Movistar R7 Preview – LoL Worlds 2023

Movistar R7 Preview shows us that even the smallest regions can find success internationally – hopefully Worlds will be another pleasant surprise!

The 2023 League of Legends World Championship starts this week! First, 8 teams will participate in the Play-Ins, competing for a week straight in two double-elimination brackets and some Bo5 Qualification Matches. Only 2 of the 8 teams will be able to advance to the Swiss Stage to fight against squads such as T1, G2 Esports and JD Gaming. But first, they have to prove that they are the best of the Play-Ins, with Movistar R7 having the biggest challenge – as they are the representatives of one of the smallest regions of the Worlds circuit.

Movistar R7 Preview

Movistar R7 Team History

Movistar R7 came to be thanks to a partnership between LLA household name Rainbow 7 and the Spanish esports organization Movistar Riders. Before merging after the 2022 LLA season, Rainbow 7 was one of the best teams of the tournament that united teams outside of Brazil, as they participated in the 2018 MSI and later the 2020 Worlds, making a name for themselves in the international scene thanks to their top 10 finish back in 2018.

Even though they were a strong team domestically, they had their ups and downs before entering the partnership with Movistar Riders. After becoming Movistar R7 and signing their current roster, the team became the best of the LLA, winning the LLA 2023 Opening and Closing Playoffs. They also achieved a big milestone in any team’s life: Mireu and co. managed to win their first international match when they beat GAM Esports in the Play-In stage of this year’s MSI. They are a team with potential, but they are still a new organization with a long way to go.

Movistar R7 Roster

• Cho “Bong” Bo-woong
• Sebastián “Oddie” Alonso Nino Zavaleta
• Jeong “Mireu” Jo-bin
• Lorenzo “Ceo” Tévez
• Pedro “Lyonz” Luis Peralta

Movistar R7 Playstyle

With the same roster that they attended the Mid-Season Invitational back in May, Movistar R7 are here to top their best performance off! They are a pretty balanced team in the early game, but the main carry is Ceo – the team allocates the most resources to their Argentine ADC, but the South Korean import Mireu is also a player to watch out for thanks to his flashy Akali plays.

The champions of the LLA are a true South American team with a very aggressive early game with a lot of kills in the first 14 minutes of their matches, which puts them just behind GAM Esports and G2 Esports in terms of KILL@14. They often start fights around the botlane as they like to focus Drakes in the first phase of the game, but they tend to give up Heralds and the easy turret plating gold the first one can give. This is an ongoing issue for Movistar R7, as they don’t seem to be able to take many turret plates. However, they can still find early leads thanks to Mireu, who is the most consistent player on the team – even though Oddie prefers to play around Ceo, who is often the main carry of the squad.

While R7 usually has action-packed early games, they usually cannot secure huge leads, going into the midlane even or with a slight lead. This is due to the players dying almost as much as they like to get kills. Their unsafe playstyle is highly punishable even by the other teams participating in the Play-In stage, and in they couldn’t iron this problem out, it might spell their doom.

Another issue Movistar R7 frequently face is that they can’t turn Baron Nashors into leads: even though they take the objective the most out of all the Worlds teams, they have the second worst Baron Power Play number, meaning that they can’t make anything out of winning Baron fights. This makes them be an incredible slow team with a very high average game time, which could threaten their chances of beating more experienced teams that can make short work of teams that don’t know how to close games.

Mireu could be the player to watch for this team, as the Korean player can work out early leads by taking risky plays and diffing his lane opponents. His Akali is also legendary, having a 100% win rate, being a stable counter to Azir. The Emperor of Shurima might have fallen out of the meta, but Akali could be a worthwhile ban against the midlaner of Movistar R7.

Movistar R7 plays in Bracket A of the Play-In Stage, where they face off against PSG Talon for their first match. Will Mireu and his teammates rise to the occasion, or will they have to continue their journey on the Loser’s Bracket, risking elimination?