Well, even before this tournament I had the idea that the cornerstone for victory is a peak offlaner, to explain, just run your eyes through the winning lineups and you will understand - you may have shortcomings on the cores or supports, but the offlaner cannot be weak. I watched tournaments from TI3, let me start from there.

TI3 - Admiral Bulldog (contribution to victory - no comments)

TI4 - Xiao8 (in this case there are nuances, technically the mid player taken from LGD was not the best offlaner, but in terms of in-game leader and orientation in the meta, apparently he was an order of magnitude stronger than many, thanks to him Newbee was able to become better than the rest - competitors in that year were wow - EG, DK, VG

TI5 - Universe (still the unsurpassed master of bursts with mass ult)

TI6 - Faith_Bian (no comments)

TI7 - Mind Control (even in a team that played with the favorite - Matu and Miracle, many still believe that the victory at that event was the work of Control and his Furion)

Ti8-9 Ceb (here the case is a little similar to Xiao, perhaps Ceb is not the best offlaner, but I think it’s obvious to everyone that probably with another default, but less morally charged player, such success would not have happened)

TI10 Collapse (no comments)

TI11 33 (no comments)

Ti12 Collapse (probably he remains in the shadow of Yatoro more than with the first victory, but for those who understand the design of their game it seems clear that with any other playable offlaner or if the playstyle changes to summoners and auras - as was the case last year, everything else the chain, including Yatoro’s game, collapses)

It is clear that this is just a debatable question, but looking at the same list for other positions, I understand that in other positions sometimes (with all due respect, I understand that all these guys are Masters) there are random or replaceable people, but a weak offlaner is not takes TI

What do you guys think? I understand that you can always say that synergy and mutual understanding decide, but maybe similar thoughts have occurred to you about this or another “role”?