Thought: Analyzing Team Marn

On the final day of the NA Season 3 Qualifiers, Team Marn picked an identical team composition three times, winning each game it was used. Today I'll analyze that team composition.

Marn's Winning Team Composition:

• Top: Olaf
• Jungle: Nocturne
• Mid: Ahri
• Bottom: Urgot/Taric

What should stand out immediately in this composition is the use of Urgot. Urgot is technically an AD Carry, but because of his incredibly short auto-attack range, lack of steroids, tankiness, and spammable Q, he tends to be built and played more like a bruiser. Urgot's lane harass and ability to assist ganks is legendary. It is not without reason that he is considered one of the strongest anti-carries in the game.

The potency of this pick becomes obvious when you consider how it alters team fights. Without a squishy AD Carry to focus or chase out of the fight, Marn's opponents had no clear target. Focusing Urgot would be to expend effort on possibly the tankiest target, and getting close to him would be extremely dangerous as at any moment his ultimate might catch someone. Olaf can completely ignore entire teams using his ultimate, and does incredible damage while still building tanky. Ahri is one of the most slippery and hard to catch AP carries in the game. There were no good targets on Marn's team, barring catching someone out of position.

Meanwhile, Marn had many easy targets. There were plenty of squishy champions for them to choose from when stunning, diving, or swapping places, pressuring their opponents while they themselves could be relatively relaxed. While Urgot's range would normally make him weak as a tower pusher, his tankiness, and the threat of a swap or charm, gave Marn all the pushing power they needed.

The carries facing Marn also had very little room for error. Nocturne and Olaf, two of the best divers in the game, could dive with impunity knowing that the rest of their team was largely self-sufficient. At the same time, the combination of Olaf, Taric, and Ahri meant that anyone swapped or caught would be chain controlled and burst down.

Ahri, Nocturne, and Taric were all excellent picks for the playstyle. Each is right at home in clustered, messy fights because of their AoE, while also bringing other key benefits to the team. Taric dramatically amplifies the threat of Urgot during the laning phase, as his stun and Shatter combo is an easy setup for Urgot's harass, while also providing sustain. Late-game, Taric's steroids increase his teams tankiness and damage, and his stun is excellent for dealing with potential dangers such as Katarina or Vayne. Nocturne increases early pressure across all lanes with his ward-bypassing ultimate, and augments a diving Olaf by providing additional control and danger. Ahri, again, is simply one of the hardest AP carries to kill, can catch opponents with Charm during sieges, and is more than happy to skirt around the edges of a messy fight. While this team composition is centered around Urgot, and to an extent Olaf, these picks round it out nicely and helped to make it a dominating force during the qualifiers.

While Marn changed strategies after Dirt Nap Gaming banned Urgot, the underlying principles behind the composition could potentially be applied with other champions. Using a tanky bruiser or pseudo-bruiser bottom in place of an AD carry could prove to be a winning strategy against traditional compositions. That remains to be seen, but the possibilities are tantalizing.