LoL Analysis: 2016 NALCS, REN vs CLG (Week 6, Day 2)

I hope this game is a fun matchup of junglers stepping up. Crumbz finally gave his team some life with his aggressive start to the game against Immortals, while Xmithie was a god on Nidalee. Crumbz plays a more vision-oriented, supporting jungle while Xmithie last went big and ended as his team’s carry. As a carry, I favor the former, but Nidalee is quickly becoming a huge priority pick. I think CLG win this, but REN have a lot to hang their hat on.

Picks and Bans – Well, there goes the Nidalee, along with Fiora, Kalista, Kog’Maw, and Lulu. REN first-pick Gangplank, which I am a little worried about since it requires a lot of teamfight coordination to use GP effectively. They’ll need some good poke and they do get Lucia before finishing their draft with Karma/Rek’Sai – their comp is all about teamfight utility. CLG get Corki/Gragas into Ezreal/Bard – good engage and poke, and then surprise with a Pantheon for Darshan. I’m a bit worried that if REN get behind against this comp, they won’t be able to come back.

36:00 – Due to CLG fumbling the tower trade, REN had lanes pushing toward them and Crumbz did a good job showing in lane and keeping his lanes safe. Here, RF Legendary is waiting in a bush but Huhi and Xmithie surround him. Then Crumbz goes hard on Xmithie and gets the kill on both! REN did a great job rotating and Crumbz is playing much, much better. Aphromoo tries to draw attention while Darshan ults in but it’s another lost trade for CLG. This results in the mid turret and a 4-1 kill advantage.

38:00 – And then REN gave it all back. RF tries to defend a turret without good waveclear – REN should have traded. Then Crumbz goes way too big on Huhi and is killed. A few bad rotations later and CLG has evened the turret and kill count.

43:20 – Crumbz has played very aggressively but this time goes way too hard on Huhi and is killed from the team. They trade for aphromoo but REN are very low. CLG chase between turrets, juggle agro, and take an Ace from REN. From here, CLG rotated faster and with more conviction and REN had no clear path to victory. Darshan shut down GP and CLG roll to the win. Still, I continue to believe REN have some takeaways. Crumbz’ engages were better timed with his team and they rotated well in the early game. Of course, rotations get harder the longer the game goes and teams are pulled in multiple directions. I still think they lost in the pick/ban phase, and that’s the next step – get everyone comfortable on power picks and how to play those together as a team.