The second game of the Season 2 Finals can't be considered outside of the context of the first.
Having lost a game after establishing a very clear lead, Taipei Assassins was naturally concerned about the possibility of a second overwhelming AoE composition. While they did not ban out any key AoE champions, their quick pick of Sona was clearly designed to block another Sona/Ezreal lane and weaken Azubu Frost's AoE potential. The Karthus pick was also a key anti-AoE choice, as there are no champions who can compete with his sustained AoE. Caitlyn's range also makes her strong against AoE, allowing her to skirt its edges while still applying damage.
While it would seem at first glance that TPA was overly afraid of AoE, it's important to note that these picks also served other purposes. Shen and Karthus both apply global pressure in the early game, while still being strong team fighting and late game champions. Caitlyn, Mundo, and Sona all have very strong poke, giving TPA an edge in tower pushing. In fact, all of TPA's picks had disengage with the sole exception of Shen. The resulting composition was simultaneously strong against AoE teams, strong early game, strong in team fights, and strong in poke.
Frost's picks were interesting in their own right. With Sona stolen, Frost could have still aimed for an AoE comp using Zyra instead. Cognizant that TPA would be wary, Frost instead grabbed Anivia and Maokai to turn TPA's own zone control strategy against them. Zyra's crowd control and plants enhance this zone of control just as much as they would have aided an AoE composition, and in a long game she becomes a huge threat. Combined with Jax's damage AoE stun, Frost put together a deadly composition of survivability, control, and damage.
Another advantage for Frost was the power of each lane. All three lanes were strong against their counterparts, a fact on display early as Stanley, Toyz, and Bebe/Mistake were frequently pressed to their turrets. This strength was enough to carry Frost through the first fourteen minutes of the game with their only death being the result of Lilballz catching Madlife with impeccable timing. Even when Karthus ulted solely to help TPA push the bottom turret, Frost held fast and stayed in the game.
Unfortunately for Frost, the early pressure they applied in lanes did not result in an advantage. All of TPA had equal or greater farm than Frost, giving them a substantial gold advantage. Then at the fourteen minute mark the global power of TPA's team comp went on full display. The combination of Karthus' and Caitlyn's ultimates took down Madlife even through Woong's Heal. Immediately afterward Toyz teleported top just as Lilballz swung around for a second gank. With all of Anivia's control abilities on cooldown there was nothing to stop TPA from catching Shy and Rapidstar. Meanwhile Woong and CloudTemplar both died in a trade versus Mistake and Bebe, only barely managing to take out Mistake in the process. What had been a manageable gold gap became a devastating chasm as TPA picked up kills, turrets, and dragon.
While Frost would pick up another kill on Mistake, the next fifteen minutes would be a case study in the careful, methodical extension of a lead. Cognizant of their overzealous mistakes in the first game, TPA applied just enough pressure to allow themselves to farm and extend their gold advantage, while inhibiting Frost from trying to hold off for the late game. By the time the action resumed around the thirty minute mark, the gold gap between the teams was over ten thousand.
Frost's team composition had potential, but their failure to convert strong lanes into a farm advantage and an unfortunate ace at 15 minutes put them behind. Because TPA's composition was designed to be strong at all stages of the game there was little Frost could do to stop them after yielding so big an advantage. TPA's careful, flawless grind to victory was all but inevitable.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Season 2 Finals: Game 1
Be aware that this and all posts on the subject contain spoilers. If you haven't watched the finals yet do so now, not because I want you to read my analysis but because they are some of the best games in League of Legends history.
The first game is notable for being the only game which Azubu Frost won. It's important to note that for the vast majority of the early game, and much of the game thereafter, Taipei Assassins had a clear gold lead and advantage. Understanding what happened and why begins with the team's picks.
The initial picks from both sides were fairly innocuous, but were nonetheless critical to each team's strategy. Anivia has incredible control over the area of a team fight between her stun, her wall, and her ultimate. Combined with Lulu's slows and knock up, it becomes difficult for opponents to avoid fighting within the unfavorable ground of Maokai's ultimate. Moreover, Maokai's ultimate multiplies the power of Anivia's passive and the health gain from Lulu's ultimate. Finally, Maokai is a strong pick against AoE compositions, for which Sona/Ezreal are common choices, without being weak against other possibilities. TPA's final picks reflect their awareness of Frost's plan, as well as their own strategy. Olaf is already incredibly tanky and difficult to stop when his ultimate is up, and combined with Maokai he can easily dive through the AoE to reach Frost's carries. TPA's plan was clearly to have Vayne hang back to avoid the bulk of the AoE while the rest of the team survived off their mix of defensive multipliers and innate tankiness, and then let the best cleanup carry in the game go to work.
Frost's strategy was a little more straightforward, but at the same time they made a few subtle choices which cut into the effectiveness of TPA's team composition. Karthus has some of the highest sustained damage in the game, especially if the enemy fights within his Defile. Even with Maokai's ultimate Karthus is extremely dangerous. Amumu adds additional sustained AoE damage and incredibly strong initiation to the mix, locking down opponents long enough for Sona to ult (or vice versa) and Ezreal to follow up. Irelia brings true damage to counter Maokai's protection and additional AoE. All of the champions Frost picked are also strong even in non-AoE compositions, giving Frost more options than simply AoE or lose, though ultimately AoE would win them the game.
In the early game Frost had a brief lead following CloudTemplar's level 3 gank top. This was an interesting moment as most players consider Amumu's early ganks weak. While it took two Flashes and an Ignite, CloudTemplar and Shy successfully ganked Stanley's Olaf from full health when he was on his half of the river. Amumu doesn't have burst, but the power of two stuns and sustained damage was enough to bring Olaf down.
The lead didn't last, and it's important to highlight what TPA did to catch Frost unaware time and again. After Frost's failed counter-gank top resulted in two kills for TPA, Lilballz was able to farm up enough gold to buy both Philosopher's Stone and Oracle's. He then aggressively cleared Frost's wards, going well out of his way to reduce their vision of the map. Rather than leave it to the psychological pressure of the fog of war, TPA's players frequently changed lanes, roamed, and collapsed on any skirmish or teamfight at the drop of a hat. The combination of early pressure and vision denial resulted in a 5k gold lead for TPA despite Frost's slight farm edge.
Where it all went wrong for TPA was the next teamfight. TPA expected Frost to attempt a flat out retreat after taking dragon, leading Toyz and Stanley to use Anivia's wall and Olaf's axe to try to cut off CloudTemplar and Shy's escape. Frost immediately turned to fight, making the placement of both abilities worthless. If Anivia's wall had been placed to block the rest of Frost it would have at least forced Flashes in order to enter the fight.
Every member of TPA was bunched up, not expecting Frost to simply turn around and fight. As a result when CloudTemplar nailed Toyz with his Bandage Toss all five members of TPA, and most importantly Bebe on Vayne, were caught in Amumu's ultimate. For a critical two seconds Bebe was unable to make any contribution to the fight, wasting a significant portion of Vayne's ultimate. At the same time the stun from Bandage Toss prevented Toyz from exerting any zone control, and when he attempted to use his ultimate Madlife hit him with Sona's, cancelling the Glacial Storm. Toyz was egged before he could do anything significant. While Bebe avoided most of the AoE, these issues allowed RapidStar's Karthus to sit untouched in the middle of TPA for almost the entire fight. By the time Toyz resurrected and TPA burst RapidStar down they were already dangerously low on health. With Woong's Ezreal at full health, Requiem incoming, and TPA's crowd control expended to kill RapidStar, survival was impossible.
Between the Dragon, the quadra kill, and the tower that followed Frost closed the gold gap to 1.5k gold in the blink of an eye, with most of that being concentrated on RapidStar. TPA began to rebuild their lead by picking off isolated members of Frost, but when the next hard engage came under their own tower it hardly mattered that Bebe dodged Amumu ultimate or that RapidStar was the first to die. RapidStar flashed over a wall to not only position himself in the middle of TPA, but also in where Vayne's Condemn wouldn't push him out of the fight. By the time RapidStar was dead all of TPA were below half health, setting up what was nearly a second quadra kill. TPA were still ahead on gold at this point, but they had no answer to Karthus. The difference in team-fighting strength was such that they lost even when Amumu ultimate was down.
While TPA's team composition had potential versus an AoE composition, the combination of good farm and seven kills in a matter of minutes made Karthus too big a problem for TPA to deal with. It was still a close, hard fought game, but one that clearly became Frost's to lose once they caught up to TPA.
The first game is notable for being the only game which Azubu Frost won. It's important to note that for the vast majority of the early game, and much of the game thereafter, Taipei Assassins had a clear gold lead and advantage. Understanding what happened and why begins with the team's picks.
The initial picks from both sides were fairly innocuous, but were nonetheless critical to each team's strategy. Anivia has incredible control over the area of a team fight between her stun, her wall, and her ultimate. Combined with Lulu's slows and knock up, it becomes difficult for opponents to avoid fighting within the unfavorable ground of Maokai's ultimate. Moreover, Maokai's ultimate multiplies the power of Anivia's passive and the health gain from Lulu's ultimate. Finally, Maokai is a strong pick against AoE compositions, for which Sona/Ezreal are common choices, without being weak against other possibilities. TPA's final picks reflect their awareness of Frost's plan, as well as their own strategy. Olaf is already incredibly tanky and difficult to stop when his ultimate is up, and combined with Maokai he can easily dive through the AoE to reach Frost's carries. TPA's plan was clearly to have Vayne hang back to avoid the bulk of the AoE while the rest of the team survived off their mix of defensive multipliers and innate tankiness, and then let the best cleanup carry in the game go to work.
Frost's strategy was a little more straightforward, but at the same time they made a few subtle choices which cut into the effectiveness of TPA's team composition. Karthus has some of the highest sustained damage in the game, especially if the enemy fights within his Defile. Even with Maokai's ultimate Karthus is extremely dangerous. Amumu adds additional sustained AoE damage and incredibly strong initiation to the mix, locking down opponents long enough for Sona to ult (or vice versa) and Ezreal to follow up. Irelia brings true damage to counter Maokai's protection and additional AoE. All of the champions Frost picked are also strong even in non-AoE compositions, giving Frost more options than simply AoE or lose, though ultimately AoE would win them the game.
In the early game Frost had a brief lead following CloudTemplar's level 3 gank top. This was an interesting moment as most players consider Amumu's early ganks weak. While it took two Flashes and an Ignite, CloudTemplar and Shy successfully ganked Stanley's Olaf from full health when he was on his half of the river. Amumu doesn't have burst, but the power of two stuns and sustained damage was enough to bring Olaf down.
The lead didn't last, and it's important to highlight what TPA did to catch Frost unaware time and again. After Frost's failed counter-gank top resulted in two kills for TPA, Lilballz was able to farm up enough gold to buy both Philosopher's Stone and Oracle's. He then aggressively cleared Frost's wards, going well out of his way to reduce their vision of the map. Rather than leave it to the psychological pressure of the fog of war, TPA's players frequently changed lanes, roamed, and collapsed on any skirmish or teamfight at the drop of a hat. The combination of early pressure and vision denial resulted in a 5k gold lead for TPA despite Frost's slight farm edge.
Where it all went wrong for TPA was the next teamfight. TPA expected Frost to attempt a flat out retreat after taking dragon, leading Toyz and Stanley to use Anivia's wall and Olaf's axe to try to cut off CloudTemplar and Shy's escape. Frost immediately turned to fight, making the placement of both abilities worthless. If Anivia's wall had been placed to block the rest of Frost it would have at least forced Flashes in order to enter the fight.
Every member of TPA was bunched up, not expecting Frost to simply turn around and fight. As a result when CloudTemplar nailed Toyz with his Bandage Toss all five members of TPA, and most importantly Bebe on Vayne, were caught in Amumu's ultimate. For a critical two seconds Bebe was unable to make any contribution to the fight, wasting a significant portion of Vayne's ultimate. At the same time the stun from Bandage Toss prevented Toyz from exerting any zone control, and when he attempted to use his ultimate Madlife hit him with Sona's, cancelling the Glacial Storm. Toyz was egged before he could do anything significant. While Bebe avoided most of the AoE, these issues allowed RapidStar's Karthus to sit untouched in the middle of TPA for almost the entire fight. By the time Toyz resurrected and TPA burst RapidStar down they were already dangerously low on health. With Woong's Ezreal at full health, Requiem incoming, and TPA's crowd control expended to kill RapidStar, survival was impossible.
Between the Dragon, the quadra kill, and the tower that followed Frost closed the gold gap to 1.5k gold in the blink of an eye, with most of that being concentrated on RapidStar. TPA began to rebuild their lead by picking off isolated members of Frost, but when the next hard engage came under their own tower it hardly mattered that Bebe dodged Amumu ultimate or that RapidStar was the first to die. RapidStar flashed over a wall to not only position himself in the middle of TPA, but also in where Vayne's Condemn wouldn't push him out of the fight. By the time RapidStar was dead all of TPA were below half health, setting up what was nearly a second quadra kill. TPA were still ahead on gold at this point, but they had no answer to Karthus. The difference in team-fighting strength was such that they lost even when Amumu ultimate was down.
While TPA's team composition had potential versus an AoE composition, the combination of good farm and seven kills in a matter of minutes made Karthus too big a problem for TPA to deal with. It was still a close, hard fought game, but one that clearly became Frost's to lose once they caught up to TPA.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Patch Day: Twisted Fate Update
Today's patch has nothing but bugfixes and the awaited visual revamp to Twisted Fate. Sadly, that means no patch note analysis. You will also note I have yet to post any Season 2 World Championship Finals analysis, leaving you utterly bereft of my insights. For that I apologize, and hope to rectify that problem soon.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Update: Analysis, Season 3 Incoming
Due to the depth with which I wish to analyze the Season 2 World Championship Finals I am unable to make a post on the subject today. There were a lot of incredible decisions and plays made by
both Azubu Frost and Taipei Assassins, and it didn't seem mete and
right to give simple summaries of the matches. Chances are I will have to make multiple posts, so look forward to a week of analysis.
Unless the world ends or Riot's servers implode Season 3 will be starting in a week. Due to the rankings rework, the short time frame, and massive schedule conflicts on my end I didn't have the motivation to aim for Diamond. Come Season 3 I should return to a more regular schedule of ranked play, with the goal of reaching Diamond and beyond in Season 3.
That's it for today's update. I hope you enjoyed the finals as much as I did.
Unless the world ends or Riot's servers implode Season 3 will be starting in a week. Due to the rankings rework, the short time frame, and massive schedule conflicts on my end I didn't have the motivation to aim for Diamond. Come Season 3 I should return to a more regular schedule of ranked play, with the goal of reaching Diamond and beyond in Season 3.
That's it for today's update. I hope you enjoyed the finals as much as I did.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Season 2 World Championships: Day 3.5
Thankfully the makeup day's games went off without a hitch, and they were all excellent.
CLG.EU put to rest their laborious series against World Elite, ending the series 2-1. They may not have killed 80 wards in their final match, but they at least killed any idea that Wednesday night would be a repeat of Saturday.
This left us with two big matches, Azubu Frost versus CLG.EU, and Taipei Assassins versus Moscow 5. It was Europe versus Asia, and it was intense.
Despite convincing performances in the group stage, despite defeating NaJin Sword in the quarter-finals, many players still doubted Taipei Assassins could compete with Moscow 5. Those doubts seemed confirmed after M5 crushed TPA in the first game of the series. But TPA returned the favor, crushing M5 in the next two games through superior aggression. The defeat of M5 made it incontrovertible, TPA's performance is no fluke.
Azubu Frost and CLG.EU both won one-sided games before settling into their final match. Shy proved Singed's strength once again, crushing Wickd top lane and leading Frost into a strong early game. Despite a seemingly insurmountable gap, CLG.EU exploited a couple of overzealous plays from Frost to get back into the game. Then CLG.EU got overzealous, all but giving Frost a free Baron. Wickd valiantly attempted to stop them, but fired his ultimate prematurely, failing to pick up the easy triple kill it could have afforded. In the end CLG.EU was eliminated.
Many players are having meh reactions to the all-Asia finals, but with the caliber of play being demonstrated by these teams it would be foolish to miss it. The games in the finals' best of five will likely be some of the most memorable in a tournament full of (for better or worse) unforgettable moments.
CLG.EU put to rest their laborious series against World Elite, ending the series 2-1. They may not have killed 80 wards in their final match, but they at least killed any idea that Wednesday night would be a repeat of Saturday.
This left us with two big matches, Azubu Frost versus CLG.EU, and Taipei Assassins versus Moscow 5. It was Europe versus Asia, and it was intense.
Despite convincing performances in the group stage, despite defeating NaJin Sword in the quarter-finals, many players still doubted Taipei Assassins could compete with Moscow 5. Those doubts seemed confirmed after M5 crushed TPA in the first game of the series. But TPA returned the favor, crushing M5 in the next two games through superior aggression. The defeat of M5 made it incontrovertible, TPA's performance is no fluke.
Azubu Frost and CLG.EU both won one-sided games before settling into their final match. Shy proved Singed's strength once again, crushing Wickd top lane and leading Frost into a strong early game. Despite a seemingly insurmountable gap, CLG.EU exploited a couple of overzealous plays from Frost to get back into the game. Then CLG.EU got overzealous, all but giving Frost a free Baron. Wickd valiantly attempted to stop them, but fired his ultimate prematurely, failing to pick up the easy triple kill it could have afforded. In the end CLG.EU was eliminated.
Many players are having meh reactions to the all-Asia finals, but with the caliber of play being demonstrated by these teams it would be foolish to miss it. The games in the finals' best of five will likely be some of the most memorable in a tournament full of (for better or worse) unforgettable moments.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Season 2 World Championships: Day 3
Day 3 was a fiasco.
There's not much else to say about Day 3 because really, not a whole lot happened. The most eventful part of the night involved a game where over 80 wards were killed by CLG.EU alone, but that game didn't even end before the nightmare of internet outages, stream crashes, and game restarts returned. The most interesting part of Day 3 was the near-simultaneous birth of tens of thousands of network/live event experts who summarily criticized Riot for having no idea what they were doing.
Exactly what went wrong is, at this point, lost in an unnavigable sea of speculation. The vague nature of our knowledge hasn't stopped people from acting as if they know what Riot could have done. While the vast majority of criticism has been fairly worthless, there is at least one obvious issue that Riot can and should have addressed prior to Day 3's events.
First and foremost, League of Legends should have had a way to resume failed games in tournaments. The inability to resume games from a minute or so prior to crash caused several restarts, which unfortunately also crashed before they could complete. At the very least the WE vs CLG.EU series could have come to a close that night, even if the issues and time spent would have still prevented the semi-finals from continuing.
DotA 2 has this functionality, and without it the International 2, the recent high-profile Dota 2 tournament, would have had multiple disasters on par with Day 3's mess. Several games crashed, but were resumed from a point in time shortly before the crash, allowing players to pick up from where they left off without disadvantage. As such, most barely remember the issues and think fondly of the tournament. If LoL had similar functionality the reflections on that night would have likely been very different.
Thankfully it appears Riot's new venue will not experience the same problems, but that's a subject for tomorrow.
There's not much else to say about Day 3 because really, not a whole lot happened. The most eventful part of the night involved a game where over 80 wards were killed by CLG.EU alone, but that game didn't even end before the nightmare of internet outages, stream crashes, and game restarts returned. The most interesting part of Day 3 was the near-simultaneous birth of tens of thousands of network/live event experts who summarily criticized Riot for having no idea what they were doing.
Exactly what went wrong is, at this point, lost in an unnavigable sea of speculation. The vague nature of our knowledge hasn't stopped people from acting as if they know what Riot could have done. While the vast majority of criticism has been fairly worthless, there is at least one obvious issue that Riot can and should have addressed prior to Day 3's events.
First and foremost, League of Legends should have had a way to resume failed games in tournaments. The inability to resume games from a minute or so prior to crash caused several restarts, which unfortunately also crashed before they could complete. At the very least the WE vs CLG.EU series could have come to a close that night, even if the issues and time spent would have still prevented the semi-finals from continuing.
DotA 2 has this functionality, and without it the International 2, the recent high-profile Dota 2 tournament, would have had multiple disasters on par with Day 3's mess. Several games crashed, but were resumed from a point in time shortly before the crash, allowing players to pick up from where they left off without disadvantage. As such, most barely remember the issues and think fondly of the tournament. If LoL had similar functionality the reflections on that night would have likely been very different.
Thankfully it appears Riot's new venue will not experience the same problems, but that's a subject for tomorrow.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Season 2 World Championships: Day 2
As will be true for all posts regarding the World Championships, there will be spoilers. Read at your own discretion.
In stark contrast to the previous day's events, the second day of competition consisted entirely of incredible games. It might be hard to tell from the blowout results, but even the most one-sided series was at the very least interesting and competitive.
The day started with an incredible series between Moscow 5 and Invictus Gaming. Champions rarely seen in the North American competitive scene made appearances, with M5 picking Xin Zhao, Evelyn, Zilean, and even support Zyra. iG kept the matches close, but eventually collapsed versus M5's superior teamfighting and late-game play. These games set the stage for an incredible day.
Next came the shocking series between Taipei Assassins and NaJin Sword. Despite surviving the previous day's group stages, TPA was considered one of the weaker teams in the tournament. With NaJin an easy shoe-in for the the finals few people expected TPA to come close to matching them, let alone fight two of the closest, most action-packed games of the entire season. When the dust cleared TPA not only proved themselves challengers on the world stage, but beat NaJin in back to back games for the most incredible upset since NaJin eliminated Azubu Blaze in the Regionals.
Finally came North America's last hope, Team Solomid versus Azubu Frost. While TSM was far more competitive than any of the other North American teams, Frost ultimately dominated them with a carefully executed poke composition and superior play past the laning phase. The defeat was resounding enough that TSM's Reginald briefly announced his retirement before cooling his head and retracting the hasty, depression-fueled decision. It was a sad day for TSM fans to see them go home with only two games played.
Thankfully TSM, and other North American teams, seem to be taking these results at least somewhat to heart. It's clear to them that the international competition has left North America behind, and while they may not have a clear idea of how to improve, at the least they understand that improvements must be made in order to remain competitive.
Day 2 was ultimately a resounding success, featuring some of the best games ever played. Every game was worth watching, unlike the previous day's disappointments. With nothing but teams of the highest caliber remaining, one hopes the rest of the tournament will feature games of similar excellence.
In stark contrast to the previous day's events, the second day of competition consisted entirely of incredible games. It might be hard to tell from the blowout results, but even the most one-sided series was at the very least interesting and competitive.
The day started with an incredible series between Moscow 5 and Invictus Gaming. Champions rarely seen in the North American competitive scene made appearances, with M5 picking Xin Zhao, Evelyn, Zilean, and even support Zyra. iG kept the matches close, but eventually collapsed versus M5's superior teamfighting and late-game play. These games set the stage for an incredible day.
Next came the shocking series between Taipei Assassins and NaJin Sword. Despite surviving the previous day's group stages, TPA was considered one of the weaker teams in the tournament. With NaJin an easy shoe-in for the the finals few people expected TPA to come close to matching them, let alone fight two of the closest, most action-packed games of the entire season. When the dust cleared TPA not only proved themselves challengers on the world stage, but beat NaJin in back to back games for the most incredible upset since NaJin eliminated Azubu Blaze in the Regionals.
Finally came North America's last hope, Team Solomid versus Azubu Frost. While TSM was far more competitive than any of the other North American teams, Frost ultimately dominated them with a carefully executed poke composition and superior play past the laning phase. The defeat was resounding enough that TSM's Reginald briefly announced his retirement before cooling his head and retracting the hasty, depression-fueled decision. It was a sad day for TSM fans to see them go home with only two games played.
Thankfully TSM, and other North American teams, seem to be taking these results at least somewhat to heart. It's clear to them that the international competition has left North America behind, and while they may not have a clear idea of how to improve, at the least they understand that improvements must be made in order to remain competitive.
Day 2 was ultimately a resounding success, featuring some of the best games ever played. Every game was worth watching, unlike the previous day's disappointments. With nothing but teams of the highest caliber remaining, one hopes the rest of the tournament will feature games of similar excellence.
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