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.

Week 1 EU/NA LCS thoughts: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Surprises!!

EU and NA week 1 are in the books with super weeks on both sides. Each team played a total of 4 games over 3 days and we get to see some initial results of where each team and each region is, we get to see what the meta looks like at the end of 4.7 and we get to see what teams are going to need to work on and how they will adapt for 4.8. While I normally like to keep my articles about one topic in particular I have a feeling I would be doing a severe injustice if I didn't cover the gigantic breadth of 30 games that we had in the week, so I will use that classic cliché of "The good, the bad, and the ugly”.

Note: This is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance.

Let us start with the good as we all want to know who came out on top and who did not. In both cases here there are some pretty well defined winners in Alliance for the EU side, LMQ for the NA side, and ADCs for the champion pool.

Alliance started 3-1 in their super week only falling to Supa Hot Crew who seemed to have their number since joining the LCS. It could, in fact, be argued that Alliance really only lost on a fluke game as Selfie get fed on Yasuo while Wikid did nothing in the top lane as Iraelia. It seems that Alliance was a bit lost still on how to rotate properly and play the slow-push game as in this game (as opposed to their wins) they were taken completely off guard by the sheer aggressiveness of SHC. In their wins, however, Alliance played very controlled games, moving around the map well, coordinating for objectives and really starving their opponents from taking any advantage before closing out each game. Much of this credit is to Tabzz who seems to have really stepped up his game and is showing the fire to re-claim his #1 EU AD Carry spot.

In NA the winner was LMQ who took flawless record over their week 1 matchups. LMQ showed a wonderful display of good mechanics as well as a great propensity to setup 2v1 and 3v2 situations to just out-aggress their opponent. While it is arguable that LMQ had a bit of a soft schedule with their only winning opponent being CLG who finished 3^rd place in the previous split and week 1 with a record of 2-2, LMQ did end the week 4-0 which is nothing to overlook. If LMQ can keep themselves out of situations where their aggressiveness is baited and forces them into bad situations, or as the LCS casters would say “predictably aggressive” then they will make a huge impact in NA bringing the level of competition higher than it has ever been.

The other real winner was the NA ADCs as in opposition of their EU counterparts who seemed to have struggled to come up with a suitable counter to Lucian, when Twitch was banned. Other than Graves, the NA ADCs were able to cover a range of champions to various successes playing: Miss Fortune, Caitlyn, Corki, Vayne, Jinx, Draven, and even Kog’Maw. While I don’t think that this shows us that NA ADCs are in any way superior to their EU counterparts, I do think it is interesting that NA is more willing to explore various ADC options and are willing to trust their carry players to play what they are more comfortable with in the role. While ultimately I believe this list will be shortened it is interesting to see the variety as teams are adjusting their matchups and being better ready to handle bans towards the rat.

Next we will explore the other side of this coin and look at teams of deferred success in Gambit, EG, and Iraelia picks.

Gambit has had a bunch of roster changes, namely, losing their star mid-laner and “face-of-the-organization” in AlexIch. However, Gambit still came into this season with a load of talent being led by All-Star DiamondProx and a superior support player in EDward who was able to lead the mixed team of “Gambit in Pajamas” to some mid-spring season victories. Their major problem was with a new mid laner in NiQ who was named as the “temporary replacement” and, after week 1, we can all see why. NiQ offered almost nothing in 3 of the 4 games Gambit played essentially getting his lane pushed in or giving away early kills and basically putting his team really far behind from minute 5. Despite good pressure from the jungle and bottom lane making superior plays, Gambit as a whole seemed to have no mid lane presence and no AP damage during team fights. The lack of a solid wave clear or fierce assassin from the mid lane simply, crippled the team in their 1-3 bouts in the first week. We will see how the team does in the upcoming weeks as Fomko has been named as the new mid-laner, hopefully, bringing the team a fresh start. Despite this, Gambit is still going to have a number of communication, pick, and team synergy issues to deal with and it may end up being an extremely rocky season for them.

On the NA side, the struggles continue for EG who started the week 0-4 even behind the new-to-the-LCS Complexity.Lol. Again, we see this stem off of team turmoil as EG needed to replace their ADC in YellowPete and were not entirely ready to do the swap on day 1 which might have been part of the reason for their horrible loss on day 1. Day 2 we were able to see the swap complete as Krepo took to the bottom lane with replacement Altec who, despite a rather good performances on Kog’Maw, Twitch and Corki, was still not able to close out games against TSM, Dignitas, or CLG. EG seemed to have no other strategy than to give their top lanner Innox, a carry top laner forcing Lee-Sin and Kha’zix picks. This gave their opponents an easy path to victory focusing rotations around the top lane and not allowing EG to gain the early advantage they needed to win the game. If EG are able to clean up their picks/bans and show more than one strategy they will be able to climb out of their hole and maybe not be relegated again this season. Their star-mid-laner Pobelter no longer has to attend school between matches so hopefully the team will use this as an opportunity to really gain some synergy and clean up their communication for their upcoming matches.

Finally the worst part of the entire week had to be the Iraelia picks. EU seemed to have this at the top of their priority list and seemed to be forcing the pick in many situations. While the general strategy of Iraelia top is to get her fed early so that no champion can compete with her in lane; the “power-pick” seemed less than stellar and seemed to be a pain-point for any team who picked her. In addition to drawing constant jungle attention from her team, Iraelia seemed to not really have an impact until about 15 minutes, at which point she would then be behind in the lane and have little to no impact in team fights. This then forced teams into either chancing the Iraelia falling behind in lane or having an under-farmed jungler. Either way, the team was simply losing the game. Despite her poor performance she continued to be picked throughout the week to little success and even was banned in at least one case. I commend EU for trying to find a meta-dominate carry in the top lane, however, it seems like hedging your bets on getting Iraelia going isn’t the way to go about it. While the EU is known for off-the-wall picks and the top lane has seen a much larger variety than their NA counter-parts, this seemed to be one pick that was simply just not working, despite multiple attempts from a variety of teams.

Finally, we end with the teams and champ selections that were just plain ugly, these included Fnatic, C9 and mid-lane picks.

Fnatic has been struggling for some time now and despite winning their 3^rd consecutive EU LCS title, since that time, they have been extremely lack-luster and have seemed to be more fragmented than their 8 game losing streak mid-season in the Spring. In fact, since their EU LCS win they have gone 3-7 in their last 10 games only winning one game at All-Stars and twice in week 1 going 2-2 overall. It seems that the team has learned nothing from the extra-practice of All-Stars and really picked up nothing overall from their matches against SKT, OMG, and C9 all of which exposed their weaknesses and really gave them some good video to review. It also is very obvious that Fnatic is slow to pick up on getting a Coach/Analyst as they just recently posted on social media that they were acquiring these and it is hard to say how quickly these will be able to make an impact. Despite all of the changes, Fnatic still showed struggles in the top lane letting Soaz farm on his island and fall behind and letting their lack-luster vision control haunt them in the mid game. Fnatic were able to show some signs of life in their 2 wins but, it is arguable that these were due to throws by CW and Roccat who also had shaky starts to their season. Fnatic has shown time and time again that they have the talent but it seems they need to adapt to the meta faster and really learn the value of vision and rotations to build their core strategy and not have to rely on completely out-fighting teams to win.

Despite my writing a glowing article on C9 talking about how much they benefited from All-Stars C9 had, arguably, the worst overall start to their season only going 2-2 and dropping some rather surprising losses to Dignitas and Complexity.Lol. While it seems that C9 would be the dominate-force in NA, again, this season it appears that switching back to Hai in the mid lane was more of a problem than anyone expected. While Hai didn’t specifically stick out as doing a poor-job it could be seen that C9’s shot calling was lacking and the players were often times out of position and not coordinating the way they are used to. It also seemed that Hai lost some of his ability to play the “support mid lane” not placing as many wards and disallowing Meteos to run around both jungles and pressure the enemy team. In fact, the striking difference between their wins and losses can be seen in their warding as when they fall behind it seems as if no one on the team is buying wards and the ward control coordination is non-existent. C9 even admitted after their games that they were surprised to even get away going 2-2 saying: “We know we are bad right now” and keeping a positive attitude saying how it was a blessing to not be on top all the time. If C9 can keep this attitude of being the underdog this will definitely motivate them to practice hard to get their 3^rd consecutive NA title and we could be looking at the birth of a C9 team stronger than ever.

Finally we come to the ugliest part of the entire week on both sides of the pond and this was in mid-lane picks for the teams. While we know that there is a ton of viable mid-laners and banning out the mid-lane is, currently, one of the hardest things to do the picks from various teams was still rather poor as teams do not seem to understand the matchups and what can work well against what. We saw many situations over the week where teams would counter-pick themselves into mid-lane matchups and have it ruin their entire game. In EU we saw Gambit’s NiQ pick Syndra into Millennium Kerp’s LeBlanc and simply get stomped by the assassin. It is true that Syndra is a strong pick at the moment but this does require the player to be able to play one of the most skill-intensive champions in League of Legends and be able to control the wave and their opponent. While it could be argued that this game was one of the major reasons for the replacement on Gambit’s roster, even just the pick as a strategy overall is a bad idea. In NA we saw Curse pick Yasuo into a TSM Soraka which, despite some argument from the NA casters, is not a good solution. The Soraka, piloted by Bjergsen, was able to build nothing but armor in the early game completely negating the advantage gained by the AD Carry in Yasuo. Soraka was even able to completely turn a team fight by silencing Yasuo long enough to prevent his ultimate from going off and kill him before his team had time to take advantage of the initiation. Teams need to re-evaluate their mid-lane picks and really learn to force their opponents into a rough decision with their mid-lane pick. It is also arguable that power picks like Lulu, Soraka, and LeBlanc were under-utilized and need to be looked at more often. This and the top-lane picks mentioned earlier are both major pain-points from some teams and will be something to watch how they evolve over the next few weeks.

I want to write a final small section with a few honorable mentions. Millennium was the surprise in EU coming out with a 3-1 record and really showing an understanding of rotations and champion selection. They will be the team to watch in EU to see if they can keep up this consistency. Dignitas is my mention for NA also coming out to an outstanding 3-1 record only falling to Curse. The Baron curse plagued Dignitas again in this game but despite this they looked extremely consistent. We are also all awaiting the addition of Braum to the champion pool and it will be interesting to see if he is ever able to be played based on his raw strength in solo queue at the moment.

While week 1 as a whole did bring us a lot of exciting action and this fan a lot to write about, we can look forward knowing that NA and EU are changing and making it a lot more fun to watch. Based on this upcoming week’s matchups the teams to watch will be Alliance and LMQ as they will both be playing some stronger competition and we will get a real glimpse of what they can do. Keep reading and stick with me as I will do my best to get these articles out every week and, hopefully, before the day of the LCS in the next week. Whoever you root for, root hard, your team needs you.

All-Stars: Cloud 9 the real winners!

All-stars is over and done with but now that we’re living in a world where teams are starting to realize the advantage that having a coach and a analyst brings I think if anything All-Stars showed us that the upcoming LCS/OGN/LPL is going to be extremely interesting. SKT T1 K did an amazing job and really did show that they are back and in top-form, however, there was one team that really flew under the radar and really made huge strides towards their personal growth as a team. This team, of course, was Cloud 9.

Cloud 9 came in as the underdog for the entire tournament. They played in a region riddled with roster changes resulting in below-average team competition. They were down their mid laner and main-shot-caller in Hai who was sidelined only about 2 weeks before All-Stars with a collapsed lung. They had to train and teach-how-to-shot-call a replacement in CLG Link (who did a rather good job). On top of it all, their first game was against their rival EU LCS team in Fnatic with the home crowd heavily against them.

Despite this, Cloud 9 performed remarkably admirably in the tournament walking away 3^rd overall with a 3-1 record in the group stages and ultimately falling 2-0 to the 2^nd place OMG team in the finals. However, this record alone does not tell the story of why this was such an important event for Cloud 9 and why they are the ones who truly got the most out of the tournament.

Throughout the NA LCS Spring split Cloud 9 was one of the only teams who actually showed clear understanding of rotations. Not only were they simply mechanically better than every other team (as a whole) but they also better understood the meta and clearly showed that they could play the movement-central rotate/push style. We even had glimpses their ability to plan ahead and bait other teams into poor fights and ultimately dominate games, the greatest example of which came in their 3-0 domination of TSM in the NA playoffs for their much sought-after spot in the All-Stars tournament.

To understand how this works: you, as the reader, really need to be familiar with how rotations work, and while I am not claiming I am an expert on the subject; I have been playing MOBAs for a few years now and watch A LOT of competitive ESports and do my research where necessary. I hope these articles are proof of that and I hope that you will take this for what it is: a fans educated yet simplified metaphor of what comprises a rotation. While the Riot Shout-Casters would have you believe that rotations have something to do with mathematics, “the act of rotating around a fixed point”, in video games, we like to think of this in terms of objectives and lanes. Essentially, the best way to think about this is to picture each of the lanes (and the jungle I suppose but this is a bit different) as an assembly line, you send workers to each of the lines to do their job (farm, push, defend, assassinate etc.). The idea behind rotating is to change people’s positions and jobs as to further your map position against the other team, that is: rotating around points of interest.

 Now, if the entire game was basically: "who can do their job (farm) the best" we wouldn't need strategy, you would simply find who are the best farmers in the game and we would see DOTA-style teams (old DOTA1 when it was a Warcraft mod) where you have 2-3 farmers and 1 or 2 supports basically just seeing who can get items the fastest and winning team fights. However, in League of Legends, we have highly-coordinated teams thus allowing them to periodically change people’s lanes or jobs again: rotating.

Going back to the assembly line metaphor, you will trade workers in and out of different positions to maintain quality control and to make sure that you are producing at the best possibly efficiency and quality. If you were to leave the same people in the same places all the time this could get very monotonous and the quality of your work will slip. Same thing in League of Legends, if we leave players in the lanes the whole game it will be…well…boring. So when a caster refers to someone as rotating they might mean switching lanes but it could also mean their changing their job. A classic example: a top lane player who is on his island farming will notice that the mid lane player is moving to the bottom lane to help assassinate a player or defend a tower, in either case, he can change his job to pusher on the top lane, push out his lane, and then rotate to the middle lane to defend the middle tower or to push out the mid lane to keep map presence (top is pushed and the team is not losing their middle lane). This is also a rotation for the mid laner as he has moved from farmer in the middle lane to now assassin in the bottom. Either way this is a classic example of a rotation, changing both player’s responsibility and lanes to further your map position and keep the enemy team guessing. The team also advances its map position by preventing an objective from being taken, possibly getting a kill, keeping their lanes pushed out, and possibly setting up another objective as a result (gives them room to take a tower, secure Dragon, or simply get more farm). Now, I understand that rotations in competitive LoL are more advanced than this but this is just a very basic example.

The thing that we are learning, as fans, is why rotations are so important and how crazy the strategy of rotations has become in League of Legends. Teams are now learning to plan ahead with their rotations being able to win their lane in such a way that they can rotate without giving anything up and putting their opponents farther and farther behind and reach the snowball point much faster. Again, one of the main reasons that Cloud 9 dominated the NA scene so much was their very keen understanding of this and their ability to plan a few minutes into the future with their rotations that allowed them to take many objectives from their opponents. They understand how winning your lane can result in the ability to place deep-wards that then sets up their ability to rotate with very little risk and stop other team’s rotations in their tracks by simply being aware of what they were doing and then capitalizing when they fell short. It was no fluke that Cloud 9 was 22-4 on the split and though they lost a few games early that had them behind TSM nearly the entire season, they eventually caught up and then ultimately dominated them in the playoffs. They simply understood rotations better than any other team and were able to push their advantages more; in essence, they were the best team in the entire scene.

We got to see some of this at All-Stars as in their 3 wins in the group stage over Fnatic, TPA, and OMG. Cloud 9 showed their signature style of dominating their own jungle, getting a kill in the top lane, deep ward off their lane advantage in the middle and bottom, and then switch gears at 20 minutes and take quick successive objectives. Once they hit their 20 minute-peak: the team rotations become metronome like as they rotate bottom then middle then top securing all 3 towers in a matter of minutes then baiting the other team into a bad fight and winning the game from there.

In their game vs. Fnatic we can see the impact of this where top and mid did not flat-out win their lane but they were able to generate vision and allow Meteos to be free reign in the top lane and jungle. This resulted in a huge advantage for Balls by 25 minutes and cleared the way for Cloud 9 to out-position Fnatic in the later stages of the game to ultimately win at 37 minutes. In fact, the only reason this game lasted as long as it did was because of their still-forming CLG/Cloud 9 communication and Link getting caught out in the first two big fights in the game. Once Cloud 9 won the fight at 17 minutes in the bottom lane, Cloud 9 flipped that switch and rotated flawlessly into a free middle tower and top tower within 2 minutes of each other as Fnatic were helpless to get anything done. We can further see this in the gold difference between the two teams as the difference remained unchanged (1.5-2k) until about 35 minutes when Cloud 9 won the fight by Fnatic’s blue-buff. After this, Cloud 9 took Baron and then won the game 2 minutes later. While it is true that Fnatic had their own issues with this game; Cloud 9 was able to come from behind and snatch the victory by showing their ability to plan ahead and use their rotations to not allow early mistakes to let the game get out of control. This also shows their mastery of game mechanics, in that, despite Fnatic winning a majority of the early fights; as soon as Cloud 9 gets one favorable fight they use their positioning and ward coverage to easily secure multiple objectives and erase any advantage gained in the early game.

The difference can be seen in their game against SKT where the Korean juggernaut showed them how effective rotations can truly be, as SKT shut down Balls so hard that Cloud 9 could do nothing to stop the snowball. The game started with Cloud 9 doing the early tower push in top lane, but then the game broke down from there. Impact was able to freeze the lane and get very secure farm thus freeing up Bengi to get 3 buffs, freely rotate between mid and bottom lane, and ultimately secure multiple objectives. This also allowed Piglet and Pooh to Balls the bottom lane preventing Cloud 9’s star top laner from being able to rotate and ultimately down in farm. SKT could then dictate every movement on the map even: using Impact to secure jungle buffs for Faker and keeping Meteos fishing for very low-percentage kills. By 15 minutes SKT was up in kills and towers to the tune of 5500 gold and snowballed to a 30 minute win. While it was easily the biggest beating that Cloud 9 would ultimately take the entire tournament they were smiling as they lost and graciously shook hands as they knew they put up the best fight of any team in the group stages (maybe with the exception of OMG).

Despite this, in interviews with Cloud 9, Meteos spoke to how they understood that SKT were “a million times better” than them but; just the practice they had received against them and the video they would acquire playing against teams as strong as them, would be invaluable in advancing their play and really taking their teamwork to the next level. The Shout Casters then even took this farther speaking to how Cloud 9 was saying in earlier interviews that they were learning lots of little things such as: freezing lanes, using rotations to create plays a few minutes into the future in the game, and even better understanding pick and ban phase to play to a set of champions’ strengths. SKT was, in return, very complimentary of Cloud 9 in their interviews and showed a lot of respect to how far they have come despite their international experience. Remember, Cloud 9 as an organization has had 4, yes, 4 international matches, and now these matches are hard to count as it was not with their whole line-up. Faker even admitted in an interview that he wanted to play Cloud 9 for a very long time and was upset he could not play them at their full strength.

While Cloud 9 did ultimately fall to OMG in the finals, we can see a little bit of this learning about early rotations starting to come into play but ultimately they lost the vision game as OMG simply rotated much better than they did and shut down their vision control in every phase of the game. OMG pushed this into an advantage that was simply unbeatable and then seemed to have had a slight mental advantage in game 2.

Talk in interviews and the caster desk the entire weekend was about rotations, lane freezes, and other map movements which, really was, the story of each of the wins. The entire weekend, SKT T1 K dominated due to their new-found heavy-map-movement strategy and just pushed other teams all around the map setting up dives and engagements wherever they needed to. To think that Cloud 9 was practicing against this over the whole weekend, even without Hai, is going to be invaluable for them as a team. It is hard to think that everyone in the Cloud 9 organization: their players, their coach and especially their analyst wouldn't see this as a huge opportunity to be able to learn from this and further develop their own play and understand the differences between the games they won and the games they lost.

What is most interesting is that we, as fans, can learn something from this too in that, in reality, many times, victories can come down to farming and movement. It really does come back to what the loading screen tips say, players who coordinate with their team to secure objectives have higher win percentages. SKT T1 K dominated most of their matches because of the massive disparity in farm for one of their lanes at 10 and 20 minutes into the game and were able to adapt their rotations and strategy around this. SKT T1 K were excellent at planning who is going to be in what lane a few minutes from now and planning objectives based on how the other team moves and what objectives are available if they rotate to a different part of the map. This understanding is ultimately what every team in League of Legends will need to live up to in order to have any chance at worlds against the Koreans, especially teams in NA and EU who are just now finding their footing internationally.

Moving forward, if Cloud 9 continues to do what they've been doing: improving and adapting strategies the way they have, we will again see a NA scene dominated by Cloud 9 with no team being close to them again record. Even Fnatic is beginning to admit that they haven't adapted the way they need to and are now looking into getting an analyst. YellowStar and Rekkles both posted on social media and Reddit apologizing to their fans for being “under prepared” and about their coming team changes (getting an analyst not changing players). We also see this coming to fruition in the amazing season put up by SK Gaming in EU and CLG in NA: each of these teams has shown their understanding of the rotation-style gaming and their ability to draft a team comp around the concept of pushing, poking, and movement to gain an advantage. While none of the teams at All-Stars looked nearly as polished as the Korean juggernaut, this tournament was really a stepping stone for the rest of the world to understanding how to take their League of Legends game to the next level and we will see much more competitive international events in the future.

Get ready for exciting summer splits in all 5 regions, and be ready for a clash of the titans like we have never seen at Worlds 2014. With teams beginning to acquire coaches, analysts, mentors, psychologists, and other support staff to help with their gaming, the level of competition is going to increase, and just get better for the fans.