Quarter Finals – Post-game Analysis: FW vs OG Game 4

 P/B:

• Overall:
  • Exact same bans as Game 2, seems each team prepared bans for when playing each side, feel the games are close so no major adjustments
  • FW stick to Rek’Sai who Karsa is more comfortable on and give up Elise rather than try to deny it
  • FW prioritize Viktor in their 1^st pick; I think its unnecessary since OG wouldn’t take it in their 2^nd picks nor have they prioritized Viktor at all, could’ve picked ADC or Support pick instead
  • OG deny FW’s Bot Lane of Jinx/Morgana, SwordArt finally has to play a different champion other than Morgana
  • Irelia seems to be a desperation pick, wanting to change things up hoping for a different outcome 

• OG 1^st pick – Lulu: not really a flex for OG since xPeke doesn’t play her, but strong overall pick
  • FW 1^st picks – Viktor/Rek’Sai: comfort pick for Karsa rather than simply trying to deny Elise from Amazing; Viktor hasn’t been contested at all, no need to 1^st pick, no need to hide their Bot Lane so picking Morgana or Jinx here would’ve suited better
• OG 2^nd picks – Jinx/Morgana: deny FW’s their Bot Lane duo, forming “jugger-Jinx” comp
  • FW 2^nd picks – Thresh/Caitlyn: NL did well in Caitlyn in Game 3; SwordArt doesn’t seem to favor Alistar/Braum, but Thresh is also a top pick
• OG 3^rd picks – Anivia/Elise: provides additional zoning/kiting; early game pressure isn’t needed in this match up so I’m not the biggest fan of Elise in this situation and would prefer to see Gragas but Amazing has seemed underwhelming on Gragas so far this series
  • FW 3^rd pick – Irelia: wonky pick IMO, Steak primarily plays tanks and now needs to carry the team 

Bans went exactly the same as Game 2, but the picks played out differently. In Game 2, FW prioritized getting Jinx for NL, but now they chose to get Viktor instead despite him not being contested by xPeke. I don’t see the merit in hiding the Bot Lane picks so I’m not sure why they chose to 1^st pick Viktor here. OG choose to deny FW’s Bot Lane duo rather than play to their own strengths of Kalista. NL just won with Caitlyn so it doesn’t seem that big of a deal to deny him Jinx. OG goes back to the picks they won with in Anivia where the FW haven’t proved they know how to deal with her. Last pick Irelia just seemed like a bad choice all around. Facing a “jugger-Jinx” comp with heavy kiting and zoning, Irelia seems like she’d have an incredibly hard time getting in and if she does she’d dive in alone. Irelia needs to snowball; she needs lots of items to be effective meaning FW should put all their resources into her early game, but FW don’t make plays early game and their Bot Lane chooses to freeze leaving Irelia more exposed. Not only does she not play well against OG’s comp, but she doesn’t fit FW’s playstyle. Steak typically plays tanks and FW make it a habit to have him fall behind early for the sake of the team. I don’t imagine FW could break this habit in one game. The way to beat “jugger-blank” comps is to beat them early or bring hard engage and catch them off-guard. For FW’s playstyle, I think Maokai would’ve been a much better pick. He’s more reliable initiation than Gnar and does well against double AP, especially Lulu and Anivia who don’t have the consistent damage to wear him down. While he could be bullied early, Steak is used to that, and Maokai doesn’t need tons of items to be effective.  

OG comp:

• “Jugger-Jinx” comp
• No front-line
• Great wave clear
• Great zone control
• Great kiting
• Strong siege potential
• Decent pick potential with Morgana/Elise
• No reliable engage
• Great disengage
• Want lane swap – denies Irelia (don’t have to necessarily fast push)
• Win Condition: stall until late game, group by mid game for objectives, be first to objectives to make use of zone control and kiting strengths, need vision control for Morgana/Elise to catch someone out, abuse strong wave clear to split push or siege to win 

FW comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Minimal front-line
• Viktor brings wave control
• Good split pushing with Irelia and Rek’Sai
• Decent zoning with Viktor W and Caitlyn traps
• No reliable engage – possibly with Thresh
• Decent disengage with Thresh box
• Want lane swaps – Irelia double jungles better than Lulu, allows towers to go down early, want to be able to freeze a lane after taking tower for Irelia
• Win Condition: snowball Irelia early game, accelerate the game by taking/trading towers (before OG wave clear makes it hard to siege), split push to win due to OG’s stronger sieging 

Items/Build paths:

• Soaz’s Lulu: ROA build (not CDR focused like previous game), safer but more selfish build, built Ardent Censer to go full out on having Niels carry
• Amazing’s Elise: went damage build so definitely no tank on this team, Runeglaive and Rylai’s built first followed by late Aegis
• xPeke’s Anivia: ganked early so build Athene’s rather than scale with Tears/ROA, hit earlier power spike to deal more damage early but more mana problems
• Niels’ Jinx: early Avarice Blade
• Mithy’s Morgana: knew they were going to lane swap so started Ancient Coin over Spellthief (love this move), inefficient item build (bought 2 Forbidden Idol but sold 1 later); would like to see Zeke’s build instead of 2^nd Aegis
• Maple’s Viktor: chose Cleanse over Ghost due to Morgana/Elise, now build Rabadon’s before Lich Bane since unable to make use of speed as much (I think raw AP is better on Viktor for wave clear)
• NL’s Caitlyn: no Avarice Blade, delayed build compared to Niels
• SwordArt’s Thresh: could’ve built Banner of Command instead of 2^nd Locket, team needed to split push to win 

Execution in Game:

• OG invade level 1 for wards, FW mirror the wards on opposite side of map
• Lane swap occurs
• ~2:40 min: FW 4-man gank mid for successful 1^st blood; FW freezing bot lane while OG fast pushing for top outer tower
• ~3:45 min: trade outer towers, OG give tower gold to Soaz/Niels (Niels gets Avarice Blade not Pickaxe), FW give tower gold just to Steak (NL gets 2^nd Doran’s Blade)
• ~5 min: FW keep standard lanes rather than swap for additional turrets
• ~7:50 min: OG freezing both side lanes, FW 4-man gank mid again
• ~15 min: Niels rotates mid to siege and take mid outer tower as Maple backed
• ~19:15 min: FW rotating for 4-man dive bot but Amazing there to counter gank, fight breaks out 5v5 as people TP in; OG wins fight 4 kills for 2 and bot outer tower
  • Steak TP so far behind OG, way too late into fight despite using TP first
  • FW lose 2 to start off fight but choose to re-engage 3v5 since Steak finally arrived
• ~25 min: OG 4-man siege mid; FW good side wave management forced xPeke to push out side lanes rather than fight
  • SwordArt good engage to defend tower; FW win fight 2 for 1 kills after some greed
• ~29 min: OG counter push mid, use Lulu speed to catch out SwordArt, finish off mid inner tower and get another kill onto Karsa
  • OG bait baron, catch our Steak as he tries to ward
• ~36 min: both teams posture mid, OG boost up Niels, lands rockets onto NL for kill
  • OG get mid inhibitor
  • OG recall then siege with baron buff, get bot inner tower then bot inhibitor
  • OG siege top lane and push to win 

After three games of close battles, FW finally cracked as OG was able to advance to the semi-finals. Both teams likely wanted a lane swap, but for different reasons. After trading an outer turret early, FW chose to go back to standard lanes rather than continue to trade towers since its not their playstyle. Soaz pressed his lane match up advantage by harassing Steak under his tower pushing as far as top inner tower. He was extended extremely far in lane, but Amazing and even Mithy covered for him with deep wards. Throughout the series, OG got better with warding to allow them to play aggressively and split push. Karsa made no attempts to relieve pressure for Steak in top lane. By going back to standard lanes, the FW continued the same pattern throughout the series of losing the side lanes while Maple won mid. I think FW could’ve played the lane swap better; they chose to give all the local tower gold to Steak only which caused NL to buy a 2^nd Doran’s Blade returning to lane. If they shared tower gold, NL could’ve gone back to lane with an Avarice Blade like Niels. FW finally made some improvements by ganking their only winning lane and prevented xPeke’s Anivia from scaling hard. xPeke did well by adjusting his build, but FW didn’t get any objectives or press advantages by killing mid. Despite dying, mid outer tower stood since the FW were unwilling to have NL leave lane to push. They over prioritize freezing lane and giving him farm when they could gain gold from towers instead. The FW actually had great side wave management this game; many fights occurred with xPeke forced to push out a side lane while OG fought 4v5, but the compositional disadvantage for the FW meant they couldn’t capitalize on it. Despite good wave management, Steak would hover mid with his team while both teams postured to possibly siege. Without deep vision, Steak couldn’t split push safely and instead chose to hover mid with his team without any engage. Steak needed to split push for the FW to have any chance of winning. While both teams postured mid, OG buffed up Niels who was able to catch out NL to open up FW’s base. OG seemed to play to match FW’s style this series by also choosing to play for late game. I don’t think OG was this passive in previous games, but they obviously scouted FW well. I’m not a fan of playing to your opponent’s level when you can enforce your own game, but OG game into the series with a great strategy and executed it better than FW.

Statistics:

NL needs to CS better while freezing lanes. He doesn’t get that much gold despite the team placing heavy emphasis on slowing their early game for his sake. Amazing had a higher percentage than normal; he was way ahead of Karsa’s farm early game and also picked up extra farm covering for xPeke while he died twice to ganks.

OG clearly built to have Niels carry and carry he did. xPeke’s damage is very low because he wasn’t present for most fights and simply just pushed out side lanes. OG wasn’t able to control the side waves well and xPeke made a few poor teleports, but FW failed to capitalize on it. Irelia did very low damage simply because she doesn’t fit the comp and had no way of getting in.

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001390069?gameHash=3134eec60241b632&tab=overview&participant=10)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2233)