Labels

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

LoL Analysis: 2016 IEM Katowice, FNC vs CLG (Group B, Game 1 of 3)

After an expected loss against the defending world champions, CLG look to bounce back against Fnatic, a team that has struggled mightily to gain fround in the #EULCS after a surprising seminfal run at 2015 Worlds. Unfortunately for CLG, FNC's strengths in the midlane with Febiven and ADC with Rekless directly match against some of their weaknesses, but if they can consistently execute the split push with Darshan, it may not matter. They need to remain consistent and together and should win this match to stay alive.


Picks and Bans – FNC first-pick Gragas with Nidalee gone and CLG return with Ezreal and Udyr. I like CLG grabbing Lulu/Thresh. Agree with the desk that they need a strong top laner with Udyr. FNC finish with Corki, a power pick that I’m surprised to see fall so far, with Rammus top and CLG finish with Vladimir. Vladimir will give Darshan a lot of tools in the split push. CLG will be out-ranged by Corki and FNC have better engage with Grags but unlike the SKT game, CLG have better scaling if they avoid bad teamfights.


Early Game – Standard lanes and a gank from Spirit in the top. Huhi channels TP to protect Darshan but critically completes it even though FNC had peeled away. They can’t take out Spirit but Huhi loses a ton of experience and lane pressure to Corki. Agree with Deficio – this was badly contemplated from CLG. FNC go hard on a dive at 21:30 but lose Rekkles to Stixxay and a better kill distribution for CLG. Strangely it's the FNC duo and CLG top that are struggling.

FNC come back to the duo lane again and again without accomplishing anything except for getting Klaj killed at 23:30. I’m not sure why FNC are going so hard – Lucian is already bullying Ezreal and does not need to necessarily kill him. He just needs to get to 2 items faster. FNC finally kill Stixxay at 24:30 but again it results in Rekkles’ life. Meanwhile Darshan takes the top lane turret - #NotWorth. A minute later, CLG out-rotate again and take the mid outer - #SuperNotWorth. FNC grab the bot lane outer and a Dragon, but Xmithie gets rift herald and will increase his lead on Spirit.

Mid Game – With a losing top lane, FNC try to gank bot again and again and run into deaths again and again. FNC should be looking at midlane (Montecristo mentioned this on cast), but Febiven and the team just don’t take advantage of the matchup of Corki into Lulu. Completely agree with Monte that instead of trying to kill Stixxay, they need to focus on taking turrets. Rotate bot and shove mid or set up a long-term siege. Or, swap the Lucian or Lulu to the top and try to accelerate the pace and take control of tempo. C’mon #EULCS.

34:00 – Again, CLG dictates pace. They rotate Ezreal to the top and again FNC are late. The teamfight at 34:45 is a complete mess and Klaj is caught again. Braum is fun to play with in solo queue because he allows you to go aggressive (v. Alistar who you have to react to). And he is so good in teamfights. But on a team with no disengage and no package, it’s risky since he has no escape, especially without Kalista. A terrible Braum flash/ult, followed by an even more appalling Gragas ult, followed by FNC going in with no cooldowns, is a lost fight. FNC are so lucky there’s no Baron up but Darshan does get the bot lane tier 2. Casters talked about how good aphromoo’s lanterns and flays have been, and they’re right. This is exactly what CLG want: occupy FNC and the bot lane will be a problem when Baron comes up.

42:00 – CLG have such superior map presence in this game. FNC try a miracle flank with TP/homeguards, and they are able to get Huhi; that’s a ton of damage and protection for Stixxay gone. Problem is FNC have burned a ton of cooldowns and CLG split them up for a long chase since Darshan is alone in the bot lane working on the inhibitor! Is this all he does? CLG give up aphromoo after a long chase but Darshan gets a nexus turret as well. FNC stupidly don’t recall until after the turret is dead. This is a disaster for FNC with a Baron play coming. CLG have 6 turrets to 1 and should easily run over this game. A few minutes later, FNC are forced to collapse on Darshan and give up a free Baron to CLG.

CLG aren’t actually able to do much with the Baron buff and FNC stall the game out some, but CLG are just too powerful and Xmithie is un-killable. CLG may have picked a strange comp but executed it to perfection and FNC looked lost in their rotations. They lost all the lanes and the jungle and CLG snowballed patiently. FNC’s win condition is to outplay mid and duo but unable to do that on Corki/Lucian, the ideal carries, I’m not sure what else they can do. They need to find a hard counter for Darshan splitting out and taking turrets.

No comments:

Post a Comment