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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

LoL Analysis: 2016 NALCS, TIP vs DIG (Week 3, Day 1)

This game was nuts. That is all. #Analysis #NALCS #SpringIsCrazy


Pick/Ban – TIP had only one ban, which made this phase a ton of fun due to the amount of power that's available. First pick Alistar was curious for TIP - I've criticized grabbing Alistar early with power up, but I don't mind it in this context since TIP are sure to get good power in picks 4/5. DIG get Poppy and Kalista which I like a lot. They are in good position to get more power with picks 6/7 and give Poppy to Kirei, but his champion pool is famously small and they are forced to give him Rengar instead. TIP end up with Lucian and Fiora – I love that side lane combo in this meta. Maybe it's because Kalista is hard to play in solo queue ( you need a ton of support synergy for her to work), but Lucian is right up there for me in terms of best AD carries and Fiora/Poppy/Graves are by far the best toplaners in this meta. DIG get Corki for waveclear but the rest of the lineup is a bit blah (and again that Rengar is questionable). I just like TIP’s power a bit more, especially for only one ban and first-picking Alistar. DIG will need to outplay the Fiora and keep pressuring the Lucian with Kalista or this could turn ugly by midgame.

26:40 - DIG tried to gank top but Seraph smartly had a ward in the bush; he has enough mobility that ganks from the river are harder to execute against Fiora. Meanwhile Procxin is down bot and this will be a theme of the match – constantly trading objectives. Morgana/Kalista is an extremely safe lane though. DIG doing a great job winning the early lane phase but Seraph will get scary soon. TIP do a good job staying safe because they know they have power coming.

29:35 – DIG collapse on Gate and Mash and they get gate, but not before he ults and drags them around. Meanwhile, Mash is constantly poking, Pirean roams down, Seraph TPs, and Procxin executes a 2 person knockup that blows up Apollo. With the team split, TIP manage to clean up the fight. After getting caught, TIP rotate faster than DIG with Shiphtur notable late to the fight (he came down the same time as Pirean but never got into it).

31:15 – DIG know they’ll have a Fiora problem soon and make a good call to rotate their duo to top. Kalista pins Fiora on her turret and take turret damage as well. This will be important when…

32:15 – Gate and Mash dive BillyBoss with Pirean and Procxin on the way but the tower hits land on Mash and TIP are forced to pull out. Meanwhile, the DIG duo carry their wave all the way to the 2nd tier turret. Smart play by DIG to use Kalista’s early laning pressure to their advantage. DIG have the tower and CS advantage outside of the junglers which leads to…

37:00 – This starts out as a hard outplay by DIG. BillyBoss uses a series of amazing combos to win what basically is a 1v1 against Seraph. Procxin and Pirean arrive and Pirean gets caught but not before he puts wild growth on Rek’Sai. Procxin stays alive for the rest of the team to arrive and they turn another fight because Procxin outplayed Kirei. Problem for them is that Apollo’s Kalista was left alone and is getting seriously fed…

38:15 – Not much longer! After taking the turret, Apollo sticks around to shove the lane and Seraph (homeguards) and Procxin (void rush) catch her. TP from BillyBoss is cancelled and Kalista is left to die. They might have been able to turn it but I think DIG wanted to reset map pressure more than save Apollo. This results in a mid turret kill a minute later. Mash’s Lucian is getting some breathing room against Kalista and TIP can start setting the split push soon.

40:00 – TIP dive BillyBoss but DIG take the mid outer turret and it’s DIG that have set up the split and they are able to take the bottom tier 2 as well. Apollo is playing well despite being down 1-2-0.

40:45 – After Fiora stops the push in the bot lane and the inhib turret, TIP rotate up and sneak a Baron. DIG had taken scuttle so they saw it but decided to trade anyway. If they survive the Baron buff and can get Apollo again down bot, it will be a huge problem for TIP b/c the threat of supers in the bottom would kill their positioning for second Baron.

41:40 – This is one long clip to the end of the game. Kirei waits a LONG time for this gank in the mid lane and DIG gets a 3 for nothing and Baron buff off 3 members. Seraph is a problem in the top though – they send BillyBoss to stop Seraph while the rest of the team take the mid inhib. Seraph makes an incredible play to solo kill BillyBoss under the nexus turrets. Then, as they respawn, Procxin uses void rush and Lulu her speed to catch DIG retreating through their jungle and Impulse get the ACE. WHAT?! What a crazy ending.

I don’t really know what DIG were doing in the jungle – it seemed like it would have been more safe just retreating up mid, but I don’t think they respected the chase from TIP enough. Overall though, I liked the shot calls on both sides – both teams played well to their split push comp and didn’t tunnel on failed objectives but rather shifted seamlessly to the next one. The casters called it a series of over-committing, but I think if BillyBoss doesn’t die alone and the team just retreat through the mid lane they would have been fine. In fact, the void rush might not have worked b/c it would have taken Procxin longer to get from the jungle to the lane. That Rek’Sai though – Procxin totally rekked Kirei. And again, I can’t believe how many power picks TIP got despite first-picking Alistar and losing 2 bans. 

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