Week 9:Still on vacation, sorry I ran out of time

Vacation and DOTA2 finals caught up with me, sorry I was unable to do articles for 2 weeks =X.

Grats to Cloud 9 for their perfect week 9 and 2nd place in the standings!

My next article will likely be about TSM and their changing of the guard again. Picking up Lustboy is the most controversial thing they've done specifically because of the timing. 2 weeks before finals? gg TSM.

Week 8: On Vacation, but gotta' talk LMQ!

This week's article will be a bit short and a bit late as I am on vacation for the DOTA2 finals this week.

However, I do plan on doing some writing about LMQ and their awesome week they had in NA!

Ackerman, NoName, XaioWeiXaio, Vasilli and Mor - dominating the rift. (Hope I got the names spelled correctly, they will be for the article)

Also, big props to Vasilli for answering one of the questions in English, very well done sir.

Sorry I was unable to get to this, I will do an article on LMQ sometime soon as they've had 2 perfect weeks in a row and hold 1st place in NALCS!

My car got towed on my vacation and I ended up going out to bars with my buddies until 3 am every night =P. Sorry I was enjoying myself! I am a terrible nerd! qq.

Week 7: Or what I like to call…How Fnatic Got Their Groove Back

This past week was the LCS super week and what a week it was. We saw everything from non-traditional top laners, to surprise jungle picks, and even the standings in the NA scene finally changing! However, one team, this week, cannot go unnoticed. Despite arguably the largest fan base anywhere in the world, their constant dominance of EU finals, and the fact that they were very average for a portion of this season; Fnatic had an absolutely astounding Super Week. While many believe that this was simply a matter of Fnatic finding their groove and playing correctly; the keen observer will notice one giant similarity in all Fnatic’s games. This week’s article is how Fnatic how their groove back, by way of their shot calling.

Fnatic closed out Super Week being the only team that was 4-0 in either NA or EU LCS. While it is arguable that their schedule was a bit(except for Alliance I suppose?) soft, this is still an amazing accomplishment for any team. In both NA and EU, it is hard enough to go on a 4 game win streak, let alone, have a perfect Super Week. Many people point to Fnatic's leader and main-shot-caller in xPeke: speaking of how he apparently learned to play Syndra. Many others will look to the Fnatic bottom lane talking about the amazing coordination and KDA of Rekkles and YelloWStaR (which is impressive!). Still others will talk about how SoaZ seemed to find his rhythm being able to play Lee Sin and Yorick in the top lane! While all these are true, they are simply a shroud; hiding what Fnatic's real success was this week. Fnatic, more than any other team, this week had extremely decisive calls. They were focused, organized, willing to listen to the shots called, and ready to follow through on said decisions. In times where one voice needed to make one decision to be followed by the whole team, Fnatic performed flawlessly. We have seen how this level of communication and micromanagement has provided other teams great success, however, many of them did this on the backs of superior lane rotations. Fnatic still does not have the strongest rotations, but they were decisive and they were able to ride their superior team play to their perfect week.

The easiest example of this can be seen in their 3^rd win of the week against Gambit. As xPeke said in the interview afterwards: Gambits team was weak at jump: Iraelia, Skarner, Twisted Fate, Lucian, and Nami. Essentially, this is a team without an early game: Iraelia needs to be ahead and stay ahead, Twisted Fate doesn’t come online until 6, and Skarner has mediocre pre-6 ganks at best. Knowing this, Fnatic were easily able to pick a Vayne in the bottom lane with a strong baby-sitter in Morgana and essentially just free-farm as long as Vayne is going even or better. Further, due to Gambit exposing their whole strategy, picking their carries on the first set of picks, Fnatic were able to deny Lee Sin and Elise and force Gambit into an alternate jungle pick. Knowing this, Fnatic applied constant map pressure levels 1 through 5 and then snowball the game from there. From the 2 minute mark, Fnatic read the lane-swap and used the Elise/Lee sin combo to contest every buff and by 3 minutes had stolen a blue buff, took the red buff off Diamond’s Skarner and then took a 4 minute dragon. Fnatic then rotated back down to bottom lane and got another kill on Darien’s Iraelia and easily took control of the game. The biggest thing to notice here is how the entire team worked and moved together. The call was made: contest the blue buff, and four members of the Fnatic team jumped right into the fray; locking down and killing Diamond's Skarner and stealing both buffs. Without hesitation, they zoned Darien out, burning his flash and went to Dragon. After this, a slight pause to read the map and then the next call: Bottom tower, which resulted in the afore-mentioned Iraelia kill. The entire team listened, responded, and acted. After, when Gambit tried to go back to lanes and farm, Fnatic took action and pressed their advantage again. This then lead to another easy kill on Darien’s Iraelia by Rekkles and YelloWStaR and by minute 5 Iraelia had no impact on the remainder of the game. Three simple calls in the early game: contest a blue buff, kill the dragon, tower-dive the bottom lane, meant all the difference in the early game and gave Fnatic complete control by minute 5.

The next great call comes at 8:25 when Fnatic try to re-invade the Gambit blue buff. Cyanide starts the buff out and gets seen by Darien and Diamond who go in to contest the buff. Cyanide is immediately joined by SoaZ and Rekkles to try and secure his buff and they trade slightly. However, Gambit is joined by NiQ’s Twisted Fate and Edward’s Nami and you can see the exact moment of the Fnatic call “switch to Twisted Fate”. All three of Fnatic's members instantly give up on the blue buff, turn, and engage onto NiQ; first being led by a SoaZ Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike, followed by a Cyanide Rappel into Venomous Bite and finished off by a flash, Dark Binding, and Tormented Soil from YellOwStaR’s Morgana for an easy kill. This sends Gambit retreating and even ends in another death on Darien’s Iraelia.

This level of communication and decision making can even been seen into the late-game where Fnatic close out the game after securing Baron at 27:15. Once they have Baron defeated, they take turns buying, regroup to the middle lane, and proceed to use their buff advantage to take the middle inhibitor. However, after this, Fnatic immediately clear out the pink wards dropped inside the Gambit base and clear an incoming wave of minions. This means that Fnatic’s middle lane will be constantly pushing in and traps Gambit deeper inside their base. They then send Rekkles’ Vayne and SoaZ’s Lee Sin top lane to push the wave in while xPeke’s Ziggs, YellOwStaR’s Morgana, and Cyanide’s Elise run vision-patrol; killing wards where they can and laying them in important places. They even setup a small ambush in one of the brushes outside the Gambit base, just to make sure no one attempts to leave the base and find and easy kill. From here: Fnatic begin sieging the top inhibitor turret keeping in mind that anytime they get an easy catch, the priority is the turret as they are so far head. Eventually, Cyanide lands a Cocoon which is immediately jumped on by SoaZ’s Lee Sin who attempts to Dragon’s Rage the Cocooned Diamond into Fnatic while the other Fnatic members used the distraction to finish the turret. Fnatic then turned to shield and position behind SoaZ so that Gambit is unable to finish SoaZ off and Fnatic switch to poking at the inhibitor. A few seconds later, the inhibitor does fall and Gambit decide to initiate onto Cyanide’s Elise using Skarner’s Impale, dragging him back. However, Cyanide calmly Rappel’s and YellOwStaR walks in, puts Soul Shackles on two players, xPeke follows up with a Mega Inferno Bomb, the Soul Shackles ends and stuns Diamond’s Skarner who then dies. Forty seconds later, Fnatic destroy the nexus. Fnatic (simply) made decisive calls ahead of time; planning to go in at any opportunity and being aware that YellOwStaR can initiate at any time. All 5 members of the team were ready to respond and support their teammates any team xPeke or anyone else made the call to do so. Fnatic was able to close out this game in 31 minutes and up almost 18,000 gold. This, almost entirely due to their decisive planning and the momentum gained off their early-game calls before minute 8. Their willingness to listen to one voice and change or plan out tactics at a moment’s notice led them to one of the strongest victories of week 7. However, we can also see this kind of decision making in Fnatic’s late-game calls such as their victory against Alliance.

Fnatic’s victory against Alliance was much more difficult to secure as Fnatic were not able to capitalize on an early-game snowball to lead them to victory. In fact, this game had a lot of back-and-forth and many baits and setups around the Baron pit before its thrilling, single-fight conclusion. We as fans have seen that, often times, a victory will come from one decisive team fight. This can be off the back of securing an objective, the result of catching an opponent out of position, or simply a good initiation that forces a 4v5. In these situations, the team who coordinates the best and supports their team is the victor. At the pro level, this comes down to which team makes better calls and coordinates their abilities better to take down their opponents and make the final push. In Fnatic v. Alliance: Fnatic have gold and map advantage at 54 minutes. This time, again, having the Baron buff and being up nearly 9 thousand gold. However, at 54 minutes in the game most of the carries have all 6 of their major items and this gold difference means very little. This game is won by a single call to keep chasing and secure a few kills.

 Fnatic are split-pushing with SoaZ’s Yorick in the bottom lane while the rest of the team holds the minion wave in the middle lane. Shook’s Evelynn attempts to engage by catching an Agony’s Embrace onto two Fnatic members and Alliance nearly kills xPeke’s Syndra. Fnatic already have a plan for this: any engagement and SoaZ is going to teleport in, which he does, and Alliance counter with their teleport. With the two abilities cancelling each other out, Fnatic makes the call to go back to holding the lane and poking until the next crowd control lands. This comes in the form of a Syndra Scatter the Weak a few moments later. xPeke lands his ability onto Nyph’s Thresh, stunning him, and allowing YellOwStaR to follow up with Tidal Wave from Nami. This gives Fnatic a chance to zone and spread out Alliance and isolates Nyph as a kill target. Fnatic seem to have no way to follow up on this, until, Nyph lands a Death Sentence onto Cyanide’s Elise and the call is made to kill the Thresh. Again, the reader can see all 4 members of Fnatic immediately turn and follow up with: a flurry of damage abilities from SoaZ’s Yorick, another Scatter the Weak and stun from XPeke’s Syndra, a Cocoon and Venomous Bite from Cyanide’s Elise, and finally a Culling and Double Tap buffed by YellOwStaR’s Nami’s Tidecaller’s Blessing from Rekkles’ Lucian to finish him off.  Despite being deterred by Wickd’s Lulu’s Wild Growth and a barrage of shields from other Alliance team members; Fnatic is able to capitalize off the good call and keep pursuing until Thresh is downed. They then further call to keep chasing which then leads into another Cocoon onto Tabzz’ Kog’Maw which then has to use its flash to get away. Fnatic, now all in chase mode, make a final call to use anything to keep chasing; expending three of their own flashes and baiting an Orianna Shockwave that is invalidated by a Zhonya’s Hourglass active from xPeke that nets Fnatic two more kills that then allows them to finish the game. 

One miss-position by Alliance and Fnatic making a decisive call to kill Nyph made all the difference between victory and defeat. Had any member on Fnatic not been in the same mindset (as the Alliance members were, not all joining in to defend their Thresh) the Thresh would not have gone down as Fnatic used nearly all their ultimates singling out and (barely) killing Nyph. It is one of the easier to miss, but crucial decisions that were made by Fnatic in their domination of super week. We see these decisions happen all the time, especially in EU. Often times, teams are not ready to respond to crowd control provided by their team mates and even a half-a-second too late on a reaction can mean the difference between securing a kill and letting the opponent retreat. We even saw this kind of hesitation in one of my earlier articles about All-Stars where xPeke didn’t capitalize on a chance to kill Faker that set his team’s momentum back nearly 15 minutes in their eventual defeat. Professional League of Legends teams need to be organized and flexible, fans will hear casters say these words over and over (because they’re right and its true).

In the post-game Rekkles and YelloWStaR even talked about how Alliance has superior rotations and team movement, so they(Fnatic) need to take advantages wherever they can. They even specifically called out how they needed to bait out the Kog’Maw cool downs first, and then pursue after that; which they did. In the final team fight Fnatic baiting out the Kog’Maw flash, heal, all the Alliance team shields, and then chased to additional kills. This superior planning and in-game decision making is what really shined and is one of the reasons for the long-history of Fnatic success. In all their games in week 7, Fnatic showed excellent moments of this brilliant shot calling and really systematically shut down their opponents. This will again be one of the building blocks they will be working on with their new coaching staff and something we will be looking for as Fnatic attempts to secure their top 2 placement for Worlds.

So as we look back and the successes and failures of super week, we look fondly at the world-renown juggernaut that is Fnatic. With their fan-base standing strong and showing up in force each week in Germany it is hard to think that Fnatic will ever have a bad split and will not time, and time-again be in the battle for the best team in EU. Fnatic talk about how much they trust each other, and how much confidence they have in each other’s picks, however, trust means nothing when everyone is talking at once. The Fnatic secret of superior shot-calling might be well known and easy to see, but teams will need to be able to match this in order to take down the two-time EU champion.

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.