League of Legends Worlds Analysis, Group Stage - TSM vs. SHR Game #2

Team Solo Mid vs. Star Horn Royal Club Game #2

Standard Lanes

Bans

Nami Alistar

Janna Zilean

Rumble Lucian

Picks

1. Lee Sin 2. Ryze

3. Tristana 2. Janna

3. Nami 4. Khazix

5. Rumble 4. Caitlyn

5. Orianna 6. Fizz

Lane Match-ups – Team Solo Mid

Top -

Rumble will get bullied by Ryze early on, the range and Q spam of Ryze really putting on the pressure. Level 3 will give Rumble a bit more ability to fight, however Ryze with his snare should keep Rumble at bay. Rumble's time to shine, will be his level 6 and when he picks up his first Mpen item, growing even more when he gets his second. This will be during Ryze's weak point of gaining his mana. Rumble needs to be extremely wary of ganks from Khazix before level 6, however Lee Sin counter-engages will heavily turn into TSM's favor.

Mid -

Orianna will have the pressure in this match-up for the first 2 levels, able to really put the pressure onto Fizz and deny him farm. Once level 3 hits, things will be tougher for Orianna, as Fizz can harass and hop out. Just as against Yasuo, Orianna will need to keep the ball close in order to guarantee safety and return damage against Fizz. Barrier will almost be essential for surviving level 6-8 against Fizz's all-ins. Hang back and farm with your ball when you have no knowledge of Khazix, and stay close to your ball and harass Fizz when Khazix is no where near. In the end, Orianna should be able to out-farm Fizz and win the lane that way.

Bot -

Trist/Nami are in for a rough lane if they go 2v2. Caitlyn and Janna will be able to get very good harass from level 1 and can continue it as the match progresses. TSM should be reduced to farming under turret as Caitlyn and Janna push against their tower. All-in potential for TSM should be very low, as Janna shield and knock-ups will be very strong if Tristana jumps in. At level 6, expect Caitlyn to be using her ultimate on cooldown against Tristana, while Janna holds her ultimate to prevent any all-ins.

Jungle -

Lee Sin vs. Khazix, much of the same. Farm mostly but try to use your early pressure. Gank opportunities will be primarily in the top lane. Getting a counter-gank top if Khazix tries to gank Rumble will go great for TSM. Otherwise going after Fizz if he uses his combo against Orianna will also net success.

Lane Match-ups – Star Horn Royal Club

Top -

Ryze will be able to bully Rumble at the low levels and should do so as much as possible. When Rumble gets his level 3 combo up, Ryze should keep him at bay with a quick Q cast into snare then backing off away from Flamespitter damage. Prioritizing an early Negatron Cloak would do wonders for Ryze in this match-up and should be picked up before Rumble can get both of his Mpen Items, even if it will slow his scaling down some. Ganks with Khazix will be very successful, as Rumble has no escape, however they must be wary of the counter-gank from Lee Sin which would turn the fight heavily around.

Mid -

Fizz is going to have a hard time against Orianna, getting bullied early, and having trades after level 3 that will only go even or in Orianna's favor. However, if Orianna's ball is ever far away from her, that gives Fizz the opportunity to get in some free harass and pole hop away before the ball can move back to her or move to hit him. Look for opportunities to all-in at level 6, saving pole hop to dodge Orianna's ultimate. Getting this opportunity will be difficult, but rewarding. Ganks onto top or bottom will yield more success, but will sacrifice a lot of cs and tower damage.

Bot -

Strong in either a 2v1 or a 2v2. In either situation Caitlyn/Janna will bully the lane and push into the tower, trying to take it down as quickly as possible and denying a lot of CS to whoever they face. They should win the lane they are in, but will be unlikely to net a kill. The advantage should be used to get a quick tower kill and then switch lanes with top to do the same again.

Jungle -

Another Khazix vs. Lee Sin. Khazix needs to farm quickly to level 6, and then join Caitlyn/Janna in tower pushing with an Evolved Spike Rack. In the earlier levels, he should try to gank Rumble, but must make sure that he knows where Lee Sin is before attempting this. After 6, if not pushing with the team, timing a gank with Fizz ultimate onto Orianna will yield summoners, and possibly a kill.

Team Composition/Strategy – Team Solo Mid

*Win Condition – Withstand the early turret pushing power of SHR. Take dragon during Rumble's power spike and Ryze's mana generating phase. Once Tristana gains enough range and items, start to push turrets, using Rumble ultimate to zone SHR's back line if they engage.

TSM has drafted what can be considered an anti-engage composition. If SHR ever want to dive in onto TSM, Nami and Rumble will keep the back line of SHR zoned and far away from them, giving TSM time to focus and take down Fizz and Khazix. Any engage made by SHR should be shut down my TSM's champions as long as SHR do not gain a massive lead. Once Tristana scales up enough, TSM will use her to start besieging towers while being ready to disengage. Their team is also extremely strong in corridors, as a disengage composition so they can make good use of retreats made through the jungle.

Team Composition/Strategy – Star Horn Royal Club

*Win Condition – Fast push turrets with Caitlyn and move the early gold lead around the map to take as many objectives early as possible, getting Fizz and Ryze past their weakest points and close to their late game hyper-scaling. Once they reach their strong points, have Fizz and Ryze split-push while the 3 man squad of SHR wave clear and poke from range in mid.

SHR has picked up two hyper-scaling champions in Fizz and Ryze. This leaves them at a bit of a disadvantage during the mid game, especially against a Rumble. To somewhat alleviate this problem, they have chosen a duo lane that can fast push towers. SHR need to quickly push at least two, if not three turrets and us that gold advantage to get to the strong points of Ryze and Fizz quickly. Once Fizz reaches the point where he can split-push, he should definitely do so, Ryze following suit later on when he reaches it as well. Khazix, Janna, and Caitlyn can offer decent wave clear and poke, holding their own near towers against TSM.

Game Notes -

I would have preferred to see a lane swap by SHR, taking the top tower with Khazix extremely early, then moving to bot lane and dominating TSM's duo quickly after, taking bot turret as well. However, in the standard lanes, they do keep Tristana behind a good amount.

Even though Lee Sin being bottom does not result in a gank, the presence allows Tristana to not fall farther behind.

Fizz taking many jungle camps.

Rumble goes all-in against Ryze, using his ultimate. Ryze uses his flash, unnecessarily so I feel, and backs off. I feel as he had already stepped out of Rumble's ultimate, Ryze could have taken the fight and killed him, or at least backed off simply by running and not being forced to use flash.

Lee Sin dashes to ward as Fizz is dashing into him and drags Fizz with him, ends up getting SHR first blood. Should have just ran towards Orianna and tower. Also nets SHR dragon as bot lane is heavily pressured and pushed in as well.

Tristana/Nami are finally able to put some pressure onto SHR's bot lane with Janna's mana low and her ult down from dragon.

Lee Sin dives top lane with Rumble, killing Ryze. The lost flash earlier coming up huge here.

Khazix ganks bottom, burning 3 of TSM's summoners on bot lane.

SHR finally take bottom turret at 15 minutes.

Rather than backing off after taking the turret, they continue to push, resulting in a great flank TP by Rumble, getting kills on both Caitlyn and Janna. Fight goes 2 for 1 in TSM's favor and then gains them a lot of damage onto the bottom turret.

Dragon is the next focus for both teams, immediately following. Some great harass from Orianna as SHR moves in prevents them from being able to do dragon, and zones them away from mid, allowing TSM to take the mid turret.

SHR start dragon, and Lee Sin steals it for TSM. Khazix leaps into 4 members of TSM, to start the fight, but a great Rumble ultimate completely zones the rest of SHR and keeps them away long enough to annihilate Khazix. SHR continue the fight, currently a 4v4 with Tristana away from it, however she is able to make it to the fight and clean up. The result is 5 kills for TSM, 3 for SHR, with 3 kills going onto Tristana and the dragon to TSM. This massive swing brings Tristana even with Caitlyn and TSM into the lead in the game.

Now in the lead, TSM have a great team for taking control of the jungle and pushing turrets.

Rumble 1v1's Ryze in the top lane. Ryze has 0 magic resist against Rumble who now has triple Mpen items.

TSM will begin to push turrets and take control of SHR's jungle, by grouping as 4 or 5 and using their team fight power. At this point it is TSM's game to lose.

SHR rush top with their whole team while TSM move to push bottom lane. They catch Dyrus, kill him, and take baron. The unexpected 5 man top, ignoring everything else, comes up huge for SHR. Very risky, but it did work out. (Better warding for TSM in the top jungle, and Dyrus being more aware of the danger would have prevented his death, and then he could have stopped Baron alone or at least slowed down SHR enough for TSM to make it there).

TSM out-rotate SHR, putting pressure onto SHR mid turret, SHR flank TSM and get good damage, but TSM disengage and SHR chases TSM into the jungle, while Rumble and Orianna still have their ultimates and turns disastrous for SHR as they get over zealous.

Great play by SHR draws TSM into a very spread out, chaotic fight, breaking TSM's team fight advantage. The fight goes 2 for 2, but SHR are healthy enough and in the right position to take TSM T2 mid turret.

TSM takes SHR mid inhibitor, and backs towards dragon with no vision on Baron. SHR see this and rush to Baron, getting it again. TSM really needed to back from the inhibitor down middle and then towards baron to be ready for the counter-baron. Delays the game again.

SHR push bottom, still trying to team-fight instead of using Fizz's split-push potential. Doesn't net them anything but time, as Orianna's wave clear at this point is instant.

SHR rotate towards Baron/top, taking top T2, TSM rushes mid, forcing SHR back to defend their inhibitor. SHR gains a turret kill, but TSM now are free to take vision of Baron.

The fight happens at the Baron area. A great Rumble ult zones Caitlyn out of the fight completely. A bit of a split allows Fizz and Ryze to take brawl with Orianna/Rumble/ and Nami while Tristana leaps past them to take out Khazix and Janna, then return to clean up the fight. With Caitlyn delayed and Tristana so strong, Tristana rushes down mid and takes the Nexus.

Item Notes -

No early MR from Ryze really puts him at a huge disadvantage against Rumble and costs him several deaths. The pick-up of Glacial Shroud before Negatron Cloak really offers Ryze nothing against the double AP comp of TSM.

Janna goes Mikael's against a team whose only hard CC is Nami's bubble. Janna needed to pick up an Aegis/Locket which would have been huge against TSM's composition. Exponentially more effective than Mikael's.

End Game Notes -

SHR did not play into their strengths, and try to fight TSM several points, even though TSM has such a great anti-engage composition. Trying to fight this, gets SHR into a lot of trouble early on and sets up TSM to take control of the game.

A very risky play by SHR and then a sloppy back by TSM, end up giving them a great reward and they secure 2 Barons in a row.

SHR continue to try to fight TSM though, and lose out against the disengage. To be fair though, with their inhibitor exposed in mid, it is just about if not completely too late for a split-push.

What Star Horn Royal Club needed to do -

In the team composition that SHR chose, they needed to get an advantage early in all lanes, not just in the bottom lane. The best way SHR could have facilitated this is by using the huge advantage that SHR's duo lane had to fast push turrets. SHR should have opted into 2v1 lanes and taken the top tower as quickly as possible. This would have created team gold, and while it would not have kept Tristana down in the beginning, it would have kept Rumble down. As soon as the top turret drops, then Caitlyn/Janna switch to bottom lane, having an item advantage from shopping as well as the match-up advantage and pushing down the bottom tower quickly as well. Khazix (or an Elise) could easily help facilitate this by rushing level 6 and picking up Evolved Spike Racks for the poke and fast wave clear.

With two turrets down, Khazix/Caitlyn/Janna could have pressured mid while Fizz switches into a split-push (TP would have been great on Fizz instead of ignite). This would have helped Fizz and Ryze get the lead they needed to be able to split-push, win the 1v1s and draw multiple members into their lane.

Another thing that SHR club could have done, was to not pick Fizz. They could see the full intention of TSM's team and had an opportunity to pick their mid laner in response. A mid laner that has good long range abilities, does not have to all in, and is able to provide usefulness in a tower siege would have been great against TSM, as TSM had no hard engage and SHR already had Caitlyn/Janna for the turret pushing. Xerath, Syndra, Ziggs, or Jayce would have been great for SHR. Playing the same way as mentioned in the previous paragraph, but instead of SHR's mid laner split-pushing, he would help in the siege once it reached mid lane. From there, poke around dragon, manage waves, and then push into the T2 turrets, extending the gold lead.