EU LCS W7D2 Pick/Ban Recap

As always for ease of reference here are my Tier 1’s for each role before we get to the recaps.
You can find my entire patch 6.3 Tier List here (I missed a couple Champions, Ezreal Mid would be Tier 3 and Rumble Jungle Tier 2): http://www.goldper10.com/article/3155-patch-63-competitive-tier-list.html

(Patch 6.3)

Top Tier 1: Fiora, Gangplank, Lulu, Lissandra, Malphite, Poppy, Gnar

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

Mid Tier 1: Lulu, Corki, Gangplank, Lissandra

ADC Tier 1: Kalista, Kog’Maw, Lucian, Corki, Caitlyn

Support Tier 1: Bard, Thresh, Alistar, Janna

Here also is my Tier list for first pick/first rotation Champions right now.
Lissandra may seem out of place based on teams priorities right now, but I do believe she is this powerful, you just don’t have to actually take her early most of the time because teams are undervaluing her in my opinion.

Tier 1: Gangplank, Lulu, Corki
Tier 2: Kalista, Kog’Maw, Lissandra, Nidalee
Tier 3: Fiora, Gragas, Lucian

OG vs G2
Bans:
OG (Blue): Braum, Gangplank, Corki
G2 (Red): Lulu, Alistar, Kalista

Picks:
OG (Blue): Nidalee; Nautilus, Kog’Maw; Orianna, Quinn
G2 (Red): Lucian, Thresh; Fiora, Gragas; Lissandra

Nidalee/Kog/Fiora make it through bans here. I would go with Kog’Maw here especially since Gragas is available as well, but OG going with Nidalee is an acceptable choice.

G2 first rotation Lucian/Thresh. While I’ve been a fan of both these champions for much of the year this is a little strange. Thresh I understand as Braum/Alistar are both banned so if Hybrid felt the need to secure this for comfort reasons it makes sense, especially since you can always wait on Gragas. Lucian is always going to be solid, but not taking Kog is just a mistake to me. I would have taken Kog/Fiora here.

OG take Nautilus/Kog’Maw next. Love the Kog, but I really dislike taking Nautilus here as Fiora would be excellent for them due to already having an AP Jungler and an ADC in Kog’Maw who does mixed damage. Grabbing the premier blind AD Top laner would be a huge boon for this composition, and they passed it up for what’s in my opinion an overrated Champion. They would be low on peel for Kog, but Fiora not bringing peel is largely negated by her spit potential drawing away the opposing Top laner as well.

G2 second rotation Fiora/Gragas. These are obvious and perfect picks here as the best in role of balancing damage types while hiding your Mid for the counterpick.
OG last rotation Orianna/Quinn. This results in the first Support Nautilus we’ve seen in some time, and it does certainly change the dynamics of passing on Fiora earlier. Quinn is one of the only true counter’s to Fiora in lane, and she does bring the physical damage they need. I still don’t love the Nautilus pick as I’d vastly prefer Bard or Janna as Supports, but they did at least create a solid lane situation out of giving up Fiora. Orianna is a fine blind and she’s a little underplayed in my opinion, but I don’t really like her against G2’s extremely mobile team. It’s just hard to imagine you will ever get a big shockwave here, and I’d prefer Lissandra as a more consistent performer who can control Fiora and threaten Lucian.

G2 last pick Lissandra. Against three carries with no escapes, little CC and a Nidalee, they definitely wanted an Assassin here and it benefits their composition for it bo be AP. Lissandra/Ahri/Leblanc are the obvious choices, and Lissandra is the most powerful and consistent of the bunch in my eyes. G2’s last three picks were perfect, and their first two while not optimal in my eyes were still powerful and versatile, helping to set up their last three. Excellent draft from them here, with Tier 1 Champions across the board and a variety of win conditions with no power trough throughout the entire game.

OG has a fine composition, but they are very AP heavy without Quinn, and Quinn’s strength is splitting so you don’t want to need her in teamfights. Nautilus, Orianna, and Quinn are all Tier 2 Champions for me, and Quinn’s lane matchup against Fiora is the only advantage they got out of picking them here (and even that is mitigated due to their AP heavy 4 man besides her). Big edge to G2 here on both power and cohesion.

GIA vs H2k
Bans:
GIA (Blue): Alistar, Lulu, Lucian
H2K (Red): Rammus, Gangplank, Kalista

Picks:
GIA (Blue): Corki; Nidalee, Ezreal; Graves, Janna
H2K (Red): Braum, Nautilus; Lee Sin, Caitlyn; Ahri

GIA first pick Corki over Fiora/Kog/Nidalee, which I agree with as he’s tops in both pure power and flex potential.

H2K grab Braum/Nautilus. I really dislike these picks, they are two of the most overrated Champions right now in my eyes and are nowhere near the power of the three mentioned above or Lissandra. They certainly fit into a lot of compositions so this gives away little information, but this is spewing power for me. I’d take Kog/Fiora here, as you want to balance damage and Gragas is available if you don’t get Nid.

GIA take Nidalee/Ezreal. While I would normally decry taking Ezreal over Kog’Maw, there is atleast some reason here as Nidalee/Kog/Corki would be a very AP heavy team. Nonetheless you could easily take Kog/Fiora here and have Gragas a fallback to Nidalee to remedy this problem (and given they ultimately take Graves top anyway, their damage balance would have been fine). You just have to find a way to take a more powerful champion than Ezreal here for me, and Fiora/Kog would have been my picks.

H2K second rotation Lee Sin/Caitlyn. These are surprising picks as well for me, and I think they’re solid but not optimal. Caitlyn is fine as I can see the worry of Kog getting poked out against GIA’s first three picks, but Braum/Naut should be enough frontline to alleviate this for me so I’d slightly prefer Kog. I’m always fine with a Lee pick, but I’d prefer Gragas against these multi-ADC compositions as he scales better with tanks stats and it’s very hard to avoid getting caught by a flash bodyslam or two over the course of the game, and against these squishies it’s almost always a kill. Gragas is just a more reliable pick for me, and Kog/Gragas would be my choices.

GIA last rotation Graves/Janna. They go all in with the poke/kite composition, and I don’t mind trying something narrow and extreme when you’re a massive underdog like this. Janna is an easy choice with multiple ADC’s and three front liners on H2K, and either Graves or Quinn could fill the Top role here adequately. That being said I’d have preferred Fiora here, as she’ll have way more pressure late game against Nautilus and appreciates Janna just as well, in addition to her split-push removing the Nautilus engage tool against your 4 man siege.

H2K last pick Ahri. Very similar to G2 last game they needed an Assassin that could engage here, and the same choices of Lissandra/Leblanc/Ahri make sense. Ahri has been a comfort Champion for Ryu for a while now, and while I’d slightly prefer Lissandra in a vacuum this is perfectly fine.

Both teams showed very strange prioritization here for me and I don’t think Kog or Fiora should ever fall all the way through a draft right now. I like the cohesion of GIA’s lineup, but Ezreal and Graves aren’t up to par in strenght right now for me and H2K has a multitude of engage options and Caitlyn to keep them in the tower race, so a slight edge to H2k here.

UOL vs SPY
Bans:
UOL (Blue): Lulu, Nautilus, Gangplank
SPY (Red): Nidalee, Poppy, Kog’Maw

Picks:
UOL (Blue): Kalista; Gragas, Rammus; Thresh, Viktor
SPY (Red): Corki, Alistar; Fiora, Elise; Ahri

UOL first pick Kalista here. It’s a tough call between her and Corki, and while I prefer Corki for the flex potential I certainly don’t feel strongly enough about it to chide this pick.

SPY first rotation Corki/Alistar. Love the Corki pick, but there are other power picks available making the Alistar entirely unneeded in my eyes. Fiora/Gragas should be much higher prioirity, and Corki/Fiora is an excellent first rotation with balanced damage and a wide array of compositional directions to go off these two picks.

UOL grab Gragas/Rammus. While I do think Rammus Top is strong, it’s Tier 2 for me and should be picked into poke or extremely heavy AD compositions, and SPY thus far have only a magic threat. Just a weird choice to blind Rammus here into 0 shown AD, and Fiora would be a much safer and stronger pick here.

SPY second rotation Fiora/Elise. Love the Fiora, and Elise is a fine pick even though I’d prefer Lee Sin or Rek’Sai in terms of pure power. Elise does balance their damage nicely should they choose to send Corki Mid, but if they end up taking an AP Mid they will extremely magic heavy aside from Fiora which would limit her Split potential if she’s necessary for teamfights to keep UOL’s itemization honest. I’m not entirely sure who wins the Fiora vs Rammus matchup once they get items, but Rammus will definitely have to itemize armor in order to stand up so to be fair SPY does get an advantage by having heavy AP elsewhere.

UOL last rotation Viktor/Thresh. These are fine safe picks, but I prefer Lissandra to Viktor almost always at this point and definitely against Fiora. Lissandra + Bard/Thresh are the picks here for me. UOL’s composition has fairly low pressure early, and they may struggle to get Rammus out of the early game even.

SPY last pick Ahri. Any standard AP Mage is fine in this scenario and Ahri certainly fits while being able to effectively dodge getting caught by Rammus. Zed would be an interesting options as well, as UOL’s composition is very magic heavy including Jungle/Mid, so he would get a large amount of efficiency from building Maw and potentially QSS. Viktor and Kalista are killable targets for Zed, and they would have the option of 1-3-1 splitting as well, which UOL has few tools to deal with. The pick certainly comes with risk against Rammus and this much CC, so I think it comes down to player preference between Zed and an AP here. SPY have a strong composition here but my concern of Fiora being their only AD still stands given her propensity for splitting.

SPY gets the slight edge here for me, as they have slightly higher Champion power and early pressure, and Rammus faces major itemzation issues here if they force him to lane and build armor then swap to grouping. That being said UOL certainly outscales here as Fiora will be the vast majority of their damage late-game facing down MR stacking and there’s a ton of CC to handle her.

FNC vs ROC
Bans:
FNC (Blue): Rammus, Corki, Gragas
ROC (Red): Nidalee, Lulu, Thresh

Picks:
FNC (Blue): Kalista; Lee Sin, Lissandra; Graves, Braum
ROC (Red): Nautilus, Alistar; Rek’Sai, Kog’Maw; Anivia

FNC first pick Kalista over Gangplank/Kog’Maw/Fiora here. I disagree with this given that Kalista/Kog are both available making taking either much less of a priority. Gangplank is the easy pick for me here.

ROC first rotation Nautilus/Alistar. They can wait as long as they want to take Kog so securing other positions is fine, but neither of these should be at the top of the list for me. The presence of both GP/Fiora allows you to wait on them as well given that FNC are extremely unlikely to take both and have an all AD composition, so with Top/ADC both ignorable it’s logical to take Support/Jungle here. Instead they lock themselves into Nautilus Top when Fiora is just a much stronger pick in my opinion. Given both Gragas/Nidalee are banned and the AD power picks of GP/Fiora are on the board, Elise should be taken as the remaining source of magic damage from the Jungle along with the Jungler of your preference, Alistar for me here given his synergy with Kalista.

FNC take Lee Sin/Lissandra. These are strong and versatile picks, but I would prefer to lock up GP/Lissandra here given that ROC has already shown their Top so you get no more value from hiding your solos. GP has value for ROC’s composition which will be magic heavy with an expected Kog’Maw, and by taking GP/Liss you give yourself the ability to send them to either lane largely negating the last pick counter potential from ROC. Securing your preferreed Jungle is certainly a fine alternative with the two Jungle bans, but Liss/GP would be extremely strong in my eyes here.

ROC second rotation Rek’Sai/Kog’Maw. These are perfect picks here, the strongest ADC and the strongest AD Jungler to balance their damage.

FNC last rotation Graves/Braum. I really dislike these picks, as Fiora would act similarly to Graves while facing none of the scaling issues against Natuilus. Braum is fine, but given your double ADC’s and ROC’s 3 tanks Janna would be extremely valuable here. Fiora/Janna are the picks for me as even with one ADC Fiora benefits hugely from shielding as well. While I’ve been critical of their picks, FNC’s composition does have a lot of power and absolutely insane snowball potential. The one benefit Graves has over Fiora is early pressure, and with Lee Sin and pick/dive potential galore from Lissandra/Kalista, FNC should easily be able to role over this game if they secure an early lead.

ROC last pick Anivia. Anivia has been underplayed this season in my eyes, and she’s solid here. She completes an insane protection suite for Kog’Maw, although they are extremely magic heavy, and Maw’s on Kalista/Graves/Lee + and Aegis could be a huge problem here. FNC’s composition is quite low range overall so Anivia’s zone control will certainly be very relevant in teamfights, but all of ROC’s lanes here need to sit back and scale which plays right into FNC’s composition. They can win if they get late, but they are going to have a really tough time doing so, and even if they do the MR stack will likely keep it quite even. They really needed an AD threat here, and this is where the early Nautilus lock when you knew Kog was sitting there for you really hurts as Fiora would alleviate all of these issues. Given the situation they were in, I think they actually needed to play something like Ezreal/Lucian Mid to give them some semblance of pressure and playmaking in the early-mid game and balance their damage, or take GP and hope his global presence will be enough to get them through the early game.

Big edge to FNC here for all the reasons above, and ROC desperately needs to lane swap to accelerate the game and dodge the Graves lane.

VIT vs EL
Bans:
VIT (Blue): Alistar, Elise, Lux
EL (Red): Gangplank, Kalista, Lulu

Picks:
VIT (Blue): Nidalee; Tahm Kench, Corki; Nautilus, Quinn
EL (Red): Thresh, Lucian; Viktor, Gragas; Graves

VIT first pick Nidalee over Corki/Kog’Maw/Fiora. Corki is the pick for me on both power and flexibility, but this isn’t terrible.

EL first rotation Thresh/Lucian. This is the third time we’ve had a team take Lucian or Caitlyn over Kog’Maw today, so his priority certainly seems to be dropping. I don’t agree with it however, and Corki + Fiora would be the slam dunk picks for me here providing flex potential and balanced damage, with Lucian and Kog both still available if you want to send Corki Mid and the requisite physical damage from Fiora to support Corki/Kog.

VIT grab Tahm Kench/Corki. While Tahm is technically a flex pick, VIT have already played it Support recently and given Cabochard’s propensity for carries it’s almost certainly going Bot. I don’t love Tahm in general, but for VIT who play double ADC compositions nearly every game it’s a much more logical pick than for most teams. Corki is an easy pick, but I’d prefer the same pairing of Corki/Fiora that I wanted for EL here.

EL second rotation Viktor/Gragas. Gragas I love, and while Viktor is a fine blind I don’t see the need to blind Mid here when again Fiora is still on the board. Even though this allows you to counterpick Top and perhaps you want to put huge priority on shutting down Cabochard, ultimately if it’s me I’d be last picking Fiora the majority of the time anyway, so just take her now. Maybe they were really afraid of picking her into a potential Quinn given VIT’s tendency for multiple ADC’s, but she’s just the best blend of safety and power for me.

VIT last rotation Nautilus/Quinn. VIT interestingly do take Quinn but send her Mid, which is an ok matchup against Viktor where she will be able to outpressure early and potentially impact the map heavily in the 6-8 window before VIktor can instant clear the creeps. My thoughts on Nautilus are clear at this point, and he’s fine here. I would have just taken Kog/Fiora and used the early pressure of Corki/Nid/Fiora to get Kog through the early game and have just absurd damage througout the game with Tahm as a safety valve for all my carries. As is VIT’s composition is fine and cohesive, but just not as powerful as it should be for my tastes.

EL last pick Graves. Just like last game I prefer Fiora to Graves as unless you can abuse Graves early lane pressure Fiora just brings a lot more to the table. Perhaps they were worried about Quinn matching her in split’s later and the kite potential of VIT’s lineup, and these are plausible concerns so the Graves is again fine. EL has a solid and versatile composition, but again there were more powerful options on the board for me.

EL gets the edge here for me as they have advantageous lane matcups Top/Bot which should allow them to get to Mid/Late where Corki/Quinn will fall off and Viktor will easily blow them up given their inability to itemize MR against Graves/Lucian.

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