Tuesday, November 11, 2014

League of Legends Worlds Analysis, Group Stage - C9 vs. NWS Tie-Breaker

Najin White Shield vs. Cloud9 Tie-Breaker
2v1 Lanes, NWS Top

Bans
Rumble Thresh
Syndra Ryze
Alistar Maokai

Picks
1. Zilean 2. Nidalee
3. Lee Sin 2. Corki
3. Zed 4. Elise
5. Rumble 4. Janna
5. Janna 6. Talon

Lane Match-ups – Najin White Shield

Top -
Kassadin will be easily bullied by Nidalee in lane. However this pick is not for winning the lane, but moving into the mid-late game and deal with the obvious split-push that Cloud9 have set up. Kassadin will be great at stopping this later on. While laning, he simply needs to survive and get what CS he can. Should expect Elise to try to gank and play very safe for it.

Mid -
A very volatile match-up, if either champion gets ahead the lane will shift heavily into their favor. Zed should get as much poke as possible. At level 2 Zed will have the all-in potential and use it to push Talon out of lane or at least away from the creeps. At level 6 the match-up becomes a game of chicken with their ultimates, whoever uses theirs first most likely losing the fight. Any damage brought in by the junglers will help shift this match-up.

Bot -
A fairly even match-up I believe. Both Lucian and Zilean are lane bullies in the bottom lane, offer good damage at the early levels. They are facing Janna/Corki though, another strong lane so the match-up should go even. Rush for the first level 2 and take advantage of the lane. Later on, especially at level 6, the all-in potential should switch in NWS's favor.

Jungle -
Lee Sin against Elise. Lee Sin is very much the stronger jungler and will be able turn any of Elise's ganks into a win for his team if he can counter-gank properly. Lee Sin needs to make plays around the map, and primarily make sure that the Nidalee does not snowball out of control.

Lane Match-ups – C9

Top -
Nidalee has a great lane up against Kassadin. However she must recognize that the point of Kassadin is for the split-push denial later on. Knowing this, Nidalee needs to shut down Kassadin as hard as possible and grow her lead to where he can not stop her or Zed later on. Elise ganks or even an early tower dive will be huge in keeping Kassadin down.

Mid -
A very volatile match. This lane will swing very heavily from the first kill/forced back on. Talon must respect that Zed will take an early lead at level 2, and accept it. From level 3 on, the match-up will be a bit of a toss up. Zed will have the greater poke potential as well as being able to trade evenly with Talon. Creep damage will be on Zed's side, as Talon must go onto Zed to get down his harassment, while Zed does not. Early help from Elise can really shift this match-up. Level 6 will be a game of chicken, whoever uses their ultimate first and tries to fight will most likely lose. Talon however, can combo Zed and then ultimate out. Dealing some damage and fast clearing the wave before moving elsewhere.

Bot -
An even match-up I believe. There is a lot of bully potential and all-in potential on both sides. Janna will have to make good use of her shield to maximize the protection on Corki and allowing him to get use out of the extra AD damage it provides. Try to rush to level 2, however it will be hard against the experience boost and AoE damage of Zilean. Do not over commit and lose the lane early.

Jungle -
Elise will have a harder time against Lee Sin that other match-ups. His damage in ganks will be more lasting if she is unable to push out or kill NWS's lane member before he arrives. Elise should still look for solid gank opportunities and must decide between bot and top early on. Preferably, Elise should look to keep Kassadin down, as he will be the biggest hamper to C9's 1-3-1 split-push team.

Team Composition/Strategy – Najin White Shield

*Win Condition – Shut down Cloud9's split-push ability.

Najin have created a team that is designed to stop C9's split-push. They played the pick/ban phase wonderfully and have set themselves up with highly mobile champions capable of fighting against and catching out C9's split-push. With Zilean, NWS will have a natural advantage in experience which will really help this out. As long as they don't fall behind early on, NWS should scale into a greater split-push with Kassadin.

Team Composition/Strategy – C9

*Win Condition – Play the map much stronger than NWS and split-push with great strategic map play.

C9 have built a very strong 1-3-1 split-push team. Nidalee and Talon will be able to both push a lane, forcing NWS into splitting up to deal with them. In the meanwhile, C9's 3 man squad is holding onto strong wave clear, poke, and disengage which gives them the ability to both turret defend, and put pressure onto NWS's mid-lane. The keep need against NWS is going to be keeping Kassadin from getting to the point where he will be able to shutdown Nidalee or Talon.

Game Notes -

Lane swap initiated by NWS. Turns into a switch with Corki vs. Kassadin in the bottom lane and Nidalee/Janna top.

Great return damage from C9 up top when Lucian goes aggressive.

Elise does not check top red bush when going for a jungle invade. Did not back off when Zed hit 6. bad timing unfortunately.

C9, Talon and Elise, take a pink ward at a bad time and let Zed get behind them. Collasping NWS catch out and kill Talon. Note 4 pink wards down on the Dragon side by NWS.

Unfortunately for C9, both kill are on Zed.

Thinking about it, C9 should have banned Zilean if they wanted to run this composition. The experience advantage Zilean gives really makes things rough for getting a lead to split-push.

Nidalee's vision is a bit lax and Zed makes a good roam and kill top. C9 responds by taking bot turret and getting very deep vision into NWS' bottom jungle.

Lack of vision on the top side of the map costs C9 a lot.

A big commit top against Kassadin pays out and C9 takes a kill and top turret.

Crazy amount of wards in NWS inventory for taking dragon. C9 is at a double Trinity Force spike though.

C9 get initiated on and get split. They lose 3 and NWS head to dragon.

Corki makes a great play, 1v1's Lucian and is able to stop dragon when Nidalee tp's in. Baits in Zed, and Nidalee is able to catch and kill him. C9 take dragon. Meanwhile Kassadin gets top lane.

While the gold is close, C9 are at an experience disadvantage. They do still try to apply the pressure, trading turrets with NWS.

C9 push mid while Zed split-pushes top. Do not quite get the mid T2 turret, but Zed runs to try to flank instead of taking top turret. (Here we see a huge difference in play when comparing Asian teams to LCS teams). The flank does not work, it does draw C9 off the tower but after a ton of damage. C9 move back to mid to pressure, but get caught and being weaker in the 5v5 give up 2 kills for nothing.

C9 make the decision to stop trying to fight NWS and make a sneaky move to take T2 bot turret while NWS take dragon. NWS collapse after taking dragon and letting their turret fall. End up chasing C9 to the top lane near baron while Nidalee TP's bot lane, pulling NWS away from Baron.

Talon and Nidalee wait in the bot lane bush, until they see that NWS has 4 members middle and start to pressure the bot lane forcing NWS into trade or stall decision.

C9 end up taking the bot lane inhibitor, sneaking Corki into the bot lane with Zed while they let NWS take Baron. C9 actually end up getting 2 kills as well, almost getting 3.

C9 keep NWS busy in mid, clearing waves and Nidalee split-pushes bot lane, Nidalee gets a Nexus Turret, and C9 gets Dragon and top T2 turret. NWS send 4 mid to push, but all of C9 rush towards NWS' base, forcing NWS to recall and saving the mid-lane of C9.

C9's continual split-push keep NWS at bay, unable to push against the 3-man squad of C9.

Elise is not with the 3-man squad and NWS push and take C9 mid inhibitor. However when she gets back C9 put a lot of damage form Corki pokes onto all 4 members of NWS. Meanwhile Nidalee and Talon split-push both top and bottom against just Kassadin.

Nidalee ends up dieing to Kassadin (he is just too strong atm) but Talon, gets greedy. Instead of taking a guaranteed inhibtor, he heads mid to try and catch NWS's low members, gets obliterated by Lucian. This is really the end point. C9 needed that inhibitor. Just an overzealous, heat of the moment excitement decision.

NWS take baron and C9 take bottom inhibitor, but lose 3 members. NWS rush middle.

Talon and Nidalee setup a catch top and it almost goes so well, but Zed uses shadows so well and survives. If the kill had come through, C9 would have won.

Elise and Corki sneak into the base of NWS, but Kassadin is able to get back and help Zed save the base. And then NWS are able to end the game.

Item Notes -

Talon builds so much better than last time. Going for Last Whisper after Brutalizer and Tiamat.

End Game Notes -

C9 though behind, play this game super strategically.

An amazing game. C9 once again show cracks in NWS and potentially the entire Asian region. NWS do not know how to deal with the strategic split-push and map movements of Cloud9. It really shows that NWS only know how to play brawl focused, skirmish compositions.

If C9 had not gotten behind so early, then they would have dominated this game.

The overzealous play by Talon really solidifies the loss for C9, but the intention was good. Still should have taken the inhibitor.

What Cloud9 should have done -

First let me say, they played amazingly and ran NWS ragged.

All Cloud9 needed to do, was to not get so behind early. A few misplays early on really kept C9 from running away with the game. Elise getting caught right when Zed got six, and then C9 getting caught and collapsed on in the mid lane a few times.

The only other thing that I would have changed, would have been 1 thing in the pick/ban phase. If C9 wanted to run this 1-3-1 composition (which they showed at least a split-push with Nidalee in the first run) would be to drop the Maokai ban and ban Zilean. Prevent the experience lead that he gives, which will hamper your split-pushers early on.






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