Post-game Analysis: EDG vs SKT Game 1

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • SKT made the standard Red Side bans
  • Banning Alistar makes Braum the top Support pick
  • Azir has become Faker’s most comfortable pick and is safe for blind-pick scenarios, EDG probably just didn’t want to deal with his disengage capabilities 

• EDG 1^st pick – Kalista: Kalista is rarely banned now with juggernauts taking over; higher priority than Darius, Braum, or Jungler preference
  • SKT 1^st picks – Braum/Rek’Sai: Alistar ban makes Braum top priority; Rek’Sai has overtaken Gragas as the overall jungle pick likely due to her global ult presence
• EDG 2^nd picks – Annie/Darius: Annie ensures EDG has engage potential for a pick like Darius
  • SKT 2^nd picks – Renekton/Sivir: Gnar has seemed to be the counter to Darius especially building Frozen Mallet, but Renekton is the poster-child of top lane bullies that can handle Darius fine in lane; Sivir gives SKT engage potential
• EDG 3^rd picks – Jarvan IV/Ekko: very interesting picks, haven’t seen J4 in a long time so I’m curious why he was taken over a pick like Lee Sin, he has more reliable engage but less versatility than Lee Sin; Ekko is a fairly safe blind-pick for mid lane since he can always farm with Q, but safer options like Orianna were still available, picking a melee champion is also worrying
  • SKT 3^rd pick – Ryze: gives the team much needed late game damage, he should be able to farm fairly well against Ekko 

Interesting comps brought out by both teams. I do like Jarvan IV and think he can do well in this meta that likes hard engage, but I’m curious why he’s picked over Lee Sin who many consider to be a top pick currently. I do however like his more reliable engage to go with Annie and he still has a solid early game. Renekton over Gnar is another intriguing pick. I mentioned in a previous article (link) that Renekton could come back, so I’m happy to see it actually happen. I’m not a huge fan of the Ekko pick for EDG. He brings a lot of zone control, but I think Orianna would have paired nicely with J4 for team fights or an assassin pick like Ahri to pick off opponents after Annie/J4 engage. Both Ahri and Orianna are solid blind-pick options as well. I like the Ryze pick for Faker; the team seemed low in damage and lacked any late game threat so Ryze was a great fit. His Rune Prison could also be strong against a short-ranged EDG comp.   

EDG comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Strong engage with Annie and Jarvan IV
• No disengage
• Strong zone control with Ekko and J4
• Darius is solid split push threat
• Minimal wave clear
• Short-ranged comp with 2 melee solo laners
• Want to lane 2v2
• Win Condition: use J4’s early game pressure to get lanes ahead, need vision control to engage with Annie, use strong zone control to disrupt team fights in your favor 

SKT comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Big front-line
• Sivir ult for engage
• Good disengage with Braum
• Decent wave clear with Sivir
• Split push threats in Renekton and Rek’Sai
• Want lane swap
• Win Condition: farm early game, group mid game for objectives, use Sivir ult to force fights 

Items/Build paths:

• Deft’s Kalista: could have rushed QSS sooner as 3^rd item instead of 4^th item, would have helped against Ryze
• SKT’s MaRin: aggressive build of Ravenous Hydra and Sterak’s gage pays off; interesting that he built MR before armor
• SKT’s Bang: gets 1^st item Avarice Blade, weak early game but not punished; he also maxed E 2^nd to lower the cooldown of Spell Shield, having it up more often prevents getting caught out or hit by Darius spells, still buys 3^rd item QSS for added safety
• SKT’s Wolf: 3^rd item Frozen Heart, good aura against 3 AD champions
• I liked that both mid laners took TP. PawN didn’t make full use of it; Ignite may have been better since Ekko wants to kill someone in the backline. TP was huge for Faker for added split push pressure and the big dragon fight at ~11 minutes. 

Execution in Game:

• Lane swap occurs with double jungling for both teams
• SKT have better jungle pathing leading to faster tower pushing
• ~4 min: SKT get top outer turret, give tower gold to MaRin’s Renekton
  • EDG get 1^st dragon
• ~7 min: without top tower, Darius falling behind in farm to Renekton having to play safe
  • Bang recalls to buy Pickaxe, EDG finally get bot outer tower
• ~11 min: SKT clearing wards around dragon, great roam by Clearlove and Meiko to gank Faker mid lane for 1^st blood
  • EDG move to take their 2^nd dragon; great immediate rotation by SKT to contest, MaRin canceled TP top after Faker died but immediately ran toward dragon since EDG have TP advantage
  • TP on Faker makes a huge difference as fight over dragon occurs, Sivir ult down for SKT since Bang used it in reaction to Faker gank but too late to help him, J4 and Annie ults used on Faker so they’re down
  • SKT engage as EDG are tanking dragon, late TP by AmazingJ; good engage by Wolf to knock up Deft and front-line; SKT win fight 4 kills for 3 and get their 1^st dragon
  • Get follow up kill on Deft by turret diving bot
• ~14:30 min: SKT 4-man group mid, EDG out of position, SKT get mid outer tower
• ~16:30 min: top lane shoved out to almost river, MaRin capitalizes on denying Darius all game by solo killing him; SKT Bot Lane also take bot outer tower
• ~18:45 min: SKT get vision control around dragon and deep vision in EDG bot side jungle, EDG wrap around bot to contest dragon but SKT simply rotate to push mid; EDG able to defend in time, so SKT go back to dragon and get their 2^nd dragon – great rotational play by SKT dictating the pace of the game
  • Meanwhile MaRin continues to dumpster AmazingJ top lane who isn’t getting help, get top inner tower
• ~21:15 min: Deft solo farming mid, SKT catch him out led by Faker’s Flash Rune Prison
  • SKT bait baron but get nothing
  • EDG allowed to get vision control around baron again
• ~23 min: SKT get vision control back around baron due to their lead, start baron, MaRin runs interference; EDG choose not to contest, SKT get baron
  • SKT get their 3^rd dragon and bot inner tower
• ~26:55 min: Faker and Bengi engage on Clearlove’s J4 right outside mid inner tower
  • Clearlove and Meiko lock down Faker but no follow up damage as PawN and Deft too far away; another late TP by AmazingJ then canceled
  • SKT win fight 2 kills for 0; SKT get mid inner tower
• ~30:40 min: SKT prepping for baron after it respawns, EDG must face check, SKT engages and win team fight 3 kills for 1
• ~32:50 min: another fight over baron, SKT win 2 kills for 0, SKT get baron
• ~34:30 min: SKT sieging with baron buff, EDG solo laners shoving out side lanes but late to defend, EDG no wave clear, SKT get mid inhibitor tower easily then engages, kill Deft first then get the ace; SKT win fight 5 kills for 0 

This game was dictated by the early game lane swap. SKT had better jungle pathing for their double jungle, helped out by good ward placement level 1. This allowed SKT to push the outer tower faster than EDG and also gave the bonus gold to MaRin to set him ahead. EDG wasn’t able to kill the outer tower in time as SKT’s Bot Lane came back to defend it. EDG chose to take an early dragon during this time so AmazingJ was even further delayed to getting back to lane while MaRin was farming alone. AmazingJ was then sent to farm top lane alone against a slight counter pick while being behind in gold and xp and no tower for safety. He also didn’t get much jungle help since Clearlove typically plays around bot or mid lane with Meiko. This disadvantage only grew larger as the game progressed as MaRin did a great job of bullying him out of lane. AmazingJ did great to not die, but surrendered so much farm in return. Renekton managed to get a Tiamat early versus Darius with only a Phage. Tiamat’s extra pushing power forced Darius to have to stay in lane to farm while MaRin could pressure the rest of the map. EDG could’ve helped AmazingJ early game by lane swapping after taking their first outer tower around ~7 minutes in. This drawback peaked at ~16:30 when MaRin solo killed AmazingJ. The team fight around dragon at ~11 minutes in is what catapulted SKT’s advantage. EDG made another classic Clearlove and Meiko roam and successfully ganked Faker for 1^st blood. They immediately went for dragon, but SKT stuck around to contest. Wolf did a great job of initiating for SKT, being sure to hit Deft’s Kalista with his ult, and soaked up damage before going down. EDG may have forgotten about Faker’s TP and it made a huge difference allowing SKT to win the fight. Even though Sivir ult was down for SKT, they knew EDG didn’t have J4 or Annie ult since both were burned on the Faker gank. Without these tools, there’s no way they would be able to win a team-fight so good call by SKT to force the fight. While it wasn’t a huge gold swing, SKT was able to prevent EDG from stacking dragon buffs. I really disliked the Ekko pick for PawN after watching the match. His zone control didn’t accomplish much and he couldn’t threaten SKT’s backline enough. Granted EDG was behind this game, I just think Orianna would’ve been a better pick in every way and EDG was also desperate for some wave clear. AmazingJ I sympathize for because his team didn’t help him out when behind early game, but his consistently late TPs despite having adequate vision is worrying. I didn’t like Faker’s play in their first game against H2K where he made questionable engages with Azir. This game he played much better and had great target selection, making sure to always lockdown Kalista. SKT did a great job of controlling vision once they got a lead, repeatedly forcing EDG to face check baron. EDG didn’t have a solid front-line which made for one-sided fights. SKT also maximized their split pushing power with double TP while EDG rarely used their TPs. SKT baited baron numerous times throughout the game and every time, MaRin or Faker was pushing bot lane to create pressure before TPing back to fight. Great controlled game by SKT, using MaRin’s early game advantage to snowball the map. 

Statistics:

SKT is unique in that the Top Laner usually gets more gold while the Mid Laner takes less. Most teams have these numbers reversed, but Faker is still effective while giving more gold to MaRin. Typically Top Laners have ~20-22% gold distribution while Mid Lane has ~23-25%.

Despite having less gold, Faker still dishes out more damage than MaRin. Of course, its easier as a ranged AP mage, but Faker is the only player who does more with less resources. Bang was able to deal a lot of damage as he was rarely threatened by EDG. AmazingJ had very little impact, but that’s because he was down the entire game. Deft’s damage output is impressive and he was usually the only member to get out alive. Well played by Deft given the circumstances.

SKT did a great job of sweeping away wards around baron allowing them to repeatedly bait it and force advantageous team fights.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380358?gameHash=c27d268ae4429901&tab=overview)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2193)