Quarter Finals – Post-game Analysis: SKT vs AHQ Game 3

P/B:

• Overall:
  • Similar bans to Game 1 – SKT ban Diana instead of Fizz, AHQ ban Lulu instead of Ryze 

• SKT 1^st pick – Elise: Elise has been 1^st picked every game this series
  • AHQ 1^st picks – Thresh/Kalista: AHQ go back to the same Bot Lane as Game 1
• SKT 2^nd picks – Tristana/Tahm Kench: Tristana to counter Kalista again, TK protects against anything Thresh wants to do
  • AHQ 2^nd picks – Fizz/Rek’Sai: Westdoor goes back to his Fizz blind pick, Rek’Sai is next best jungler after Elise
• SKT 3^rd picks – Kassadin/Fiora: a bit of a “troll” pick by Faker, MaRin did well against Darius in Game 1
  • AHQ 3^rd pick – Darius: low value pick, SKT knew they were going to pick Darius 

A few minor changes from Game 1, but overall very similar comps. Westdoor gets to play Fizz rather than Diana. Typically Faker would pick Ryze to handle the melee assassins, but since its Game 3 in a lop-sided series, Faker chose to play Kassadin as a counter. Tahm Kench provides additional safety for a short-ranged comp. A bit of a fun game for SKT, not going for their traditional picks. SKT heavily emphasizes wave clear which this comp lacks, but they seem to be confident to win regardless. 

SKT comp:

• Pick comp
• Strong split pushing threats
• Only engage is Elise cocoon
• Good disengage with TK or Tristana ult
• Want standard lanes – Elise pathing less predictable, allowing for better ganks
• Win Condition: snowball early with Elise’s strong early game, take early towers with Tristana’s pushing power, split push to win 

AHQ comp:

• Pick comp
• Strong split pushing threats
• No reliable engage – Thresh hook is best bet
• Decent disengage with Thresh box
• Win Condition: survive to 6, start snowballing kills, split push to win 

Items/Build paths:  

• Bengi’s Elise: Runeglaive over Cinderhulk – I think Cinderhulk would be much better since the team has no tank and the rest of the build is tanky
• Bang’s Tristana: delayed Avarice Blade, but Pickaxe helped in skirmishes early game
• Wolf’s Tahm Kench: Frozen Heart over Zeke’s – understandable, but not sure if its better; Exhaust was crucial in team fights to diminish Darius, glad he didn’t go Ignite

Execution in Game:

• Standard lanes
• ~3:10 min: Bot Lane duos fight 2v2, Faker TP in, 1^st blood for SKT onto Bang
  • Over aggression by AHQ when TK clearly counters Thresh’s hook
• ~5 min: Faker bullies Westdoor out of mid lane, Mountain comes to hold lane; Bengi counter jungles then ganks top for a kill onto Ziv with his wave pushed up
• ~6:10 min: great tower dive solo kill by Westdoor onto Faker
• ~10 min: great aggressive tower dive by SKT using TK ult
• ~11:20 min: Bengi ganks Ziv in top lane again for kill
• ~12:30 min: SKT invade jungle to steal blue buff, Westdoor forced to fam under tower since Faker shoved the lane prior, AHQ engage 3v4; SKT get 1 kill, blue buff, and 1^st dragon
• ~13:30 min: another mid lane duel, AHQ get 1 kill for 0; Ziv gets solo kill onto MaRin
• ~17:50 min: another great tower dive solo kill by Westdoor
• ~18:30 min: Mountain dive too far for Bengi, baits Ziv forward but dies to MaRin 1v1 (lose advantage top lane)
• ~19 min: SKT rotate Bot Lane to mid to push in against Fizz, Faker rotates to bot lane
  • SKT get mid outer tower
• ~19:45 min: AHQ get top outer tower, SKT collapse and catch out Ziv
  • AHQ get bot and mid outer towers as well, then their 1^st dragon; SKT get top outer tower
• ~22 min: teams even, all outer towers down; each 1 dragon
• ~24 min: MaRin solo kill onto Ziv
• ~26:20 min: 1^st team fight breaks out as teams fight for vision around baron, AHQ engage but SKT win fight 3 kills for 1
  • AHQ trade 1 for 1 kill, good job by Mountain to trade kills onto Bang to prevent SKT siege
• ~28:30 min: AHQ get vision control around dragon, catch out SKT, get 2 kills for 0; AHQ get their 2^nd dragon
• ~34:25 min: SKT great wave management allows MaRin to take mid inner tower
• ~41 min: MaRin dies solo to Ziv in bot lane while both teams posture for baron
  • AHQ move down and take dragon
• ~42 min: AHQ start baron while SKT come to contest, AHQ too spread out, bail on baron while Ziv TP in; SKT win fight 4 kills for 0, push to win 

This was a sloppy game of skirmishes; lots of individual plays and less teamwork. SKT got first blood after a 2v2 fight in the bot lane broke out, but Faker only got an assist. Westdoor got a CS and xp advantage that propelled him through the early and mid game. Westdoor proved why his Fizz is almost perma-banned by solo killing Faker under his own tower repeatedly thanks to the level disadvantage. He took advantage of taking Ignite in mid lane over TP and set Faker behind, delaying his ROA build. Bengi helped MaRin with 2 early kills onto Ziv, but Ziv somehow was still able to pull ahead in lane after getting a solo kill at ~13:30. Ziv was able to bully the lane afterwards and took top outer tower alone, but reckless aggression by Mountain baited Ziv into bad plays. Teams traded kill and towers until ~22 minutes in when all outer towers were down and teams pretty even in gold. This is where SKT began to slowly seize control. For the next 12 minutes in the game, no towers went down with both teams lacking wave clear and struggling to split push. SKT began to control the map through wave management. SKT would shove in multiple lanes at once, then take an objective while AHQ was forced to either farm the waves and push them out or surrender the farm to contest the objective. This was done in waves – first SKT pushes the waves out then while waiting for lanes to push back toward them, they would get vision control in AHQ’s jungle. Then they would shove the lanes again then immediately go for an objective (dragon, steal a buff, etc) and put AHQ into a lose-lose situation. If they wanted to contest the objective, they would lose farm and also have to face-check blind. These little moves slowly snowballed into SKT’s favor and allowed them to split push and take inner towers after catching out AHQ members without vision in their own jungle. Overall, it was a very sloppy game where SKT seemed to just want to have fun, play AHQ’s style, and fight non-stop. As the game progressed, SKT demonstrated their keen map control through wave management that cracked open AHQ’s base and ended the stalemate. SKT made numerous mistakes with individual outplays and in particular Bengi getting caught out often without Wolf there to bail him out. I wouldn’t look too deeply into this however, since it seemed SKT (even from their draft) didn’t take this game as seriously. 

Statistics:

Above average distribution to Top Laners and below average to Mid Laners this game.

Ridiculously high damage output by the Top Laners, but that’s mostly because they constantly dueled each other.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001400074?gameHash=707bd1a4931fab7a&tab=overview)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2237)