LCK W3D2 Pick/Ban Recap

As always for ease of reference here are my Tier 1’s for each role before we get to the recaps. (Patch 6.1)

Top Tier 1: Ryze, Gangplank, Lulu, Fiora, Lissandra

Mid Tier 1: Lulu, Ryze, Gangplank, Viktor, Zed

Jungle Tier 1: Rek’Sai, Lee Sin, Elise, Kindred, Graves, Nidalee 

ADC Tier 1: Lucian, Corki, Kalista, Tristana, Miss Fortune

Support Tier 1: Bard, Alistar, Thresh, Janna, Trundle, Braum

As a quick note keep in mind that Kindred is banned in competitive currently due to a bug.

JAG vs CJ
Game 1
Bans:
JAG (Blue): Fiora, Tahm Kench, Lulu
CJ (Red): Quinn, Corki, Ryze

Picks:
JAG (Blue): Gangplank; Kalista, Viktor; Rek’Sai, Trundle
CJ (Red): Poppy, Alistar; Elise, Ezreal; Twisted Fate

JAG rightfully first picks Gangplank, and I don’t think CJ got anywhere near the power picks in response to justify allowing it through.

CJ takes Poppy/Alistar. Poppy is a fine flex although I still prefer Lissandra, especially since Corki is banned so I don’t really see the need to take Poppy so highly here given that GP Mid + Top Poppy + a physical ADC is not a strong composition in my opinion .Alistar is of course fine thought still slightly overrated for me. I’d have gone with Lucian/Lissandra here.

JAG grabs Kalista/Viktor. These are strong safe picks, but I think it’s a mistake not to take Elise here considering both teams already have a physical damage Solo laner most likely. I’d prefer Elise/Lucian, but Kalista is always fine.

CJ second rotations Elise/Ezreal. Love the Elise and you might as well hide the Mid, I’d still prefer Lucian but Ezreal does have some extra value from being able to poke from outside VIktor’s combo range.

JAG last rotation Rek’Sai/Trundle. These are strong standard picks that combine well with Viktor to provide huge zone control to set up GP. I would have slightly preferred Thresh to help protect their immobile carries and bring a much stronger laning phase against the weak Ezreal/Alistar lane, but Trundle definitely has value here. JAG has a very strong composition here and as long as Viktor doesn’t fall behind leaving them with all physical damage they will be powerful at all stages of the game. They’ve secured Tier 1 champions in every role and for once a team actually set up GP with CC to support his teamfight potential, really strong composition with a lot of ways to push their advantage.

CJ last picks Twisted Fate, and while I love TF in general I am not a fan of him here. Picking TF into Gangplank is quite suboptimal, as he’s tough for TF to gank due to being able to cleanse gold card while also deterring TF making dive plays elsewhere due to his global ultimate. CJ can likely still make dives happen bot side due to the insane dive potential of Alistar/Elise, but trying to do this against a team with GP and Rek’Sai comes with significant risk. Further as mentioned above one of the best ways for CJ to win teamfights would be to get Viktor behind and stack armor on their frontline, but TF will have little kill pressure Mid so this is basically out the window. CJ also has no other split push threat for TF to supplement late game so all in all I don’t really see any incentive to pick him this game, other then him adding a seperate win condition (split push) to attempt to dodge JAG’s extremely scary teamfight. I would have preferred to see an assassin like Leblanc/Ahri or even Fizz here in order to make the Mid snowball a legit win condition, but CJ had already lost this draft regardless of the pick for me. CJ’s composition is powerful, but giving up JAG’s composition is insane and if you are going to allow that much raw power you need to have a specific avenue of victory where you are equally if not more powerful, and they have no such win condition. Strong edge to JAG here.

CJ vs JAG
Game 2
Bans:
CJ (Blue): Quinn, Gangplank, Ryze
JAG (Red): Fiora, Tahm Kench, Poppy

Picks:
CJ (Blue): Kalista; Elise, Thresh; Twisted Fate, Maokai

JAG (Red): Viktor, Alistar; Rek’Sai, Lucian; Gnar

Lulu skipped all the way through picks/bans here, I’m not going to mention her for the rest of the draft but you can assume I’d prefer her to basically every pick.

CJ first pick Kalista despite Corki/Lissandra/Lucian(and of course Lulu) all being up. This is just silly to me and while I normally don’t mind teams taking Kalista highly since she bring unique strengths and is safe from counters this is just not smart prioritizing to me. Corki or Lissandra should absolutely be the pick here (again excluding Lulu).

JAG first rotation Viktor/Alistar. Similar to the Kalista these are powerful but suboptimal picks, this is also the second straight game that JAG has early picked Viktor so perhaps it is simply a champion they really want to deny from Sky on CJ. Given that CJ have already taken an ADC I would prefer they take Elise/Lissandra here to deny the AP jungler from the pool and allow them to choose their uncontested ADC next rotation.

CJ grab Elise/Thresh next. Solid picks, and there are honestly so many powerful champions still available here that it makes it smart to just take these ambiguous champions that hide their composition and save the solo lanes for last rotation.
JAG grab Rek’Sai/Lucian next. Great picks as both are the most powerful in role. Perfect.

CJ last rotation Twisted Fate/Maokai. I hate these picks as again I see little incentive to pick TF here, basically just to take advantage of the dive potential bot with Kalista/Elise. Maokai just isn’t a blind pick worthy champion in my opinion, and something like Gnar would be better in almost every facet. If they really wanted to play TF then I’d prefer they pick Quinn Top to snowball and bring an extremely difficult to stop 1/3/1 split. Gnar + Ahri would have given them much more powerful lanes and teamfighting with snowball potential Mid.

JAG last pick Gnar, a great pick as the only real tank on the board with a strong lane versus Mao’Kai.

Neither composition is as strong as last games, but again I don’t think CJ’s makes sense at all and JAG just has more powerful champions almost across the board. Another edge to JAG, and CJ’s drafts these last two series have been really really poor. They are comfortable the worst drafting team in the league right now in my eyes.

KT vs SSG
Game 1
Bans:
KT (Blue): Viktor, Ryze, Lissandra
SSG (Red): Lux, Elise, Gangplank

Picks:
KT (Blue): Poppy; Kalista, Alistar; Graves, Ahri
SSG (Red): Corki, Rek’Sai; Gnar, Thresh; Tristana

This is another game where Lulu made it through entirely, and once again I’d prefer her to most picks.

KT first pick Poppy over Corki (and Lulu), this is quite wrong to me but they are certainly not alone in this priority.

SSG first rotation Corki/Rek’Sai. Love these picks, taking the extremely powerful flex pick and top Jungler with balancing damage types.

KT grabs Kalista/Alistar. Solid picks, I’d prefer Lucian as always but they wisely avoid tipping their hand.

SSG second rotation Gnar/Thresh. Gnar is a strong pick into Poppy who matches her in basically every aspect while having slightly more kill pressure, though neither has much. No issues with Thresh.

KT round out their composition with Graves/Ahri. Graves changes the dynamics of their compositon drastically, adding huge kill pressure to both side lanes. This does redeem the Poppy pick somewhat for me, as they are both a lethal combination for ganks and synergystic in teamfights with Poppy having excellent peel for double ADCs. Ahri is a safe blind who has a fine lane against Corki should he be flexed Mid, as well as bringing much needed magic damage and being adept at positioning around Gnar. These were a great last two picks that gave them an imposing composition, especially against the fairly mid-ranged threats of SSG.

SSG last picks Tristana. This was quite the curveball and does give them a huge threat that outranges KT’s composition. That’s about the only positive I can say for it however, and this leaves Corki as the lone magic damage source on the team. This can be quite a boon for him in the mid-game, but come late game he won’t be enough to shred an armor stacked Poppy. To be fair there really isn’t a hugely appealing Mid pick here so I can understand flexing Corki there, but I think their teamfight would have been stronger with an AP like Viktor/Orianna that could threaten the double ADCs more while also making it a little harder for Poppy to itemize.

These compositions are quite evenly matched and neither really has a way to win outside of grouping. As such I’ll give a slight edge to KT for having more and easier to execute engage options.

SSG vs KT
Game 2
Bans:
SSG (Blue): Elise, Graves, Gangplank
KT (Red): Viktor, Ryze, Lissandra

Picks:
SSG (Blue): Rek’Sai; Alistar, Tristana; Cassiopeia, Olaf
KT (Red): Poppy, Kalista; Lee Sin, Lulu; Trundle

SSG elect to first pick Rek’Sai with Graves and Elise banned. I generally like these adjustments in prioritization and the Jungle pool is hit really hard here especially considering Kindred is disabled as well, that being said in my opinion Lee Sin is right there with the top junglers so assuming KT can play it this isn’t actually a big power pick to me. Corki or Lulu would be easy choices for me here.

KT first rotation Poppy/Kalista. I don’t like this at all with the aforementioned Corki/Lulu up. Lets put aside the Poppy prioritization for now, if you are going to pick her why take Kalista when Corki is available and Elise is already banned meaning magic damage sources could be at a premium. Corki would just bring so many more options here, and while I can understand not wanting to take Corki + Lulu due to stacking magic damage and Corki not being the best carry to protect, I think it’s a pretty big mistake to take neither here.

SSG grab Alistar/Tristana next. This Tristana pick is again quite surprising, while I don’t think she is very far behind the big three at ADC (Lucian, Corki, Kalista) picking her this early with Lucian up is quite strange and Lucian’s lack of presence in this series is quite baffling. Taking Alistar to deny the combo with Kalista is worthwhile, but I’d much prefer Lulu as the other pick here.

KT second roration Lee Sin/Lulu. These are really obvious power picks and I’m glad to see a team finally make them today, great choices and Poppy is still left as a flex here with Support/Top open.

SSG last rotation Cassiopeia/Olaf. Olaf has a fine lane against Poppy and is quite strong against Lulu in teamfights so no real issue with that pick. It does leave them needing a major AP damage threat from their Mid, Cassiopeia certainly fits that bill. I think it’s extremely risky to pick an immobile mid-range mage into the likes of Poppy/Kalista however, and she will have to incredibly careful with positioning. Something like Ahri/Orianna/Corki could have provided presence from a much safer distance against KT’s composition.

KT last picks Trundle. Great pick here as the only Support actually capable of actually peeling Olaf while also hugely sapping his tank stats should he get through. He also provides yet another major zoning threat to Cassio, just a great pick against SSG’s solo lanes and KT’s composition has a massive teamfighting edge here. Puzzling drafts by SSG in this series both in prioritization and situation, and KT continues to be a bright spot.

 Toast

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