League of Legends Worlds Analysis, Group Stage - SSW vs. AHQ Game #2

AHQ E-Sports vs. Samsung White Game #2

Standard Lanes

Bans

Zilean Zed

Alistar Nidalee

Yasuo Maokai

Picks

1. Lee Sin 2. Lucian

3. Ryze 2. Thresh

3. Jinx 4. Khazix

5. Twisted Fate 4. Kayle

5. Blitzcrank 6. Katarina

Lane Match-ups – AHQ E-Sports

Top -

The early match-up top lane will go even, with both Ryze and Kayle farming in lane safely. Ryze can bully Kayle at level 1, but Kayle will sustain through it from level 2 on with his heal and pots. Around level 6 and Ryze tear/catalyst, the match-up will swing heavily in Ryze's favor. The much higher burst of Ryze will allow him to really bully Kayle, as Kayle's power spike does not really come into play until he reaches Nashor's tooth + Needless Rod or Recurve Bow; even then Ryze will be able to out-trade with his spell combo and backing off after he uses his snare. Kill pressure is unlikely though after 6, as Kayle's ultimate and heal speed will keep him safe. An early Lee Sin gank would have great kill potential, and after level 6 a good ultimate will give him and Ryze time to kill Kayle as he tries to retreat.

Mid -

Twisted Fate will have the early advantage in this match-up. He needs to get as much harassment before level 3 as he can. Once level 3 hits, anytime he uses either of his skills, Katarina will go in for the counter harass. Farming primarily with auto attacks and holding onto his skills will be the best option for Twisted Fate. However, if he is able to land a pick a card stun onto Katarina, the harassment will be well worth it and hard for Katarina to follow up on it. After 6 the lane becomes very dangerous. Hopefully at this point Twisted Fate will be able to clear the wave in 1-2 Q's, allowing him to safely and quickly farm out the mid lane from range. He should attempt to keep his pick a card ready for an instant lock gold card. Great kill pressure with Lee Sin as long as Lee Sin does not come from behind, and the gank is timed when a creep wave will not be coming to give Katarina an escape.

Bot -

Once again AHQ picks Blitzcrank into Thresh as well as picking Jinx, a weak level 1 laner. This puts them in a very bad spot against SSW's lane. The bully potential of SSW is vastly superior as is the all-in fights. AHQ should not opt into this match-up and should instead go for a lane swap. Trying to fight against the high pressure lane of SSW will just result in AHQ getting pushed back and losing in farm. The only saving grace here would be a hook into tower range.

Jungle -

Another Lee Sin against Khazix match-up. Farming will be the primary concern, however Lee Sin does have two solid gank opportunities. If Kayle pushes up early against Ryze, there is kill pressure up top. Alternatively, Twisted Fate can bait out Katarina's leap and then Lee Sin can gank immediately after, providing enough slow and time for Twisted Fate to be able to pull out a second gold card stun.

Lane Match-ups – Samsung White

Top -

This lane will be a farm lane for Kayle. Primarily Kayle has been picked for his late game potential and for his ultimate use on Katarina and Khazix when they dive into AHQ's team. In lane Kayle will get bullied, but will be able to sustain through Ryze's damage. It is unlikely that Kayle will pull a large enough advantage to put kill pressure (or any pressure) onto Ryze. On the same side, it is unlikely that Ryze will be able to put kill pressure onto Kayle at anytime during the laning phase either. If Ryze is pushed up to Kayle's tower, a gank from Khazix could secure a kill with the double slows and the speedup from Kayle.

Mid -

Katarina will have a fairly even time in this lane. She will get harassed by Twisted Fate, however anytime either his pick a card or wild cards have been used, Katarina can jump to either him or a minion and gain harassment onto Twisted Fate with her other spells. Keeping up this harassment pressure will be essential for Katarina staying even in lane. At level 6 Katarina will have huge kill potential any time pick a card is down, or is on the wrong cast rotation for a quick gold card grab to stop Katarina's ultimate. Easy kill with jungle gank, if Khazix can get in and slow Twisted Fate before getting stunned.

Bot -

Thresh/Lucian is a very strong lane, especially against a lane that does not have sustain. Once again AHQ picks Blitzcrank, who is inferior in lane to Thresh. Samsung White should have an easy time as long as they don't get grabbed into tower range. They will be able to heavily bully Jinx from the very start of the lane and any hook or even flay onto her that Thresh gets will create a strong kill opportunity.

Jungle -

Another standard Khazix vs. Lee Sin match-up. Khazix should primarily farm and hope to counter-gank Lee Sin. Successful ganks will only be found if Ryze is overly pushed, Thresh can land a good hook/lantern combo, or Khazix can get into mid for the slow and damage onto Twisted Fate without getting stunned.

Team Composition/Strategy – AHQ E-Sports

*Win Conditions – Get Ryze fed and able to split-push/hard carry. Land hooks and get picks with Blitzcrank and Twisted Fate. Transition into turret pressure with Jinx range and Twisted Fate wave clear.

AHQ's team, aside from Blitzcrank, is a fairly solid composition. Ryze and Jinx will scale well into the late game if they can reach that point and Twisted Fate should be able to turn one of those lanes in their favor. The biggest downfall will be the bot lane match-up and should be avoided. This will allows Jinx to farm safely and to apply early and fast turret pressure. A pre level 6 turret transitioned into a mid lane push would be ideal. The threat of Twisted Fate stun and Blitzcrank pull would provide ample fear for SSW to go in before the ultimates of Kayle and Katarina come into play. An early turret lead would get them a small gold lead and they could continue this style of play, in a defensive manner. Once SSW's ultimates come into play, it will be much harder to siege if they do not have a lead, as Khazix will gain greater wave clear, and the all in potential of SSW will be vastly higher. After this point, if AHQ is ahead, they can continue to siege and split-push with Ryze, attempting to keep Kayle away from the sieges. If they are behind, it becomes a waiting game as they try to farm into the late game (relying on Blitzcrank hooks for plays at this point) while avoiding an open fight with SSW. Early defensive items are a must against SSW. Preventing resets will be key to winning.

Team Composition/Strategy – Samsung White

*Win Condition – All-in reset city. The win condition here is getting strong enough to be able to all-in AHQ with Katarina/Khazix and Kayle ultimate after Khazix has landed some poke. Getting ahead in lane will vastly improve these odds.

SSW has crafted a very heavy reset composition. If it gets going it will become almost unstable. With Kayle ultimate there will be a heavy amount of guaranteed damage from either Khazix or Katarina and if even one member of AHQ falls before Katarina or Khazix does, SSW will quickly clean-up. If SSW get too far behind though, they will be unable to all-in and get the resets and will be very lacking in any comeback mechanics.. The saving grace here, is that their bot lane is vastly superior to AHQ's lane. This should provide the power and distraction Khazix and Katarina need to get rolling in the teamfights.

Game Notes -

Ryze should have waited just slightly for his team to get in range. He did burn a flash though. Waiting may have given kill pressure or may have not got the flash. Ryze now cannot bully Kayle at level 1 since he picked up his snare.

AHQ opt into the 2v2. A good hook onto Thresh in bot lane leads to an early fight. However a slight misplay causes the kill to go to Blitzcrank instead of Jinx. Jinx also dies, as SSW go all-in after getting hooked, and having the superior match-up are able to get the kill trade and for it to be in favor of SSW. As the kill gold and the kill target are better for them.

Ryze, unable to bully Kayle at level 1, gets pushed into his tower. A full HP Kayle is able to pick up Q instead of heal. A tower dive from Khazix results in the kill, however good skill use allows Ryze to get the tower to finish off Khazix.

A gank attempt from Lee Sin goes awry in bot lane as Blitzcrank tries to hook Lucian (who dashes away) while too close to SSW's tower. Thresh hooks Blitzcrank into tower range and flays him in, causing huge damage with no return from AHQ. The fight is now in favor of Thresh/Lucian who have almost full HP to the sub 100 hp of Blitzcrank, the 1/3 HP of Jinx, and the 4/5 hp of Lee Sin. SSW now counter-engage in a 2v3. A great dash flash will put Lucian in range to kill Blitzcrank and subsequently onto Jinx, even with Thresh to far away. A good lantern will allow Lucian to escape Lee Sin, the lantern having allowed Lucian to play so aggressively.

Khazix once again dives top, this time with Kayle intervention, but still dies due to using his Leap to get into the tower rather than away from it. The tower dives have caused Ryze to lose a lot of experience from creeps, though not gold since he has gotten the kills. However, the experience lead has now given Kayle the advantage.

SSW's bot lane is now a level ahead and heavily bullies AHQ's lane.

Lee Sin counters an attempted tower dive from Katarina and Khazix onto Twisted Fate, preventing the dive.

Twisted Fate makes a great ultimate onto bot lane, porting in at the lantern range while Blitzcrank flash hooks Lucian. While the lantern does get Lucian away, Twisted Fate's positioning is perfect to catch him.

This leads to AHQ dragon attempt. Even though they have the man advantage, the damage from dragon, and a good spike poke onto Lee Sin bring him low. Katarina and Khazix will leap onto Lee Sin while he focuses dragon. This allows SSW to set up the resets. During this Twisted Fate, Ryze, and Jinx are fighting Thresh, instead of dealing with the very dangerous Katarina and Khazix (who has evolved wings). Though Thresh dies, it was completely the wrong target for AHQ, Khazix and Katarina get the damage onto Lee Sin and the resets for Katarina and Khazix begin. SSW ace AHQ in a 4v5 only losing Thresh and then take mid tower.

SSW is now very far ahead and will be able to win every lane, every trade, and every skirmish. AHQ can now only rely on picks. Scrying orbs should be coming out at this point, as keeping control of their jungle will be very hard.

SSW start to create skirmishes inside AHQ jungle, claiming jungle pressure and superiority and will continue to look for pressure and reset dive opportunities.

A great wild card timing against Kayle intervention nets Twisted Fate a kill, however AHQ do lose two in the process.

A good culling taking Blitzcrank to half HP at the bottom T2 turret, leads to a great flank engage from Thresh. With Blitz already low, and with no defensive items on Lee Sin. SSW's reset crazy team clean up 3 kills and the tower very quickly.

A great hook from Blitzcrank gets a quick flash from Lucian.

AHQ once again try to fight SSW in the jungle, near their top T2 turret. With 0 defensive items still, AHQ give up two kills to the damage and resets of SSW.

Soon after, AHQ get caught, again in their top jungle, looking toward checking blue and Baron.

Now SSW will just push AHQ's base, getting kills and diving AHQ.

AHQ do get a good pick after Katarina dives too deep and dies, however it does not matter. The picks only result in trading kills, even in a 4v5 situation.

End Game Notes -

SSW are very slow at closing out the game. Instead opting for kill after kill. Just something to note about their play when far ahead. Though it does not matter in this game because the lead is so vast. While the win is definitive it is in no means clean.

AHQ put themselves at a big disadvantage from level 1. Ryze picking up snare really hurt him in his lane potential and AHQ opting into the 2v2 put their duo lane in a bad match-up. SSW was able to handily win top and bottom lane due to this small advantages and were then able to roll them into an Ace at the first dragon fight. AHQ did not respect SSW's reset composition at this time, and focused on Thresh instead of the dangers of Khazix and Katarina. They lost the fight, lost mid turret, and really turned the game massively in SSW's favor.

Item Notes -

AHQ gets behind and ends up with no defensive items.

Kayle goes Deathcap over Hurricane as his second item. This is a great choice as the upfront damage will allow the teams reset's to come in faster.

Katarina builds Mpen items which are extremely effective against the no MR AHQ.

Would have preferred to see Blitzcrank work towards Aegis before upgrading his Relic Shield.

What AHQ should have done -

Pick a better bot lane match-up or opt out of the 2v2. AHQ essentially threw this lane to SSW, giving them the edge they needed in the early game. With Lucian and Thresh performing much better than AHQ's lane, SSW was able to get the upfront damage they needed to get resets going (Lucian ultimate and burst). Especially with Ryze grabbing snare 2^nd, AHQ should have lane swapped into the 2v1 and pulled out some quick tower pushes with Jinx, and transitioning that push into the other lanes before SSW's reset comp could reach its shining point.

More respect needed to be given to SSW's resets at the first dragon fight. At this point, AHQ were behind, but not by too much. By not respecting the resets, taking dragon damage and Khazix poke and then focusing Thresh instead of Katarina or Khazix, AHQ handed SSW the game at this fight, putting themselves too far back to make any sort of comeback.