Week 10 LPL Preview

by Michael "Tribble" Godani

We are two weeks away from knowing which teams are going to the playoffs. Which teams aside from EDG, OMG and Snake will have a chance to grab the Spring Split Championship and a ticket for MSI? Who will have to play in the relegation tournament? How is the “tank” meta going to affect our league? The majority of these questions shall be answered after the upcoming 24 games this week, so let’s have a look.

Current LPL Standings:

Friday, 3rd of April

OMG vs Energy Pacemaker

Two teams who have nothing more to gain. After OMG's first set loss against Invictus Gaming in Week 9, they might be seeking some form of revenge for their fans, but they've already secured their spot in the playoffs. Energy Pacemaker, on the other hand, will probably be going into the relegation tournament at the end of this month. With that being said, both teams might be trying out some new picks while keeping in mind that OMG will want to hold on to that second spot in the standings.

King vs LGD Gaming

The week of truth for the players and staff of Team King, who are playing three extremely tough matches this weekend of which LGD is their first opponent. Both teams are here to win and splitting the set is not going to help any of them. Also for these teams the new patch might either be a problem or a huge benefit, who knows. LGD is confident of their playoff spot, the only question is where they will end up this split in the standings and for King, every game is a final. Both King and LGD have not been living up to their expectations, although LGD seems to be playing a bit more consistently. This should be a great game to watch with two teams who love teamfights and still have something to fight for. 

Star Horn Royal Club vs Vici Gaming

SHRC has been suffering all season. Having played seven weeks without their star ADC Namei, they now have to continue the rest of the season without InSec. He was diagnosed with a tibial fracture and requires surgery. The management of SHRC has not estimated a date of return yet. They want InSec back only when he is fully recovered and in good shape. Until then, they'll have to do with another substitute to finish of this season. 

Vici Gaming, the team who is currently holding the 4th place spot in the LPL, will be SHRC's first opponent. Vici amazed friends and foe with their performances in their last few sets, demonstrating beautiful objective control and rotations followed up by perfectly executed teamfights/skirmishes. While EDG has been looking extremely good with their new players, Vici Gaming seems to have also sorted out their issues and seem renewed. Vici is also pretty much ensured of playoff contention while for SHRC, this game is one of the four finals that are remaining for them. Will SHRC's broken formation hold up against this renewed Vici Gaming? Can Namei pull his team through or will Mata and his companions throw more salt in SHRC's open wounds? 

Edward Gaming vs Team World Elite

Both Team WE and Invictus Gaming had to bow down to the most powerful and dominating League of Legends team in the world that goes by the name of Edward Gaming. Two best of 5 sets got decided in 6 games by this indestructible formation of greatness. After winning the Demacia cup last weekend without dropping a single game, with Deft dying only twice in the finals and Clearlove being undefeated in the cup as well as in the LPL with his Lee Sin, they seem unstoppable. There is so much to say about this team, but to sum it up, you might call them SSW v2.0.

Then there is Team World Elite. Dropping to QG in the Demacia cup with EDG waiting for them wasn't a good showing. Their new formation is working better than their old one, but is it good enough to take a game off EDG to keep the playoff hopes alive? I personally don’t think so, yet you should never underestimate Spirit, who, along with Clearlove, might be the most interesting match-up to keep track of during this set. The two best junglers in the world are facing each other.

Will Spirit do the impossible and lead his team to victory? Or will EDG continue their rampage and endeavor to out-style their opponents as they did last weekend and in all weeks prior?

Friday’s Matches:

OMG vs Energy Pacemaker
King vs LGD Gaming
Star Horn Royal Club vs Vici Gaming
Edward Gaming vs Team World Elite

Saturday, 4th of April

Star Horn Royal Club vs Energy Pacemaker

EP has basically no chance to obtain a playoff spot this split and will have to focus on the relegation tournament at the end of the month. SHRC, on the other hand, are still in the running for a spot and their game against EP could bring them three points. Keep in mind that SHRC is the one team that EP managed to defeat this split, though with Namei on the roster of SHRC, it should be doable to grab all the points here. As a matter of fact, if SHRC does not take the full win this set, it’s pretty much over as far as their playoff contention is concerned. First up for SHRC is Vici Gaming, which seems tough, but let’s hope that the substitute jungler for SHRC can make his mark at least in this game if he doesn't already do that in the VG set.

Snake vs Gamtee

Both teams are more likely to be trying out champions/formations and perhaps new tactics. Snake is guaranteed of their playoff spot, while Gamtee is most likely to be facing LSPL teams in their relegation tournament. Snake who has been experimenting with a few new setups and tactics, might have to switch up their game again in this new patch. Likewise for Gamtee. The strange fact about Gamtee is that their individual players are not as bad as their current standing is showing, but they are simply splitting too many sets. This would be another set which would probably be a split. 

Invictus Gaming vs Master3

We have discussed M3 before this split. Their botlane is really improving lately and Dade seems to be feeling more comfortable as the season is coming to an end.  M3 has really improved a lot and perhaps with gaining a few more points, starting today against IG, they can secure their playoff spot.

Invictus Gaming is going into this match after suffering a 3-0 fatality from EDG. It is no disgrace to bow to the ranks of the current top team in the LPL but perhaps it did leave its mark on the players. IG has improved considerably lately and Rookie has stepped up his game. He managed to kill Pawn multiple times this weekend in lane. 

Overall this should be a very exiting match to watch between two teams who still got all to play for. 

Team World Elite vs King

The week of truth for Spirit and his IEM heroes. This week will give them (and us) a lot of clarity on their current status. Both King and TWE are in need of three points this set to either secure or have hopes for the playoffs. Team World Elite struggled early in the season but has improved since IEM. King, on the other hand, is just one of those teams as we discussed earlier that is comparable to LGD. Inconsistent results, yet they managed to take a game off EDG and OMG with strong and dominating play. If we will see both teams on top of their game, it will most probably be a tie, then again, who knows. 

Saturday’s games:

Star Horn Royal Club vs Energy Pacemaker
Snake vs Gamtee
Master3 vs Invictus Gaming
Team World Elite vs King


Sunday, 5th of April

Master3 vs Snake

One of those games where a split is the most imaginable outcome looking at the standings of both teams. Snake might want to go for that second spot but shouldn't risk all that much with the possibility that Vici Gaming might knock them out of third. Ella and Beast are the key factors in this game on the side of Snake, where Candy and Lovecd are the ones who have been stepping up their game on the side of M3. A very interesting match in terms of strength, M3 has been growing stronger while Snake has seemed to be getting less dominant this split.

Team World Elite vs Energy Pacemaker

For the biggest E-sports organisation of China, this game against Energy Pacemaker has got the same tag on it as SHRC vs EP, “must win”. Must win to stay alive in terms of making the playoffs, for TWE this game is just as important as the one against King. Where King is facing off difficult opponents, this might be the easiest out of all teams for TWE to pick up three points against. Spirit should and must be able to carry his team in this set and lead them towards those 3 points of victory while Energy Pacemaker wants to make sure that they will leave this split leaving a good impression.

Invictus Gaming vs King

A final for King, while Invictus Gaming is also looking for a victory but with less pressure. King has two teams behind them that want to make sure that they won’t make playoffs, and they're playing against a team that recently lost to EDG but showed signs of strength, suggesting it would be really hard for them to take down. King has been spoken about a lot this split and their standings at this point might actually reflect the way that they play. They win some, they lose some, and they share the 7th place spot. Invictus Gaming is in the same predicament as King but with a lot more quality, that’s why they are higher on the ladder. Definitely a game where the teamfight seeking mentality from King will have to face the skirmish potential and strength from Rookie and Kakao.

Vici Gaming vs LGD Gaming

“We want to attend the MSI as the #1 representative of China.” That’s what LGD Gaming wants and on top of that, getting to Worlds is their top priority this season. Vici Gaming is their next opponent, with Vici having stepped up their game and looking fantastic lately. LGD can now show if they can live up to their own and their fans expectations.

Can IMP finally show that he is still the ADC that he claims to be and carry his team to victory as he did at SSW? He surely has the support to do so. Perhaps the revived botlane of Vici Gaming is too strong, as Vasilii and Mata seem to have finally learned to work properly together? How will Dandy disturb Acorn during his laning phase or deal with TBQ? Will the Dandy/Mata roams be successfull or interrupted? Will Acorn make his presence known in the botlane with one of his fantastic teleport plays, or will We1less go off as one of the top midlaners as many claim that he is?

Perhaps the most interesting match of this weekend, served to us as the last game of the week!


Sunday’s games:

Master3 vs Snake
Team World Elite vs Energy Pacemaker
Invictus Gaming vs King
Vici Gaming vs LGD Gaming


Top 3 Players to Watch:


1. Team World Elite’s Spirit – EDG, King, EP. Spirit has to wait with taking off his carry pants. These three games are perhaps the most important games for TWE this split. If they could manage to pick up 6-7 points then I would say that the management would be really pleased. Spirit is capable of carrying, can he do this again?

2. Star Horn Royal Club’s Namei - InSec is out, Namei is in. Namei has won 3 LPL splits and is now the one and only, the chosen one, to keep SHRC in the LPL and perhaps even make the playoffs. If ever there was a time to prove himself once again, it is now!

3. Snake’s Beast - Beast has been one of the most important players on Snake this split, together with Ella. Now with the patch going over into 5.5, we should be very curious to see how the new meta junglers are going to affect his playstyle and the playstyle of Snake.


The games are live on the following streams at 6AM CEST:

http://www.twitch.tv/riotgames2

http://star.longzhu.tv/lpl

Making Picks and Bans Interesting

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis

The first four weeks of the LCS are under wraps and this season has shown a huge improvement in the pick/ban phase from both the perspective of teams and from the overall balance of the game. Where we used to see the same bans and consequently the same picks throughout the season, we’re now seeing some mind games being played, leaving strong picks open in order to counter them. We’re also seeing a few stylistic choices being made depending on the team.

First off, if we want to look at how things have changed we have to make sure we understand where we came from. If we look at the statistics Kassadin was a permabanned champion in both NA and EU during the 2014 season. He was picked or banned in 92.2% and 98.2% of games respectively. Far and away he was the most feared champion all of Season 4. People just didn't know how to beat him. He could be shut down in lane and still scale incredibly well into the late game. In fact the closest champs to him in bans had 53 in NA (compared to 90) and 41 in EU (compared to 101).

Another group of consistent picks or bans was the trio of Evelynn, Elise and Lee Sin in jungle. Lee Sin was easily the number one jungle pick/ban, but while NA was more adamant about Elise, EU focused more on Evelynn. Regardless, no other jungler was even above 21% in either region. Meaning you saw one, or most likely two, of these three in almost every single game in Season 4. Other notable champions with high pick/ban ratios were Ziggs, Lucian, Thresh and Morgana.

When you look at the ADC position, Lucian was the clear dominant champion throughout the season. He was picked or banned in over 60% of games in both leagues. No other ADC stood the test of time like he did. Outside of Lucian we saw the other ADCs all get some time in the spotlight with Twitch and Kog’Maw getting the most of it.

Overall, if we look at the top 16 champions from both regions, enough to cover an entire pick/ban phase, we can see that these 16 champs were all selected in over 40% of the games over the entire season.

NA Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Elise	28	78	45	33	57.7	94.6	Jung
Kassadin	90	14	7	7	50	92.9	Mid	Top
Lulu	53	51	28	23	54.9	92.9	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	46	52	30	22	57.7	87.5	Jung
Thresh	15	60	30	30	50	67	Support
Braum	28	46	29	17	63	66.1	Support
Morgana	16	57	25	32	43.9	65.2	Support
Lucian	15	54	30	24	55.6	61.6	ADC
Yasuo	42	26	16	10	61.5	60.7	Mid
Evelynn	28	31	15	16	48.4	52.7	Jung
Kog'Maw	19	36	17	19	47.2	49.1	ADC
Ziggs	32	22	9	13	40.9	48.2	Mid
Jax	29	25	9	16	36	48.2	Top
Tristana	17	33	20	13	60.6	44.6	ADC	Mid
Twitch	20	27	13	14	48.1	42	ADC
Orianna	6	40	16	24	40	41.1	Mid

EU Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Kassadin	101	9	7	2	77.8	98.2	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	28	69	34	35	49.3	86.6	Jung
Evelynn	38	47	24	23	51.1	75.9	Jung
Lucian	5	74	38	36	51.4	70.5	ADC
Elise	16	59	32	27	54.2	67	Jung
Ziggs	39	34	16	18	47.1	65.2	Mid
Thresh	11	61	33	28	54.1	64.3	Support
Morgana	16	49	32	17	65.3	58	Support
Jax	41	24	9	15	37.5	58	Top
Twisted Fate	40	23	11	12	47.8	56.3	Mid
Lulu	19	38	20	18	52.6	50.9	Mid	Top
Kayle	38	19	13	6	68.4	50.9	Top	Mid
Twitch	32	24	14	10	58.3	50	ADC
Yasuo	37	17	7	10	41.2	48.2	Mid
Orianna	25	23	10	13	43.5	42.9	Mid
Braum	14	31	14	17	45.2	40.2	Support

Combine this with the fact that both regions only had 2 of these 16 spots taken by champions unique to that region (Kog’Maw and Tristana in NA replaced by Twisted Fate and Kayle in EU). Throughout all of the meta changes that we saw covering the entire season, these 16 champs dominated the scene.

Now looking at this season, NA drops below 40% pick/ban at the 17th champion mark, Azir. This is already an improvement. Keep in mind this is before we see any large meta shifts to bring in other champions. It gets even better when you look at EU. To break below our 40% threshold we would have to go down to the 21st champion in the list which is Lulu.

Another stat to look at is the total number of champs played in both years. In the 2014 Summer Split we had 67 champions selected in the pick/ban phase. In the 2015 Spring Split we've already hit 49 in NA and 51 in EU. Diversity is most definitely up this year.

What I’d really love to go into more depth with, though, is the process of picks and bans and how that’s changed this year.

Last year we saw Kassadin permabanned through the entire season. This almost felt like one team was almost always down a ban, because you just could not let him through. He would be first picked by the blue side team immediately. Following that we would usually see bans go out towards the flavor of the month champions with no regard to personal preference. These champions were just strong in anyone’s hands.

Bans, in Riot’s mind for the professional scene, should be more used to handle champions that are strong in an individual player’s hands. We’ve actually seen this more often this split with champs like Rumble and Leblanc being banned out. These are champs that, while strong, are only ban worthy threats in the right hands. We’ve also, in relation to this, seen different opinions on what should be first picked when it is left open.

Extremely strong champions like Ahri, Maokai and Lissandra have ways to play around them through lane swaps or early ganks. Outside of maybe Gnar, almost every champ has some kind of a strategy or counterpick against them. Lissandra can get rocked by Kassadin or Irelia. Kassadin and Jax have a hard time dealing with lane swaps because they get starved out of gold and experience. The amount of, god forbid I use the buzzword, strategic diversity is really great this season compared to last and while things aren’t perfect Riot should be commended for what they have done.

It will be very interesting to see where things go from here once we get a strong meta shift. Now that there isn't a champion that is so strong they have to take a long overdue look at them (Kassadin), bans are much more wide open. Teams play around leaving things open like Gnar in order to try and counter them. They also focus bans more on champions that each team has shown strength with rather than overly powerful champs. Once J4 is brought back into line, or other junglers are brought up to his level, and Gnar is toned down as well, bans will function a lot more in Riot’s idea. Things are never going to be perfect, but we have seen a lot of more unique champions this season than we did four weeks into Season 4.

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 by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis