Griffin versus Invictus Gaming, Griffin should win. I believe they battled during rift rivals? (Could be mistaken about that even tho both teams were there so even if they didn't personally meet, their regions certainly did.) And during rift rivals, Korean teams smashed everyone, including the Chinese teams.
That said--this is a multigame series. Probably 4-5.
FPX versus Fnatic, if Fnatic is in top form, they should win. FPX only barely skated by with first place over Splyce--a team which is, nominally, weaker than Fnatic, at least allegedly. If FPX struggled hard to beat Splyce, and if Fnatic are indeed better than Splyce, then Fnatic should have this down. They do need to be in "We took G2 to five games and beat SKT" form, though, rather than "we went 1-2 first week of group stage" form. The former, they should win; the latter, well...they might still win, but in that form FPX has the edge. But overall I think Fnatic should be able to do it.
Another one which will take probably 4-5 games tho.
SKT versus Splyce...sorry, Splyce, but even if you manage to be in your top form, your top form is still inferior to SKT even if SKT isn't in top form. SKT can practically int and Splyce can play in top form and even given both of those conditions Splyce's chances would rest at a maximum of like 20%. Given no inting from SKT and Splyce not playing in top form? SKT crush them. SKT probably don't 3-0 Splyce, but they do probably 3-1 them.
Damwon Gaming versus G2 Esports is the nightmare matchup tho.
These two teams are, probably, the best two teams in the tournament.
Who could rival Damwon? Damwon beats Fnatic hands down; Damwon beats Splyce hands down; Damwon has proven they beat Invictus Gaming hands down; Damwon beats FPX hands down. What does that leave as the teams Damwon doesn't guaranteed win against?
SKT, another Korean team, and Griffin, another Korean team, and G2. SKT and Griffin aren't necessarily numbers one and two in the tournament; Damwon is neck and neck with them and while it's debatable--some say Damwon are justifiably third due to their lack of experience leaving vulnerabilities that can be exploited--there are plenty of people who think that they are the best team from Korea who everyone speaks of being afraid of and have shown considerable growth.
It is a match which would be worthy of the Worlds Finals, and frankly, will probably be more bloody and exciting than whatever we actually get for the worlds finals because it is a matchup between the two teams who, if paired differently, would probably end up clashing in the finals. If they didn't meet in the quarterfinals, both would move on to the semifinals; if they didn't meet in the semifinals, both would move on to the finals.
And yet.
They are meeting in the quarterfinals.
This match is literally a tossup. It's 50/50. Maybe, maybe, maybe 51/49 G2 at their best versus Damwon. But G2 needs to be at their best, and even then they only have a 1% edge, an edge based on G2 having the edge in experience and flexibility and on-the-fly problem solving being more up their edge. If Damwon had an extra year's worth of experience and these two were meeting I'd give the match to Damwon hands-down, but as-is IF G2 plays at their best, they win.
But.
This might sound counterintuitive. Yet in spite of me saying. "This is basically a tossup, 50/50, where either side could win."
On the day of the match.
It won't look that way.
What do I mean, it won't look that way?
What I mean by that is that when the two titans clash, their bloody match will look like either one team decisively crushes, or the other team decisively crushes. This is just a prediction; it's possible that they fight tooth and nail where each game they play could go either way every minute of the game and nobody gets a decisive definitive unbeatable lead.
But I'm expecting the games to be incredibly one-sided, where the winning team basically instantly crushes their opposition, in each game (even if it's not the same team crushing each game).
How could a match which is so 50-50, how could a match which is so close, so hard to predict, so hard to tell what the outcome will be, end up with one team absolutely smashing the other? Surely if they were crushing their opposition it wouldn't be hard to predict them as the winners, right?
It's just basic breakdown of their playstyles and worlds meta thusfar. Given their respective styles, I am expecting a level of volatility to the matchup each round. Where both teams will be going even...until one fight proves to crush the other team. This can be winning a 1v1, winning a 2v2, winning a 3v3, winning a skirmish, winning a teamfight, winning a 1v2, winning a 1v3, it can happen one minute into the game, three minutes into the game, five minutes into the game, ten minutes into the game, even twenty minutes into the game. But it will happen and then with a snap of the fingers...the match will basically be decided on the coinflip of who got luckier, who played just that slightly bit better, who had ever so slightest of edges. A game of inches which stretch into miles. Where one inch given leads to an insurmountable mountain miles high.
Given this. I doubt a 3-0, and it could be 3-2, but it's probably 3-1 regardless of who wins. If G2 is at their best, they have that 1% edge over Damwon. But this? This is a match which basically is determining the winner of Worlds 2019. Whoever wins this matchup goes the distance. Damwon end the golden road for G2, they beat everyone else is my prediction; G2 if they knock Damwon out go the distance and achieve the perfect golden road.
It will be the highest quality best of five of any of the Worlds matches. No other matches in the tournament will compare to it because it will be two teams that are insanely good and yet play vastly different styles clashing. Their teams have their own identities, their own strengths, their own weaknesses, and both teams know their opposition's strengths and weaknesses fairly well. Both have incredibly good coaches; both have insanely talented individual players who have team synergy that is off the charts.
This is the matchup I am most likely to have predicted wrongly (the second most likely being Fnatic but again, Fnatic should have that match if they're playing at their highest competitive level), because honestly. How can you predict a match like this? It's the match I dreaded happening because I really wanted them to clash in the finals, or at least have their brackets set up so that they'd clash in the finals assuming they won, in the case where one or both wouldn't make it.
Ah well.
It happens.
Seven of the teams in the quarterfinals have fairly well proven why they deserve to be there, and 4-6 of them (depending on your opinion on Fnatic/IG) have proven that, yes, they are titans who are to be reckoned with and deserve their spots as tournament favorites.
Anyway, should at least make a footnote about today's matches.
As a reminder: I anti-root for TL in that I actively like to see them lose, so today? I was really really happy to see them handedly eliminated. Where even in their one victory, against ahq, it didn't really feel like TL won that match so much as it did that ahq had the victory but lost it. The placements were perfectly as I predicted tho; I placed Damwon as first in the group, IG as second, TL as third, and ahq as fourth, so that meant I got all 16 pick'em points for that group which I am quite satisfied with. I suppose you could call this the silver lining considering that the dreaded matchup actually ended up happening.
The one match I really didn't want to happen, happened. I honestly would've preferred SKT versus G2, particularly since that would be a rather historical rematch. Yet Damwon Gaming and G2 have no direct history with each other (other than fighting each other in skrims), and yet here one of them will go home when both deserve not to.
Ah well.
Seems like every step of the tournament, someone gets screwed over. In the play-ins, Mammoth Clutch Splyce and Damwon not each having their own groups ensured at least one of them was almost guaranteed to go home, so Mammoth got screwed (not that it mattered since they gamethrew anyway, but they would've been screwed regardless).
Clutch got placed into the group of death, so they got screwed.
And in the quarterfinals, Splyce and whoever loses in Damwon/G2 got screwed.
It happens, I suppose.
Still a shame tho.