “the picks we faced well” go through. Sometimes, they succeed by preparing a unique draft, but this is less likely.

Here, we’ll have a look at which champions had a high win rate for Gen.G and T1 during the summer split. This might give us a glimpse at how the draft will go at the finals.

*All data is based on the regular season.

Gen.G’s high win rate champions (4+ picks)

As Gen.G had a very high win rate during the regular season, a LOT of champions had a high win rate. If they picked a champion often, the win rate was high.

Poppy, Ahri, Yuumi, Jinx, Rakan, and Twitch were Gen.G’s certain win champions. They haven’t lost a single game on these champions. While Poppy and Ahri are straight-up good champions, they’ve won all games on the champions that are good counter-picks, such as Jinx, Rakan, and Twitch.

Considering the champions that had a 60%+ win rate, Gen.G played well with nearly all meta champions: Gnar, Wukong, Azir, Gangplank, Zeri, Sylas, Sejuani, Viego, Lucian, Tahm Kench, Renata Glasc, Senna, Akali, and Skarner.

Champions Gen.G faced well (4+ picks)

These champions are the ones that Gen.G faced well during the summer season. Since they have an excellent overall win rate, they didn’t lose to a LOT of the champions. If any team picks at least one out of these 14 champions against Gen.G, it can mean that Gen.G’s likely to win (although probability doesn’t actually work that way).

T1’s high win rate champions (4+ picks)

T1 finished in 2nd place in the regular season, so they had many champions with a high win rate as well. The champions they were undefeated on were Senna and Corki. Besides them, they had a high win rate on Lee Sin, Gnar, Draven, Viego, Gangplank, Nautilus, Galio, Zeri, Lissandra, Renata Glasc, Seraphine, Ornn, and Camille.

However, T1’s high win rate champion pool includes several champions that are off-meta. Although they have a 100% win rate on Senna and Corki, they’re not picked as much anymore, and the same goes for Viego and Seraphine. On the other hand, there are some picks that are T1’s specialties, like Draven, Galio, and Lissandra. These champions are known to strengthen Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeok’s strengths while hiding their weaknesses.

Champions T1 faced well (4+ picks)

Unfortnately for T1, there were no champions that they had a 100% win rate on facing. They still had a decent win rate against the meta champions. T1 has a great win rate against Gwen, Renata Glasc, Ahri, Sejuani, Nautilus, Kalista, Wukong, Viego, Gnar, Tahm Kench, Vi, Azir, Zeri, and Ornn. It’s quite a lot, even if we just consider the meta champions.

What’s important in this data is where the two teams overlap. That’s where we can predict how the draft will go, and how it should be for the team you cheer for to have an advantage. This is where we can see how well the teams understood the opponents’ main picks.

Gen.G counters many of T1’s high win rate champions. Considering that Gen.G continued to win against most meta champions, it’s natural. On the other hand, T1’s main picks are mostly those that were weak against Gen.G. The champions that might worry Gen.G are Galio or Draven, considering that Lissandra, one of Faker’s strong picks, hasn’t really been effective against Gen.G.

There were many high win rate champions of Gen.G that were countered by T1, but the difference in the number of champions was too many — there were simply too many champions that Gen.G had a high win rate on.

Especially, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho’s Poppy, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon’s Sylas, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk’s Lucian, and Son “Lehends” Si-woo’s Yuumi can be a headache to T1, as they met these champions quite frequently, but didn’t have a high win rate against them. The Twitch or Skarner pick can also be effective against T1. 

There weren’t that many games the two teams played during the playoffs, so we didn’t consider the playoffs games’ data, but since it’s their most recent games, they’re as follows.

Gen.G’s high win rate champions: Zeri, Yuumi, Aatrox, Azir

Champions Gen.G faced well: Renekton, Sejuani, Wukong, Sylas

T1’s high win rate champions: Wukong, Yuumi, Gnar

Champions T1 faced well: Renekton, Yasuo, Senna, Poppy

The data can’t be compared directly, but as mentioned above, what’s important in drafts is to pick “the champions we played well” and give “the picks we faced well”. 

On paper, there seem to be more things to consider for T1 than Gen.G — Gen.G has been doing that well. T1 fans would want this situation to be turned around, and Gen.G fans would want it to continue. The grand finals will be held on Sunday, may the better team win.