by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos
Worlds 2014 has been a roller coaster of
plays, tears, upsets and high flying performances, but in the end, it was all
down to Star Horn Royal Club’s second consecutive finals appearance against
Samsung White, who crashed out in groups last year as Samsung Ozone. A lot had
changed for both teams, and their respective rides to the finals were both
fairly similar in being overlooked by some in favour of other teams from their
region as well as being predicted winners by others.
Pick/Bans:
The ban phase from both teams throughout
the four matches that were played was static at best. Samsung White was relentless
in their commitment to remove Lee Sin and Lucian from all games played while
Star Horn Royal Club also shared the same conviction in continuously banning out
Alistar and Zilean. Staying on the topic of trends, Star Horn Royal Club also showed a very strong belief in Tristana and Ryze, who both featured in every game for
them except game three. I believe their desperation in trying to outscale SSW
is what ultimately led to their downfall in this series, as they were taken
apart before twenty minutes in every single game except game three. Had Royal Club opted to try and pick a more early or mid-game peaking team comp, they may have had the opportunity to fight back the aggression and sheer
dominance of SSW led brilliantly by Dandy’s map pressure.
Samsung White’s picks were successful
because they always went for a team comp that had mid game power spikes and
could pick individuals off with ease. They played around Dandy’s ability to
perfectly execute ganks and skirmishes while continuously punishing the time it
took for SHR’s comps to scale. Game 3 was the only one where their picks didn't
particularly synergize and the Singed never did have as much impact as when
Looper was on Kassadin, Maokai and Rumble. Similarly to how SHR relied a lot on
Tristana as an ADC pick, Twitch was also taken by SSW in three of the four
games and put to a much greater use than the Tristana pick. If anything, these
games certainly stood out as a demonstration of exactly how you put down and
keep down a Tristana, even in comps designed to prioritize her.
Games:
Royal Club, in game one, tried to go for
a standard “Uzi protection” team comp that relied on Tristana hyper scaling
into the late game with Janna and Orianna shields to prevent her ever being
taken down. While this had worked in past games and Uzi is undeniably one of
the best AD Carries in the world, Samsung White’s early to mid-game domination
was simply too much for SHRC to handle and their Hyper carry comp never really
got a chance to breathe. First Blood was secured at around 1:20, Dandy wasted
no time controlling the enemy jungle with wards and pinks which then allowed
for an easy second kill on the bottom lane. By fifteen minutes the score of the
first game was 0/6, which went on to also be the story of games two and four.
Insec’s performance was particularly lacking in the face of near perfection in
Dandy and the pressure really seemed to get to him the most out of all the
players on Royal Club. In game one he was killed by the same Jayce
shockblast combo twice in quick succession; in game two he failed to secure an
easy to kill on Pawn because he decided to walk away and let Damage Over Time
deal the killing blow instead of simply attack one more time which allowed for
Pawn to escape with a last second Janna shield. Insec’s failure to be relevant
in any way compared to his counterpart is only the worst example as every
member of Star Horn Royal paled in comparison to the Koreans and even Uzi who
was really hyped up failed to put up any kind of relevant showing in games one,
two and four. Once he finally got a chance to scale, though down to SSW’s
questionable and overconfident picks and choices in game three, he showed what
he’s known for but the beast was tamed whenever Samsung White had their feet on
the pedal.
If I had to pick a standout performer of
the series I would have no choice but to pick Dandy. He completely suppressed
Star Horn’s lanes with well-timed ganks, counter ganks and flawless vision
control. A lot of Samsung White’s ability to be so frightening is down to how
well he and Mata light up the map, his ganks were covered by his team as well
as circles of vision to ensure no blank spots could allude to potential danger.
It was as close to perfect jungling as I’ve ever seen in my time watching professional
League Of Legends, in both synergy and single-handed brilliance.
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by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos
