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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. 

NA LCS PREVIEW : Week Two

Written by Hussain Moosvi

At the end of a fantastic Super Week in the NA LCS, the results have left a bigger question mark on roster changes than before the split started. The hope was that Week One would show the impact of those changes, but the only immediate difference was seen in Team Dignitas. With the jury still out on the others, and Week Two having an incredibly competitive schedule, fans hope to have some of their questions answered in what is sure to be a memorable week in the 2014 Summer Split.

DAY 1

Counter Logic Gaming (2-2) vs Team SoloMid (3-1)

The day starts off with one of the best rivalries in League of Legends. CLG had a decent Week One with the addition of Seraph and they show promise for the rest of the split. There were good signs for fans in the form of CLG's early game, which only lost to C9, and the rush hour bot lane looked as solid as ever. Link seems to have improved his laning phase quite a bit, and has shown that his trip to All-Stars was well worth it. With that said, CLG's shot calling had some glaring mistakes and it is clear that Seraph is not up to par with the other high tier top laners in terms of his understanding of the current meta. This was touted as a problem by CLG's coach, MonteCristo, and should not be a concern for CLG fans moving forward, as Seraph will only be improving from here.

TSM had a good week with their only loss to Cloud 9, but it is important to note that they had a fairly easy schedule. EG and Complexity are by far the weakest teams in the split right now, and if TSM wants to compete with the better teams they need to improve their vision control and early game rotations around the map. Amazing had a strong showing in Week One with a 10.2 KDA, while Gleeb showed potential, but against some relatively weaker bot lanes. This game will be key in scouting the strength of the TSM bot lane against arguably the best bot lane in NA. It will also give a good idea of where each team stands, with TSM finally facing a higher caliber team and CLG's two wins being against weaker teams in EG and Curse.

All that aside, TSM vs CLG matches are always instant classics. Make sure you're strapped into your seat to witness what is undoubtedly going to be an explosive match.

compLexity (1-3) vs Evil Geniuses (0-4)

compLexity and Evil Geniuses looked way out of their depth in all their matches. EG's performance made it clear that they had a lot of work to do with their new roster, and despite compLexity's huge upset win over Cloud 9, they looked lost in all their other games. This is expected of compLexity as they're coming into the strongest collection of teams the NA LCS has ever had, and with their constant "need to improve" attitude, compLexity looks to learn as much as they can from this split. EG showed a few moments of good play in mostly bad rotational decision making (Baron for Nexus is worth, right?), but that is to be expected from a team with a new player and their previous split record. EG knows that they need to make changes to improve their form and with the competitive nature of this split, they are bound to improve.

One important thing to note is that compLexity will be fielding a new mid laner in mancloud while pr0lly deals with some family obligations for this week. Despite EG's problems, this should give them a heavy advantage and it will be up to mancloud to fill some very vocal shoes in pr0lly's position. mancloud is a player with a lot of experience and an immense amount of skill, and while the change does make EG the favorites, a surprise upset from compLexity is not out of the question. Keep an eye out for the mancloud vs Pobelter match-up as it will be crucial in deciding the winner of this match.

LMQ (4-0) vs Team Dignitas (3-1)

The second highlight of the week, this match-up is going to be crucial in determining the true strength of the Dignitas roster with their new support staff. LMQ has looked dominant, especially with XiaoWeiXiao's CS numbers in every game. Vasilii seemed like a hit or miss player coming into the week with his aggressive style, but his 17.7 KDA says everything about his skill. Individually, LMQ have looked near perfect across the board. While DIG's solo lanes have been heavily upgraded and look formidable so far, it is going to be up to the "kiwipie" lane to withstand the threat that is Vasilii.

Despite LMQ's dominant performances, their shot calling at times has looked a bit shaky. It will be very hard for DIG to individually outplay their opponents in this match-up and they'll have to look at outplaying LMQ around the map. With shaky shot calling against compLexity and dominant shot calling against Cloud 9, this aspect of DIG is still up in the air. The key match-up in this game will be Shiphtur against XiaoWeiXiao. Shiphtur has looked incredibly good in DIG but has fallen behind in his CS during laning phase in every game so far. This is because of various factors and so far hasn't been too big of a concern, but against a player like XiaoWeiXiao, Shiphtur's performance is the key to a Dignitas victory. With LMQ's team aggression meeting Crumbzz's early game aggression, the first fifteen minutes of this game should be explosive and will likely decide the winner.

This is a key game during Day 1 as it sets up our expectations for both teams going forward into their equally tough Day 2 schedules. Have your popcorn ready before this starts because you won't want to miss a single second.

Cloud 9 (2-2) vs Curse (1-3)

Our last match-up of the day features two teams that have confused the minds of most fans. On one hand, we have Cloud 9, one of the most dominant teams in the history of the NA LCS. Two time consecutive NA split champions, Cloud 9 were expected to show up insanely strong at the start of this split. The losses that occurred were a huge shock to every viewer watching. A lot of fans are worried that this might be the beginning of the downfall for Cloud 9 but it is important to remember that the team was playing with barely any practice with their primary shot caller, Hai, and Cloud 9 has always recovered from losses with a vengeance. Despite their initial stumble, Cloud 9 are still the heavy favorite in this match and will most likely show the world their true strength as a team. Hai is a passionate player and doesn't take losses lightly. He'll be coming into this with something to prove.

Curse has had a very strange time so far. In all of their games, Curse looked just a tiny bit away from winning their games and the consistency with which they managed this feat is a troubling issue. Curse lost their early game in the majority of last week's matches but still gave their opponents a solid fight through good picks. They also scored a victory over Team Dignitas, who had beaten Cloud 9. The scary part about Curse games is that the issues for the team to fix aren't as blatantly obvious as some other teams. Curse plays a good game, but never a great game. Their early game needs to improve and their mid/late game, while good, could be better. Curse has been constantly improving since Spring Split, and if that trend keeps up, then this match will be a very good game to watch for the sheer rotational outplays that are bound to occur.

Cloud 9 wants vengeance for their losses, and Curse wants to desperately prove that they belong among the top teams in NA. Both teams are thirsty for a win, and because of that, be ready for a fantastic match to end off Day 1 of the second week of the NA LCS. 

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.

Amazing is Awesome Sauce (Puns be Damned!)

by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider could not have picked a better in-game name. The twenty-year-old German jungler who recently joined TSM has left some impressive numbers in his wake. During his time with the Copenhagen Wolves, he registered some of the highest weekly KDAs, despite his team's sluggish performance. Since arriving in America, Amazing has streamed a few times. Relaxed and humorous, he exudes a good attitude along with a healthy dose of bravado. But while he's patently confident of his own skills, the two time EU MVP is very careful when making predictions about his performance with his new team.  READ MORE..