Quarter Finals – Post-game Analysis: FW vs OG Game 3

P/B:

• Overall:
  • Exact same bans as Game 1, even similar team comps
  • Karsa goes back to his comfort pick of Rek’Sai
  • FW prioritized having Morgana, so they ended up giving away Jinx and took Caitlyn instead
  • Maple stuck with Viktor for his blind-pick despite LeBlanc being available this game
  • xPeke chooses Orianna over Anivia
  • Both teams heavily emphasize disengage and protection; no Braum, Alistar, or Thresh 

• FW 1^st pick – Rek’Sai: with Elise banned, Karsa can go back to his comfort pick
  • OG 1^st picks – Darius/Gragas: Amazing sticks to OG plan of playing for late game, no early game aggressive Jungler picks
• FW 2^nd picks – Gnar/Morgana: Gnar to counter Darius; Morgana prioritized over Jinx means NL has to play Caitlyn instead this game
  • OG 2^nd picks – Tahm Kench/Jinx: Jinx is more denial pick rather than Niels preference
• FW 3^rd picks – Caitlyn/Viktor: NL likes long-ranged champions but doesn’t play Kog’Maw
  • OG 3^rd pick – Orianna: safe mid-laner, not picking to counter Viktor 

Very similar to Game 1 in both picks and bans with a few interesting twists. Maple chose to play Viktor again despite LeBlanc being available for more team fight presence and knowing the games are lasting long. The FW also prioritized Morgana allowing Jinx to be taken away. xPeke picked Orianna over Anivia; I think because there was no speed boost on the team to help him set up walls. 

FW comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Viktor brings good wave clear
• No reliable engage – possible engage with Morgana or Gnar
• Decent disengage with Morgana
• Strong split pushing
• Want standard lanes for Top Lane match up
• Win Condition: group mid game for objectives, need vision control to land Morgana bindings, be first to objectives to make use of zone control with Morgana/Viktor 

OG comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Big front-line
• No reliable engage – rely on Gragas to engage (against a Morgana)
• Good disengage with Gragas ult or TK belly
• Want lane swap to avoid Top Lane match up
• Win Condition: group mid game for objectives, be first to objectives since better at disengage than engage, better late game so stalling is in your favor 

Items/Build paths:

• Karsa’s Rek’Sai: 3^rd item Titanic Hydra for split pushing power, seemed to be building Black Cleaver next, very aggressive build
• NL’s Caitlyn: super early Avarice Blade pays off as teams trade towers early then NL was able to freeze bot lane to farm
• SwordArt’s Morgana: built for the team with Aegis + Mikael’s, no Zhonya’s this game
• xPeke’s Orianna: have TP but rarely used it
• Niels’ Jinx: early Avarice Blade pays off since teams traded towers early so no lane pressure, but bought after NL (NL got more use out of it while Niels could push better early game with Pickaxe); not a fan of BORK on Jinx since she’s very long ranged at about 700 range while BORK’s active is 550 range meaning you shouldn’t be in range to use it, also FW’s front-line wasn’t massive and requiring the %HP damage – I think Bloodthirster would’ve been better 

Execution in Game:

• Lane swap occurs, initiated by OG
• ~4 min: teams trade outer towers; FW give tower gold to Steak, OG share between Soaz and Niels – NL gets Avarice Blade vs Pickaxe for Niels
  • Teams lane swap again and push to trade outer turrets again, Steak recalls to join team in tower push while Soaz hovers near his tower, FW engage onto Soaz but trade kills 1 for 1
• ~6 min: teams trade outer towers again
  • Lane swap again (Bot Lane duos always opposite), Soaz wards own jungle but Steak late to ward for himself, caught out by Amazing and Mithy for kill
  • FW push bot lane faster, Steak TP for 4-man gank as soon as he revives, get kill onto Soaz; trade inner towers now
• ~9:50 min: OG take 1^st dragon, FW can’t contest with Steak top lane without TP
• ~14 min: Soaz engages onto Steak as Amazing coming in, successful kill onto Steak despite teammate pinging Amazing was coming
• ~14:30 min: OG Bot Lane pushing to inner tower, only one deep ward to protect them
  • NL plays aggressively as Karsa comes to gank and Steak TP in; FW get 2 kills for 0
• ~16:15 min: OG get their 2^nd dragon
• ~23:45 min: NL catches out xPeke trying to ward for a kill just as dragon spawns
  • FW siege and get mid outer tower, FW get 1 kill for 0
• ~25:40 min: OG starts dragon as NL late recall after their push not able to join fight, Karsa great steal and FW get their 1^st dragon
  • FW group and siege mid inner tower, get tower as OG take long path to defend coming from dragon
• ~29:30 min: OG trying to ward their own jungle as FW prepped lanes to siege and got deep vision
  • xPeke caught out but saved by Mithy, Steak great engage; FW get 2 kills for 0
  • FW start baron as OG looks to contest with only 3
  • FW back off as Niels kills Steak with Jinx ult, OG focus low HP baron but FW get baron and 3 more kills; FW get mid inhibitor
  • FW siege with baron buff: 4-man bot while Rek’Sai pushes top, get 2^nd dragon and top inner tower
• ~35 min: FW continue split pushing, pressure all 3 lanes
  • FW Bot Lane push top but OG slow to defend
• ~39 min: FW take their 3^rd dragon then posture for baron, Steak zones OG back as FW get baron
  • FW set up to siege with baron buff; Steak engages onto Amazing who’s jungling as Karsa joins with ult, get kill onto Amazing, FW push to win 

FW survive the early lane swap and stall mid game long enough for their split pushing power to win them the game. OG got the lane swap they wanted as both teams ended up trading a few kills numerous towers to start out the game. As it progressed to mid game, the FW were able to stall the game for about 10 minutes with OG unable to press their early advantages in Top Lane. Both side lanes were able to freeze and farm with the extra-long lanes due to towers being down, forcing OG to overextend. OG originally did a good job of getting deep vision as they were pushed far up in both side lanes, but ended up staying too long as wards expired, then got punished by a few ganks. Despite OG’s push, the FW defended all of their towers and stalled the game for over 10 minutes. OG took multiple dragons during this time, but the FW were fine giving it up for farm. I would’ve liked to have seen OG group and push mid outer tower rather than extend in the side lanes during mid game. OG even did a good job denying Maple multiple blue buffs to weaken his wave clear. FW started to gain advantages starting ~23:45 when NL made a great catch and killed xPeke and allowed them to take mid outer tower. OG made numerous errors when attempting to secure dragon and baron this game, allowing the FW to steal them and pull ahead. From about 25 minutes onward, the FW had great vision control around baron with deep vision in OG’s jungle. They used this to split push effectively with great wave management in all lanes to pressure the map. An aggressive split pushing build by Karsa’s Rek’Sai allowed FW to apply pressure around the map and crack open OG’s base. Overall though, the game is characterized by OG’s mistakes until late game when FW started making good use of split pushing. OG failed to secure their 3^rd dragon allowing Karsa to steal thus negating dragon as a win condition. OG then contested baron and chose to try to steal it themselves, but failed. OG also failed to make any plays mid game which allowed FW to stall and catch up in items (very delayed Frozen Mallet for Steak, had to lane vs Soaz with Black Cleaver when only having Giant’s Belt, not punished thanks to lane freeze). OG had lane disadvantages in both side lanes, but luckily got the lane swap as desired. However, once they stopped trading towers, the bad match-ups meant they couldn’t push their lanes for further objectives which is what allowed FW to stall. OG also made no double TP plays this game and lost to split push despite having double TP to respond to it. Great job by FW stalling the game out then playing to their comps advantage. 

Statistics:

There was a big discrepancy in Top Laners as Steak did 15.9k damage vs Soaz’s 9.7k while both had 12.2k gold earned. Given that Steak was behind the entire game, this shows how ineffective Soaz was this game and how he wasn’t able to take advantage of his early lead due to the lane mismatch.

Usually the numbers for wards placed and destroyed are fairly close with the winning team having slightly more (duh). I haven’t seen a gap this large for wards destroyed before so far at Worlds. OG had good vision control early and covered their tracks for split pushing aggressively early with many towers down. However, they didn’t keep up vision as wards died out causing them to get caught out. Entering late game (20+ mins) however; FW started to dominate vision control and used this to split push to victory.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001390068?gameHash=852a3dfee302d284&tab=overview&participant=9)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2232)