Post-game Analysis: FNC vs IG Game 1

Worlds has begun!! I will be doing a series of post-game analysis write-ups for the matches at Worlds. With the sheer volume of games in a single day, I will do my best to write these as soon as possible. Please do not ask about games played after the one in the article as I’ll be behind from live games. I’m working on the formatting for posting these articles so any suggestions are much appreciated. I decided to break it down into pick/bans for each team, discussing the final comps and how they should be played (what are their win conditions), notable item build paths, and discussing major events at different parts of the game. I chose to do a bullet format so avoid lengthy paragraphs, but any feedback on preference is much appreciated. I also may have gone too far into detail discussing the events of early/mid/late game. I may choose to “trim the fat” in future articles. Thank you for your patience.

Short-hand list I may use:

• Bot Lane = ADC + support duo; bot lane = the actual bottom lane (same applies for other lanes)
• For the jungle, it may get confusing since I switch between talking from Red team’s and Blue team’s perspective and their respective red and blue buffs. I will try my best to always mention whose point of view I’m talking from to know which side of the map I’m referring to. If you have a better idea of how to better differentiate between these, please let me know!

P/B:

• Overall:
  • Generic bans by both, just ban OP picks, not targeting specific comps
  • Vayne ban a little interesting; targets Kid but he hasn’t played it much in LPL playoffs nor was it banned against him – later on its realized FNC banned Vayne because they wanted to run Sivir
  • Ashe arrow wants to land on carries, but Sivir spell shield + Azir went cleanse, not very effective

• FNC 1^st pick Elise – good safe pick, strong jungler that fits into various team comps
  • IG 1^st picks Thresh/Skarner – Thresh is fine versatile pick (didn’t take Alistar); Skarner gives away what type of comp you want to run and doesn’t duel well against Elise 1v1 – weak early game opens up self to invades and poor 2v2 skirmishes with top laners
• FNC 2^nd picks Sivir/Shen – saves solo lanes as last picks, tells they want a team fight comp since Sivir, Shen possible flex top or support
  • IG 2^nd picks Riven/Ashe – blind pick Riven is never a good idea, hopefully laning against Shen but not guaranteed; both picks give away it’s a pick comp for sure; Skarner has weak early game so he doesn’t synergize with Riven well to snowball or support her
• FNC 3^rd picks Azir/Hecarim – Hecarim lanes fine against Riven and provides more team-fight and front line threat; Azir had to be blind picked, rather safe pick, good counter to provide some disengage to team against Riven/Skarner
  • IG 3^rd pick – Viktor – generic, safe and strong mid laner; goes pretty even against Azir; gives team much needed wave clear; could’ve been picked earlier and give top lane last pick to counter

I don’t think IG drafted a cohesive comp. They didn’t need to take Skarner in the 1^st round draft since Elise was 1^st picked by FNC, so picking him early kind of gave away what IG was going for, leading into FNC taking Shen in the 2^nd round. The meta definitely revolves around team-fighting comps, but now in the Juggernaut era, I think pick comps can be good too. Skarner himself wasn’t a bad pick, but he needs help. He has a weak early game so they couldn’t start snowballing until he hit level 6. This fits well for the comp having Ashe + Thresh to supplement it (Ashe + Skarner should hit 6 around the same time) using Ashe arrow for initiation leading into either a Thresh hook or Skarner ult. Having Ashe as initiation means Skarner doesn’t have to rely as much on a speed boost to land his ult. It’s a ton of single target lock down that could’ve worked really well. I’m not a fan of the match-up into Elise, but IG could’ve played safe until 6 to start snowballing. I’m more disappointed in the Riven pick. Riven was blind-picked without knowing the Top Lane match-up and won’t get much help from a Jungler pick like Skarner. IG should’ve picked a different bruiser (perhaps Fiora, safer against Elise ganks). Viktor mid was an OK pick providing the team with much needed wave clear to hold mid lane while Skarner power farms to 6. IG should’ve picked Viktor in the 2^nd round and saved the last pick as a counter pick for Top Lane. FNC did well adjusting their picks as the draft went on. They picked Shen after seeing Skarner to help keep teammates alive, they picked Azir after seeing Skarner/Riven as IG’s front-line so his ult provides strong disengage, and Hecarim lanes decently against Riven and doesn’t get bullied as easily.

FNC comp:

• Strong team-fighting comp
• Shen helps prevent getting picked off
• Azir great disengage, knocking back melee engage of Riven/Skarner
• Hecarim matches up decently against Riven in 1v1, plus better team fighting, provides front line
• No true engage but Sivir ult helps with that
• Win Condition: Survive early game, start grouping and team fighting by mid game, can force fights at objectives

IG comp:

• Pick comp – almost all single target damage
• No front line
• Weak top/jg synergy – Skarner kind of weak early game (especially rushing Sight Stone) so Riven couldn’t get help to snowball
• Need vision control, must be first to objectives to contest – don’t want to 5v5
• Good engage with Ashe ult, followed up by Skarner ult or Thresh hook
• Disengage not needed since trying to pick off enemies
• Win Condition: Must snowball the early game, get many kills early especially on Riven; winning early helps secure objectives since you don’t want to 5v5

Items/Build paths:

• ADCs always favor Statikk Shiv over PD since Avarice Blade allows them to stack up gold faster and earlier power spike
• Reignover’s Elise went Runeglaive Elise instead of Cinderhulk. Even builds Haunting Guise since they were ahead. He has a trend of building damage over tank (Warrior Rek’Sai when everyone else went Cinderhulk) which may be exploited in a game where they aren’t ahead
• Yellowstar’s Shen builds Aegis for team since Elise builds damage
• Huni’s Hecarim rushed Frozen Heart to lane against Riven, once he’s 9 he can lane quite well against Riven so built defensively early game where Riven is stronger – good build path
• Febiven gets Nashor’s tooth for great pushing power; Zhonya’s for defense + against 3 AD; then QSS 3^rd item just incase
• Rekkles also gets QSS as 3^rd item despite being ahead
• Kakao’s Skarner gets Ranger’s Trailblazer into sight stone, before upgrading to Cinderhulk – very weak early game in exchange for vision
• Rookie’s Viktor 1^st item Rylais – Luden’s might have been better for wave clear and more burst, burst would be better for this comp 

Start to game (0-~3min):

• Lane swapped
  • Kid went straight to top tower and hid there; prevents invading wards from spotting him out
    • IG initiates lane swap – Bot Lane match-up slightly favors FNC due to Sivir’s strong wave clear, but Shen is weak in lane – could’ve been a decent lane with Riven hopefully beating out Hecarim Top, but IG placed priority on getting Ashe farm
  • IG no invade for wards, stayed defensively in own jungle
  • FNC invade only to ward enemy red buff, spot Skarner there
  • (Red Side) Skarner starts blue buff with Riven then does wolves – Shen invades and steals small wolf
    • Pathing: Blue buff – wolves – raptors – red buff (solo)
    • Riven does up to raptors then recalls to go bot lane
  • (Blue Side) Elise start Krugs with bot lane leash
    • Pathing: Krugs – red buff – raptors – invade to enemy Gromp
    • Elise gets to farm alone
  • Hecarim does wolves solo – late Thresh roam, spotted but not denied
  • ~2:50 Shen wards top side river of mid lane for Febiven since junglers known to be on that side now
  • ~3 min
    • Riven/Thresh coming to defend bot tower with Skarner OTW soon after, Ashe freezing lane top
    • FNC send 4 bot, get to tower first, Riven/Thresh cannot get to tower – wasted time
  • While FNC taking bot tower, IG go all the way from own wolves to enemy blue buff
    • Thresh still roaming around doing nothing, still lvl 1

Early game (~3min – 10min):

• ~4min FNC doesn’t take bot tower (recalled too early) and don’t get wave pushed back against them – now Huni unsafe in farming with lane pushed up; Riven TP in and can now farm
  • Riven gets slight advantage in CS since he can farm safer with a tower behind him
• FNC Bot Lane goes top to catch farm and freeze in their favor: 10+ CS adv for Rekkles
• ~7:24 Reignover invade enemy blue buff, stays close to bot lane so Huni can farm safely after taking 1^st tower of game bot lane – Huni now +20 CS adv; Riven not getting help from Skarner, he’s rushing to 6
• Skarner hits 6 at 8:44, no ult used until ~16 min…
• ~8-10 min Huni freezes bot lane, +20CS, Riven cant farm safely and not much to do
  • could’ve lane swapped Bot Lane to bot to allow riven top, but didn’t
• All vision control for both teams around top side since that’s where the supports are

Mid game (10min – 20min):

• FNC get 1^st dragon at ~12 min; 1.6k gold lead
• FNC starting to take control of vision, getting wards into enemy red buff jungle
• ~13:30 FNC push top outer turret and get 1^st blood on Thresh with Elise gank; TP used but not needed
  • No support to defend tower, IG Bot Lane shouldn’t have overextended there without support and the tower going down
• 1^st Skarner ult at ~16 min, UNACCEPTABLE, and failed to get kill
  • Caught Huni taking their wolves, landed Ashe arrow into Skarner ult, but he gets away with help from Shen ult
  • FNC takes mid outer tower in the mean time
• FNC extends vision control to almost all of enemy jungle, all outer turrets down by ~16min
  • FNC good rotations sending their Bot Lane mid for the last outer tower
• 2^nd dragon fight ~18 min:
  • FNC has total vision control even into enemy blue buff jungle
  • IG use Ashe hawkshot into Arrow ult to contest; IG should not have forced team fight
  • Ashe arrow cleansed immediately by Febiven
  • IG no front line, get bursted immediately; cannot dive in, knocked back by Azir ult, Azir/Sivir safe to deal damage
  • FNC Sivir ult to run at IG coming in too late after dragon already taken by FNC
  • Huni lands 4-man Hecarim ult
  • FNC win team fight: 3 for 1 – FNC 5.5k gold lead

Late game (20min+):

• FNC moves vision control to baron side, get some vision control in enemy jungle but not very far, just to red buff but not deep like raptor camp area
• FNC jockeying for baron, Huni has TP advantage and is pushing bot lane while IG all grouped to face check baron area
• ~21:40 FNC start baron, secured without much contest; Azir ults back Skarner to prevent a steal (miraculously Kakao still got smite off, but didn’t steal)
• Use baron buff and push to get inner turrets while Shen split pushes
  • Team take mid inner while Shen push bot lane halfway to tower
  • Shen recalls to push top lane; team rotates bot lane to take tower with minions prepped by Yellowstar
  • Team rotates to top lane, get top inner turret
  • All 3 inner turrets taken in one fell swoop
• ~24min FNC 3-0 dragon, 10k gold lead, 6-0 towers
• FNC breaks into 1/3/1 split push: Shen top, Hecarim bot, rest mid – back off since baron buff wore off
• ~24min – ~29min FNC just slow playing, waiting for baron to respawn, take enemy jungle and shoving all waves to keep enemy bottled into their base to prevent them from getting any vision control back
• ~29:45 Huni TP flank to start fight – catches out Riven, instantly killed by team (Riven should’ve flashed out)
  • Team fight breaks out and IG scrambling to get out; FNC Sivir ult helps engage
  • Rookie goes in aggressively to kill low HP Yellowstar but fails and dies
  • Skarner ults Azir after Febiven goes in aggressively with Azir ult, but he QSS + flashes out of it
  • FNC win fight: 3 kills for 0
  • FNC gets top inhibitor down
  • IG surrender

Overall a very well played game by Fnatic. They made great use of rotations to systematically take down enemy turrets working on taking all outer turrets, then all inner turrets with baron buff. Great drafting by Fnatic to counter what they were seeing from IG. Fnatic was able to make support Shen work which was great help against a pick comp although if IG chose standard lanes, it might’ve made Shen less effective since he’s weak in laning phase. Good in-game adjustments as well: Huni building Frozen Heart first was great because as long as the team didn’t lose early they would out scale, Febiven used Clease summoner spell to prevent picks, and both carries built 3^rd item QSS even though they were ahead just to ensure IG couldn’t get back into the game. Great game by Fnatic for the start of Worlds.