Week 6: Power Rankings and Thoughts at the Half Way Mark

Well, we are officially at the halfway mark! Congratulations to each team in every region as there have been a ton of phenomenal games of League of Legends. As fans, the bitterest pill to swallow and the biggest sigh of relief is that we’re half way to Worlds. However, as players, each team is just now hitting their stride and really beginning to figure out what they need to do to make it to…where is worlds again? It is in…three different countries or something? I digress.

Fans can sense the anticipation in the air. You can see each player and each team sitting a little bit farther forward in their chairs doing everything they can to secure those last few wins.  Some teams are studying and rehearsing mistakes to make sure they’re not relegated and removed from the pro circuit. Still others are celebrating the fact that they’ve already made finals in their region; sharpening their skills to be as prepared as possible for their upcoming runs at titles. Regardless, we are half way through Summer Season 4 and that calls for the most controversial article any writer will ever write (so why would I want to right?) Power Rankings.

1. Samsung Blue (4/0)
2. Samsung White (3/1)
3. CJ Entus Blaze (2/0)
4. Najin Black Sword (3/1)
5. SK Telecom T1 K (2/2)
6. CJ Entus Frost ( 3/1)
7. Najin White Shield (2/2)
8. SK Telecom T1 S (1/1)
9. OMG (6/2)
10.  Alliance (12/2)
11. LMQ (9/5)
12.  Dignitas (9/5)
13.  Counter Logic Gaming (9/5)
14.  KT Rollster Arrows (1/1)
15.  Jin Air Stealth’s (3/1)
16.  Edward Gaming (6/2)
17.  Team WE (6/2)
18.  Royal Club (6/2)
19.  Azubu Taipei Assassins (5/0)
20.  SK Gaming (9/5)

1. Samsung Blue (4/0)

Samsung is again showing their power being the only team, currently, with 6 points in the strongest region for League of Legends. Korea is looked up to by each of the other regions and many times sets the stage for what is strong and how team compositions should be played. Samsung Blue has showed their top ranking by obtaining not only a perfect record in their group, but taking down the defending World Champion and All Star 2014 winners in SKTelecom T1 K. These honors, however, pale in comparison to their decisive 3-1 win over Najin White Shield in Champions Spring. Their movement and team fights are extremely coordinated and flawless behind their world class mid laner dade. Samsung Blue will easily be the favorite to repeat their victory Champions Summer as well as taking the top prize at Worlds.

2. Samsung White (3/1)

The sister team to Samsung Blue, Samsung White has to be seen as the number 2 overall. Showing just as much coordination and team play as their sister team, Samsung White helped to secure the Samsung organization a decisive 3 to 0 win over SKTelecom in OGN Masters. While Samsung White has not had as much success only showing a 3-1 record, splitting with SKT T1 S in groups, they are showing very consistent picks and plays behind their talent-packed lineup of: Looper, DanDy, Pawn, imp, and Mata. Samsung White will easily be a favorite against any team they play in finals and be a heavy favorite to join their sister organization at Worlds. It would not even be a surprise to see all-Samsung finals for Champions Summer.

3. CJ Entus Blaze (2/0)

On the back of their ‘Pilot’ in Flame, CJ Entus Blaze comes in at number 3 despite only having played two games, crushing KT Rollster Arrows in group. CJ Blaze looks strong as ever coming off their 4^th place loss in OGN Spring to Samsung Galaxy Ozone (Now Samsung White) and should easily be looking to make it out of their group in first place. The sheer carry-ability of Flame with the supporting cast of Daydream, Ambition, Emperor, and Gunza; CJ Blaze are looking to correct their early departure in Champions Spring and make it to worlds. This will mark a return to the finals stage and the Worlds stage for the CJ organization and a renewed vigor for one of the most storied and beloved organizations in Korea.

4. Najin Black Sword (3/1)

Seeming to have switched places with their sister team, Najin White Shield, Najin Black Sword put up two stellar performances: splitting with Najin Shield and destroying the pre-season-top-10 KT Rollster Bullets. Sword seems to have a renewed vigor with their new lineup which consists of: Leopard, Hojin, kurO, Ohq, and Cain and have done a phenomenal job in groups. While it is unusual to see a new team (unless you’re named SKT T1 K) do exceptionally well right away in OGN Champions, it is hard to deny that Najin Sword have put up two amazing performances. With only the struggling Jin Air Falcons left on their schedule it is hard to think that Sword will not be looking at a solid run into the playoffs.

5. SK Telecom T1 K (2/2)

Despite only having a 2 and 2 record in their group stage it is hard to not give the defending World Champions and All-Star 2014 winners an extremely high ranking at number 5. Even in their two losses, SKT T1 K looked really solid and have seemingly been on a roll steadily improving since their dominating performance at All Stars. With PoohManDo returning as their full-time support and shot caller and with the, arguably, #1 ranked player in the world in Faker; if SKT keeps improving at the rate we know they can, they too, will be looking at a deep run in playoffs. Also, don’t forget, SKT did suffer their losses to the #1 ranked (by most people/writers) team in the world, in Samsung Galaxy Blue. If a few additional plays were made by SKT we would be looking at a 1-1 split and SKT T1 K and Samsung Blue would be tied in group A. SKT T1 K have a title to defend and they will be working hard to make it back to Worlds to do so.

6. CJ Entus Frost (3/1)

The ever-steady and much beloved CJ Entus Frost comes in at number 6 after splitting 1-1 with second ranked Samsung Galaxy White in group stages. Despite a few questionable plays it is hard to count out on of the best known League of Legends players world-wide in Madlife and the accompanying crew of: Shy, Swift, CoCo, and Space. Despite rough patches and many, many changes in the CJ organization; both teams are looking very strong and seem to be focused on the prize. If their All-Star support Madlife has anything to say about it, it will be a return to the Worlds Stage for CJ Frost.

7. Najin White Shield (2/2)

Apparently switching places with their sister team, Najin Black Sword, Najin White shield has had a slower-than-expected start to their season tying both their first 2 matches against Najin Black Sword and Jin Air Falcons. While Shield is expected to come back with their, rather soft, remaining game against a struggling KT Rollster Bullets it is questionable how far into finals they will get seeing as they have not yet put up an exciting performance. However, being in the strongest region in the world it is hard to think they wouldn’t have an easier time against teams with less play time together. We will have to keep an eye on Najin White Shield and see if they can make a run for Worlds.

8. SK Telecom T1 S (1/1)

After their amazing run during OGN Masters, keeping the SKTelecom organization in the tournament in a few cases, SKT T1 S are coming in at number 8. Though they are in what seems to be a rather hard group with: Samsung White, CJ Frost, and Bigfile Miracle it is still questionable whether or not they will get out of groups. However, this is not to say they are still not one of the top teams in Korea. While this is going to be where many people start to disagree with my list, having them at 8 is the correct spot as if SKT T1 S were in any other group we would be saying they will easily be making finals and moving on. Coach Koma has even talked about how he is personally invested in SKT S and he will want to prove that his expertise can translate into wins. SKT T1 S has been extremely consistent and can easily make a giant splash in Champions Summer if they can improve their lane phase and keep an eye on their wild-card top laner in MaRin.

9. OMG (6/2)

Behind their All-Start support in Allen and their super-aggressive, dominating mid-laner in xiyang it is hard to think that OMG would not be one of the top contenders in LPL. With Gogoing, pomelo, and San rounding out the lineup, OMG are anxiously looking at making another good run at Worlds. After a stellar showing at All-Stars only losing to Cloud9 once and SKT T1 K overall, OMG seems to be in top form and playing well. It is OMG’s international experience that sets them higher in the rankings as they will, simply, be more comfortable fighting on the international stage. While there is some controversy around if Allen and San are truly back in form, it stands to reason that the international experience of the team will carry them to a deep finals run in LPL and a re-appearance at Worlds.

10. Alliance (12/2)

The story of “A Boy and his Bird”, Alliance come in at number 10 being the highest western team on the list. Alliance is dominating the European seen behind their team-captain Froggen and his amazing Anivia play, among other champions. Seeming to really be making the most of their very public coaching pickups including: Locodoco for a while, now, Araneae (formerly of Millennium), and the addition of 2 analysts; Alliance has shown poise and composure moving towards their 86% win rate in EU. Alliance seems positioned to easily win the EU LCS and make a good run during Worlds. The only downside is that Alliance has 0 international games played as a team, as they have only been together for 2 seasons. However, if they keep improving at the rate they are now Alliance will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

11.  LMQ (9/5)
12.  Dignitas (9/5)
13.  Counter Logic Gaming (9/5)

In reality, the next three picks can be re-arranged as the reader wishes with LMQ, Dignitas, and CLG coming in at 11, 12 and 13. The top three NA teams have proved that: coaches, analysts, and rotations are the way to get wins and stay ahead of your region. While the biggest surprise here is Dignitas and it is questionable that LMQ and CLG might be getting “figured out” it is hard to discount any of these three teams as contenders for winning NA and making a good run at worlds. While NA has two weeks of no teams changing ranks it is shaping up to be the most competitive NA split ever and it is still anyone’s split to win. Even the 4^th and 5^th place Team Solo Mid and Cloud 9 are on the brink of breaking the region wide open and returning to the Worlds stage.

14. KT Rollster Arrows (1/1)

Falling the farthest in my list, KT Rollster Arrows come in at number 14, not looking as strong as they did in Champions Spring and splitting their only match with the Jin Air Stealth’s. While KT Arrows has the highest upside looking to fire back up the ranks with a win on Wednesday, currently, the Arrows look quite shaky and may not appear capable of making finals. With a solid showing against CJ Blaze and proving they can take care of business with a 2-0 victory over MKZ they could easily bounce back and make finals, but the slow start makes me weary of their Worlds chances.

15.  Jin Air Stealths (3/1)

Looking surprisingly strong the Jin Air Stealth’s come in at number 15 holding a 3-1 record in the group beating MKZ and tying with the early-favorite KT Rollster Arrows. It will need to be seen if they can take on the likes of CJ Blaze and see if they can make it out of group D, but beyond that their prospects for going to Worlds and taking on the likes of Samsung and SKT look very bleak. With the amount of communication problems and roster changes the Jin Air organization is facing, it is hard to say whether the Stealths and their sister team, Jin Air Falcons, will ever see the Worlds stage. Regardless, they are putting up a good fight and are trying their hardest to get some attention for the Jin Air organization.

16.  Edward Gaming (6/2)
17.  Team WE (6/2)
18.  Royal Club (6/2)

Edward Gaming, Team WE, and Royal Club can also be interchangeably placed at 16, 17 and 18^th places. All three of these top teams (and OMG) have been beating-up on each other and all are sitting at 6-2 records in LPL. While none of these teams has the recent international experience of OMG, any of the 4 top LPL teams is a good contender for Worlds. China has strong history of international competition with Royal Club taking 2^nd place overall at Season 3 Worlds. Each of the LPL teams will be looking to give another stellar performance and show they are the real kings of League of Legends.

19. Azubu Taipei Assassins (5/0)

Azubu Taipei Assassins comes in at number 19 being the top team in GPL and seeming to easily be the strongest team in their region. Again, with their recent international experience it is hard to think that anyone other than TPA will be the favorite to make Worlds for the GPL. While it is still to be seen how they will perform on an international level and on the back of their less-than-stellar performance at All-Stars, we will need to keep a close eye on how Taipei Assassins will do at the highest level. It is entirely possible that the Southeast Asian teams will shoot up the rankings as their League of Legends scene gets older but alas, the young region will face some struggles against the top teams in Korea, China, EU and NA.

20. SK Gaming (9/5)

Rounding out the top 20 we have SK gaming who are well off the pace of the dominating Alliance but still looking good in EU. SK has been putting up some solid performances but really struggles to get going in the early game. They will need to keep working with their coaches and analysis staff to see if they can figure out how to get better presence in lane and really make sure they know how to close out games before they can be looking at taking on the top-ranked Korean teams at Worlds.

While I know there will be a lot of backlash and the results of this will change later today/tomorrow I did as much research as I could on my own.  While it is hard, sometimes, to compare regions I feel like my choices are reasonable and justified and hope that you will remember the heart of this blog: The Fan’s Perspective.

With the upcoming super week for NA and EU and the knockout stage coming up for Korea and GPL it is going to get interesting fast. The world will be watching as the World Cup dies down and the League of Legends World Championship fires up! (Or at least, we hope so right?!?!) Keep watching, and keep supporting your favorite as this is just a small snapshot of what might be just around the horizon at Worlds. It is going to be the best year yet, and with the amount of coverage each of the regions, now, has of their performances teams will be better prepared than ever before. We are only half-way, but the last few weeks of the season will be the true test of each teams meddle. Again, it is a curse and a blessing: we’re only half way.

Week 5 New Patch so....

...so I am not really doing a blog this week because any analysis that I could do of the games would really be very void as there is a new patch coming to LCS.

However, this week OGN Champions Summer did start, with some very exciting games. I hope to be able to get a sub to the Korean stream but we will see if I have it in the budget. -Update on this, good to go on this one.

tbh....watching USA v. Germany!

So a quick update on this if anyone is reading it:

Sorry but a lot of stuff got messed up this week. Work has been insane, I got really sick over the weekend. My girlfriend is moving in with her cat so there was a lot of prep for that. I am just trying to stay afloat this week.

I have finally caught up on all the matches and all the Ongamers interviews and such. This upcoming week I will be doing an article about each team and my opinions on power rankings for the upcoming weeks, now that we're half way in each LOL season.

My hope is to get the article done tonight so that it can be read before the super week we're going into this week. The article will be power rankings and team discussion, this is going to be my attempt to hopefully get some attention of those awesome people at Paravine because I want to write for them someday!


Thank you!

-Derek

Week 4: Base Races and Warm Smiles

This week’s article is going to be a bit different as we had a much different week in the LCS as a whole. This week there was no team that was, arguably, over-the-top with their wins, and there was not a ton of non-meta picks for us to go over. However, what was new was a smiling bald man carrying an invincible door, and two games that ended in epic fashion base-race style. Fnatic v. Alliance and EG v. LMQ end quite abruptly as the players attempted to out-race each other to the end, and Braum made his appearance and was able to “Strike like ram” against his opponents.

Fnatic and Alliance has become one of the hottest games of the summer. With Alliance screaming to the front of the EU pack with their massive string of wins and Fnatic, arguably, falling off their block after All-Stars; Alliance v. Fnatic has been one of the premier matches that fans are champing-at-the-bit for. The third match of day 2 for the EU LCS, this seemed like it was going to be a standard affair with 52% of the votes going to Alliance despite Fnatic's heavy fan-base and Alliance coming off an upset in day 1 to Gambit. The lineups could not have been more innocuous as we saw the team’s leaders: Froggen and Xpeke, going away from their regular picks (Anivia and Ziggs respectively) and just playing the more conventional LeBlanc v. Twisted Fate (again, respectively). The picks came through with notable changes of Yellowstar on Braum and Wickd trying a new pick on Kayle for the top lane. The casters were calling for this to be a bloody game with both teams going for pick-comps but they were only partially correct. The game started with Fnatic on-a-roll giving first (and second) blood to their All-Star ADC in Rekkles who came off a 10-0 win the previous day, landing a comfort pick on Twitch. This allowed Fnatic to greatly utilize their “cc-machine that is Braum” into the early-mid game granting Fnatic a 5-1 edge at 13 minutes and propelling them into whole map control taking the first two turrets and opening map to allow Rekkles to roam. This Fnatic aggression would continue, unchecked, for about 6 more minutes as Fnatic was allowed to freely rotate and kept Alliance on the back-foot. Fnatic seemed to have the game completely under their control until 22 minutes when Alliance were able to finagle their way into position to secure a dragon and then get a pick on Yellowstar’s Braum. In Fnatic seemed to casually shake this off and moved to continue the pressure on the bottom lane. However, Alliance immediately counter-calls to push the middle lane, which is where the Fnatic troubles start.

At 22:20 we see that Alliance move into Fnatic’s jungle looking for another engage while Tabzz secures the already-damaged tier 1 turret. Fnatic, in similar fashion, take Alliances bottom tier-1 turret. However, Fnatic split sending Rekkles Twitch and Xpeke’s Twisted Fate to continue pushing the bottom lane, and split from Soaz’ Shyvana and Cyanide’s Evelynn who fall back to defend. Alliance, now not seeing any re-engage in the jungle, decide to attempt to secure a sneaky tier-2 turret from Fnatic. However, we see that Froggen is left in the jungle by his team as a mobile-ward so that Alliance are able to see who is coming to defend and how long they have before they can back off. By 22:30 Alliance realize that only 2 the defenders were sent by Fnatic and keep pushing the lane. Further, due to their ample damage and the afore-mentioned interference, provided by Froggen, they manage to out-rotate the Fnatic defense and secure the tier-2 turret 15 seconds later with no opposition. Alliance are now able to take the offensive forcing Rekkles and Xpeke to respond by pushing into the middle inhibitor turret and engaging the defending trio of Soaz, Cynide, and Yellowstar (respawned). However, a well-placed flay by Nyph’s Thresh and a follow up chain by Froggen’s LeBlanc secures another kill of Yellowstar under the mid-lane inhibitor turret and allow Alliance to secure no only the tier-3 turret but also the associated inhibitor before Rekkles and Xpeke are able respond. However, under further inspection, Alliance realize that Xpeke’s Twisted Fate is no longer pushing with Rekkles’ Twitch and that he must be either: still teleporting back to base or using Destiny somewhere away from the team (rendering him useless).  Despite the fact that Xpeke  Destiny’s back to the top lane, Alliance is able to continue their push as Froggen is then able to find a pick onto Soaz’ Shyvana which opens the door for Alliance to start pushing the Fnatic Nexus turrets. By 23:22, Alliance had secured both the nexus turrets and Cynide is the only live Fnatic member to stand around and watch, helplessly, as 5 Alliance members start to wail away on his nexus. From here, basically Alliance just need to get enough auto-attacks off before Fnatic can respond and they do (BARELY) as the entire Alliance team seemed to die right as the nexus went down, ending the game in 23:27. It should be noted that Wickd made the best decision possible while sieging the nexus giving his Kayle’s intervention to Shook’s Elise while he wailed away with increased attack speed in Spider Form thanks to Skittering Frenzy. Had this not happened, it is likely Alliance all die with the Nexus at less than 5% health.

While during the post-game Froggen seemed extremely unhappy with the result, a win is still a win. This put Alliance 1-1 for the week and allowed Alliance to keep their hold over the first-place position in the EU. In NA, we saw another base race, this one, with a little less drama, but overall still an exciting ending.

EG v. LMQ also started in a very standard fashion with EG taking a comp of: Jax, Lee Sin, Ziggs, Lucian and Morgana, and LMQ taking: Shyvana, Elise, Nidalee, Caitlyn and Braum. EG was sporting a new jungler in Helios who replaced Snoopeh and questions were flying about if EG was going to have the same level of shot-calling with the new replacement. 14:30 into the game with the score 4-2, EG seemed to have squashed these questions up in kills and securing the first turret with relative ease. Helios made a shining addition to the EG squad providing constant map pressure and getting Innox going early on Jax getting him a 2 to 1 kill advantage over Ackerman’s Shyvana. However, by 18 minutes LMQ seemed to have slowed the game down and EG were less able to find picks or pressure after clearing the remaining tier-1 turrets. Despite EG creating some great contests at the LMQ blue-buff, they were only able to get 2 more kills by 19:30, before LMQ went into super-turtle mode. LMQ basically decided to farm the best they could as 5 and slowly give up their tier-2 turrets, contesting for dragon when they could, but ultimately giving up all map presence to keep EG at bay. They used this to keep the kills 6-2 and the gold difference between 3 and 6 thousand for nearly 22 minutes. Caster Jatt was even asking if he could get statistics on what is the longest time anyone has ever played a game with no kills, deaths, or assists as Vasilli breached 400 CS with a game score of 0/0/0. The real trouble started when EG started attempting to force the Baron, prompting LMQ to respond and attempt to continue their turtle covering both their base and the Baron.

EG setup two fairly decent Baron attempts:  the first of which resulted in EG getting out-positioned and forced off the baron resulting in little change to the flow of the game. Innox was afforded a little bit of time to secure the top-inhibitor turret but, being 43 minutes into the game, LMQ did not seem at all worried. The second attempt comes a minute later as EG attempt to engage LMQ in their jungle 4v4 only to get pushed off of the worm again, only this time, LMQ turn and start killing Baron. As EG recall to their base Pobelter’s Ziggs loops back around, only to discover a now retreating LMQ team, each sporting their newly acquired Baron buff. EG are then forced to give up all their hard-earned map control and recall to base as they apparently severely miss-predicted the call by LMQ as they killed the Baron at “extreme speed” (thanks again Jatt). However, immediately after their victory LMQ re-group, and waste no time pushing down the middle lane securing the tier 2 turret with no EG opposition. LMQ then realize that Innox’s Jax, not with the group, is split-pushing the top tower and seemingly try to end the game. This prompts Mor’s Braum to go all-in under the EG middle lane inhibitor turret and secure a kill onto Pobelter’s Ziggs which completely shuts down EG’s wave clear and allows Vasilli’s Caitlyn to zone the rest of EG out while his team takes the middle inhibitor. Knowing they are still up 4 members to 3 and not seeing Innox teleporting back, LMQ call to end the game and hop on the nexus turrets. The combination of XiaoWeiXiao’s Nidalle and Vasilli’s Caitlyn is way more damage than EG expected and they blow through the nexus turrets in a matter of seconds. When Innox, finally, attempts to teleport back in to stop the push, it is too late and his teleport fizzles as the nexus turret he teleported to dies and cancels his action. From there, LMQ had no opposition to finish off the nexus as Innox continues staring at a full-health nexus turret he was unable to secure.

Keep in mind that LMQ secured the Baron at 44:59 and were able to end the game by 46:58, only two minutes later. The EG players were then shown on camera, heads-in-hands, wondering…what happened? Jatt and RivingtonThe3rd seemed to have the, rather obvious, answer: EG simply decided to not try to end the game earlier. The amount of damage LMQ were able to pump out was severely underestimated by EG and despite being given multiple windows to end the game earlier, the single mistake by EG allowed LMQ to completely swing the game. Teams need to remember that at the highest-levels of play, sometimes your team comp gets weaker with time and windows of time where you are able to close-out the game get smaller and smaller. So, what’s the deal? Why have we not seen base-races much lately at all? How come we all of the sudden have two of them in one week?

Well, it is (really) no coincidence that we’ve seen a few base-races happen as the game has shifted towards strategies heavily based on rotations and map movements. There have been a number of games this season that have had low kill counts and one team wins simply on the back of their positioning and ability to pressure objectives better than their opponent. We saw this in my week 2 article where Alliance played beautifully against Millennium and took them to one of the cleanest defeats of the entire season in any region. This new-found ability to pressure the map and win games without having to fight the opponent essentially opened the door for these kinds of games to happen. Whereas in season 3, teams would normally end the game with a team fight, season 4 has shown us some of these other ways to close a game, one of which can be (simply) capitalizing off your opponent being severely out of position. After this, it is simply waiting for one player to commit to a push and then an entire team responding with a stronger push. One would think that teams at the pro level would have a plan in place for this, however, when the lights are on and you have 100,000+ nerds watching-even the pros can feel the pressure and drop the communication ball. Teams have to be on the same page the entire time, and they need to be able to communicate effectively at all times, often relying on a single shot-caller to make the final decision. It may also be no coincidence that this happened to two teams that have received multiple losses this season due to their lack of communication and weak shot calling: Fnatic and EG. Both of these teams, admittedly, need to work on their mid to end game shot calling and are struggling to close out games. Each of them has said in interviews that they are struggling to adapt to the new way of playing and often times seem to “clam up” and no one makes the decision. However, one of the stranger things about both these games is that both of these losses came with the newly-added Heart of the Frejlord: Braum on the losing team. Which begs the question: Why was everyone so worried about Braum?

The newest member of Summoner’s Rift and the latest addition to the support pool, Braum was new to LCS this week dishing out ram-like-strikes and warm smiles alike (yes that rhymes…ugh). While many people believed that Braum was going to be banned for every game, due to his superiority in solo-queue, this was not quite the case as of the 16 games that were played this week, 8 of them included Braum. In most of these games, he was selected in the 1^st or 2^nd round of picks and seemed to be quite contested getting banned in 7 of the remaining 8 games. So, as we watched, we began to wonder: what was all the hype? Why did it seem that Braum is so feared in solo-queue but then seemed to be half-and-half for LCS? Well, part of this was that teams realized that after his nerf he actually wasn’t so overpowered anymore. He no longer had the early-burst in his autos and Winter’s Bite he had before and instead just provided more defensive stats for his marksman partner (less aggression). Further, in his 8 games for the week, Braum put up a very mediocre record of 5-3. Teams realized that if not allowed to make plays early, Braum contributes very little into the late game. Despite his superior team-fight and his ridiculously useful passive, he does not provide the utility that a support such as Thresh does in his ability to escape, position, and initiate picks. While it is arguable that Braum has the same ability to create a pick as Thresh, the slight pull and instant stun that are provided by Death Sentence, in some cases, gives pro players that small window they need to focus a target and tip the fight in their favor. Essentially, In a game of inches, Thresh has an instant stun where Braum does not. Many times, fights are not able to be started immediately by Braum since the target requires follow-up to start the fight (proc the stun). Thresh immediately locks-down one of the opponents and then is able to better zone his target away from their team by using his second use of Death Sentence (the pull) and combine this with Flay and The Box. In fact, all three of Braum's losses this week came at the hands of Thresh. We can further see this in his average KDA of his wins and losses as Braum was .3-3.3-3.5 in his losses and .6-2.4-10 in his wins. This shows us that the faster Braum gets going the stronger he is throughout the game. However, if you are able to shut him down early, his effectiveness is almost cut in half. While these numbers are a little deflated due to one of these losses being the short-split-push game (Fnatic v. Alliance, mentioned earlier), we were still able to see how Yellowstar was unable to provide his team the affordances that Nymph’s Thresh did as a single hook nearly won Alliance the game. Does this mean that Braum is not a strong support? No not at all, he will continue to be a contested pick due to his kit, especially the part where he can swing single-skirmishes in his teams favor due to the damage reduction of Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable. We even saw, during interviews, many teams were commenting on the massive amount of crowd control he provides and how that gives any team comp superior team fight just on its own merits. However, it will be interesting to see if the addition of Braum brings back some non-meta counter picks such as Sona and Karma that can take advantage of his melee and prevent him from getting going early through sustain and lockdown.

So while the ‘stache made his presence known and rotations were improved, we still are able to see how much season 4 has changed the game. This week included not only improved displays of rotations, but rotations strong enough to catch teams so far off guard that the game can be ended before their opponents can respond. While two end-game-base-races is no coincidence, it does show how much the game has changed and is a warning for teams to adapt or suffer more losses. Going into the next week, one would think we will continue to see split pushes and moustaches, perhaps, with a bit more planning and some exercises in caution.

Week 3 CLG: Rush Hour or Hush Hour?

This week the LCS brought many surprises as well as many new challenges for each of the teams. However, it seemed that one team was facing a lot more challenges than the others. The new roster, the well-known coach, the stellar bot lane, and even the addition of a Korean player has sparked a lot of controversy around Counter Logic Gaming and led them to some new highs and lows. While, CLG has been praised in the first 3 weeks as "one of the top 3 teams in NA" it seems that despite their improved form, their incredible rotations, and even the astounding play of, arguably, the best support in NA, and they are still running into a few issues. CLG had two incredibly similar games this week, one of which they found success and the other they did not...the difference? I am sure Riot's Phreak would agree: "Tons of damage!”

CLG had two very intense games this week both of which left the review booth saying: "What happened?” While that was the question of the hour after each game; it is quite easy to discover the difference between the two games by looking at the team comps. Specifically, we can see the difference in how CLG had to play team fights and how their team comp had to engage. Both the CLG team comps were centered on their outside lanes: the top and bottom. In each of the matches, CLG wanted Lucian and Morgana as their duo-bot combo and a tanky-pusher in the top lane played by Shyvana and Renekton respectively. This setup then allowed CLG to take a mid-lane that was best-fit for the situation and the best jungler available to enhance the team’s strengths. In each of the games, the teams win condition was based on these two spots: the mid lane and the jungle. Thus, these positions were the most important factor in their win and their loss. Beyond this, it did not matter what the other team drafted as long as CLG played correctly and were able to execute team fights the way they wanted. In fact, this allowed CLG such flexibility that they were able to give away Kassadin (the most contested pick in season 4) to Dignitas and still walk away with a win. So what was the real difference? Why, despite the similar team comps, was one of the games a smash victory and one a struggle to a loss? Well, as stated earlier, it really had to do with one of the comps being able to do "tons of damage".

In the Dignitas game, CLG came out with a comp of: Shyvana, Kha'zix, Nidalee, Lucian, and Morgana. As discussed earlier, the core of the team was the same so really the important picks to look at here are the Kha'zix and the Nidalee. These two picks center around the same basic ideas: high mobility, high damage, and almost no crowd control. To this end, this means that CLG was looking to establish map dominance early with superior rotations and then either poke or pick their way into good team fights to win the game. In this case, it was a major success as in each of the important fights CLG was able to burst down one of the squishy Dignitas targets and win the fight 5v4. Despite the early advantage in the bottom lane getting a double kill at 9 minutes and the cute triple-fake-back to secure the bottom inhibitor, the game really came down to a few important fights.

First, we look at the fight at 24 minutes where Dignitas has the Baron buff but is only barely able to take the mid and the top tier-2 turrets. Despite the map and buff advantage by Dignitas, they take an incredible amount of damage from Doublelift's Lucian and Link's Nidalee while taking the two turrets they are not able to gain anything more than this small advantage from the Baron buff. CLG is even able to: take a dragon, keep the gold difference within 1000, and position themselves to take the bottom inhibitor turret. During this exchange, the casters are calling the game over, saying that "CLG might be on a clock". However, the superior damage by CLG is able to push Dignitas back, keeping ZionSpartan's Kayle from split pushing and keeping Dignitas from re-establishing their map control. This then leads into the second important fight at 29:30 where CLG is able to get a clean pick on Crumbzz' Elise and burst Imaqtpie's Twitch down to 25%. This sets CLG up to take an inhibitor turret for only the sacrifice of Aphromoo's Morgana. CLG then re-starts their superior rotations (off the back of the afore-mentioned triple-fake-back) and manages to re-take the gold lead, slowly increasing it to 3000.

The final fight then comes at 39:45 where CLG are (simply) able to kite-away from the Dignitas initiation, and use their superior burst (tons of damage!) to pick-off Crumbzz' Elise and Kiwikid's Nami to win the game. They are able to burst down Shiphtur's Kassadin inside the Dignitas base to further flaunt their high damage output. Basically, CLG used their superior rotations to establish their early game, stay even in the mid game, and then use their "tons of damage" to keep Dignitas from taking objectives too quickly and win the game. While it is not unfair to say that CLG got a bit lucky, they would not have been able to do this without understanding how to win with their team comp and beautifully execute the late game. However, in their match against C9 the next day, it seemed to be same chapter, different story.

As stated before, the match against C9 started very similar with CLG taking a comp of: Renekton, Evelynn, Twisted Fate, Lucian, and Morgana. Again, we are able to see CLG use their superior rotations in the early game and establish map control by 17:30 baiting 3 Cloud 9 members to the bottom lane for the bait-and-switch to the middle turret that then nets them a dragon from right under Cloud 9's nose. However, we can see fundamentally that this team comp is vastly different from the one in the Dignitas game. In this team comp, we see the standard core with the pivotal picks being Evelynn and Twisted Fate. As opposed to the mobile, heavy damage comp discussed earlier, this setup relies on: strong initiations, higher CC and less burst damage. It is these subtle variations that make the difference in the late game and ultimately decide the victory. Against Dignitas, CLG was able to burst one of the squishy targets to keep Dignitas from getting multiple objectives or winning a fight. In this game, CLG needed to get clean initiations and lock down the important C9 members long enough for their less-bursty team comp to take effect. Again, this can be seen in a few choice fights. The first of which occurs at 21 minutes as CLG gets their flawless imitation to take a huge lead. The fight starts with Seraph's Renekton engaging the entire Cloud 9 team at the middle tier-2 turret that then gives a window for Link's Twisted Fate to Destiny into the back line and Dexter's Evelynn to Agony's Embrace 5 Cloud 9 members. CLG is able to walk away with a 3 for 0 victory that then propels them into a (rather shaky) Baron kill. Despite this, CLG moves into the mid game up 6000 gold and in position to reset their rotations.

This then leads into the second important fight at 24:30 where CLG decides to try and sneak a dragon and defend a sieging-Cloud 9 at the CLG middle inhibitor turret. However, this time the CLG initiation is horrifically un-coordinated with Link's Twisted Fate teleporting in with Destiny way too early into his death, followed by Aphromoo's Morgana doing the same. This then gives Cloud 9 an opportunity to end the game but they are held off (barely) by the item advantage gained by CLG. The teams then trade smaller fights in the bottom and mid lane respectively resulting in a few traded objectives that keeps CLG ahead by the same 6000 gold margin.

The final important fight occurs at 33:20, however, despite their gold lead CLG losses the fight and eventually the game. Here, we see the small differences in the team comps come to fruition. CLG do manage to catch Cloud 9 out in a transition from Baron to middle lane, however, Dexter is only able to land Agony's Embrace on two Cloud 9 players: Hai and Balls, neither of which are the main damage dealer in Sneaky's Twitch. This allows Balls and Meteos, on Shyvana and Lee Sin respectively, a chance to jump onto Link's Twisted Fate (Shyvana can use Dragon's Decent to close the gap even while slowed) rendering his use of Destiny worthless and allowing Sneaky to kite backwards and use Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat (ugh, please change back to Spray and Pray!) on 4 CLG members and ultimately win the team fight for Cloud 9, 4 for 1. This fight sums up the entire game: once CLG are not able to get their flawless imitation and burst down a single target, to tip the team fight, they lose the game. Simply, the lack of "tons of damage" from Evelynn compared to Kha'zix and Twisted Fate compared to Nidalee changes the fight dynamic so much that the super-consistent bottom and top lane picks from CLG mean nothing. Despite the entire early and mid-game looking very similar for CLG, the end game varies wildly based on the abilities of the champions selected. CLG used the same formula but were less able to execute their win condition correctly to close out the game. CLG really needed to push Cloud 9 back down the lane and take a fight on their terms and continue to out-rotate Cloud 9 into the late game.

In both these cases, we are able to see how competitive the NA LCS is becoming with matches coming down to who can better utilize their team’s strengths to their advantage. Despite CLG starting both games well, good rotations and map planning only gets your team so far if you do not understand how to close out games. It also shows how a single pick or ban can sometimes mean the difference in the match as small variations in strategy can determine when objective play and team fights are good and bad. These will be items that all the top-tier teams will be going over in their preparations for Worlds as these are items that the top Korean teams have been reviewing for years. It is encouraging to see this as early as we are in the season as these are items that can only come from careful study and utilization of coaches so the players can focus entirely on mechanics.

So while CLG is still credited with some of the top NA players with their all-star duo "Rush Hour Bottom Lane" they still have plenty to improve on. They need to continue to refine their team coordination and improve their fight synergy to make sure that their games can conclude as swiftly as they begin. This fine tuning of their skills will ensure that their superior player quality is not shut down in crunch time. CLG currently are one of the teams that can stamp their own ticket to worlds...or not.

Week 2 Alliance: Full control, A shining light for Europe

Amazing early game, great team CS @ 20, and even most enemy buffs stolen were just a few of the metrics we looked at when talking about Alliance this week. Their success in week one was palpable and everyone, including the casters, were ready to hype Alliance. Only this time, the “super team” stepped up and became just that: a super team. This week in EU LCS was all about Alliance and their dedication to the game. Their willingness to adapt and improve has definitely shown that they are in the conversation for one of the best teams in the world.

Yes, this week’s EU LCS was an all-Alliance affair as they rode their 3-1 win in super week to another 2-0 week over Millennium and SK respectively. However, the thing that made Alliance truly shine was more than just fantastic statistics; it was Alliance showing how seriously they are taking their new found success. Alliance are really changing and using their coaches and analysts to learn the game and improve their teamwork as a whole. Their team KDA did go down from 6.24 last week to, a still respectable, 4.47 this week but looking at the stats for these games really only gives half the story (as stats normally do). In Alliance’s first game against Millennium, it was agreed by everyone: casters, players, writers, and commentators alike, that this was one of the most flawless games we have ever seen by any team in the EU LCS. Alliance really began to look like their Korean counterparts whom everyone is trying to model.

In their first game against Millennium, it was arguable that Alliance’s bans were even a little too focused with a Fizz ban on top of Ziggs. This combined with Millennium bans of Kayle, Lulu, and Kassadin; it was arguable that Alliance really just let Millennium get what they wanted. Millennium took this and ran putting together a respectable team comp of: Trundle, Kha’Zix, LeBlanc, Kog’Maw and Nami. However, Alliance seemed poised and didn’t seem to need to rush any of their picks getting the standard “Pick & Push Comp” (sidebar: I hope this team comp begins to be known as Pick & Roll, get it? Roll, Rotate…a man can dream) of: Shyvana, Lee Sin, Nidalee, Lucian and Thresh. However, basically from minute 4 when the top laners rotated back down to their 2v1 lanes to counter the lane swap; Alliance got all 3 lanes pushing the exact way they wanted them and completely zoned Millennium out of any advantage they might have been able to get. Alliance then forced Millennium into spreading around the map to break the freeze and Alliance “just casually out-rotated” Millennium into an extreme early advantage. This amazing early game play was then capped off with a forced initiation in mid lane by Nyph that basically won Alliance the game at minute 7. Another highlight of this was the vastly improved play by Wickd who played his Shyvana beautifully and gained Alliance total map domination, the correct way, by pressuring where and when he should. Millennium then had no way to respond to the extremely decisive Alliance calls giving up dragons and any form of Baron pressure. Basically, the biggest thing we are starting to see is: HOW Alliance is playing similar to their Korean counterparts. Alliance showed that they understood HOW to play their team comp and WHAT their win condition was. They understood they needed to win by: freezing lanes early, transitioning into slow pushes in all three lanes, and getting a vision advantage for their team. All of these things along with good mechanical play set up Alliance to take fights when and where they want. Alliance played the cleanest game in the LCS any of us has ever seen in the last 2 seasons. They made a statement that showed that EU and NA are catching up with the Korean dominance, and that teams are starting to embrace the idea of understanding the game at a macro level. Alliance turned a new leaf in LCS; showing that there is more than one way to win a game of League of Legends.

In their second game of the week, Alliance flipped the switch and showed that: despite their superior understanding of macro strategy, they can still win a game through team fights and baron pressure. Despite this being a much messier (and very season 3-esq) game for Alliance, we were still able to see how their understanding and control over minion waves and map movements really propels their overall strategy. Alliance set up the game to win on their terms. Again, this game started with very meta-specific bans mostly focusing on the mid-lane champions and seemingly giving SK what they wanted with: Jax, Elise, Orianna, Twitch, and Leona. However, Alliance countered with their now tried-and-true “Pick and Push” comp of: Shyvana, Lee Sin, Lulu, Lucian, and Thresh (sound familiar?). Yes. Alliance used nearly the exact same comp and, again, rotated their way to victory. In fact, the only difference between this game and their previous game against Millennium; was that, in this game, they had to take a bit longer because they played a little too aggressive and gave up a few easy kills.

Alliance started their advantage very similarly rotating with Shyvana and gaining an overall map advantage. Despite the strait up lanes from both teams, Alliance kept to their strategy and executed the early game flawlessly. Alliance showed their prowess by forcing out 4 summoner spells in the first 2 minutes of the game. Alliance then used this advantage to give Tabzz an easy first blood and complete control over the very-volatile Twitch/Leona bottom lane. Tabzz and company then rotated cleanly into the mid game forcing Freddy to miss-use his teleport twice giving Wickd the overall movement advantage and secure multiple objectives. However, this is all thrown away in the mid-game as Alliance gives up 2 kills at the bottom tower without destroying said tower blowing their chance of securing a 25 minute inhibitor. Alliance then follows this up by losing a 3v5 Baron fight; blowing their chance of closing out the game in the 35 minute window as planned. However, despite the two lost fights, Alliance was able to keep their lanes pushed well enough that SK was unable to capitalize on their wins. Pushed lanes and bruised champions left SK looking for more than a few turrets and jungle control but they were left wanting. We can see this even further in looking at the gold gap between the two teams which had home to a halt at 3000 for nearly 10 minutes. This then gave Alliance time to regroup and reset their “4 and 1 split push”, constantly switching lanes and going back to their team comp’s strength of out-rotating SK. Alliance used  Shyvana as the focal point for the rotations, constantly switching the dragon between lanes and forcing SK to respond to the map movements. This then lead into a beautiful engagement in the bottom lane as Nyph, apparently being able to see stealth, blind-flays CandyPanda’s Twitch out of position, into a beautiful Shook Dragon’s Rage, and finally into the waiting jaws of Wickd’s Shyvana. This fight leads into a 3 to 0 victory for Alliance that ends the game.

In the post- game, the casters discussed the stark contrast between the two games. They pointed out how the Millennium game seemed to be a “season 4 game” using rotations and map positioning to gain an advantage and taking very few fights. In contrast, the SK game seemed to be a “season 3 game” with “gloves off brawls” taking team fights to gain map control. However it is quite easy to see the similarities between the two: In both games, Alliance used very similar team comps, and used this to gain a large early game advantage. Alliance controlled minion waves, and forced their opponents where Alliance wanted them to go on the map. In both games Alliance were able to take: turrets, dragon, and Baron without having to take a team fight or make any “big-flashy plays”.  They were also able to turn a small skirmish in one of the lanes into their final push that ended the game. This is exactly what the top Korean teams are able to coordinate and what plagued C9, Fnatic, and OMG at All-Stars, as they fell to SKT T1 K. These games really were a show of Alliance’s ability to control the game through vision and minion control and take each engagement on their terms. Teams are beginning to understand why Korean teams operate the way they do and how they come up with the definitive strategies that seem to go unnoticed by the rest of the world. In fact: look at the general strategies of Alliance’s game versus Millennium and SKT T1 K’s victories over Fnatic in All-Stars and you will see a striking amount of similarities. Both teams: took very few fights, used their top-lane champion as their focal point for rotations, and secured the map through vision and buff control. These fundamentals were something that had been lacking from LCS that is only going to raise their understanding of League of Legends.

These basic core ideas: understanding how to use your team comp, vision and buff control, and basic rotations are the hallmark of any good team. We will see this more and more as teams invest more in coaches, analysts, and a focus on overall macro strategy. This contrast from season 3 is showing us, as fans, what high-level strategy in League of Legends can become. The ability to focus on the strengths of one’s team comp and enhancing your team’s strength can be just as viable of an option as “counter picking” or capitalizing on your opponent’s weaknesses. These two games give us a small taste of the level of competitiveness EU and NA might be able to display on the World’s stage. These games show us how far strategy in League of Legends has come.  These games show us how we can improve our individual play in our solo-games. Remember: these games were not about flashy statistics and, they were not about inflated KDA numbers. These games were all about teamwork and understanding of the game. We can take these ideas and implement them for ourselves to help the community (as a whole) learn and improve.

In all, while Alliance really did show how far they’ve come in the past few weeks and their dominance over the EU LCS. We can look at their stats, we can look at their team comps, but the primary factor in their victories is simply their understanding of their team comp and their planned strategy. As we move further into the LCS, we will see more games where teams are picking up these strategies. Teams (right now!) are watching videos on how Alliance were able to do this and it will be very interesting to see which teams can find the small advantages that turn into the new “best strategy”. This, of course, will all culminate at Worlds where we will really, finally, get to see if the changes in NA and EU will be worth it. So far, Alliance is the one shining light in the EU LCS, and Alliance is just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential.