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Jin Air vs CJ Entus Quarterfinals Predictions:
Jin Air and CJ Entus are the two hardest teams to get a clear read on during the second half of this split. While Jin Air Greenwings started out extremely strong out of the gate, they have massively struggled in the second half of the split. The meta shifting towards tanks thanks to introduction of cinderhulk has hurt Jin Air’s solo laners GBM and TrAce. Jin Air lost a large chunk of their champions pools such as their signature flex Morgana, GBM’s Xerath, and Chaser’s Jarvan.
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In addition, another highly contest pick for both these teams is Rumble where TrAce and Shy’s most picked champion this season is the Mechanized Menace. Shy played Rumble 9 times this split while TrAce is at 6 for the 2015 split, a pick both laners have fallen back on. Rumble will be an easy early ban for the teams or a first pick priority.
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Jin Air needs to adapt to patch 4.6 as tanks in the top lane and scaling in the mid lane are becoming the norm over the old utility top lane and poke mid lane. Jin Air really will need to dimensionalize their play vs CJ and show that they have the ability to adapt to patch 4.6 with newer picks coming from them. Jin Air briefly had some success with TrAce’s Trundle pick who was absolute monster getting the Azubu superplay for the week. If there was ever a meta to play Trundle, this would be the perfect time to pull out the anti-tank pick of Trundle.
CJ Entus on the other hand have been great on patch 4.7 buffing the already apparent strengths of their top laner Shy and their support MadLife. In 4.7, the support role has mainly become the CC bot with the ability to lock down and pick off carries. Notable picks such as Nautilus, Morgana, and Thresh have become high priority picks. MadLife has already shown his absolute dominance on any champion in League of Legends with a hook. His Nautilus play was amazing in their games
CJ who on the other hand has been having a great return from IEM in light of their performance at the event. Shy, most notably one of the best tank players in the world and in Korea was extremely favored in this patch showing flexibility with picks like Dr. Mundo, Rumble, and Maokai. CJ Entus has been a huge upswing with MadLife pulling out his signature Blitzcrank when they faced Jin Air completely obliterating GBM’s Xerath. Ambition has really come to life in this patch showing his ability to not only apply pressure but adapt very easily to the new meta. CoCo was already a player who preferred these scaling mid laners like Jayce during previous metas which made a shift to picks like ChoGath and Orianna become very favorable for him.
Even though CJ Entus has been favored on this patch, I still think the series can go either way. Jin Air while they have been struggling can still pull together wins over the sloppy play of CJ. CJ Entus will mostly likely come out on top due to their stronger champion pools in this meta and their ability to shut down GBM as was seen in the last time these two faced off.
Final Prediction: CJ Entus wins 3-2
Photo credit goes to lolesports, OGN, and Riot Games.
