Post-game Analysis: IG vs C9 Game 1

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • C9 go with standard Red Side bans of the big 3 at Worlds
  • IG choose more targeted bans against Mid and Support 

• IG 1^st pick – Gragas: interesting to see Gragas favored over Elise, but he does bring more utility for team fights
  • C9 1^st picks – Darius/Braum: knowing IG’s Jungler pick, they don’t have to rush the Elise; Braum becomes the top Support pick with Alistar and Morgana banned
• IG 2^nd picks – Gnar/Bard: Gnar is the go-to counter to Darius; Bard is an interesting pick who can be very strong at kiting
  • C9 2^nd picks – Elise/Tristana: C9 finally pick up Elise; NA ADCs favor Tristana, gives additional safety over a pick like Kalista
• IG 3^rd picks – Sivir/Ekko: Sivir for engage; again I’m not a big fan of Ekko and especially blind picked, he farms decently against anyone but being melee hurts in team fights
  • C9 3^rd pick – Azir: good safe pick mid, gives additional disengage against a team with Sivir ult charging in 

Back to standard bans, at least by Cloud9, this game. I liked that C9 didn’t take Elise in their 1^st picks and allowed them to get 2 other strong picks. Darius seems to be a liability as teams know how to play against him well and creating comps that kite him. Curious picks by IG that seem to counter Darius well with Ekko and Bard zone control. Gragas taken over Elise means Kakao needs to shine in team fights or be present for counter-ganks early. 

IG comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Big front-line
• Decent wave clear
• Sivir for engage, possibly Gragas ult
• Good disengage with Gragas or Bard
• Strong kiting potential
• Strong zone control
• Fairly low damage comp
• Short-ranged comp
• Probably want 2v2 lanes, use Sivir’s strong early wave clear to deny Tristana CS and prevent early towers going down
• Win Condition: survive early game, group mid game for objectives using Sivir ult to force fights, use powerful zone control to create advantageous fights; must win fairly early as damage falls off late game 

C9 comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• No real front-line
• No reliable engage
• Strong disengage with Braum and Azir, possibly Tristana ult
• Darius is split push threat
• Strong siege potential
• Decent wave clear (better late game)
• Want lane swap
• Win Condition: use Elise’s strong early game to snowball, use Tristana to take early towers and accelerate the game, be first to objectives to set up Azir soldiers and play around unreliable engage 

Items/Build paths:

• Kakao’s Gragas: surprisingly no Sightstone
• Rookie’s Ekko: forced to build defensively early but still managed a solo kill mid lane, did well despite not going typical Morellonomicon 1^st item; I liked TP on Ekko to help with global pressure and split push threat, also it allowed him to stay in lane and survive getting bullied in early game
• Hai’s Elise: went full damage Elise, meant he was able to hurt more when catching out Kid or Kitties
• Sneaky’s Tristana: no early Avarice Blade
• LemonNation’s Braum: was building Zeke’s but stopped to build Aegis since Hai went damage 

Execution in Game:

• Lane swap occurs, C9 take Gromp before going to lane
• C9: Balls only double jungles for 2 camps, hits lvl 2 then attempts to go to lane; LemonNation gets all Gromp xp so he’s lvl 2 as well, recalls to go to lane with Balls
  • IG do great to deny and zone C9 away from their tower; Zz1tai TPs top to soak up farm and lane 1v1 against Sneaky – big lead for IG
• ~6:30 min: C9 lane swap back to normal lanes, immediately ganked by Kakao for 1^st blood
  • C9 respond well with gank bot lane with Balls respawn TP for 4v2 tower dive; C9 get 1 kill for 0
• ~10:15 min: Rookie great play get solo kill mid after burning his flash in previous skirmish
• ~10:40 min: Kakao returns top for another successful gank onto Balls
• ~10:50 min: 2v2 fight bot, C9 get kill onto Kid’s Sivir; good response TP by Rookie to get 1 kill in return
• ~12:45 min: C9 get bot outer tower; IG get top outer tower; C9 get 1^st dragon
• ~18:30 min: Incarnati0n pokes out Kid from lane, burns Sivir ult; C9 get mid outer tower
  • C9 press to mid inner tower while Kid has to recall, force Zz1tai to TP mid to defend, allows Balls to free farm and catch up; C9 get top outer tower
• ~20:20 min: IG get their 1^st dragon while C9 push top lane; C9 get top inner tower, IG counter by pushing mid, get mid outer tower
• ~21:50 min: Rookie split pushes bot, gets bot outer tower
• ~22 min: C9 gaining vision control around baron, get deep vision into IG blue buff jungle; IG choose to engage C9 invade, force TP from Balls, but C9 strong disengage with Braum shield and ult; C9 get mid inner tower
• ~24:45 min: C9 establishing vision control around baron again, Hai caught out in IG jungle and dies, allows IG to gain some vision control back
• ~26 min: Hai catches out Kid trying to group with his team, chunked low so he must recall, Rookie burns ult after caught out by Darius E; C9 start baron, IG contest
  • Good engage by Gnar ult and stall by Bard ult, C9 focus baron behind Azir ult; C9 get baron but IG win fight 4 kills for 3
• ~28:10 min: teams fight over dragon, Bard caught by cocoon and chunked low health, IG swing back to focus Balls leaving Kid exposed in the back, C9 collapse and win fight 5 kills for 2
• ~32:30 min: C9 prepare to siege top lane, IG engage onto LemonNation but he’s able to tank for a long time then land ult on almost all of IG, great Gragas/Bard ult by IG to get a kill but C9 responds with huge Azir ult to disengage allows C9 to win fight 4 kills for 1, C9 get mid and top inhibitors
• ~34:30 min: C9 start baron as IG contests, another great Braum ult by LemonNation disrupts IG engage but C9 not grouped before fight, great engage as Kakao knocks Sneaky into IG for kill followed by 3-man Gnar ult by Zz1tai, another great Azir ult helps C9; team fight is even at 4 kills for 4; C9 minions take 1 nexus tower
• ~36:30 min: C9 rush baron and get, IG without vision late to contest, another great Braum ult to start fight, C9 get 1 kill then push to nexus 5v4; IG desperation defense fails as C9 gets 4 kills and win 

C9’s great shot-calling paired with strong play by their Mid and Bot Lanes carried C9 to victory. IG had a great start to the game and zoned Balls and LemonNation off their own tower, allowing Zz1tai a big lead. C9 play around Balls by allowing him to lane 2v2 despite the bad match-up to prevent him from going 1v1 against Gnar who is already ahead. This keeps all lanes fairly even in CS and gives Balls some CS, but the biggest differential is XP in Top Laners. At 6:30 when C9 finally lane swap back to normal lanes, Kakao immediately punishes this with back to back ganks on Balls for kills where Zz1tai was level 6 vs Balls level 4. Incarnati0n does well in lane and bullies Rookie for a CS lead. C9’s Bot Lane also outplays IG’s duo. C9 plays to their strengths mid and bot while avoiding Zz1tai on the map who is IG’s only advantage. Through a series of good shot-calling, they’re able to trade objectives in their favor and allow Balls to catch up in farm. IG made numerous good plays, but couldn’t overcome the mistakes made by Kid and Kitties. Kid was caught out numerous times and forced to recall to base, allowing C9 to take numerous advantages. Kid was poked out by Incarnati0n at ~18:30 for no real reason which allowed C9 to get mid outer tower, force Zz1tai to TP mid to defend, and allowed Balls to catch up in farm. Kid was caught out again at ~26 minutes after he pushed out mid lane and took lazy pathing to regroup with his team; Hai got him low HP and forced his recall which allowed C9 to start baron. The fight over dragon at ~28 minutes went south when Kitties was taken low health to start the fight. IG’s Bot Lane made numerous positioning errors that cost the team objectives and disadvantaged team fights. C9 is unique in that they don’t press their advantage with the ADC and focus solely on towers; C9 makes sure to keep Balls in the game and help him catch up. C9 had great vision control throughout the game, getting deep vision in IG’s jungle allowing for the great shot-calling and rotational plays. Vision control also allowed them to force fights without reliable engage by forcing IG into bad situations where they had to engage on C9 to contest objectives. C9 then used their great disengage with Braum and Azir to dictate fights in their favor. Great play by LemonNation to start every fight with multi-man Braum ults followed by Sneaky and Incarnati0n carrying C9 team fights. During mid game around ~13-17 minutes in, I wanted to see C9 rotate Tristana to other lanes to continue taking outer turrets. IG could’ve also sent Rookie to farm side lanes sooner and allow the weak duo of Kid and Kitties to farm mid with more safety. I think Zz1tai, Kakao, and Rookie played a great game. Zz1tai tried to press his advantage split pushing, but was hampered by Kid getting caught out. Kakao made some great ganks onto Balls to get Zz1tai even further ahead and had great engages in team fights. Rookie played probably the best Ekko I’ve seen so far and I was very impressed by his mastery of the champion. I underestimated how good the champion could be, but he did struggle in team fights having to get through Braum and Azir. C9 used great teamwork and played to their strengths to take objectives eventually leading to their victory.

Statistics:

Fairly normal distributions, but this game had Top Laners taking a smaller percentage and Junglers getting more gold than usual.

Incarnati0n carried C9 in team fights and it shows in the stats. Despite nerfs to Azir’s damage, Incarnati0n proved how potent Azir’s consistent damage from soldiers can be.

I think the key point is how many wards C9 destroyed. It allowed C9 to always have vision control over baron and force IG into bad fights. It also allowed for plays where Kid was caught out and forced to recall. 

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001380399?gameHash=dfe24021d9975ba2&tab=overview)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2197)