1. Unicorns Of Love should definitely not be dismissed as a contender in EU.
While they were not able to win the tournament and their play left some things to be desired UOL impressed far beyond expectations. PowerOfEvil and Vizicsacsi had incredible performances beating up on some of the best players NA has to offer. Kikis also impressed with his vast, though a little misguided (see below), array of champions he was able to showcase in the tournament. UOL still has some work to do, especially in terms of quickly turning a large lead into a victory, but given the track record of EU teams surging out of the promotion tournament it's definitely worth keeping eyes on how UOL progresses.
2. Dragon and Baron are far more valuable, but far more dangerous to take.
With the patch 4.20 changes Baron and Dragon went from helpful advantages to out right overpowering in importance. Baron's new buff gives pushing power on par with a downed inhibitor. Dragon gives a myriad of powerful buffs that are generally more valuable than the advantage gained by destroying outer, and in some cases inner, turrets and the 5th dragon buff basically wins the game for you.
On top of being more valuable Dragon and Baron have also had their damage increase making them harder to pick up. Dragon is hard, nearly impossible next patch, to juggle and does significant damage making early dragon plays or contested dragons far more dangerous than last season. Attempting the new Baron with low health or in the face of too many enemies is a good way to not just lose the buff but get your team aced to an enemy all in.
Interestingly you can see how these changes shifted things like champion picks to cope. Because the dragon and baron objectives are harder to secure but more worth it when you do most teams shifted into variations of safe AoE poke comps. Jayce and Corki who were already strong on 4.19 ascended to near god tier, Ezreal rejoined the meta as a popular marksmen, and mid marksmen picks showed up as easy ways to get to ban Jayce without giving up on the Jayce style team comp.
3. The jungle possibilities hype was a bit premature.
This was something I was already pretty sure of watching early tournaments on 4.20 such as Brazil's Razer Challenge or the Black Monster Cup, but IEM San Jose was really the final nail in the coffin that confirmed it. The reign of early game pressure junglers like Lee Sin remains firmly intact. We all enjoyed watching Kikis' unconventional picks like Twisted Fate and Kayle, and we've seen some Warwicks go big, but Meteos ran a clinic on viable jungle picks during the tournament.
Without doubt Meteos was the most influential player at IEM and the MVP by far and it's largely due to his better understanding of viable junglers on the new patch. Instead of being fooled by soloqueue success of champions like Warwick, Meteos tore apart teams with junglers who could get into the lanes and the enemy jungle earlier and cause chaos before his opponent had time to reach their much needed power spike. The dominance of Meteos at IEM San Jose coupled with the continued popularity in tournaments around the world make it clear the reign of Lee Sin King of the Jungle is far from over.
