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The Grand Finals of Worlds 2023 are less than a week away. As we prepare for the most important match of the League of Legends year, we wanted to make a series of articles to get you up to speed on the match-up.  In order to achieve this goal, we decided to opt for a different approach than the usual "Match Previews". We'll go over each individual match-up, giving you all the historical context, narratives and stats needed.  We're starting with Keria vs Crisp, the Supportal Kombat in the bot lane.  

A former World Champion faces the best Support in the World

  Keria has been considered the best support in the World since 2021. This accolade has been pretty much uncontested ever since, but it hasn't brought him any International Titles so far. Crisp, on the other hand, is on the opposite side of the spectrum. He was never really considered the best support in his region, often eclipsed by the likes of Meiko, Ming, Missing.  

Image via Riot Games

Regardless of this, he lifted the Summoner's Cup the first time he ever went to Worlds, when FPX stopped G2's mythical Golden Road. He hasn't had any International success ever since, and no one could have predicted that he'd be sharing a stage with T1 at the Worlds 2023 Grand Finals, but here we are!  

Crisp engages

  Crisp thrives when he has the cards in his hands. He initially became known as a hook-specialist with Nautilus and Thresh, but soon after diversified into other engage supports.  

Image via Games of Legends

The five most played champions of his career show this quite clearly, and his win rate and KDA on Rakan is truly something to behold. He was, for a while, considered the best Rakan player in the world, before Missing usurped him of that title. More recently, he has been destroying his opposition on Renata and Milio. Here are the champions he has played at Worlds:  

Image via Games of Legends

In Weibo's victory against BLG he showed quite a strong Ashe in Game 3, but his performances in Game 2 on Lux and Game 4 on Heimerdinger were atrocious. He got caught out constantly and was one of the main reasons why WBG lost those two games, but on the flipside, his decisive teamfighting on Renata and his consistent Milio play were crucial for their wins. Weirdly enough, he hasn't played Rell at Worlds 2023 yet. Despite it rarely banned against him, every time Weibo Gaming have picked it, it has been for Weiwei in the jungle.  

Keria sets the meta

  Keria is Loki's TVA (Time Variance Authority) at Worlds 2023. He pruned every single timeline that was devoid of his preferred picks, leaving us with the Sacred Timeline filled with ranged supports and insane level one all-ins. As pointed out previously, even the master of engage supports was forced to adapt to this new reality. This is where Keria thrives. When the meta picks aren't clear and when handshakes aren't possible. When the support counter picks can be so unexpected that teams are forced to come up with bans, like JDG's removal of Pyke in Game 3 of the Semi Finals.  

Image via Games of Legends

These are Keria's most played champions of all time. He shares four of these five with Crisp (+Braum, -Rakan), but his champion pool is much more ambitious. Despite having played a lot less games than Crisp (109, to be exact), Keria has played much more champions than his lane opponent. T1's support has brought 53 different champions to the Rift, while Crisp sits at 35. What places Keria head and shoulders above other support players is his seemingly endless ability to pull out new picks which he plays to a really high level. He has started to showcase this at Worlds 2023's Knockout Stage.  

Image via Games of Legends

He hasn't played a single game of Rakan, Rell or Nautilus, three of the most picked and banned supports at the tournament. He steered clear of the meta as soon as he could, opting for Bard, Kench and Ashe instead. His performance with the Senna vs LNG was incredible and his impact on Bard against JDG in Game 1 and 4 was felt throughout the entire Summoner's Rift. He is the best support player in the world and the massive meta pivot we saw in Semi Finals proved just how much he affects the game.  

The Pick Ban

  Pick and Ban between these two will be fascinating. Neither of them has played Rell, both of them have Renata has their most played champion. Crisp is the better Rakan player and Keria hasn't even brought it out yet at this tournament. Keria is the de facto master of the AD Carry Supports, so it will be interesting to see if Crisp is ready to fight the master with his own tools.

The Final "ifs"

  This is one of the most one-sided match ups in the series. Crisp isn't a bad Support in any way, but he is so far below Keria's level that any debate is mute. Unless we include the intangible "ifs". T1 Keria has now lost 5 finals in a row. He isn't the sole reason for those losses, mind you, but his level visibly dropped in those series. His picks changed, his confidence seemed to wither away as the Goliath shrunk. The circumstances surrounding this match are eerily similar to the one Keria lost last year. He is facing a fourth seed that come into the series as massive underdogs.  

Image via Riot Games

He is a much better support than his enemy (BeryL then, Crisp now) and his team is expected to easily sweep the series. This is a very high pressure moment, and those are the ones in which this Goliath has shown some cracks. Crisp, on the other hand, the frail David in this metaphor, has no pressure on his shoulders. He, alongside the rest of Weibo, has already lost in most minds. He wasn't meant to be here in the first place, barely even made it to Worlds. Yet he is a World Champion. He's been here before and he has lifted the Summoner's Cup high above his head, while Keria was still only dreaming of ever doing it. An entire year of work for both of these players leads here. Is Crisp following 2022's Holy Script and taking down the giant, or is Keria done waiting for his turn to lift the Summoner's Cup?

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