Friday, October 17, 2014

Season 4 World Championship Finals Preview : Samsung White vs Starhorn Royal Club



by Max

Samsung White and Star Horn Royal Club both entered into the Quarterfinals in the prestigious first seed spots of the two 'easier' groups. White was barely challenged at all, coasting through undefeated. Royal Club dropped a single game to the NA champs, Team SoloMid. So let’s examine the statistics to see how close SSW and SHRC actually are:

Not surprisingly, when you look at KDA ratios at Worlds, the top five players are all from Samsung White. While both teams dropped a game to TSM, that was White’s only loss (holding a 6-1 record), whereas Royal Club did not have an easy path getting to the finals. White dominated all their series with ease; Royal Club’s 6-4 record included two tough series that came down to the final game. If mindset matters, Samsung White will definitely has the upper hand there.


White's laning phase has been completely devastating. Mata's early game roams and Dandy’s amazing counterganks and counterjungling leaves the enemy junglers with no room to breath. Pawn performed really well, teaching Dade how to play that midlane Jayce. It is difficult to analyze SSW's comebacks and how they play with a massive gold deficit, as the team was only placed in that situation once during the tournament (in their single loss to TSM). It was a game SSW arguably lost in the draft phase, by not having any wave-clear and choosing only late game scaling carries.

Star Horn Royal Club has been playing the "let’s get UZI fed" game, and even though it's worked out for them so far, it might not be enough against White. We have seen that if they fall behind without having a hyper-carry Tristana in their pocket, they have absolutely no idea what to do. Besides being famous for his Lee Sin mechanics, inSec is also famous for his playstyle. He looks for fights and then looks for more. When Royal Club is behind, he is still constantly looking for fights instead of farming up in his jungle and waiting to countergank.


The bottom lane is where Royal Club has the greatest chance of winning. Uzi and Zero can dominate the early game, especially against imp’s favorite Twitch pick. Presumably the weaker draft will do a lane swap, and that will show how well can SRC strategically plan against SSW. Hopefully, Royal Club will bring enough of a challenge to keep the Finals interesting and stave off the 3-0 blow out most are expecting. With over 45,000 fans watching this Sunday at the Seoul Olympic Stadium and millions more tuning in from all over the world, we're hoping for a championship to remember!

No comments:

Post a Comment