Taliyah and Malzahar played in CBL

“That power of yourswas meant to destroy. You don’t want to use it? Let it sinkyou like a stone.”

Taliyah, oh, Taliyah. When willyou get your own professional debut? Wait… Someone playedher? Even Malzahar? Brazil? Why are we not talking aboutthis?

(Refer to the appendix atthe end of the article when you see *)

Yes, Taliyah was played recentlyin a professional scene. It was done by none other than theJapanese, Brazilian mid-laner, Bruno “Goku” Miyaguchi, in a match between Operation Kino e-Sports (Kino) and CNB e-Sports Club (CNB). His team, Operation Kino e-Sports, had arelatively positive performance during the 2016 Summer Season* placing third in the CBL ladder. While it was a brave move from Goku topull out a Taliyah with the help of his team, the work ultimatelypaid off as they secured a steady win out of the twogames*.

However, the win was not allaccredited to the midlaner. Picking Maokai with Kindred showedtheir devastating duo punch during the early and mid-game. With theadditions of Sivir and Karma in the bottom lane, the teamcomposition was excellent for longer teamfights, creating kitingand shielding opportunities. To place the cherry on top, Taliyahworked as an incredibly strong, global champion, working around themap like Twisted Fate.

Goku’s ability to playpick-champions* have been evident during the previous playoffmatches. If playing a pick-champion without teleport was possible,it was only through Taliyah. Taliyah’s semi-global utilityaround the map makes her obviously formidable to either establishpowerful ganks or to support her team with her reliable crowdcontrol. Therefore, playing Taliyah for Goku was a convincing casefor his team.

One of Goku’s negativepoints was that he was not able to accumulate creep score (CS) aseffectively as enemy Viktor, which was played by his opponent,Thiago “TinOwns” Sartori. He was behind by a staggering191 CS compared to his opponent. Ultimately, the Taliyah pick wasnot the base of team’s success in that specific game, butGoku was able to show her strengths in a professionalmanner.

The next game was played withthe Kindred ban by CNB e-Sports Club, leaving Ekko to be left open.Kino did not take any chance and safely picked Ekko, a championthey heavily favored. Eventually, CNB picked Malzahar in the secondrotation, making another first for a relatively new entrance to achampion into the professional scene (with the rework).

CNB chose the type ofcomposition that could help them disengage and reengage in a fairlyeasy fashion. Malzahar worked in the sense that his ultimate was apowerful tool to pick a champion off-guard for a swift kill, whilecreating some critical silences that disabled his enemies to answerback. With all that said, one must admit how well Tinowns playedwith his Azir, dealing incredible amounts of damage, as he snipedthe enemy targets.

We have seen two unexpectedchampions to show up in the season/split earlier than people haveexpected. It is going to be an exciting new season with all sortsof different champions reworked. In my opinion, the mid and supportroles will be impacted the most, making the new season/splitinteresting.

Will we see Teemo next in thisseason? Let us know in comment section below.

(CBL’s) Summer Season: CBL’s Summer Season happens during theSpring Season/Split, whereas the Winter Season plays during theSummer Season/Split around the world. Brazilian weather isdifferent than most parts of the world making the wording a bitconfusing. (As they say, “The more you know.”) (Links: BrazilianWeather; CBL Summer; andCBL Winter)
Two Games: The new policy that was implemented to most (ifnot all) regions to make at least two matches per showing. Thispolicy helped the Western region relatively similar to the Easternscene in terms of the number of games.

Pick-Champions: While it tends to identify some mid-lanechampions, pick-champions are the champions that createconcentration toward priority enemy champions. Examples include:Lissandra, Ahri, Morgana, Lux, etc.