Quarter Finals – Post-game Analysis: SKT vs AHQ Game 2

P/B:

• Overall:
  • Similar bans as Game 1
  • AHQ leave up Ryze but choose to ban Rek’Sai instead, kind of indicates they aren’t going for melee mid; want to deny global pressure of Rek’Sai and would rather deal with Gragas
  • AHQ ban Lulu blue side since they don’t play her, allows SKT to ban Jinx – although I think SKT would’ve left Lulu up and still banned Jinx 

• AHQ 1^st pick – Elise: steal away Bengi’s best champion, also Mountain’s most played at Worlds
  • SKT 1^st picks – Kalista/Gragas: Bang gets Kalista this game; with Rek’Sai banned and Elise 1^st picked, Gragas is the next obvious pick-up
• AHQ 2^nd picks – Thresh/Tristana: Tristana to counter Kalista again; Thresh good for pick potential
  • SKT 2^nd picks – Tahm Kench/Ryze: SKT waited on their Support pick, take Tahm Kench to counter Elise/Thresh pick potential on AHQ; Ryze is a Faker special, no one else plays him, handles melee assassins Westdoor is known for pretty well
• AHQ 3^rd picks – TF/Darius: Westdoor chooses not go with Fizz or Diana into Ryze, picks TF who has been his other successful champion; Darius is the go-to pick for all Top Laners
  • SKT 3^rd pick – Renekton: MaRin’s counter to Darius, rather than the typical Gnar pick 

AHQ get blue side advantage, but SKT still manage to draft a comp they like. AHQ get Elise in their 1^st pick and banned Rek’Sai forcing Bengi onto Gragas. I’m not sure this is an effective strategy since all Junglers are comfortable on Gragas, but it does deny global pressure from Rek’Sai. Both teams trade their ADCs this game. I liked SKT saving their Support pick for the 2^nd round to see what kind of lane they were dealing with. Tahm Kench helps a lot against pick comps. Due to Westdoor’s limited champion pool, Faker felt OK blind-picking Ryze since he handles melee assassins well and Faker has proven to do well against TF when playing EDG. MaRin gets the last counter pick for Top Lane using his special Renekton instead of the common Gnar. Ryze brings late game scaling so having an early game focused Renekton balances the team comp. 

AHQ comp:

• Pick comp
• Engage potential with TF, Elise, or Thresh
• Decent disengage with Thresh box
• Great split pushing
• Want lane swap for Top Lane match-up, Thresh also better roaming than TK
• Win Condition: snowball early game, use Elise’s strong early game and TF once he hits 6 to snowball side lanes, lane swap and use Tristana’s fast pushing to accelerate the game and open the map for TF, split push to win 

SKT comp:

• Team-fighting comp
• Strong single target lockdown
• No reliable engage
• Strong disengage with Gragas ult or TK
• Kalista helps secure dragon/baron
• Want standard lanes
• Win Condition: survive early game, heavy push mid to prevent TF from roaming, need Gragas ult to set up team fights, group mid game for objectives 

Items/Build paths:

• Mountain’s Elise: went Runeglaive, built BV over Aegis
• AN’s Tristana: went BORK 1^st item instead of typical IE + SS, not a fan of the build
• Faker’s Ryze: Tears + ROA by ~11 minutes is ridiculous 

Execution in Game:

• Lane swap occurs
• ~4 min: both teams trade outer towers – both teams give Top Laner the tower gold
• ~5 min: MaRin gets back to lane and pushes out the wave before lane swap forces him back; both teams lane swap to trade outer turrets again but SKT push faster thanks to MaRin pushing out his wave first
  • MaRin attempts to farm under his tower, Ziv zoned away from his so he TP bot for 4-man dive onto MaRin; took too long to set up, Faker TP bot for 1^st blood onto Ziv snared under tower, Westdoor no TP since he used it to get back to lane but gets heavy pressure on mid tower, MaRin good escape; SKT get 1 kill for 0
• ~7 min: SKT lane swap back to defend bot outer tower, Bang caught out by great Thresh hook; AHQ get 2 kills for 0 and bot outer tower
• ~8:30 min: AHQ push 3-man top while SKT Bot Lane free to push bottom, Mountain comes to gank with TF ult as back up but Wolf gets the jump on Mountain; SKT get 2 kills for 0
• ~10 min: SKT get 1^st dragon
• ~15:45 min: Bengi engages onto Westdoor by himself while SKT get their own blue buff, AHQ capitalize with kill
  • AHQ get their 1^st dragon
  • SKT catch out Ziv for a kill and get mid outer tower
• ~17:30 min: Westdoor pushes out top lane with no vision, SKT collapse for a kill
  • SKT rotate mid, gank Ziv for a kill
• ~20:30 min: Albis flash hook onto Bang, but TK saves him, SKT collapse with double TP; SKT win fight 3 kills for 0 (Mountain suicide to prevent 4^th kill)
  • Ziv had TP but chose not to join fight, just farmed bot lane
• ~21:35 min: SKT start baron while AHQ contest with only 3, SKT secure baron with Kalista and get 2 kills for 0
• ~23:55 min: AHQ 4-man gank MaRin top while SKT push with baron buff, SKT respond by taking mid and bot inner tower and get 1 kill
  • SKT continue pushing getting mid inhibitor tower and 3 more kills
• SKT stick around to push side lanes eventually closing out the game 

After a decent fight by AHQ in Game 1, SKT shut down any hopes for AHQ with a dominating Game 2. SKT demonstrated their mastery and understanding of lane swap scenarios this game. MaRin’s great wave management after taking the 1^st tower set up SKT to pull ahead when trading outer towers. It allowed SKT to push faster and zone Ziv away from the tower. AHQ made the appropriate counter play of having Ziv TP to 4-man dive MaRin, but again MaRin’s great wave management delayed the dive and gave time for SKT to react to it. MaRin had great pathing to escape the dive and Faker’s TP netted them 1^st blood along with protecting the tower to really put SKT ahead. AHQ managed to get bot outer a few minutes later with a great catch onto Bang. Afterwards, AHQ had questionable lane set-ups with both the Top Laner and duo Bot Lane pushing top together. Soon afterwards was the failed gank bot by Mountain and Westdoor with poor coordination. SKT dominated vision control this game. The game accelerated quickly with early tower trades and early fights breaking out, which allowed SKT to seize control early. AHQ was again left with a comp that needed to split push to win, but SKT’s vision control prevented them from making any progress. SKT’s draft also countered AHQ’s pick comp with Tahm Kench saving teammates numerous times. Westdoor’s Twisted Fate also wasn’t able to pull off any ganks to snowball his side lanes where his first two ults gained nothing (crucial for snowballing). The disparity from lane swaps caused SKT to spiral ahead leaving AHQ on the back foot and unable to make picks without adequate vision control. AHQ seem like a good team, but Westdoor’s small champion pool hinders their playstyle by allowing to Faker to blind-pick easily against him. AHQ also make risky plays by pushing without adequate vision and get punished for it instantly. Both games so far, AHQ haven’t been able to make use of double TP and have only used it defensively to get back to lane. SKT’s wave management and vision control reign supreme as SKT remain undefeated at Worlds.

Statistics:

AHQ had slightly high gold distribution for the Jungler and slightly low for the ADC.

AN has been very underwhelming this series without Jinx and a questionable build on Tristana with BORK 1^st item. Westdoor dealt the most damage for his team, but was unable to make use of his ult and snowball the side lanes. Faker continues to deal insane damage despite not getting as much gold as most mid laners.

This series has been dictated by vision control. While AHQ did better stats-wise this game, they never got deep vision to allow them to split push. 

Statistics pulled from leagueoflegends.com match history and gamesoflegends.com. All credit goes to them.
(http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001400073?gameHash=a2c619fe40d57047&tab=overview&participant=8)(http://gamesoflegends.com/game/gameshow.php?id=2236)