Alliance Save their Worlds hopes with a Flawless Victory over Najin White Shield.

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

It had been a long time coming for Alliance but the EU Super team finally hit the pinnacle of their potential and really hit the ground running with a perfect game over the heavily favoured Najin White Shield from Korea.

Coming into this game, Najin White Shield were undefeated in Group D and easily one of the favourites for the whole tournament considering their complete domination of the Korean playoffs gauntlet - taking out KT Bullets and the heavily favoured KT Arrows alongside the Season 3 World Champions SKT T1 K. Alliance showed promise in their first game against Najin Shield but were unable to convert their early game lead into a win due to a reluctance to push hard and fast before Shield’s hyper carry protection comp began to scale into the late game. All the right components were there in Alliance’s arsenal to take down Najin Shield: strong laners, tight synergy and the ability to not get out-rotated. Unfortunately, vision control was rather lax and that lead to an eventual loss of map control and the game.

This time, however, Alliance had come off the back of a very convincing win over Cloud 9 (which earned Shook a respect ban from Shield on Rammus) but clearly they did not respect him enough. Shook ran the map solo queue style, making huge plays and picking up the first three kills for Alliance and he proceeded to never let go of the stranglehold he had over Shield and the map. While Alliance destroyed ten towers and picked up fourteen kills, Najin White Shield were unable to pick up a single kill or objective, including Dragon and Baron, for themselves.  By the end of the game Alliance had amassed a 24k Gold lead and not once had the tide ever shifted in favour of Najin Shield. This was clearly a victory that was gained through hard consideration of what went wrong for them the first time, as more vision was both invested in and controlled (32 vision wards placed by Alliance compared to 16 by Najin Shield) alongside the fact that Zefa’s Tristana never had the time or the opportunity to scale up and become relevant in the game.

If this is what Alliance can pull out, it's clear that they are a team that should not be as overlooked as they were coming into this tournament. Shook and Wickd have shown that they themselves are now more than worthy of target bans towards them and should be wary of bans coming in on both Lee Sin and Irelia, but with this consideration it also frees up the possibility of Froggen, Tabzz and Nyph having bans less targeted towards them. What this victory has definitely done is changed the mind-sets of many people: Alliance is no longer just the Froggen show; it’s a true Alliance, a true super team of mechanically world class players.

Froggen built this team to challenge and overcome the best teams in the world, With this flawless victory over Najin White Shield, his team has done just that and can look forward to the possibility of doing so again. 

Impaler : Team could be seeing some changes.

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

We've approached the half-way point for the 2014 League Of Legends group stages and the games have lived up to their expectations providing both dominant performances and huge underdog showings. I managed to run into Matthew "Impaler" Taylor, the Jungler for EU LCS’s Supa Hot Crew at an event being hosted by my university, and I slipped in a few questions about his view on Worlds so far and what his outlook is for Supa Hot Crew.

Watching Worlds:

Have you been watching worlds and what are your impressions so far?

Impaler: I’ve watched the first few games and I think the Koreans are going to dominate. They’re on a whole new level compared to all the other teams and Samsung White have definitely proved that in their games.

Rengar: 

We've seen quite a few Rengar picks at worlds so far. As one of the best Rengar players from the west, what is your opinion on how he’s been played?

Impaler: I’m actually surprised that Rengar has been played so much, especially considering his ult got nerfed, it’s been pretty good so far. The Koreans and the Chinese have a much better grasp on the mechanics and key skills than the western teams.

Supa Hot Crew:

How has it been for the Supa Hot Crew since the end of the season, do you think you could be challenging for worlds next year?

Impaler: I’m not too sure. The team has been kinda of shaky at the moment and the line up isn't certain. We could be seeing some changes. We’re really disappointed that we messed up against Roccat, but I think we could take SK Gaming in a best of five.

Last thoughts:

Lastly who do you think is going win worlds this year?

Impaler: I think its going to be Samsung White. Player for player they’re better and much more mechanically adept than any of the other teams and their team play is unchallenged. If I had to pick a team to challenge them, I’d say Samsung Blue have a pretty good chance as they've taken games off of White and can do so here. Basically, I’d pick any Samsung team to win it this year. Personally I’m a big Dandy fan. I’ve learnt a lot from watching his play and I think if you really want to learn how to be the best at League of Legends, you need to be watching the OGN over the LCS. 

Underestimated Items Part 2:

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

Sword of the Occult

In this meta, it's becoming a lot more common to see hyper-carries snowball their games out of control while having the hard protection of the new breed of top laners like Alistar and Maokai. So in such a meta where snowballing AD Carries are seemingly more important than ever, why do most choose to ignore the basic snowballing item? Simply put, most people choose to ignore the benefits of Sword of the Occult because of the drawback of losing stacks when you die, but also because the item choices for an AD carry are typically very rigid. Statistically speaking, if you come back to lane with a fresh Sword of the Occult, you will be coming back with less power than you could have had building up to another item. Sword of the Occult will always remain a situational pick, a buy that is made when the user has complete confidence in their ability to wait out its low power period and build up the stacks. A typical time where I would purchase the item myself is when you know your jungler is coming for a gank while you are still at base or in the build up to the first dragon fight as both provide easy opportunities to gather assists and kills immediately from purchase, thus voiding the period of low power that the item has while unstacked. With a correctly timed purchase, you can change the game with Sword of the Occult, but with a badly timed purchase you could also do the same. The item is only as efficient as its user. 110 AD and 15% movement speed at full stacks is a prize that shouldn't be overlooked if attainable and right now it’s more attainable than it’s ever been before.

Wit's End

I myself am very surprised at how underestimated Wit's End is as an item. In my opinion, ranged auto attackers with magic damage in their kit like Nidalee, Tristana and Teemo could greatly benefit from both the 50% attack speed boost and 25% magic resistance, but on top of that; the way these champs are played allows for frequent and efficient use of the passive which both adds 42 magic damage per hit onto basic attacks as well as stealing 5 magic resist from the enemy, stacking 5 times while adding 5 to your own. These are not light statistics. A typical Nidalee player could see an even greater burst potential from fully stacking Wit's End, applying the hunted debuff and finishing off with an even stronger Takedown. Similarly, a Tristana might choose to build Wit's End as their attack speed item to further boost the potential of her Explosive Shot and Buster Shot while stacking to be more resistant against a magic damage team. Wit's End also sees benefit on tanky melee auto attacking champs like Volibear and Warwick, both stacking well with their ultimates and the latter being able to fully stack the passive immediately with the 5 hits of Infinite Duress.  Another seemingly unknown benefit of Wit's End is its ability to counter the passive of Thornmail. The on-hit effect of Wit's End not only ignores Thornmail’s passive, but slowly reduces the damage of the reflected damage with each stack while making Wit's End’s passive damage stronger, allowing for a champion, who initially took more damage than they dealt against Thornmail, to negate the item and deal more than Thornmail can reflect.

Ardent Censer

Ardent Censer is an item that got immediately glossed over upon its release; it isn't built on many champions and is generally ignored in favour of other support items most likely because of the specificity of its passive’s benefits and the seemingly low stats it provides the owner. However, it should certainly be considered as a first or second item on any AP support like Nami, Morgana and Janna. In lane trades, you cannot afford to ignore a benefit such as 25% extra attack speed onto your AD Carry for a whole 6 seconds which can be refreshed by another heal or shield; making Janna by far the biggest benefactor of this item by applying the passive with every tick of Monsoon as well as Eye of the Storm. In addition to being proc’d off of champion abilities, Ardent Censer can also be activated through the use of items that heal and shield such as Mikael's Crucible and Locket of the Iron Solari. A powerful combo of items on heavily AD teams is Ardent Censer and Locket because activating the latter provides the attack speed boost of the former to all allies affected by the shield. This item also allows for champions like Tristana with Attack Speed steroids already implemented into their kit to further excel while allowing other AD Carries that lack an Attack Speed boost to try and keep up without being out DPS’d. Lucian particularly benefits from the extra Attack Speed as it provides a more satisfying Culling. This also stacks with Youmuu’s Ghostblade, which could greatly increase the DPS of Lucian’s ultimate as well as any ADC’s DPS in general.

Banner of Command

Banner of Command is the product of reworking the old Summoner Spell: Promote, which showed promise but was simply outclassed by other Summoner Spells in usefulness. As an item, the active is now far more accessible and a great way to affect map pressure while picking up CS from across the map. An effective use of a siege minion promotion can easily turn map pressure against your opponent for being out of position. A typical time to use the active would be in the bottom lane when a baron dance is occurring, this way while minutes are passed battling for the objective you are still gaining map pressure through effective split pushing. To opposite effect, you could have the active promoted minion pushing the top lane while you dance around the Dragon. This item also allows for a double split push in the sense that you could be pushing a lane yourself and providing 15% extra damage to your nearby minions while using the active in another lane to keep pressure on another side of the map. If you even desire to take the minion siege party act further, you can build the Captain enhancement on your boots and provide 20% movement speed to nearby minions as well as the extra damage from Banner of Command. While Banner of Command won’t help infamous Tryndamere’s push out even harder, it can be an enormous asset to AP champions that wish to split push or gain more control. 80 AP and 20% CDR aren’t even laughable stats either; they’re both very helpful and high stats that put the item on par with most others in terms of usefulness. The real key to building Banner of Command is how often and actively you utilize the active and passive. If you plan to spend a lot of time creating map pressure as an AP champion, this is a must buy in my opinion. Another overlooked effect of this item is that the passive increasing minion damage also affects the pets of certain champions such as Elise’s Spiderlings, Heimerdinger’s turrets and Zyra’s plants, but unfortunately doesn't affect Annie’s Tibbers. 

*If you haven't already seen it, be sure to check out Underestimated Items Part 1.  

TILT! - Your Greatest Enemy

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

Ever have those moments when you believe the matchmaking gods are out to destroy you? When you get players who AFK, flame, feed, and refuse to co-operate? Deep down in your heart you know that you’re playing out of your mind to ensure that your team makes it to the late game, but you just can’t help your three allies who are shouting “GG” nine minutes into the game? Yes, this happens to virtually everyone and it’s something that just can’t be avoided. Especially when you’ve just been on a tearaway win streak, those are the moments when you happen to notice the things that go wrong even more. 

What’s important is how you deal with such events. Like it or not, most of us league players are hot-headed. We will attempt to shrug off the last games problems and storm right into the next game demanding our rightful space in a solo lane ready to carry our scrub teams to the finish line. But what we don’t realize in the spur of the moment is that from the time you enter that lobby and say “Mid” instead of “Hi team, mid pref,” you’re already on tilt.

When on tilt it’s incredibly easy to notice things that are going wrong in other lanes. Suddenly, you become a professional level analyst who feels the need to direct your teammates how to CS properly and how to position themselves. In fact, for some players, it’s the hardest thing to simply not tell that top laner that he might be missing a few brain cells. In the mind of such a player, they’re not trying to flame, they’re merely trying to rally together what they believe is a rag tag group of players desperate for a leader. For some other players, Tilt will have them making mistakes they wouldn't usually make themselves, like overestimating how much mana they have left for an all in dive or believing they can make it away without having to flash. Mistakes turn into desperation and suddenly you find yourself diving three members of the enemy team in an attempt to kill the ADC and ensure your team doesn't get deleted. I mean, if you want a job done right, do it yourself...no?

Some players go into the game simply expecting to lose. What would usually be a cheerful, driven player becomes a pessimist who will sit and wait for a mistake to happen so they can say something along the lines of, “Well I knew that would happen.” The pessimist doesn't actually flame, but their general down putting behaviour and reluctance to commit a hundred percent of their ability to their actions leaves them and their team at the mercy of hungrier opponents. Other players become quickly enraged at the thought of seeing their hard work towards a certain goal reduced to nothing. Ever wanted to simply beat that promotion series but just can’t make it through?

The hardest part of defeating Tilt is simply knowing that you’re on it, but no matter how hard it may be to admit that sometimes your three game losing streak is coming down to things that you've done wrong, you have to do it. Similarly, it’s just as hard to admit to yourself that you played to the best of your ability but simply weren't meant to win that game. Things like that happen. Even the best players don’t win every single game. I don’t have to remind people of Fnatic’s terrible run in the Spring Split of LCS Season Four, where they dropped games to every single team and looked like they were on the verge of collapse. Even throughout the Summer Split, Fnatic looked shaky, but what saved them was the acknowledgement that they were tilting; that they can do better if they cooled down and talked over their strategies and game-flow with Araneae - who became their coach and their source of guidance in what could have been a dark time.

The other alternative to solving tilt is to simply stop, take a break, and commit yourself to doing something else for a while until you’ve reset yourself enough to be able to go into a game again with a clear head and renewed confidence. I myself am doing this right now. This article is being written as a way for me to cool off after acknowledging I was on a tilt. As an example of why this is so helpful, look only to Diamondprox and his sudden increase in efficiency in the last Superweek of this season's Summer Split. His gameplay was suffering as a result of Gambit’s inability to adjust properly, and he was subsequently benched. Within that break, Diamond was able to look back upon the games of his team and said while watching a game from home that he now understood how Gambit fans felt watching their performances. Fast forward to his return and the difference was clear as day. His confidence was back and he helped Gambit surge towards their best week all split.

Before every game and especially if you get wind of yourself tilting, just remember to still your tongue, ready your mind and restrain your feelings. Tilt is an internal battle; only after you master yourself can you truly master your enemies.

Underestimated Items

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

There are a ton of Items within League of Legends - a few with a lot more upfront impact than others. Some items may be considered core items and must-buys on certain champions and in certain categories, like Blade of the Ruined King on most AD Bruisers. But with the glaring popularity of those items comes the overlooking of others that honestly could make game changing differences when utilized correctly. I merely aim to touch upon a few within this article to try and raise awareness on the items that no one will see coming.

Ohmwrecker:

When this item was first announced I was excited because the concept sounded amazingly useful, especially for my play style, which involves a lot of diving and reckless assassinations. The thought of being able to fully commit to an opponent who thinks they’re safe under a turret is undeniably strong. So strong, in fact, that the item itself simply could not be allowed to have overwhelming stats. It doesn't match up against core AP items such as Void Staff and Athene’s, but I still believe that on the right champions it can be a useful item. Champions like Fizz and Akali, who have to go balls deep for kills, would greatly benefit from the ability to disable turrets for 2.5 seconds as they provide a suitable window for the final blow and the escape attempt (not to mention that the item resets the stacking damage of turrets as well which is even more valuable in the current patches where they reach max power faster). Another benefit of Ohmwrecker is that it provides a little bit more health, which is valuable to high damage assassins who cannot afford to use too many slots for defensive measures. I often find myself wondering why teams like LMQ, who are known for furiously diving turrets, don’t utilize this item to its potential.

 Another great tip with this item is the fact that when next to the nexus turrets, this item disables them both, allowing for dynamic diving that no one would expect and also enabling teams to finish the game faster when racing death timers and without minions. When considering what to build Ohmwrecker over, consider it over items that would otherwise provide similar stats like Rylais and Liandries. AP Supports can also combo this item with Twin Shadows and Talisman of Ascension to ensure escape is never truly possible for an enemy.

Sword of the Divine:

Sword of the Divine is an interesting concept that has also never really seen any screen time in the professional scene and in normal play, maybe because the base stats aren’t as impressive or maybe because no one has truly figured out how to efficiently utilize this item. 100% Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance is a very powerful steroid that can turn any trade in your favour in an instant. On AD Carries, this item is crazy, but it isn't built in favour of Static Shiv, Phantom Dancer, and Youmuu’s Ghostblade, which provide much better stats (and the latter gives an active that seems more valuable at face value). You even lose the attack speed that Sword of the Divine gives you when it goes on cooldown so why would anyone want to build the item? The redeeming feature of Sword of The Divine in my opinion is the fact that the current cooldown is halved by champion kills. Assuming every time you use it you get a kill it has a 30 second cooldown, this makes it effective in split push situations where you can easily 1v1 and dispatch the person that tries to stop you. It also makes the item effective in extended team fight situations where you could legitimately use it more than once if you pick up two or three kills from its first use. Unlike Ohmwrecker which is a more reliable pickup, Sword of the Divine requires mastery and effectiveness in its use to become a super item. Misuse could leave you crippled, but effective use could be the deciding factor in many fights.

Zeke’s Herald:

Why this item isn't used more is beyond me, especially when AD mid laners like Yasuo remain top tier picks.  If your solo laners are AD, someone on your team should definitely have Zeke’s Herald. +20 AD and 10% Life Steal are valuable stats that could easily turn the tide of any team fight, and the CDR and the Health are also valuable stats that could benefit some bruisers and junglers. Assuming all four other team mates benefit from the passive, the item itself has 300% gold efficiency. Provided your team is also under the protection of Locket of the Iron Solari, you have a huge amount of extra stats in both offence and defense. I believe Zeke’s Herald is a great pickup on the current Rengar play style seen in the LCS, which plays out on CDR and bruiser items rather than full damage. Thresh could also greatly benefit on the extra damage on his basic attacks as well as the added effect for the ADC which could help snowball the lane. Zeke’s Herald also has the benefit of being the only defensive/utility item that provides Life Steal, making it viable on champions that need tankiness on top of life steal like Trundle and Shyvana. When building Zeke’s Herald, always look towards its aura impact rather than the impact of its face value stats. The items I’ve covered so far all have rather average base stats but the power of these items comes from the enemy’s inability to fully comprehend the value of their passives and actives. The true power of Zeke’s Herald can be summarized by Ashe: United we are stronger. 

When is the right time to challenge Baron?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Baron Nashor, a global buff and the strongest buff in the game. It is capable of turning lost games into wins, winning games into losses and sometimes doesn't make a difference at all. Regardless, every league player will become entangled in the infamous Baron dance in almost all of their games so what is needed is clarity and awareness of when and how to perform your baron dance perfectly.

In the Super Week match-up of Alliance vs Supa Hot Crew in Week Seven, Impaler was within one shot range with basically no support, trying to make a steal with Elise. Granted, Elise is a brilliant champion to make steals with, but not under circumstances like that. The play ended with Impaler dead and a baron that led to Supa Hot Crew’s one defeat that week. But this is far from a trend that stays in the professional scene; the threat of giving away a “free baron” compels junglers of all skill levels to throw themselves into certain danger on the whim of a miracle steal. 

If you are playing a champion like Elise, the steal attempt is a valid one, assuming you used your rappel correctly. However, once the timing for rappel has been botched, you should consider your steal attempt over as well, since flashing into the pit will leave you faced with overwhelmingly bad odds and certain death (especially if your team isn't already diving in to help you secure the objective). Junglers like Elise, Lee sin and Jarvan have the liberty of being able to jump into the pit and still have flash available for exit, but sometimes even that safety isn't enough to warrant a steal attempt. Hanging around the wall of the baron pit waiting is almost as bad as walking face first through the entrance. It leaves you open and vulnerable in a fixed position. Many junglers and even other players make the mistake of hovering around the baron back wall alone expecting to make something other than their death happen. 

One of the biggest reasons why teams make botched Baron decisions is due to fear of being behind. Through the eyes of many, the baron buff on an already ahead team is the mark of certain loss and thus, supports wander out of position to place a ward, Junglers hang around despite having lost members and other players waste valuable ultimates to try and steal the buff.  All these examples can be easily avoided with the employment of a calm mind-set and remembrance of the following things: 

Blue Trinket is powerful:

When Baron is un-warded and you need to get vision of the pit, the Scrying orb should be the first thing any player reaches for to ensure that the dark areas of their route aren't hiding an ambush, or simply to get a look at the pit itself without putting yourself in harm’s way. In the later stages of the game, losing your support to a baron face check is not worth the vision you get from the ward they died for. Assuming they get to place it in the first place, all you’ll be doing is watching the enemy team finish the baron before they siege your base 4v5. A carefully used Blue Trinket can allow you to gain vision from a safe distance and properly assess your route as well as the decision to move towards the pit in the first place. A noticeable user of the Scrying Orb is MrRallez of SHC, who himself is usually impeccable in his positioning when it comes to big objective skirmishes. 

Your ultimates are valuable:

Often when a jungler is killed or if a team is out of position, players will resort to using abilities like Ziggs’s Mega Inferno Bomb and Jinx’s Super Mega Death Rocket to try and make a steal or simply deal damage. In the long run, this is never a good thing to do unless there are members of the enemy team that are killable with those ultimates. Especially at a higher level of play, it’s almost absurd to expect that the enemy jungler will be out-smited by your ranged ultimate. This then leaves you without important high damage spells for when the enemy team make a charge on your base with the buff. Also, the damage that may have been done to them will be regenerated by the buff or simply by going back, healing up and then moving on - which means it’s a complete waste of an ability in every instance that doesn't lead to a kill. These abilities could still prove to be helpful in the siege that comes after the enemy team secure the buff. 

Play around your team comp: 

This sounds basic but if you have a poke comp, you should poke. Most people, when faced with the adrenaline of baron dancing, tend to make miss-steps with how to play their champion match-ups. Trying to engage or getting within engage range of a heavy engage comp doing baron is suicide, while not dynamically engaging on such comps when watching a baron be done is equally as wasteful. Hai, in Week Three of the NA LCS, showed exactly what can happen once you let adrenaline get the best of you when he chose to pounce into three low hp members of CLG as Nidalee rather than finish one or two of them off with the spears he had been using to great effect up until that point. What could have been a quadra kill and even a baron ended up as merely the one kill upon Aphromoo’s Morgana. 

There are more things you could do besides contest:

One of the biggest misconceptions made everywhere is that when a team is doing Baron, you must contest and you cannot let them just have it. While Baron is a powerful objective, it isn't the main objective. If you've lost members and you can’t contest the Baron, don’t. Use your time to secure the dragon, place wards in key areas or even push a lane and take down turrets/inhibiters. Walking three vs five into the Baron pit or simply loitering around the jungle entrances is a waste of your time. Baron is a commitment that can be punished if you can’t challenge for it. A well-timed push can prove to nullify the effect of the buff or even stop the enemy team from securing it altogether. 

Baron fights have proved time and time again that one moment can change everything in a game. Don’t let a Baron fight be the moment where your game changes for the worst.

Who’s on Track for Season 4 Worlds?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

This season is shaping up to be the first season of NA where the three spots for worlds are not completely predictable. The NA LCS, by the half-way point, has already seen a good share of upsets, turnarounds, and explosive matches. By week six, the usually dominant Cloud 9 have already picked up their most losses in a split and appear to mirroring their European counterparts, Fnatic, in putting up inconsistent showings that vary from world class dominance to frighteningly average slumps.  When looking at the NA LCS with an objective view of only this split, it’s hard to deny that the three teams currently in pole position look to be the ones that push for the three NA spots.

The NA LCS:

CLG have consistently shown superiority in rotations, and mid to late game clarity in their game play.  They know what they’re working towards in almost every game and cleanly achieve their goals. The only team CLG cannot seem to overcome at this moment is Cloud 9, who delivered two of their four overall losses. LMQ got off to an electrifying start in the NA LCS, and while there were concerns about their ability to hold it up, they have been addressing the critics with particularly strong performances from Vasilii and three time "MVP of the Week," XiaoWeiXiao. Performances that are being backed up more and more by an improving Ackerman. Meanwhile, Dignitas have shown that they mean business with their additions of ZionSpartan and Shiphtur, and they have honestly shocked many watchers with their overpowering form in the first half of the split. However, like the other two front runners, Dignitas show signs of cracks. These cracks were clearly evident in their complete decimation at the hands of compLexity. Dignitas, out of the three, has had the best showings, but also put out one of the worst. The key to securing the Worlds' spot for them is simply consistency.

Despite being the favorites and the biggest NA names, Cloud 9 and TSM have had some substandard performances and only recently began clawing their way back. TSM, in particular, have begun to find some sort of form since the addition of Locodoco as a coach, but their main problem as a team is their inability to take games from the top teams in NA. They have a clean 6-0 record against the bottom three but are 0-5 against the top three. If TSM can work out how to challenge the top teams, they can push their way in for one of the spots at worlds, but unfortunately, a perfect record against EG, COL, and CRS won’t get TSM anything more than a mid-table finish. In almost a complete opposite regard, Cloud 9 are 2-0 against CLG, yet they haven’t been able to pick a win against the two bottom teams in the NA LCS. Whether it’s an issue with underestimating the lower tier competition or simply a bad clash of match-ups, Cloud 9 are sitting in fourth place solely because of their inability to take games from the lower tier competition. Both Cloud 9 and TSM can make it to Worlds, but only if they look at each other’s weaknesses and learn from them. The NA LCS is no longer their playground - it’s a battleground.

NA LCS Dark Horse: Evil Geniuses

The Evil Geniuses were mediocre at best last split and looked to repeat that form this split until they swapped out Snoopeh and Yellowpete, who honestly were well past their prime. The additions of Altec and Helios have completely revitalized the team and seem to have brought out the best in Pobelter, Krepo and Innox. Their performances have suddenly become fluid, calculated and hard-fought, and they only look to get better and better as they become more adjusted to each other - which is a scary thought when considering how good they looked in Helios’s first week. EG may sneak their way into playoffs and could be the team to upset the war between the Top Five.

The EU LCS: 

EU, however, isn't as much of a tight contest compared to NA.  Alliance are already an almost guaranteed spot with a completely dominant 10-2 record, with losses against SHC and GMB which honestly seemed like they had simply removed their foot from the gas pedal. Alliance was a team created by Froggen to go Worlds, and honestly it seemed shaky at the start of the Spring Split, but then the team grew used to each other and almost perfectly synergized. We have to give it to Froggen, he knows how to create a top tier team. At this point, the only plausible way Alliance could not make it to Worlds is through a monumental internal explosion between them, the chances of that are highly unlikely. But EU have shown that any team can slump their way out of first place in the blink of an eye. Alliance’s test now is merely breaking that stereotype, which shouldn't be hard for them.

The other team that looks jet set for Worlds is SK gaming who, like Alliance, completely shot out from the bottom of the table into complete bliss in the second half of spring. SK has shown complete dominance in their team-based game play and map rotations, and clarity in ending games where they are comfortably ahead. Jesiz, in particular, has blossomed into a hero that SK Gaming can rely on in almost every game, along with consistent performances from CandyPanda and Nrated, with Freddy and Sven rarely making mistakes themselves. Two of SK’s four losses are against Alliance and  that's perfectly understandable considering the depth of Alliance’s dominance in the first few weeks of summer.

The third EU spot for worlds is where things heat up as there is no clear team that looks set to take it. The main battle seems to be between Supa Hot Crew, Fnatic, and Millenium, all of whom have put up good performances but still have consistency issues that hold them back. The one thing that unites all three teams is the talent of their mid lane: Kerp, Selfie, and xPeke are all world class mid laners who can easily carry their teams on a good day, but have also shown that they are not exempt from being shut down. Similarly, all three teams also have standout ADC’s in Creaton, Mr RalleZ, and Rekkles, who are complete monsters when left unchecked. The battle between these three teams is where EU playoffs will become interesting, as SHC and MIL have mirrored Alliance and SK’s resurgence from the bottom two teams into top of the table powers, but Fnatic are three split champions for a reason. They always find a way to weasel themselves into pole position when it matters, but this split will be their hardest test yet.

EU LCS Dark Horse: Roccat

Roccat are undeniably talented. They are one of many teams to deny NiP a space in the LCS and showed overpowering form in spring that led them to finish third place overall. They, however, inherited the “first place slump” that so greatly affected Fnatic, and have only recently begun to recover with two back to back 2-0 weeks (partly due to one of the matches being a forfeit). Roccat’s point to work on is simply closing out games and playing with more of a passion rather than playing not to lose. Their overly passive game play was the main catalyst of the ward chanting and Mexican waves from the London LCS crowd that sought entertainment.  

Patch 4.10: What does it mean for the LCS Midlane?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

One thing it certainly means is that Nidalee’s 7/0 record in the NA LCS will either stay frozen or begin to pick up some losses. Nidalee’s human form numbers were hit across the board to provide some kind of counterplay and a bit more attractiveness to the cougar form.

The “keep throwing spears from the fog of war and one will hit eventually” gameplay was incredibly frustrating to watch and even more frustrating to play against. Where big damage should usually have some kind of drawback, spears were a guaranteed health bar eater with no positional setback. In the off chance that you were caught, all you needed was a few helpful teammates to wall you off and allow you to pounce away, heal yourself with Primal Surge’s unreasonably high healing output and throw some more.  But Riot were holding nothing back against the Bestial Huntress as her main source of sustain got hit as well. The changes to Athene’s Unholy Grail means it’s not always going to be a must have rushed item for AP mid laners anymore. With the magic resist levels halved and the mana regen lowered it will no longer heavily snowball the mid laner that buys it first, and opens the door to other items like Morellonomicon returning to the meta - especially with the added 5 AP bringing its AP up to 80.

But the Athene’s nerf and the nerfs to mana regen items also opens the door for a new breed of mid laners to reign supreme. Abyssal Sceptre’s 70 AP and 45 MR is now unrivaled if you are looking to pick up AP and MR, especially when factoring in that it lowers enemy MR by 20, meaning if the enemy mid laner decides to pick up Athene’s, you need only get close to them and it’s like they never even had it. The gap closing burst-assassin mid laners like Fizz, Kassadin, Katarina and Lissandra will benefit greatly from this and should look to disturb the current-meta mid laners like Ziggs, Nidalee and Orianna. I predict that Kayle, however, shall remain a highly-contested pick, as the indirect rise of Abyssal Scepter favours her already MR shredding style. With a Wit's End and an Abyssal Scepter under her belt, I don't see how any champion could withstand the huge amounts of MR shred she can dish out without simply bursting her before she gets to you.

But AP items aren’t the only things to change in patch 4.10.

The changes to the BF Sword line of items is a move to ensure that they are all just as equally viable as each other and that will have a huge baring on AD mid laners like Yasuo - who is already a highly-contested pick. With Mercurial Scimitar now providing 80 AD, it cannot be overlooked as a pickup that could benefit any ADC or AD mid laner who is up against a CC-heavy team comp. On top of this, while the loss of stacking upon Bloodthirster will be greatly missed, I believe the overheal shield will be a huge asset to champions like Yasuo, Zed and Talon who look to get into the middle of teamfights, chunk out damage, and live in the process. Yasuo in particular will undoubtedly benefit greatly from the Bloodthirster shield on top of his own passive shield which could only then be enhanced further by a Hexdrinker/Maw of the Malmortius shield, bringing Yasuo’s potential shield count up to three.

Last but not least, another change that will be greatly overlooked is the change to Leblanc’s Q, which will no longer silence, meaning that there is finally counter-play to Leblanc’s high damage output. This change is the best thing for her balance as she still retains her damage like Kassadin but doesn’t leave enemies completely helpless to reply. This leaves Malzahar, Talon and Viktor as the last three mid champs with the ability to silence. 

Do Transfers Create an Identity Crisis?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

We've begun to see an increase in international transfers and signings between the pro teams which is something we all should have come to expect with so many different teams and leagues. The most noticeable trend at this moment is the movement of Korean players to leagues across the world. In recent times, we've seen Seraph move to CLG, MakNooN, Winged, SuNo, Lactea and Olleh move to Brazil and Helios may be the latest addition to Evil Geniuses.

A rising concern is the identity crisis that could occur from teams heavily populated by other regions performing at international events. Fans will obviously want to cheer for their nation’s talent at international events the same way it is in events like the World Cup for football/soccer. Inevitably the mixture of Korean players, Chinese players and European players in the NA LCS basically voids the discussion on “which region is better” as relative nations could claim that “Bjergsen is still Danish” (as Deficio often likes to reminds us). But what we really need to do is accept that once you enter a different league, you represent that league no matter what your background is. Each region should still be represented in the majority by their own players, but there shouldn't be a hostility towards transfers from other regions.

I believe that true integration between teams worldwide will help to create a healthy international community within the LoL pro scene and will gradually help to make each league more exciting and diverse. The NA scene on a whole has benefited immensely in terms of popularity and competition since the introduction of key European players, LMQ, and Seraph from Korea. Competition is fiercer and this overall provides a better experience for the viewers as well as the players who work harder to produce upsets and exciting brawls. With more international representation across the leagues the community will find more incentive to watch leagues aside from their own. I myself have found more reason to watch the NA scene since the movement of Evil Geniuses and I’m sure that LMQ have Chinese fans that watch their NA LCS games in the same regard.

There is however a risk of domino effect that comes along with an expanding transfer market in that when one team invests in the aid of a Korean player, others will gradually do the same in order to keep up. In a professional scene like LoL’s where stability is essential for players, the last thing they need is the threat in the back of their mind that they may be eventually axed in favour of an international alternative. Perhaps stability of job is a main reason why we've seen an increase in movement of Korean players abroad as the scene in Korea is very fast paced and demanding. There is much less room for error, let alone continuous error, and under-performers are almost certainly dropped in favour of fresh hungrier blood.

There is a fine balance that needs to be considered with the LCS when it comes to transfers - the balance between stability and over-complacency. To create a stable environment, teams shouldn't really encourage dropping players midway through a split, as this harms both the team and the players. Evidence of this would be Selfie and KottenX for the Supa Hot Crew and Millenium, who needed time to grow into their new teams and develop into the crucial players they are now. Players should be entitled to play the whole split they are contracted for, or at least be rotated out for the substitutes that exist within the team already rather than axing them for someone new completely. Otherwise, what’s the point of having those subs in the first place? Rotating and battling for your spot on a team with a sub provides incentive to improve and develop as it did with EG in summer split of EU and certainly gave Snoopeh a new lease on life in terms of his performance when he was re-introduced into the starting line-up. I know if I was a player knowing that somewhere on Reddit there was a huge thread discussing my “replacement,” my performance would suffer. But what’s also important is knowing when a certain team structure just isn't working. Gambit’s failure to see this is partially what has led to their gradual season by season decay while Froggen’s realization lead to the new super team that is Alliance.

As long as players can find stability within their teams, and not every problem is solved by bringing in a Korean player, transfers should never be a problem for the LoL pro scene.

How will Braum change the LCS Meta?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Braum’s release into live play has had a huge impact in solo queue and normal games. With the highest win rate of all the champions so far, it’s hard to deny that this new support is more than free elo. The question, however, is how much of an impact he could make on the LCS meta-game and, in my opinion, he has the potential to change a lot.

First and foremost, Braum will most likely be picked or banned most of the time. It’s hard to deny how useful he is in many situations: he brings invade potential, hard engage, hard disengage and powerful shielding with the absolute negation of one piece of damage. His level 1 is crazy strong because not many supports can reliably trade with the stun he brings out, especially if it’s synergized with a Lucian double shot. Braum/Lucian will likely be a very popular lane considering how Lucian is already picked in almost every LCS game as the main contested ADC outside of Caitlin or Twitch, who are more situational. However, Braum’s kit also enables the play of ADC’s like Jinx and Kog’maw that can dish out tons of damage provided that they are kept safe from being blown up. Kog’maw has already begun to see more play in recent times and now is the perfect time for him to ascend the ranks as one of the highly-contested ADC picks. Jinx already is a situational pick as she is considered by some as the best ADC to play when you have enough protection for her high damage output.

In the same light as Jinx and Kog’maw, another lane that could be affected greatly by Braum’s release is the mid lane. Froggen at the All-Star event showed the world what can still happen when Anivia is allowed free reign. He mentioned himself that Anivia simply doesn't fit into the meta which is why he cannot play her on a regular basis in the LCS. However, with the protection of Braum as well as the synergy of a potential stun lock between them, Anivia might actually be able to sneak back into the Meta and could be allowed to wreak havoc in the mid lane. Her wave clear, lane control and high burst have always been valuable assets to a team; they just always needed a shield to stop her from being bursted. The same could be said for other double-edged sword mid laners like Vel’koz, who never actually made it into regular competitive play or even live play due to an inability to dish out the high sustained damage he brings without being completely exploded. The second that Velkoz is caught out or while he is channeling his ultimate, the protection of Braum could allow him to quickly re-position and be valuable to the ensuing fight. The synergy of Braum’s ultimate knock-up and the Life Form Disintegration Ray could also prove deadly if played right and in unison. This could finally be Vel’koz’s patch to shine.

But with setting up many champions to do well, Braum will also push some champions out of the Meta. Braum has the ability to push some champions that rely heavily on single target damage out of competitive play because of his main ability: Unbreakable. Champions like Nidalee and Leblanc will see their effectiveness reduced greatly in siege situations where they rely on the ability to blow up one key target. Added in with a Yasuo wind wall and that’s a near impossible situation for Nidalee, in particular, to get any poke damage with spears without a monumental mistake being made by the enemy team. Provided that the Braum is quick, Rengar’s ability to burst out a squishy target could also be completely negated by the power of Unbreakable.

But of course this is all still speculation for now and we won’t know the true extent of Braum’s impact on the LCS until he makes it through. But if the regular play stats are anything to go by, he could completely change the flow the duo lanes or simply force teams to re-evaluate their ban choices which could allow other contested picks to get back onto the rift. 

Adaptation – Change is good

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Once upon a time, Fnatic and Gambit were the two hardcore powerhouses of the European scene. There was competition from CLG.EU and SK, but ultimately, those two were the front runners. The difference in skill between them and their competition was clear, but as time has begun to pass the level of competition has grown stronger, to the extent where, in Europe, there are at least five teams within reach of the top at any one time. Adaptation is a must to be able to keep up with such a heavily demanding league and the concern that has risen in the camps of Europe’s two biggest teams is a lack of that adaptation. Read More.