Post-game Analysis: AHQ vs FNC Game 1

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • The big 3 of Worlds were banned out again
  • AHQ target ban against Febiven
  • FNC ban Rek’Sai over Elise, most likely for her global pressure 

• AHQ 1^st pick – Elise: top Jungler pick
  • FNC 1^st picks – Darius/Sivir: Sivir brings engage for team and helps Darius
• AHQ 2^nd picks – Gnar/Jinx: Gnar to counter Darius, Jinx for some zone control and long ranged attacks for safety
  • FNC 2^nd picks – Olaf/Annie: Annie brings reliable engage, Olaf Jungle benefits from Sivir
• AHQ 3^rd picks – Fizz/Tahm Kench: Fizz is Westdoor’s favorite champion, he’s fine blind-picking it; Tahm Kench Support can save a teammate when FNC dive in, prevent Darius reset
  • FNC 3^rd pick – Orianna: brings more speed boost to team, can follow up Annie initiation 

FNC is unique in that Reignover plays a more carry style while Mid and Bot Lane bring the utility. Teams have prioritized Darius in champion select yet consistently set him behind in games from lane swaps. FNC seemed to form a comp to support him with speed boosts and hard CC to lockdown opponents. Tahm Kench seems like an interesting response pick to the juggernauts. He could be used to save a teammate when FNC charge in, but I don’t see much utility besides that. This also requires that he’s not part of the AOE stuns that FNC are bringing. Definitely not a fan of the Fizz blind pick, but Westdoor seems to make it work in any match-up. 

AHQ comp:

• Lacks real cohesion, Team-fighting comp overall, but Elise and Fizz want to pick people off
• Low wave clear
• Decent split push threat with Gnar/Fizz
• No reliable engage
• No disengage
• Probably want standard lanes so Gnar can lane against Darius
• Win Condition: snowball early with Elise’s strong early game, protect Jinx at all costs in team fights, have vision control and be first to objectives to avoid face checking a team with heavy engage 

FNC comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Strong engage potential with Sivir ult and Annie stun
• No real disengage, possibly Sivir ult
• Decent wave clear
• Darius is split push threat
• Want lane swap
• Win Condition: survive early game, group by mid game for objectives using Sivir ult to force fights, always fight 5v5 and not skirmishes 

Items/Build paths:

• Ziv’s Gnar: Frozen Mallet is great for kiting Darius, with gold lead he was able to build 3^rd item Black Cleaver to deal damage while still being tanky
• Mountain’s Elise: Interesting he took Skirmisher’s Sabre, but it allowed him to kill Huni 1v1 when Huni jumped on him; he built heavy damage which was risky against FNC’s comp, he built 3^rd item Banshee’s Veil instead of Aegis so he could dive in better
• Westdoor’s Fizz: maxed CDR Fizz allows him to hop around more and be annoying in fights
• AN’s Jinx: no early Avarice Blade
• Albis’s Tahm Kench: built Aegis since Mountain went damage; good choice of Exhaust to stop juggernauts when they dive in
• Reignover’s Olaf: full tank build, no damage to threaten AHQ’s backline
• Febiven’s Orianna: good 2^nd item Zhonya’s against Fizz 

Execution in Game:

• Lane swap occurs; FNC get better jungling path by going for both blue buffs, AHQ see FNC took their own blue so they go for early dragon
  • FNC get faster push to tower with Sivir wave clear, Huni rotates to join, FNC get top outer tower, tower gold shared with Huni and Rekkles, Ziv and Albis late to defend; AN freezing bot lane
  • Albis stops Rekkles back repeatedly so he stays to lane while Huni roams, Huni and Reignover get behind Ziv for gank without his tower, successful gank for 1^st blood
• ~8:50 min: Westdoor roams to find Reignover in his jungle, ganks but Olaf escapes with his ult + Ghost
  • Febiven shoves in mid lane while AHQ push top with numbers advantage, Huni challenges Mountain who is stealing Krugs but dies (Mountain has Skirmisher’s Sabre)
• ~10:30 min: Huni invades AHQ jungle alone, Reignover on the way, Huni flash engages onto Mountain who is low from jungling but starts fight 1v2, Reignover joins but so does Albis; AHQ win fight 2 kills for 1
• ~11:05 min: FNC get Westdoor low hp, take mid outer tower with Yellowstar roam
• ~13:30 min: AHQ get their 2^nd dragon after getting deep vision in FNC jungle
• ~14:40 min: FNC roam bot, get bot outer tower
• ~15:15 min: AHQ get top outer tower, their 1^st; AHQ rotate Westdoor to bot lane with duo mid
• ~15:40 min: Westdoor attempts to take bot outer tower but FNC engage on him, both teams TP in, trade 1 for 1 kills, AHQ get bot outer tower
• ~18 min: FNC catch out Mountain, team fight breaks out, Albis saves Mountain and buys him time while FNC seem unsure of target selection, Ziv no Mega Gnar until end of fight, no Orianna ult since Febiven used it for harass mid; trade 4 for 4 kills
• ~19:40 min: FNC take their 1^st dragon as AHQ late to contest, Westdoor engages onto Yellowstar again (questionable target selection), late Sivir ult, good front-line play by both teams’ tanks; FNC win fight 4 kills for 2
• ~25:45 min: both teams waited for dragon to respawn, FNC get there first, Mountain able to steal dragon for their 3^rd; FNC chase with Sivir ult but AHQ escape, good no fight by AHQ since no Mega Gnar available
  • FNC rotate to baron for vision control but AHQ collapse on them; FNC win fight 3 kills for 1, FNC get baron
• ~29 min: FNC sieging mid inhibitor tower with baron buff, FNC get tower and inhibitor, Huni fail flash engage and Rekkles uses Sivir ult, AHQ chase down FNC without key ults available
  • Mega Gnar jumps in and stuns 4, Tibbers only stuns Tahm Kench, Orianna Shockwave only lands on Ziv since Westdoor hops out of it; AHQ win fight 5 kills for 1, AHQ get mid outer and inner towers
• ~32 min: FNC get their 2^nd dragon as Febiven chunks out Westdoor before fight meaning AHQ can’t contest
• ~34:40 min: both teams trading vision control over baron, Westdoor comes to gank Huni split push forcing his TP to baron, FNC just start baron without clearing wards, FNC turn to fight
  • FNC engage onto AN but Tahm Kench saves him, FNC no one to hit but Ziv; AHQ win fight 3 kills for 1
• ~39:30 min: Huni split pushing bot without TP; FNC engage on Ziv in mini-Gnar but catch out Albis out of position, Ziv and Mountain jump on Febiven out of position, AHQ chase down and clean up; AHQ win fight 4 kills for 1 then push to win 

FNC gets ahead early, but continual reckless aggression by Huni costs FNC the game. I’m a fan of Huni, but he seems to be on a downward trend ever since Summer playoffs. He showed cracks against OG and now he’s getting exposed on the Worlds stage. At ~8:50 he went in to fight Mountain right after Reignover was forced to recall, provoking a 1v2 fight in which he lost. Not even 2 minutes later, Huni invades enemy jungle and attempts to flash engage on Mountain who was low from jungling, forcing another 1v2 fight. He paid no respect to Ziv both times and thought he could get away with a 1v1 fight and both times he paid with his life. Then at ~29 minutes when FNC sieged mid inhibitor tower with baron buff, Huni decides to flash engage after they got the inhibitor. He failed to pull anyone in and FNC got chased down and aced. You are playing a juggernaut; let the team set up plays for you. You have Sivir and Annie to engage; why Huni felt the need to force fights as Darius is beyond me. Perhaps he’s trying too hard to be a star and going for flashy hightlight reel plays, but he needs to relax and let his team set him up for success. FNC played an overall pretty solid game. Their vision control was decent, but the repetitive fighting made it difficult to establish vision control or get deep vision. Febiven had an exceptional game minus one mis-position at ~39:30. Rekkles played fairly well, but his timing with Sivir ult was hit or miss. It was often too early or too late for fights. For example, when FNC took mid inhibitor, he ulted early trusting that Huni’s flash engage would catch someone. When it failed, FNC had no escape and got chased down. He didn’t need to commit Sivir ult then. In fights around dragon and baron, he often ulted too late and Huni and Reignover didn’t get a speed boost for fights. Yellowstar was also hit or miss this game. A few times he landed his ult on AN who was the primary target, but other fights he would land ult on only Ziv or only Albis. He never really had multi-man ults. FNC as a whole seemed disjointed compared to their Summer split performance. They rushed to force fights without establishing any vision control and even forced the game-ending fight at ~39:30 when they engaged on Ziv and Albis, forcing a fight while Huni didn’t have TP. FNC never played around Gnar’s rage bar and just rushed to every objective and rushed to force fights. AHQ did a great job of capitalizing on FNC mistakes, but made numerous errors themselves. AHQ got behind early and focused on AN freezing lane for farm, but he was still even with Rekkles in CS. AHQ was behind most of the game, but managed to get the first 2 dragons. AHQ had better overall vision control this game, but wasn’t able to be proactive about it due to their comp. Instead, FNC’s poor decisions allowed AHQ to thrive and capitalize. Albis and AN seemed very well practiced with Tahm Kench and he was clutch in winning team fights. Normally Janna is the preferred disengage Support, but against an Olaf Tahm Kench makes a great choice. Yellowstar never managed to stun more than one target, so Albis was able to consistently save AN in team fights while the rest of the team dove in. Albis would save Jinx then Exhaust Darius so he never got resets in fights. With Jinx untargetable, FNC had few choices of who to focus in team fights. Fizz could hop on his pole and Elise could repel leaving only tanks to be hit. AHQ thrived in the chaos as FNC floundered in team fights. There was no coordinated engage by FNC. No Annie ult followed by Orianna ult. Just speed up and charge in, but once Jinx wasn’t targetable, they couldn’t do anything. I don’t think AHQ played a good game, but FNC’s mistakes proved more costly.

Statistics:

Westdoor had a fairly low gold amount while Ziv’s was higher than normal. This allowed Ziv to be the huge tanky front-line that FNC could never deal with.

Ziv’s large gold distribution allowed him to build tanky and damage, shown by his damage distribution stats. AN did the most damage for AHQ as the star of the comp. Based on FNC’s comp, Darius and Olaf should be the highlights as the rest were supportive picks, but damage shows otherwise. Of course jungle Olaf isn’t the same as Top Lane who’s able to build more damage, but it meant Reignover couldn’t finish off targets when he dove in. Huni was Exhausted in fights so it hurt his damage output. Febiven and Rekkles did their best, but AHQ’s comp was hard to target and lockdown.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380406?gameHash=ca98e9d72cc98b2b&tab=overview)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2198)