This turned out to be the best game of the week. Maybe one of the best this split, a
great exhibition of playstyles and champions. Team SoloMid and Cloud 9 Gaming both performed at a high level the last couple weeks. For C9, Hai's shot calling has been
a boon while TSM have benefited from staying together as a team. Before the match, I though C9 would win based on the balance across their lineup; I also
thought Hai and Sneaky will would the duo lane as Doublelift has mixed great
performances with disappointing ones. Alert: this game was a doozy and this post will be a bit long...
Picks and Bans – I loved this draft. GP vs Kog’Maw is not
only a fun matchup of wildly different styles, but NA players need to start
excelling on champions like these when they’re regularly seen in other regions.
The late-game scaling will be incredible from both sides, and whichever carry
stays safer will likely win the game. As for the supporting champs (and they
are all supports in this game), I loves TSM getting Gragas but worry about
their lack of poke – their last picks were LeBlanc/Poppy for Bjergsen/Hauntzer,
but I would have rather seen one of Corki/Graves for some range to blow up
barrels. Poppy can do it, and she has good engage, but she doesn’t have many
exit skills (and the recent nerfs seem to have hurt). For C9, Kalista is fine,
but a longer-range champ may be better suited to keep Kog’Maw contained in
lane. Still, it’s Kalista.
Both of these teams want a long lane phase, and active
ganking from Svenskeren (First Blood for Doublelift at 19:00) and Rush gave gold to the carries. Balls consistently shoved Hauntzer to his turret
and Doublelift held his ground against Sneaky. 24:50 appears to be a successful
countergank by Svenskeren as he blocks the gold card, but Hauntzer started
below 50% health, gets caught in the GP ult, and is killed by Herald-buffed
casters. I like this fight from both sides – it’s lost for TSM but both teams
showed strong coordination and teamfight mechanics.
28:40 – Nice gank by Rush is a clean kill onto Bjergsen.
Bjergsen was under turret with Sven down bot but lunged onto Jensen and was
killed before he was able to shift back. A few seconds later, TSM see C9
invading the blue side jungle and head for Dragon but C9 start pinging on them
(see where the pings are before the replay at 29:09):
TSM are split and lose 3 for 0. It would have been a lost
fight anyway but Doublelift, Yellowstar, and Sven do not coordinate targets and fail to return even a single kill. Instead of
following Braum and Gragas, Doublelift goes the other way on Jensen and Balls
and dies quickly. C9 are in full control – Kalista is keeping up with
Kog’Maw and GP has shut down Poppy. Hauntzer has been TSM’s most consistent
player the whole split but has been absent in this one. Their winning of the
lanes allow them to take top and bot outers a few minutes later.
35:30 – Rush is caught and almost goes down but is saved by
the GP ult and Jensen and almost takes out Hauntzer. On the other side,
Yellowstar freezes Sneaky and he is melted. Both teams begin to disengage but
Doublelift goes back in solo and snipes Hai from long range. 3/1/0 on Kog’Maw,
1/0/4 for GP. This is going to be fun.
40:40 – After some skirmishes around the midlane, TSM take a
dragon that C9 cannot contest. C9 should head back to the side lanes but
instead they call down Cannon Barrage and Rush goes in only to blown away by
Gragas, CC’ed, and killed. Crucially, nobody touched Doublelift who
picks up a Double Kill and is FED. TSM call Baron and take
out Rush on the way. With the Buff, TSM play patiently, laying vision and
giving Hauntzer time alone to knock down turrets in the top lane.
43:55 – After this sequence, it’s hard to figure out a win
condition for C9. Certainly a big barrel chain teamfight win from Balls, right?
Right?? They strangely leave Yellowstar alone to get caught by TF ult on the
way out, but that should be okay as they trade back for Rush’s life. TSM easily
knock down the mid and bot lane tier 2s and C9 have lost the map. TSM should
head bottom and that’s what they do. C9 almost catch Doublelift but
lose Jensen instead. Balls has a few items to go before he can truly one-shot
the team.
49:30 – TSM ambush Rush in his jungle and call Baron again.
Hauntzer does a good job fending of Balls and C9 lose Jensen, but do enough
damage to stop Baron. Supers have taken down a C9 nexus turret though, giving
TSM more options. I feel like TSM should forget about Baron and instead try to
take down another inhibitor – they have strong teamfight but the Baron pit can
be dangerous against GP. With the turret lead, C9’s split push is not a threat;
let them decide if they want to trade or race.
52:00 – TSM have lost Bjergsen but have super streaming into
the base. C9 put up a valiant defense but lose the turret anyway. Again, TSM
have the teamfight comp, but the only way they lose this game is by losing a
teamfight to GP. This would be a lot easier if they had even one split push
threat on their team. As it were, they should still try to make C9 run around
the map. Balls is almost full on items.
54:50 – TSM are knocking down the mid inhibitor but are
wisely wary of C9’s catch potential. Then they find out why. Hai freezes Doublelift, Balls
gets his ultimate and a barrel while Rush goes in. TSM are caught in the
Cannon Barrage and it's an Ace for C9! They didn’t even lose the inhibitor.
The death timers are getting long but TSM should come up fast enough.
Balls and Rush do get the Baron though. C9 now have their inhibitors up and at this stage of the game, the
TSM lead doesn’t mean much. One bad fight and C9 can push all the way
through to their base.
57:30 – TSM spend a lot of time grouped in this bush for the
ambush. They really want a teamfight win but we just saw how dangerous those
can be. They waste all their cooldowns on Rush (replay after the game showed C9
had prepared for the ambush) and can’t take him down fast enough, giving Balls
time to set up and he wipes the floor. Bjergsen, with no range, does almost
nothing in the fight – he went big on Jensen who calmly activated Zhonya’s.
Then in a fit of lunacy Bjergsen gets out alive and almost gets a 1v2 double
kill on Rush and Hai. C9 get the Ace and Balls takes down the middle inhib.
1:01:00 – C9 now have all the cards and zone TSM out of
another teamfight. TSM just lost two straight teamfights – the first
objective-based, the second on their engagement. They have no hope when C9 are
the instigators. Another Ace means the game for C9. Wow. What a game.
Lots of takeaways from this game. For C9 – their teamfight
execution was flat better than TSM’s. For the most part, they were coordinated
with Rush going in and the rest of the team following immediately. Great
shot-calling by Hai and execution behind Rush. However, they have to be
concerned with their inability to shut down Doublelift in the early game – they
should have had some tools with the global abilities and split push potential,
but this was a lost game for a long time. For TSM – they’ve struggled keeping
Doublelift safe before and have to be encouraged by how fed he got on Kog’Maw.
But, and the analysts mentioned this, they weren’t able to peel for him
adequately in the late game. Kog’Maw is an important champion to pick up in
this split though and for much of the game, they were in control. I thought
they needed one more ranged champ to poke and I still think I’m right. They
wanted Poppy to keep people off Doublelift, but I like Corki into TF. Then
again, who am I to challenge their comp?
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