Picks and Bans Analysis of Solomid Series #1 Finals eSports Central

The Solomid.net Series is a tournament in which teams compete in six $3,000 USD events to earn their way to a $12,000 USD Final among the league's top 4 teams. The finals for Week 1 were held today between Orbit Gaming coming from the Losers Bracket and Team Solomid from the Winners Bracket. This is an analysis of the picks and bans in the best of 3 series.

Game 1:

Picks and Bans:

Orbit continued the Solomid Series trend of banning solo queue style with Rengar, Jayce, and to a lesser extent Shen. Shen isn't considered completely overpowered but his global presence and his lane pushing ability makes him ban-worthy. TSM's Nunu ban was most likely done with their Skarner pick in mind. The nature of Skarner's early game is that he is susceptible to early game counterjungling as well as his zoning power in teamfights with his ultimate against Skarner engagements. Evelynn can be considered a solo queue ban in some respects mostly for her large burst and roaming, especially if Reginald wants to stay in middle lane and farm.

TSM's picks are pretty straightforward it is a mixture of comfort champions with a good amount of initiate. Skarner's ultimate is a scary deal for ganking and teamfights but is quite squishy with TheOddone's typical build. This is where Irelia comes in. Irelia has the ability to absorb a lot of damage with a soft initiate while Skarner's ultimate can be used to secure a kill early/mid fight by having his team swap and focus to his target. Karthus is generally a free farm champion who is able to apply large amounts of pressure with just his ultimate, a Reginald favorite.

Orbit's picks seem to be a mixture of responses to Skarner and supplementing a late game strategy. Orianna's slow and ultimate against Skarner are great to reposition him and poke him down if he attempts to initiate even with flash. Sona has a similar role with her ultimate, but also keeps Tristana's lack of lane clear in check. Tristana is a late game AD assuming all things equal that doesn't have the AoE wave clear that many ADs have the advantage of but with her scaling range with her passive and ability to jump in and chase makes her a scary pick if played right. Nien being Orbit's previous AD carry has seemed to rub off a bit on WildTurtle, their new AD, with his picks and summoners. Jax gives a slight hint of a possible lane swap coming out of Orbit, and fits very nicely with Orbit's late game target. Maokai is an efficient ganker, but also the AoE damage reduction in his ultimate is almost considered a necessity against almost any composition with AoE damage or initiates (like Karthus and Leona's ultimates).

Reginald's WotA Karthus Build
Winner: TSM

Game 2:

Picks and Bans:


The Orbit bans were definitely TSM targeted. Karthus caused a CS deficit for Nien and Skarner still was able to initiate effectively against them despite their best attempts at to counterpick it for teamfights. TSM banned the same champions as they did the first game, bar Rengar which was simply an overpowered champion in their eyes (and Orbit hadn't banned it this game).

Orbit took advantage of Evelynn being open and wanted to take the aggressive role this game, something Evelynn's roaming power encourages. Evelynn has the AP assassin role of taking out AD carrys very effectively as she can come in and out of the fight with significant burst damage. Combine that with a Fiddlesticks support with a plethora of CC and you have a very controlled teamfight. Fiddlesticks may seem like an odd support pick for some viewers but rest assured his CC capabilities make up for his lack of health and effective health support abilities.

TSM saw this aggressive play formulate instantly from the Evelynn pick and continued to grab Alistar for TheOddone. Alistar provides a significant amount of level 2 ganking pressure and aggressive play throughout the early game. The Ezreal pick that came along with it seems to be just another pick of the very strong AD carry but there was much more to it, which we would see as the laning phase began. Ezreal and the Leona pick would be sent to the middle lane to set Evelynn back early in an attempt to make Nien play a game of CS catchup and as a result keeping him in lane. Ezreal is a very effective champion for soloing middle, he used to be a semi-frequent pick for that role, which allows Leona to roam quite freely. Reginald's Katarina was an obvious pick once the squishy nature of Orbit's first 3 champions was revealed. A top lane Katarina can be a dangerous attempt but with Leona roaming support coupled with an aggressive jungler you have a form of a safety net.

LemonNation's Support Fiddlesticks
Winner: Orbit

Game 3:

Picks and Bans:


Orbit made the most fatal of mistakes, and really in my eyes fairly inexcusable, when they missed out on one of their bans. They ended up banning fairly solo queue style once again, which undoubtedly held them back. A simple Jayce ban or even better a Maokai ban could have changed the tide of the game drastically especially once you consider their eventual picks. TSM came out with an Evelynn targeted ban as they saw how Orbit could perform when they were allowed to be aggressive. Their Skarner ban seemed to make more sense once we get to their picks as they went for a slightly poke oriented team with the availability of Jayce.

Orbit went with a very teamfight oriented aggressive AoE team, which is slightly unfortunate considering their lack of an effective ban to give it more of an edge. Regardless, with a Malphite initiate joined with an Orianna ultimate and shield you create a double knockup/repositioning effect. The champions on their own are good but combined you start to see a very obvious plan. Fiddlesticks has the advantage of having lots of CC as well as being an AoE damage champion. Katarina then to back up this composition brings it all together. Enormous amounts of AoE CC and one of the best AoE casters in the game with Death Lotus is a great teamfight recipe.

TSM saw the opportunity with Jayce and instantly picked him up, as expected. The poke from Jayce in and out of lane is only part of the reason he is banned so often. The overall team composition screamed "poke and only engage on our terms". With Corki's long range and Morgana's Dark Binding and ultimate for initiation you start to get a clear picture. The Blitzcrank pick is their primary initiation technique pre-Morgana's Zhoyna's Hourglass. An effective pull when you are able to poke your enemy down is pretty much the best way to win a teamfight on your terms. It was a fairly peculiar pick from Orbit to pick Fiddlesticks into a Blitzcrank considering his low effective health and movement speed but Orbit felt they had the upper hand when it came to the lane swaps. TSM rounded off their roster with Maokai, always a very solid and effective pick against any AoE composition but adds a form of initiation if needed and is a profound ganker, especially early on. TheOddone is very well-known for his ability to countergank effectively with Maokai.

Dyrus' Jayce Build
Winner: TSM



The next week of Solomid's Offseason Series continues on the 26th of October and goes until the 28th of October. To find out more information on the tournament as a whole, click here.

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