Weibo Gaming ended their Worlds 2023 journey with defeat in a one-sided series against T1 on Nov. 19. Many reasons can explain this loss, and Xiaohu’s Ahri build in the second game might be one of them.
He unexpectedly bought AD starter item Long Sword on Ahri and upgraded it to Kircheis Shard in his first comeback. This is an unorthodox item for Ahri because she’s an AP-based champion.
While the Long Sword only grants AD, the Kircheis Shard has a passive that energizes the weapon and deals a single AP damage charge after a few hits.
The main strength of this item lies in her lane phase. Thanks to it, Ahri will have an easier time farming and poking the enemy. This can be seen as a counter item to melee champions in particular, which corresponds to Faker’s Sylas.
Up until midgame, however, Xiaohu didn’t get ahead in the lane. He had a slight farm advantage, but it didn’t match the value of the 700-gold item.
The mid laner then bought a Liandry as his second item, which indicated he wouldn’t go full-on into Ahri’s AD build. At the 15-minute mark, he sold the Kircheis Shard for Ionian Boots of Lucidity when teleporting to help his allies in a teamfight.
Xiaohu lost valuable gold due to this unorthodox strategy that didn’t bear fruit. It prevented him from making a significant impact in midgame teamfights, which might have contributed to the team falling behind.
Weibo grabbed a few objectives and the bot lane advantage during the midgame, but it wasn’t enough. T1 didn’t let even the slightest mistake go unpunished and steamrolled through every fight until the end of the game.
Published: Nov 20, 2023 05:33 am