Post-game Analysis: EDG vs BKT Game 1

P/B:

• Overall:
  • The most popular Red Side bans have been Lulu, Gangplank, and Mordekaiser; since GP was the only one left through, of course he was 1^st picked for Blue side
  • Elise and Kalista are strong general bans; get rid of strong early game jungler
  • Yasuo and TF bans are interesting target bans 

• EDG 1^st pick – Gangplank: see above
  • BKT 1^st picks – Braum/Rek’Sai: Braum is great all-around support; Rek’Sai probably player preference, fits many comps
• EDG 2^nd picks – Skarner/Thresh: Skarner is a safer pick with Elise banned and knowing you’re against Rek’Sai; Thresh pairs well with Skarner giving him more safety – both make for a good pick comp
  • BKT 2^nd picks – Maokai/Vayne: shows standard team-fighting comp with big front-line, seems to be a low damage comp, possibly “juggervayne”
• EDG 3^rd picks – Jinx/Darius: Jinx is good for long range damage against Vayne and not much engage seen from the enemy team comp so far; Darius is strong laner to bully Maokai pick; reveals its GP mid
  • BKT 3^rd pick – Zed: likely player preference but not a fan of the pick, GP can lane fine against it and doesn’t fit the comp, needed AP damage and heavy damage dealer (Viktor/Azir) or Orianna for Vayne

 EDG did a great job during the ban phase. Going into the last bans, Lulu, GP, and Mordekaiser were all still up. By banning one of them, BKT was put in an awkward spot of trading 1 for 1 or give away one for free. They ended up banning Mordekaiser since they for sure didn’t want to deal with him and were forced to give away GP for free. I also liked the order of the bans that allowed EDG to pull this off. Banning Elise gets rid of strong early game pressure which allows Skarner to farm to 6 safely. EDG drafted a risky comp, stacked with AD damage and no reliable engage; however they had a good lane advantage in Top Lane. Having GP as a flex pick allowed for the Darius counter-pick on Maokai. Not a fan of the Zed pick as I mentioned above; the team needed wave clear to drag out the game and AP damage to round out the team. Azir or Viktor would’ve worked well, especially Azir being able to disengage with his ult against a short-ranged team.

EDG comp:

• Pick comp
• Great split pushing threats
• Want to skirmish (~3v3), don’t want to fight 5v5
• All physical damage
• No reliable engage for picks – need Skarner or Thresh to catch out opponents
• Want to be 1^st to objectives to prevent 5v5 fights, also makes use of Skarner’s passive
• Win Condition: take advantage of lane match-ups and win early into mid game; must be significantly ahead before late game where front-line gets too tanky only needing to build armor; Skarner also falls off late game when people get QSS

BKT comp:

• Team-fighting comp with big front-line
• Low damage comp, heavily relying on Vayne to carry
• Want to lane swap to let Vayne farm easily and prevent bad Top Lane match-up
• No reliable engage
• Decent split pushing with Zed, Rek’Sai global, Maokai TP
• No wave clear
• Win Condition: survive early game, group mid game and get dragon control and start stacking, stall to late game and let Vayne shine

Items/Build paths:

• Maokai only had Ninja Tabi in lane, still rushed Righteous Glory and not building Frozen Heart in bad lane match-up
• Rek’Sai bought Null-Magic Mantle and Ruby Crystal – not sure why he’s building MR against all AD team
• I would’ve preferred if GP had TP over Exhaust for additional global threat; Thresh could’ve gone Exhaust over Ignite

Execution in Game:

• Start to game: both teams spread out along river to prevent invades
• BKT initiates lane swap as they wanted; EDG Bot Lane steals enemy blue buff
• BKT do red buff and raptors then 4-man gank mid; failed execution but burn flash (Maokai W onto minion)
• ~3:40 min: EDG prep 4 man dive bot tower, Rek’Sai had no jungle to farm so joins Maokai bot, Braum late recall means late to join and help; EDG executes great dive 4v2 and get double kill for Jinx
  • Maokai TP back to tower where its Braum vs 4 still, immediately hooked by Thresh and killed
• ~5 min: EDG lane swap to match Bot Lanes at top with Jinx even in farm + 3 kills (5 min BF sword); also get Darius vs Maokai lane
  • Jinx immediately bullies Vayne out of lane, BKT lane swap back but lose top tower due to slow rotation
  • Skarner/Thresh roam into enemy jungle, spot out Rek’Sai – keeps lanes safe
• ~7 min: after top tower taken by EDG, immediately rotate mid, 4-man gank on Zed leads to successful kill
  • Jinx rotates bot lane to match against Vayne
  • Braum sticks with Vayne too much, need to help Maokai or roam to match EDG
• ~9:30 min: EDG get bot outer turret due to Vayne’s lack of wave clear
• ~9:35 min: Thresh roamed mid with Skarner for 3-man gank against Zed, GP ult slows leading to Skarner flash ult + Thresh hook – another successful gank for Skarner
• ~10:20 min: GP takes mid outer turret, rest of team get 1^st dragon
• *~11:50 min: BKT all 3 outer turrets down leaves jungle exposed, EDG invades and catch out Vayne, team fight ensues
  • GP ult + Darius TP cuts off BKT escape; Vayne forced to move forward but into Skarner ult and dies
  • Zed kills Jinx; EDG win fight 3 kills for 1
  • EDG get mid inner turret as a result
• After team-fight, Maokai and Zed get farm, Vayne no lane to farm since all pushed out
• ~14:10 min: BKT have no vision, must hide under turrets, can’t farm; EDG rotate and take bot inner turret 4v2, BKT late to react due to no vision and Vayne no wave clear
• ~14:30 min: Rek’Sai ganks Darius but Maokai just farming, GP ults for support; BKT try to back off but Darius kills Rek’Sai
  • BKT cut through own jungle with no vision, Skarner catches out Braum for kill
  • Vayne just farming bot lane alone
• ~16:55 min: Braum/Zed charge forward and engage GP head on; Thresh lantern saves him but BKT unreliable engage hurts
  • EDG counter chase, get 2 more kills
  • Take mid inhibitor turret + inhibitor
• ~18:55 min: Vayne caught out by Thresh and killed
  • BKT still not getting vision in their own jungle; still not giving safe lane to Vayne
• ~19:30 min: EDG sieging top inhibitor turret, BKT watching turret go down but Zed in range of Skarner flash ult – poor positioning

While this game was an obvious mismatch in terms of skill, I wanted to highlight what BKT could’ve done to have a better chance at winning. I already explained I didn’t like the Zed pick, but he wasn’t even able to be up in CS against GP in lane. I liked BKT’s attempt to gank mid ~3 min into the game to get Zed ahead, but poor execution foiled the attempt. BKT was also slow to react on lane swaps. They sent Maokai and Rek’sai to defend bottom outer turret when EDG was preparing to siege. While not great defenders, they are hard to dive champions in the early game. The main problem, which was a reoccurring issue, was that Braum was late in the rotation. He spent too much time sitting next to Vayne in lane while his teammates were losing fights. He should’ve let her solo farm and either gotten vision or stuck by Maokai to prevent him from getting so far behind. His late rotation led to an early double kill for Jinx against a team who had to win early/mid game. Simply by recalling sooner and joining Maokai under turret would’ve likely prevented an EDG dive. Once they started losing, BKT never got enough vision down in their own jungle to prevent future dives. This caused them to be late on rotations and unable to farm. BKT also prioritized farm to their solo laners; whenever a lane pushed towards them, Maokai or Zed pushed it out leaving Vayne farming scraps in the jungle. As your primary carry and only real damage dealer, why not give her the farm? I understand Maokai needed to be tanky, but BKT didn’t help themselves by placing the wrong emphasis over and over. EDG also constantly got favorable match-ups in lane, constantly rotating Jinx against Vayne and Darius against Maokai to keep them down in CS. While there were numerous misplays by BKT, I wanted to give props to ClearLove’s Skarner for repeatedly using Skarner ult effectively and getting kills.

Statistics:

The numbers are skewed in my opinion. BKT’s ADC Lloyd only received a larger percentage of farm due to farming while his teammates were dying in a game that was already decided. The fact that Rek’Sai had more gold earned than Maokai or Vayne shows their inability to farm, likely from their lack of vision. EDG’s ClearLove had a surprising amount of gold, probably from his 86% kill participation compared to AmazingJ only 43%.

Vayne on BKT did as much damage as Braum. Despite being behind the entire game, most of the kills occurred from teammates getting picked off so Vayne actually didn’t fight much. However, if BKT was going to stand any chance of winning, this distribution demonstrates how badly the game went for them.

BKT didn’t place many wards despite the short game. When they fell behind, they needed to place vision in their own jungle so they wouldn’t be starved of farm and also allow them to rotate faster, being able to cut through their own jungle. BKT’s poor vision control placed them further behind and never gave them a chance to stall the game.

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

(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380216?gameHash=1a31ff26dbd27368&tab=overview)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2182)