Post-game Analysis: C9 vs AHQ Game 1

P/B:

• Overall:
  • AHQ played Red Side where Mordekaiser and Lulu bans are almost mandatory at Worlds since you don’t want to give them away as 1^st Gangplank is the other one and sure enough he was 1^st picked by C9. They chose to ban Azir instead – the team they formed was almost all melee so this ban made sense due to Azir’s strong disengage from his ult
  • C9 on Blue Side has more freedom to ban what they choose. Ryze ban was targeted at Ziv and may be seen as a counter to some bruisers. Mountain has favored Rek’Sai, Ekko, and Gragas throughout LMS Summer and playoffs – I’m unsure why Rek’Sai was banned over the rest. Elise is probably the most contested Jungler pick for Worlds so it’s a strong ban 

• C9 1^st pick – Gangplank: typical Red Side bans have been Mordekaiser, Lulu, Gangplank; leaving GP up means C9 should surely pick GP up and they did; acts as a flex for top/mid
  • AHQ 1^st picks – Braum/Kalista: both are top picks in their respective positions, strong duo lane that fits almost any comp
• C9 2^nd picks – Lee Sin/Morgana: Morgana is strong in negating Braum’s engage tools; Lee Sin becomes a “3^rd” ban for Junglers against AHQ – Lee Sin/Morgana shows C9 is likely running a pick comp
  • AHQ 2^nd picks – Darius/Rengar: Not sure if matching against GP but Darius doesn’t have many bad lane match-ups; Rengar shows definitely a pick comp, but lacks synergy with team so far
• C9 3^rd picks – Tristana/Veigar: Tristana counters Kalista with single-target burst that’s targeted so Kalista’s mobility doesn’t matter, also a safer ADC against Darius; Veigar is blind-picked mid confirming its GP top, strong AOE zoning against Darius/Rengar who want to go in, a good secondary option since Azir was banned
  • AHQ 3^rd pick – Fizz: assassin mid lane to shut down Veigar and prevent him from farming too many stacks, no wave clear though but quite safe in lane with E, needs wards to play aggressively

 AHQ formed a heavy dive, aggressive pick comp, but with 4 melee champions, C9’s strong zone control from Veigar, Gangplank, and Morgana counters AHQ quite well. Rengar is certainly a risky pick, but AHQ didn’t have to go for a pick comp because at the time he was picked Kalista/Braum could fit any comp and Darius is a solid top laner. The Rengar pick forced AHQ to go full aggression. I understand having 3 Junglers taken away hurts, especially Elise and Lee Sin who are the strong early game duelers, but picks like Gragas/Ekko that Mountain is fond of could’ve worked out as well. Veigar is weak against assassins, but I’m not convinced Fizz was the best choice. I understand it’s a favorite of Westdoor, but a ranged assassin like LeBlanc/Ahri probably would’ve worked better and provided more wave clear. I think Veigar is still a risky pick especially blind-picked mid; however, AHQ didn’t do much to punish it. Veigar seems like a good secondary option to Azir to stop melee heavy comps from engaging. Tristana was a great pick-up for C9 giving the team strong pushing ability against a team with no wave clear.

 C9 comp:

• Mostly a pick comp – Morgana or Lee Sin would likely initiate followed by Veigar
• GP provides good split push threat and global presence with ult
• Incarnati0n took TP mid which was great in ensuring he doesn’t get bullied in lane and provides another global option
• Immense zone control with GP and Veigar
• Decent disengage against melees with Veigar E and Morgana ult
• Morgana E prevents any lockdown or pick potential from enemy
• Tristana just follows up and resets from the back
• Win Condition: get ahead early game with Tristana tower pushing, group up as 4 + GP split push, deep vision control to prevent picks, stay safe early game – going even is considered a win

 AHQ comp:

• Heavy pick comp
• Most likely want to lane swap to avoid Tristana into Kalista match-up
• Must snowball to win; Rengar and Fizz must be ahead to be effective
• No wave clear
• No reliable engage tools – Fizz/Rengar most likely starts fights
• Do not want to 5v5, want to pick off enemy or small skirmishes like 3v3
• Strong split push comp, weak siege potential – Darius and Fizz could split push for 1/3/1
• Win Condition: Rengar must snowball and pull off successful ganks starting at 6, Fizz must prevent Veigar from farming too much, need to snowball the early game before Morgana and Veigar prevent kills, split push to take towers

 Items/Build paths:

• ADCs always favor Statikk Shiv over PD since Avarice Blade allows them to stack up gold faster and earlier power spike
• Incarnati0n builds Zhonya’s Hourglass second (completed 2 min before game ended) and is unpunished in lane for going Athene’s 1^st item
• Darius – typical build is Phage into Dead Man’s Plate, but Ziv went straight into Black Cleaver without being significantly ahead; lacked the movement speed to be effective, desperately needed in this comp
• Incarnati0n’s Veigar maxed E second
• LemonNation’s Morgana put 3 points E/ 3 points Q by mid game to ensure the shield was stronger to prevent picks

 Execution in Game:

• Lane swap – C9 bot lane stole enemy Krugs before lanes
• AHQ support ganked mid early due to lane swap, but Braum is a weak ganker
• Not good laning set-up early game: Darius solo xp vs Tristana – still able to farm, GP + Morgana vs AHQ Bot Lane, GP is denied more than Darius
• Successful 1^st gank for Rengar
• Hai no early pressure as Lee Sin besides burning Flash on mid; Rengar hit 6 first
  • Hard to gank Fizz mid due to his E, probably protecting Veigar mid but could’ve focused Darius
• ~5 min: C9 switch back to standard lanes, but GP already behind 20 CS and 1 level down – hard for GP to lane
• ~8 min: great 1^st gank by Rengar, successful 1^st blood onto Fizz; +12 CS to Mountain over Hai and hit lvl 6 1^st, good kill to start snowball
• ~12 min: C9 bot lane get 1^st turret with Tristana pushing 2v2, leads to 1^st dragon
  • Tristana BF sword/Pickaxe much stronger than Kalista Bilgewater Cutlass
• ~14:20 min: Darius advantage top leads to top tower taken for AHQ, ahead by 40 CS
• Kalista lanes mid to stop C9 push while Fizz goes bot lane; AHQ lack of wave clear really hurts
• Rengar unsuccessful ults after 1^st good gank; uses ults early or too far for any follow up
• ~15:10 min: C9 sieging mid tower, AHQ only Kalista/Braum defending (no wave clear)
  • Kalista caught out by Veigar; push to 2^nd tier and kill Braum alone
  • Darius forced to defend mid, Fizz comes mid at 1^st then stays solo pushing bot and gets turret
  • C9 just rotates top and get last outer turret, Balls got chance to catch up in farm
• ~17 min: AHQ getting desperate, camp in river by dragon hoping for pick but dragon doesn’t spawn for another 1:30 min – another wasted Rengar ult
  • AHQ not laning/farming, just rotating between lanes getting out-rotated by C9
• 2^nd dragon ~18 min, Rengar and Fizz ult wasted before fight, C9 gets 2^nd tier mid turret and vision control of dragon
  • 18:45 free dragon #2 for C9
• ~20:50 min: GP killed under own turret vs Fizz, bad play by Balls, didn’t respect Fizz
• ~21 min: team fight breaks out when Hai’s Lee Sin catches out Darius and kicks him into team – good follow up by Veigar/Morgana ensures lock down and kill
  • AHQ follow up is slow and ill-advised: Fizz coming from bot lane after killing GP but still far away, AHQ start fight 3v4 for obvious fight – pick comp shouldn’t team fight and especially not head on
  • Kalista/Braum back off while Rengar goes in 1v3, immediate flash out then Fizz goes in 1v3
  • AHQ so spread out, sloppy fight going in 1 by 1, lose 3 for 0
• ~21: 50 min: C9 gets baron, shop then push mid
  • Darius split pushing top, Fizz taking own blue buff while C9 sieging mid inhibitor turret
  • Free tower since sieging 5v3 against no wave clear
• AHQ attempts to engage after turret down while C9 backing out, Rengar spotted by Pink Ward (placed by Sneaky right before taking turret)
  • Rengar killed followed by Darius; C9 gets mid inhibitor
  • C9 siege nexus turrets, AHQ only Fizz/Kalista/Braum to defend (again no wave clear hurts); Fizz jumps in 1v5 without ult and dies
• C9 wins

 AHQ had a good start to the game, but failed to snowball mid game leading to an extremely quick end to the game. Hai’s Lee Sin had little impact on the early game and spent a lot of time babysitting Veigar mid. It was a good move to ensure Veigar could farm to be relevant mid to late game, but it also allowed Darius to go unchecked. Mountain’s Rengar meanwhile power farmed very efficiently, hit 6 before Lee Sin, and had a successful 1^st gank. The fact that Fizz got 1^st blood along with Veigar dying was an ideal scenario to get AHQ ahead, but subsequent failed ganks meant AHQ would fall too far behind. The early lane swap favored AHQ and allowed Darius to farm and get solo xp. After C9 lane swapped back to normal lanes at around 5 minutes in, Balls had to play the rest of the game from behind with no help from Hai. He did a good job managing the lane and farming safely while the rest of the team gained advantages. Besides dying to Westdoor’s Fizz solo kill, Balls managed the game well and contributed to every fight with his ultimate. Having standard 2v2 lane bot favored C9 heavily. Despite going even in CS, C9’s Bot Lane was able to take the 1^st turret of the game by simply pushing 2v2 then rotated mid to apply pressure against a Fizz who cannot wave clear. Mountain failed to snowball any lanes with questionable uses of his ult and Darius/Fizz weren’t able to win solo match-ups hard enough. This, along with Sneaky’s Tristana fast tower pushing and AHQ lack of wave clear, spiraled the game quickly out of control. AHQ made a lot of questionable calls for rotations – losing mid outer tower with only Kalista/Braum defending; trying to split push while C9 has baron buff. AHQ was never able to get ahead to split push effectively despite having advantages on both solo laners. AHQ’s questionable drafting and failure to snowball mid game lead to their defeat.

 Statistics:

Gold distribution:

Gold distribution shows C9 put emphasis on its carries while AHQ spread it among the carries + Jungler with emphasis on their solo lanes. Kalista had as much gold as the Jungler; evident when I noted mid game (~17 min) where AHQ camped hoping for picks putting them even further behind. Kalista’s lack of gold meant she couldn’t afford Hurricane which the team desperately needed for some wave clear.

Damage distribution:

The carries of C9 shined as they should with Sneaky leading the way. I was surprised by Balls’ damage output since he wasn’t able to participate in many fights and only contributed his ult. The fact that Darius’ damage output was so low shows how ineffective he was despite his advantage in lane. Not building DMP and with no reliable engage on the team, AHQ got kited around without being able to deal damage. In the major team-fight at ~21 min, he was also caught out and killed without using any abilities. Braum dealing more damage than Rengar and almost as much as Darius further demonstrates AHQ’s inability to use their comp effectively.

Warding:

Not much to discuss, but I wanted to note the amount of pink wards purchased by C9. C9 purchased 11 vs 10 by AHQ, but 5 on AHQ were from the Support Albis. Meanwhile C9 spread it out to about 2 pink wards each for a more team effort that proved crucial when playing against Rengar. The pink ward that spotted Rengar after C9 sieged mid inhibitor turret was placed by Sneaky. Good team effort by Cloud9.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.

(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380203?gameHash=4293e9fffc2f5f2c&tab=overview&participant=10)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2180)