Views: 889 What we've learned from Worlds so far
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So with group stage done, tomorrow (Monday) night will mark the beginning of the quarter finals in which Cloud 9, Fnatic, Royal Club, OMG, Gamina, Najin Sword, Gambit, and SK Telecom 1. 4 of those teams will move on to the semi-finals and then two of those teams will move on to the Grand Finals.
But let's take a look back in review:
Mineski and GamingGear.eu - These teams were both underdogs but not much was known about Mineski. Both teams were just massively overmatched and got stomped in pretty much every game, barring the TSM loss to GamingGear.eu. With that said, both teams gained a lot of experience and even quite a bit of fans. Mineski might have been the most popular team in the entire tournament.
LemonDogs falls - It was a rough couple days for LemonDogs. Group A was really hard, but they never really found their stride. The lost to every team in the group except GamingGear.eu and TSM once. They even got beat by a cheese comp from OMG. They were relative nobodies that came from nothingness to a Worlds caliber team so they can't be that disappointed in the grand scheme of things but Worlds probably didn't go the way they wanted.
NA scene isn't that bad. Vulcun Throwbargains was out in full force. There were times Vulcun looked absolutely brilliant in the tournament, but pretty much each time they looked brilliant they threw the lead. TSM was a hit and miss team. There were times TSM looked pretty good, also times they looked really bad. All in all, the NA scene isn't that far behind, even Asian teams. The difference right now is pretty much that Asian teams don't throw. They make mistakes and they're prone to being outplayed, but they don't make mistakes late in the game and they really exploit mistakes. NA doesn't do that very well and both TSM and Vulcun showed that.
Ozone crashes and burns - Talk about the floor dropping out from under you, yikes! Dade looked so unimpressive. Even all the circlejerk ****talk that reddit is giving him doesn't accurately describe how awful he was. He looked overmatched by every mid in Group B with exception of maybe Yume. Looper did pretty well, but the fact that they were consistently getting beat and didn't bring in Homme who is apparently the voice of their team makes me glad that they lost. They came in so arrogant, so unprepared and they got burned for it. Perhaps it's a little sadistic of me, but I'm quite pleased to see them fail miserably.
Group B Europe is a semi waiting to happen. Fnatic looked bad against Vulcun and then suddenly they ran train on the rest of the group. They destroyed Ozone in both games, they beat Gambit badly in both their games, Mineski was Mineski, and then they turned around in Game 2 of Vulcun to beat them 17-1. Fnatic looks unbelievable, they didn't just beat teams, they crushed them. They made Group B look like an amateur scene. Gambit is also moving along, despite some poof performances against Fnatic and shaky performances against Ozone, they get through. In some ways they're about as strong as I thought and in other ways they're weaker than I thought. I was somewhat surprised with how well Voidle and Genja did. I thought they could possibly cost Gambit a spot in the quarterfinals, but all through Group Stages they held together pretty well. But it was Gambit's team fighting and decision making that looked so badly. Normally Gambit is so sound on their decision making and they're execution, but against Ozone they nearly lost it. They could clean it up and turn it around.
Supports - There have been 6 supports picked;
Lulu, Fiddlesticks, Thresh, Sona, Zyra, and Leona. Sona and Zyra have been far and away the most picked supports. Sona is a safe pick which is why many teams run her, she doesn't give away much of your hand and is capable in both 2v1 and 2v2 lanes with lasting impact on the game. Thresh nerfs have definitely impacted his pick/ban rate, he's not a must pick. Fiddlesticks has had quite a strong showing in worlds, which is a bit surprising. As far as I've seen Leona has only been run by Fnatic and Lulu has only been run by LemonDogs (could have got it wrong). Zyra, where to begin. She's been insanely strong for a while now, probably overpowered. She brings way too much damage and utility for a support. Amongst supports she has probably the most damage, with her only real competition being Lulu, but it's her utility on top of that. She has a massive AoE ult, so much peel, a snare, a slow. She brings far too much to bot lane with relatively low risk. People may call for Sona nerfs, but I think the case is that she is a safepick more than anything.
Trinity Force's revival - the buff seemed to help a lot. It brought back Corki and changed up Ezreal from his blue build. We haven't really seen it outside of bot lane. But it's impact has been huge. Corki has been picked or banned 39 times, 19 times being picked, 20 times being banned, which is 95% of games. Even in the games he has been picked in he has had massive success. We even saw Trinity Force Kog'Maw. I have to say I've enjoyed the changes to Trinity Force probably because I despised blue build Ezreal but it brings back Corki whom I generally dislike. Although his resurgence has been refreshing
An assassins world - Ahri, Fizz, and Zed have been really common picks and bans. Zed has been banned in a staggering 32 games. He is the only champion aside from Shen to have 100% pick or ban rate. Ahri has also risen to prominence. She start to gain popularity midway through the Summer split, but it's really picked up since worlds. Probably because her only hard counter, Ryze, got range nerfs and she almost counters him now. Fizz has probably been picked as a response to Ahri. He's also been strong, but the bug fix and the meta shifting to a short skirmish with roaming assassins has made him really popular.
In the jungle - I really haven't payed much attention here, but I've noticed a lot of Jarvan IV, Elise, and Vi. A good amount of Lee Sin and Lee bans as well. From what I recall it was mostly against asians and Diamondprox. Also a decent amount of Evelynn
We saw a pretty good showing in groups, here's to a good showing in the Quarterfinals a well.
But let's take a look back in review:
Mineski and GamingGear.eu - These teams were both underdogs but not much was known about Mineski. Both teams were just massively overmatched and got stomped in pretty much every game, barring the TSM loss to GamingGear.eu. With that said, both teams gained a lot of experience and even quite a bit of fans. Mineski might have been the most popular team in the entire tournament.
LemonDogs falls - It was a rough couple days for LemonDogs. Group A was really hard, but they never really found their stride. The lost to every team in the group except GamingGear.eu and TSM once. They even got beat by a cheese comp from OMG. They were relative nobodies that came from nothingness to a Worlds caliber team so they can't be that disappointed in the grand scheme of things but Worlds probably didn't go the way they wanted.
NA scene isn't that bad. Vulcun Throwbargains was out in full force. There were times Vulcun looked absolutely brilliant in the tournament, but pretty much each time they looked brilliant they threw the lead. TSM was a hit and miss team. There were times TSM looked pretty good, also times they looked really bad. All in all, the NA scene isn't that far behind, even Asian teams. The difference right now is pretty much that Asian teams don't throw. They make mistakes and they're prone to being outplayed, but they don't make mistakes late in the game and they really exploit mistakes. NA doesn't do that very well and both TSM and Vulcun showed that.
Ozone crashes and burns - Talk about the floor dropping out from under you, yikes! Dade looked so unimpressive. Even all the circlejerk ****talk that reddit is giving him doesn't accurately describe how awful he was. He looked overmatched by every mid in Group B with exception of maybe Yume. Looper did pretty well, but the fact that they were consistently getting beat and didn't bring in Homme who is apparently the voice of their team makes me glad that they lost. They came in so arrogant, so unprepared and they got burned for it. Perhaps it's a little sadistic of me, but I'm quite pleased to see them fail miserably.
Group B Europe is a semi waiting to happen. Fnatic looked bad against Vulcun and then suddenly they ran train on the rest of the group. They destroyed Ozone in both games, they beat Gambit badly in both their games, Mineski was Mineski, and then they turned around in Game 2 of Vulcun to beat them 17-1. Fnatic looks unbelievable, they didn't just beat teams, they crushed them. They made Group B look like an amateur scene. Gambit is also moving along, despite some poof performances against Fnatic and shaky performances against Ozone, they get through. In some ways they're about as strong as I thought and in other ways they're weaker than I thought. I was somewhat surprised with how well Voidle and Genja did. I thought they could possibly cost Gambit a spot in the quarterfinals, but all through Group Stages they held together pretty well. But it was Gambit's team fighting and decision making that looked so badly. Normally Gambit is so sound on their decision making and they're execution, but against Ozone they nearly lost it. They could clean it up and turn it around.
Supports - There have been 6 supports picked;
Lulu, Fiddlesticks, Thresh, Sona, Zyra, and Leona. Sona and Zyra have been far and away the most picked supports. Sona is a safe pick which is why many teams run her, she doesn't give away much of your hand and is capable in both 2v1 and 2v2 lanes with lasting impact on the game. Thresh nerfs have definitely impacted his pick/ban rate, he's not a must pick. Fiddlesticks has had quite a strong showing in worlds, which is a bit surprising. As far as I've seen Leona has only been run by Fnatic and Lulu has only been run by LemonDogs (could have got it wrong). Zyra, where to begin. She's been insanely strong for a while now, probably overpowered. She brings way too much damage and utility for a support. Amongst supports she has probably the most damage, with her only real competition being Lulu, but it's her utility on top of that. She has a massive AoE ult, so much peel, a snare, a slow. She brings far too much to bot lane with relatively low risk. People may call for Sona nerfs, but I think the case is that she is a safepick more than anything. Trinity Force's revival - the buff seemed to help a lot. It brought back Corki and changed up Ezreal from his blue build. We haven't really seen it outside of bot lane. But it's impact has been huge. Corki has been picked or banned 39 times, 19 times being picked, 20 times being banned, which is 95% of games. Even in the games he has been picked in he has had massive success. We even saw Trinity Force Kog'Maw. I have to say I've enjoyed the changes to Trinity Force probably because I despised blue build Ezreal but it brings back Corki whom I generally dislike. Although his resurgence has been refreshingAn assassins world -
Ahri, Fizz, and Zed have been really common picks and bans. Zed has been banned in a staggering 32 games. He is the only champion aside from Shen to have 100% pick or ban rate. Ahri has also risen to prominence. She start to gain popularity midway through the Summer split, but it's really picked up since worlds. Probably because her only hard counter, Ryze, got range nerfs and she almost counters him now. Fizz has probably been picked as a response to Ahri. He's also been strong, but the bug fix and the meta shifting to a short skirmish with roaming assassins has made him really popular.In the jungle - I really haven't payed much attention here, but I've noticed a lot of
Jarvan IV, Elise, and Vi. A good amount of Lee Sin and Lee bans as well. From what I recall it was mostly against asians and Diamondprox. Also a decent amount of EvelynnWe saw a pretty good showing in groups, here's to a good showing in the Quarterfinals a well.
I didn't say TSM looked bad, just that teams such as C9/Vulcun already learned how to pick on their lineup, thats within the US scene, and as you could see in Worlds other teams could pick on it aswell and kill dyrus early for example.
I think the US scene lacks concentration/stability -> throw games, and I think other regions are ahead in that area, example being lemondogs who can bring home games when they get advantage early a thing US teams seem to lack.
Lemondogs are not better than a specific US Team I just think they are better in that part of their game (bringing games home) than TSM for example, where TSM has other strengths LD has not.
As far as the LemonDogs v. OMG game, LemonDogs got outplayed and thye played poorly. I know they got beat, I watched the game, it's because they played poorly, not because OMG put a tremendous amount of pressure on them. A
No doubt TSM is predictible, but I don't see how they look bad compared to other US teams. They came in second in the summer split beating Vulcun and only losing to Cloud9 in the finals. I think Vulcun is a better team, but I don't think TSM looks bad compared to other US teams.
I'm not really sure why you bring up LemonDogs again, they split the series 1-1 against TSM and would have had the same record as TSM if TSM hadn't trolled the last game. Both teams probably would have ended 3-5, so I'm not sure LemonDogs is any better than TSM.
They know how to play with annie support.
You are saying they have no early game power, I beg you to watch the game again.
Ezreal couldn't handle Cassio's early pressure, same with renekton vs. nidalee/veigar
As Yorik joint Aatrox, the likes of Cait & Zyra looked really poor to the point where Yorik and Aatrox farmed in between towers.
Not saying LD did good. they could have don better. I'm really praising the Chinese here for picking a comp that fits there playstyle and they executed that strategie perfectly and I really don't know if TSM/Vul***/Gambit would have handled it better, I'm really doubing it.
You got me 'wrong' I got that you don't see them as bad. Neither do I, I'm just saying in comparison they (the us teams) looked kind of bad. By now they should know how to bring a victory home when they kind of 'got it', but they don't, and that is what bugs me.
Even LD seemed to have the ability to bring a game home when they dominated it early. So in a point I'm missing concentration/stability within the US teams.
On TSM we disagree tho, in my eyes it was a winning lineup in the past, no questions asked. But right now it just looks like a predictable lineup that can be picked on easily by teams with the right tools, which I guess some NA teams lack. But even Vulcun and C9 took advantage over that fact in the regular season.
Kind of disagree with LD loosing to the unorthodox OMG lineup which you call cheese compe
That lineup was brilliantly planned and executed by OMG don't make the mistake of thinking LD sucks because they lost to it.
I could have seen TSM and so on loosing to it aswell. They had it planned and knew how to play it smart, they play comps like this in China,
as a comp like this is exactly OMG's style. It is hyper aggressive from the beginning and they excell in the pressure/objective game.
So you go on saying NA wasn't that bad? :-D
You call Vulcun Throwbargains... so if throwing isn't bad, what is?
Throwing games has been going on all season long in the NA scene and those teams simply can't seem to stop it
and I'm kind of sorry, but it makes those teams look bad compared to the likes of the teams that came to the QF's.
TSM will also have to re-think theire lineup and strategies as they are to predictable, you take out Regi/Dyrus early and it's GG,
they won't manage to come back from that.
With supports you forgot dear Annie being run by the chinese and TSM, veigar aswell.
I also liked the TrinForce ez and such, too bad TF is already getting nerfed again on PBE.
I hope for some special chinese comps to win this tournament, or Mr. Faker Playmaker to carry SK T1.
As far as supports - i guess I missed some of the unconventional ones. I really didn't consider them,
LemonDogs loss was pretty bad. They ran a double AD and early game team comp and lost to a comp that has pretty much no early game power.
I said NA isn't that bad in the sense that they weren't totally outclassed. I didn't say them throwing wasn't that bad, you're putting words in my mouth. I just said NA did some really good things in worlds, they had some strong laning phase, good team fights, pretty good early game and gank execution but poor decision making in the late game. I wouldn't say either team looked that bad compared to the teams that made it into the Quarterfinals. The games were for the most part competitive, barring 1 bad game between Vulcun and Fnatic, and a bad game between TSM and SKT1 and TSM v. OMG.
I don't think TSM needs to change their line-up. I hate reginald, absolutely loathe him, but they have a winning line-up. They consistently do well; they won the LCS spring split and came in second in the summer split, making it to worlds. Any time you have a winning line-up you want to keep it together. I'm sure they'd like to do better at worlds, but making it to worlds is pretty good. It would be pretty moronic for them to make some roster changes
That lineup was brilliantly planned and executed by OMG don't make the mistake of thinking LD sucks because they lost to it.
I could have seen TSM and so on loosing to it aswell. They had it planned and knew how to play it smart, they play comps like this in China,
as a comp like this is exactly OMG's style. It is hyper aggressive from the beginning and they excell in the pressure/objective game.
So you go on saying NA wasn't that bad? :-D
You call Vulcun Throwbargains... so if throwing isn't bad, what is?
Throwing games has been going on all season long in the NA scene and those teams simply can't seem to stop it
and I'm kind of sorry, but it makes those teams look bad compared to the likes of the teams that came to the QF's.
TSM will also have to re-think theire lineup and strategies as they are to predictable, you take out Regi/Dyrus early and it's GG,
they won't manage to come back from that.
With supports you forgot dear Annie being run by the chinese and TSM, veigar aswell.
I also liked the TrinForce ez and such, too bad TF is already getting nerfed again on PBE.
I hope for some special chinese comps to win this tournament, or Mr. Faker Playmaker to carry SK T1.