Quarter Finals – Post-game Analysis: FW vs OG Game 1

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • OG ban the standard big 3 at Worlds
  • FW do target bans, banning Kalista is great against OG 

• FW 1^st pick – Rek’Sai: people have started favoring Rek’Sai over Gragas again since split pushing and global pressure is strong in the current meta
  • OG 1^st picks – Darius/Gragas: Darius still prioritized despite teams proving they know how to deal with him
• FW 2^nd picks – Gnar/Jinx: Gnar is the go-to counter pick to Darius; Jinx’s long-range makes her great against juggernauts and offers some zone control
  • OG 2^nd picks – Alistar/Sivir: both bring engage potential and help Darius out
• FW 3^rd picks – LeBlanc/Morgana: Maple has been strong with LB the past 2 games even if she doesn’t fit the standard team-fighting comp; Morgana counters Alistar engage and helps kite against Darius
  • OG 3^rd pick – Anivia: risky pick into LB, but thrives in long games

Fairly straight-forward bans by both teams. FW seem to be sticking to their guns and using the same champions from their recent success. This is the first time OG has prioritized Darius and used a first pick for Soaz. They supported the pick well with Sivir though. Anivia seems scary to pick into LeBlanc since she’s weak early game and its even harder to land your stun on LB. Anivia can do OK with team support since if LB picks her off, she has her egg, making targeting Anivia pointless if she has her team around to protect her. FW also lacks reliable initiation though so Anivia’s zone control can be big in preventing any team fight OG doesn’t want. 

FW comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Big front-line
• No wave clear
• No reliable engage; possibly with Morgana or Gnar
• Decent disengage with Morgana
• Strong split pushing
• Want standard lanes for Top Lane match up
• Win Condition: snowball early with LeBlanc, group mid game for objectives, need vision control to land Morgana bindings for kills, be first to objectives since you don’t have reliable engage 

OG comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Big front-line
• Good engage with Sivir ult + Alistar combo, possibly Gragas ult
• Great disengage
• Darius for split pushing threat
• Great wave clear
• Great zone control with Anivia
• Win Condition: survive early game, group mid game for objectives using Sivir ult to force fights, be first to objectives to make use of strong zone control, stall to late game with superior wave clear 

Items/Build paths:

• Steak’s Gnar: Frozen Mallet is key to dealing with Darius
• Karsa’s Rek’Sai: players seem split on building Randuins or DMP on Junglers
• Soaz’s Darius: actually built Spirit Visage 2^nd over DMP due to threat of Maple
• xPeke’s Anivia: ROA before Tears, Liandry’s build good since he primarily only hit the high HP front-line
• Niels’ Sivir: the game last so long he was able to sell Statikk Shiv for PD at ~41:36 

Execution in Game:

• Standard lanes, both Bot Lanes take a jungle camp before lane, Soaz walks to lane after double jungle while Steak shops then uses TP
• ~2:45 min: OG Bot Lane make good aggressive play and get 1^st blood on NL
• ~3:30 min: Amazing good counter-gank onto Karsa for another kill; OG burn both TP but cancel
• ~7:10 min: Mithy spotted roaming mid so FW Bot Lane jump onto Niels but OG double TP in while Steak cancels his TP; OG get 2 kills for 0 and bot outer tower
• ~7:50 min: Maple catches out and kills Amazing
• ~8:50 min: OG rotate Bot Lane top for 3-man push to take top outer tower; FW respond with bot outer tower
• ~11 min: OG get 1^st dragon
• ~17:30 min: FW 4-man gank Soaz top while OG get 2^nd dragon
• ~18:30 min: OG get mid outer tower while FW get top outer while Soaz still dead
• ~19:40 min: Maple gets great gank onto Niels
• ~21 min: Maple roams top with the rest of FW close behind and ganks Niels, OG respond with double TP, FW fight 5v4 in their favor as Amazing was stuck on the bottom half of the map; FW win fight 2 kills for 0 and get top inner tower
• ~25 min: OG get 3^rd dragon but FW chase their escape and kill Mithy on the backend
• ~27 min: FW siege mid outer tower while OG in 1/3/1 lanes, FW get tower then SwordArt lands binding onto xPeke for a kill, FW get mid inner tower
• ~28:50 min: deep vision in OG jungle allows Maple to pick off xPeke for a kill; FW get bot inner tower
  • OG respond by getting mid inner tower; FW chase as they retreat, Amazing flash body slam engages onto NL’s Jinx but Morgana’s Black Shield saves him (no Gragas ult up), FW get 1 kill
• ~31 min: OG establish vision control over baron while FW look to take dragon by having a sneaky ward inside baron pit, OG start baron but FW late to contest; OG win fight 5 kills for 0, Soaz penta-kill, OG get 4^th dragon
• ~33 min: OG sieging bot inner tower, bad engage by Amazing on Black Shielded Mega Gnar gives FW a kill, OG unable to push
• ~35:15 min: OG use Sivir ult to chase and engage but Karsa does great job front-lining (3-man knock up), Maple picks off Amazing as Steak joins fight and chases down xPeke; FW win fight 2 kills for 0
• ~38:15 min: FW get their 1^st dragon and deny 5^th dragon to OG but OG starts baron at the same time, OG get baron and chase down for 2 kills, OG get mid inhibitor
  • Mithy lands great headbutt on Steak as he tries to hop in, preventing Mega Gnar stunning the whole team, good Gragas ult disrupts FW team, Niels flashed forward to chunk out Maple which prevents him from diving in, NL ignored this fight
  • Good adjustments by OG choosing to burn down FW front-line since they can’t reach NL with Black Shield on him
• ~40:20 min: OG siege bot inner tower again, Mithy engages and lands 2-man knock up on Maple and Karsa (would’ve been NL too but insane reaction by SwordArt gets Black Shield off just in time); OG kill Steak and get bot inhibitor
• ~44 min: OG set up vision on bot side of map in prep for dragon, FW must take long way around avoiding their own jungle to contest, OG immediately rush the nexus and win 

Both teams play a slow, grindy game and made some errors, but seem pretty evenly matched. Both teams played safe level 1 with no invades and FW got the lane set-ups they wanted – standard 2v2. OG however made great plays early, gaining 2 early kills. Mid game slowed down as both teams chose to farm it out. Despite OG’s lead, they failed to have any vision control this game until the very end. Their lack of deep vision prevented them from ever split pushing effectively and making use of their double TP comp for 1/3/1 pressure. A part of this however was the fact that Darius couldn’t push against Gnar. This caused mid game to drag out, but OG did start to stack dragon buffs. FW did a good job of controlling vision for the majority of the game until OG started getting barons and making pushes. NL and SwordArt played great; I’m continually impressed by how good SwordArt is and his reactions to consistently Black Shield before Alistar can flash combo is absolutely insane. His bindings mid game also allowed for a fewer towers as he caught out xPeke, OG’s main wave clear. Maple made numerous great solo plays, killing players around the map, but couldn’t turn it into objectives. FW’s comp resembles H2k’s comp in their 1^st game against SKT, but Maple showed how LeBlanc could be effective while Ryu wasn’t able to have the same success. He was always a threat in fights, but OG adapted as the game went on and did well in negating his effectiveness. Steak and Karsa did a good job of front-lining, always being in position to protect NL. It felt like FW played a pretty solid game, but they weren’t able to make use of kills and turn them into objectives. Since they were behind early, they weren’t able to steal blue buffs and deny Anivia to really punish mid. They also got behind on dragons causing them to focus dragon over barons which eventually cost them the game. OG got a great lead early thanks to some kills, but stalled mid game, not being able to press their advantage. OG however adapted well to how team fights played out throughout this game. At first they attempted to dive NL, but Black Shield made this impossible. OG slowly transitioned to ignoring Jinx and focusing the front-line since OG’s front-line was tankier. Mithy did a great job of knocking back Maple in fights and made a crucial headbutt onto Steak at ~38:15 to prevent his team from getting CCed. xPeke did a much better job of using TP this game compared to his Anivia game against TSM. In that game, he only used TP to return to his lane since Bjergsen kept bullying him out, but this game he was able to TP in for team fights across the map. The one player who did not perform well was Amazing. He was caught out numerous times, made multiple terrible engages onto targets with Black Shield on them, and died in many team fights without using his ultimate. His bad play at ~33 minutes alone caused the game to drag out because it prevented OG from being able to siege even with a baron buff. OG finally started getting vision control and deep wards about ~38 minutes into the game when they went for baron as FW emphasized dragon. This lead allowed them to keep deep vision and control of FW’s jungle which eventually led to the out-rotation for 5^th dragon in which OG simply pushed to win instead. Pretty good back and forth game between evenly matched teams, but FW’s emphasis on dragon over baron caused them to lose their lead and fall behind late game, eventually giving OG the victory. 

Statistics:

Karsa had slightly higher gold distribution while Steak was slightly low. For OG, xPeke was slightly low while Niels was above average.

The ADCs shined for both teams which is normal for the most part although Steak was low on damage output due to building tanky over a Black Cleaver.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001390060?gameHash=3486e6b7290581ca&tab=builds&participant=10)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2230)