Post-game Analysis: FW vs KOO Game 1

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • Very interesting ban phase; for the first time teams didn’t ban standard “OP” champions and target banned ADC and Jungle picks
  • Karsa heavily favors the tanky Junglers of Rek’Sai and Gragas so KOO decided to ban both
  • FW banned away ADC initiation which PraY excels at with Ashe and Kalista
  • Gangplank, Lulu, Darius, and Fiora all still left up 

• FW 1^st pick – Gangplank: prioritized over Lulu, flex pick mid/top
  • KOO 1^st picks – Lulu/Lee Sin: Lulu picked up afterwards, flex pick mid/top; with the top 3 Junglers banned, Lee Sin stands strong with early game pressure and a comfort pick for Hojin
• FW 2^nd picks – Nidalee/Darius: Nidalee pick to compete with Lee Sin early game; Darius pick shows GP is mid
  • KOO 2^nd picks – Alistar/Jinx: I like Alistar pick against melee solo lane team, Jinx has long range attacks and also provides some zoning with her chompers
• FW 3^rd picks – Varus/Morgana: Varus brings much needed CC to the team with his ult; Morgana also brings CC and Black Shield can help the solo laners get in unopposed
  • KOO 3^rd pick – Gnar: the best counter to Darius, also brings more front-line and CC against a low engage team 

With target bans, many “OP” picks were left up making for very interesting comps. FW wanted to get Gangplank and Darius who are both strong, but leaves the team susceptible to being kited. Nidalee also lacks synergy with them as none of them have CC, but her early game may prove useful. Karsa got heavily denied this pick/ban phase. Three jungle bans along with Lee Sin being denied means Karsa had fewer options this game. His other most played picks are Nidalee and Ekko. Neither matches his solo laners, but Nidalee’s strong early game means he won’t get bullied by Lee Sin. FW rounded out the team with Varus and Morgana to assist the solo lane picks. Varus and Morgana were the best picks to helping out the solo lane selections. KOO drafted a “jugger-Jinx” comp with a big front-line. All of their picks have some zoning potential and can make it almost impossible for juggernauts like Darius to get in. I love the Jinx pick for the long range auto-attacks and chompers zoning. Overall great drafting by KOO to get their most comfortable comp and heavily deny the enemy Jungler. 

FW comp:

• Poke comp with strong zoning
• Lack reliable engage, very little CC
• No disengage (for a poke comp, this is huge)
• Weak front-line
• Strong split pushing
• Decent wave clear
• Pretty good zoning potential
• Prone to getting kited; no speed boosts, etc
• Win Condition: want to farm up early game then group mid game to siege towers using poke advantage, want baron buff to help with siege, DO NOT get engaged upon 

KOO comp:

• “Jugger-Jinx” comp
• Big front-line
• Good engage with Alistar; unreliable but decent engage with Lee Sin/Gnar
• Decent disengage
• Decent wave clear
• Good kiting potential
• Win Condition: survive early game, group by mid game for objectives, force 5v5 fights and engage hard onto enemy team 

Items/Build paths:

• Steak’s Darius: bought an early homeguards to be able to stay in lane against Gnar
• Maple’s Gangplank: no early Avarice Blade in lane
• NL’s Varus: bought Manamune into early CDR to maximize poke
• SwordArt’s Morgana: after normal Sightstone and Boots of Mobility, built Zhonya’s to provide the team with even more zoning and protects his backline
• Smeb’s Gnar: Frozen Mallet 1^st item was great for kiting
• PraY’s Jinx: no early Avarice Blade in lane to get 3^rd item faster; went Cleanse over Heal which helped a lot against Varus
• No Aegis on KOO’s team against Nidalee poke 

Execution in Game:

• Both teams start game by just spreading out along river to prevent invades
  • ~1:05 min: FW Bot Lane invade to ward KOO blue buff side but spotted by ward so KOO react first; KOO win fight 2 kills for 1, more summoners burned by KOO though
• No lane swap, standard lanes
  • KOO double jungle while Steak goes straight to lane; both TP burned lvl 1 so can’t come to lane with item advantage
• ~4 min: KOO give 1^st blue buff to Kuro mid, allows him to heavily pressure GP and keep lane shoved in; Karsa ganks for Maple and helps push lane in to relieve him of pressure
• ~10:40 min: Kuro takes mid outer turret alone thanks to 2 blue buffs, allowed him to bully lane and constantly shove in, getting ahead in CS and tower advantage
• ~11 min: KOO get 1^st dragon after Karsa relieves pressure top lane
• ~12:50 min: Karsa camping for Bot Lane, meanwhile KOO steal blue buff for Lulu to put her even further ahead
• ~16:10 min: KOO taking bot outer turret while FW Bot Lane recalled, SwordArt’s Morgana flash engages with ult and fight breaks out
  • KOO take tower and back off but Smeb TPs in too deep and left to die; could’ve canceled TP
  • FW follow up by 5 man sieging bot outer tower, KOO cannot defend with 4 in time
• ~17:10 min: FW get positioning for dragon as it respawns
  • KOO zoned out by GP barrels, choose not to engage since Gnar not able to join in time
  • FW get their 1^st dragon
  • KOO counter by pushing mid and get mid inner turret; Morgana Black Shield prevents Alistar engage, FW kill Alistar
  • FW counter by pushing mid outer turret but KOO defend well and chase down FW well with Lulu Q and Gnar Q + Frozen mallet – force GP to burn flash and use ult
• ~19:20 min: Smeb surprises Steak in top lane brush, chases him down with FM leading to kill and top outer tower for KOO
  • FW late to rotate top, caught in their jungle by KOO; great engage by Kuro with flash Lulu ult to knock up NL and Karsa, NL dies
  • KOO get top inner tower; FW get mid outer
• ~22:25 min: FW pushed up in mid lane, Smeb goes for TP flank, Hojin catches out NL and kicks him back into Alistar combo for kill
  • Late TP by Steak leads to him dying too, KOO win fight 2 kills for 0
• ~23:50 min: fight over dragon; KOO rush dragon while FW try to poke, KOO get dragon and disengage
• *~26:15 min: KOO attempt to bait baron then engage on FW, Steak caught out by Alistar combo but GP zones with barrels and ult
  • Alistar and Gnar chunked out by GP barrels, Alistar dies without using ult; Smeb turns to re-engage but without team; Karsa does great job catching out PraY for kill
  • KOO split on engage (Hojin never got to go in), FW win fight 3 kills for 0
  • FW go for baron with only Hojin and Kuro to contest; Steak kills Hojin to prevent steak, FW get baron
• ~28:40 min: FW pushing with baron, Hojin caught out and dies; FW siege 5v4 on top inner turret
  • FW get top inner turret then rotate for mid inner; Smeb caught by Morgana binding followed by Varus ult, GorillA goes down as FW get mid inner, mid inhibitor turret, and mid inhibitor followed by their 2^nd dragon on the way out
• ~32:30 min: Smeb TP flank behind FW as they siege bot lane but Gnar has no rage
  • FW engages on Gnar while KOO can’t engage from other side; FW win fight 1 kill for 0, get bot inhibitor tower and inhibitor
• ~34:45 min: FW set up for baron and start, peel off to fight KOO
  • Hojin chunked to half health by GP and Varus before fight, attempts to go kick back Steak but immediately dies; Steak saved by Black Shield
  • KOO tries to engage onto Steak who does great job front-lining but zoned by poke and GP ult; KOO splits up due to SwordArt flash Morgana ult – Lulu not able to ult anyone
• ~36:35 min: FW sieging mid inhibitor, GorillA attempts to engage with Alistar combo onto Steak but great Morgana shield blocks it; FW push for the win

KOO dominated the early game with Kuro leading the way. The early blue buffs made mid lane suffocating for Gangplank with relentless pressure. While Karsa didn’t have much impact early game, he did a great job helping his solo lanes by relieving pressure and help push out their lanes to keep them from being overrun. Despite Maple’s struggles mid, FW did a good job of just holding the side lanes. I was especially impressed with NL keeping up in CS with Varus while under his own tower and starting with Tears + Pickaxe. He also did a great job of landing Varus ult which is a hard skill to land. KOO did a great job individually throughout the game by being able to dodge skill shots until late game when the CDR caught up for FW. I liked KOO’s strategy of getting early boots and upgrading it just for the movement speed to dodge the skill shots. Despite being down early, FW always did a good job of keeping up vision throughout the game, even getting deep vision in enemy jungle. This allowed them to spot out flanks before they happened and minimalized their losses. FW started to turn the game around around ~16 minutes into the game when KOO took down FW’s bot outer turret, the FW countered by SwordArt’s Morgana flash ult. They got a kill on Smeb that probably could’ve been prevented with a canceled TP, but this allowed FW to group together and siege for the first time, granting them their own bot outer turret taken. They followed this up by taking dragon and zoning away KOO with GP barrels. KOO’s main downfall began at ~26:15 when KOO attempted to bait baron then engaged. Despite having no disengage, FW always positioned well with Steak in the front and everyone else behind. With only Steak available, GorillA used Alistar combo on Steak only, but the follow up poke and zoning from GP was too much for KOO to deal with. KOO didn’t all go in together; Hojin did nothing that fight and wasn’t able to kick anyone back, GorillA was caught off guard by GP’s damage and didn’t manage to use his ult, and Smeb went in without full rage bar. KOO tried making the right plays and made good attempts to flank to get back into the game, but Smeb consistently engaged without full rage on Gnar leading to lackluster fights. This, coupled with Hojin’s inability to get in and SwordArt’s great Morgana shield timing on Steak to prevent Alistar combo, meant KOO never reliably engaged onto FW and only caught out Darius and never the backline. KOO repeatedly honed in on Darius and let GP run rampage in team fights. Poor focus by KOO allowed FW to win fights despite not having disengage. Karsa also did a great job of singling out PraY in team fights and made sure he took him down. I’ve been super impressed with SwordArt’s play these first 2 games and liked the Zhonya’s rush onto Morgana who needed to zone for his backline. Steak has performed well and has a surprising ability of getting the enemy team to only focus him while his team makes plays. Great strategy by FW coming into the game and playing to NL’s strengths. 

Statistics:

Karsa on FW gets a larger portion of gold as Nidalee since she’s a carry Jungler. Pretty even distribution for both teams. PraY gets the majority on KOO since he’s the star of the comp; Maple gets the most on GP due to his fast wave clear and GP’s passive bonus.

For FW, I thought Nidalee’s damage might be higher, but it just shows how well Maple and NL played. For KOO, of course Jinx has the majority of damage, but Hojin’s Lee Sin hardly participated at all this game. He made no plays early game and had little to no impact in team fights. His greatest contribution was getting Lulu blue buff the entire game.

Even when FW was down early game, their vision control never let up. They also did a great job of controlling vision around objectives late game when they had the lead, making it easier to land poke from the fog.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380327?gameHash=84db7440d6c8cfed&tab=builds&participant=10)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2191)