Back, finally

Was gone from posting for way too long.  Will remedy that in the future.  For now, here's a post on the Relic Shield from League of Legends.

Support Gold Generation - The Power of Double Gold Generation Items and the Danger of Relic Shield

1. Intro
2. Shorthand Notes
3. GP/10 Values
4. Primary vs. Support Gold
5. Relic Shield on Primaries
6. Relic Shield Changes

Intro
Most players realized the power of Relic Shield pre-nerf.  It was quite obvious how strong it was and the lane opportunities that it opened up.  What surprises me though, is how quickly those new lane strategies were quickly dropped by the solo crowd when the nerf came around.  Mob mentality seems to have immediately dismissed the use of Relic Shield on Primary lane partners.

While the nerf to Relic Shield has brought its Tier 1 form more into line with Ancient Coin and Spellthief's edge, the nerf did nothing to address the true power of Relic Shield.  Relic Shield can still be used highly effectively as a means to give TWO gold generating items to the Support lane partner.  I will attempt to show why this is so effective, and how it can best be utilized.  Then I will talk about how this one item can effectively change the current meta, and how/if it should be changed to prevent this.

There will be a lot of numbers until the end of section 4, where I will start to bring everything together. If you're not interested in the math and numbers, just skip to there.

Shorthand Notes
AC = Ancient Coin
SE = Spellthief's Edge
RS = Relic Shield
T1,T2,T3 = Tier 1, 2, 3 respectively of the specific item.
M(x) = Mastery where x is the mastery name
Primary = Lane partner that takes CS.
Support = Lane partner that does not take CS.

Gold gain of each Gold Generation item as well as their combinations with Relic Shield on the primary.  All items are upgraded to T2 at the 10 minute mark.

GP/10 Values
This is a list of all the predictable gp/10 sources that can be found in a lane.
13 = Base GP/10
28.33+1.11(per 3 minutes) = Creep Wave GP/10 Equivalent
5.3 = Runes
1.5 = M(Greed)
2.11 = M(Scavenger)
0 - 12 = M(Bandit)
4.2 = AC-T1
10.4 = AC-T2
2 -10 = SE-T1
4 - 20 = SE-T2
5.55+.138 = RS-T1(On Support-Support's Gain)
.833 = RS-T1(On Support-Primary's Gain)
8.88+.222 = RS-T2(On Support-Support's Gain)
3.33 = RS-T2(On Support-Primary's Gain)
6.38+.138 = RS-T1(On Primary-Support's Gain)
12.22+.222 = RS-T2(On Primary-Support's Gain)
9.72+.222 = RS-T1 (On Primary/Support - Support's Gain)
18.88+.388 = RS-T2 (On Primary/Support - Support's Gain)

Primary vs. Support Gold 
A few gp/10 scenarios for Primary vs Support. M(Bandit) and SE will be evaluated at .25-.5 of their stealing potential for a medium to high realism value.

-----Primary-----  
13 = Base gp/10
28.33+1.11(per 3m) = Creep Wave
41.33+1.11(per 3m) = Most likely gp/10 for a Primary with perfect CS.

Add (Possible) - Only one real addition, if your Support picks up RS.
.833/3.33 if the Support has RS-T1/T2
44.66+1.11(per 3m) = New total if Support has RS-T2

Add (Unlikely) - For some reason Primary goes deep Utility Masteries
5.3 = Runes
1.5 = M(Greed)
3 - 6 = M(Bandit)
54.46 - 57.46+1.11(per 3m) = New total if Primary runs gp/10 Runes and Masteries.

-----Support-----
13 = Base gp/10

Add (Likely) - First Add the Utility Masteries
1.5 = M(Greed)
2.11 = M(Scavenger)
3 - 6 = M(Bandit)
6.61 - 9.61 = Total likely addition, Support Masteries
19.61 - 22.61 = Likely Base gp/10 for Support going Support Masteries

Total With Gold Item
25.11 - 28.11 = RS-T1, +5.55
28.41 - 31.41 = RS-T2, +8.88

23.81 - 26.81 = AC-T1, +4.2
30.01 - 33.01 = AC-T2, +10.4

23.61 - 28.61 = SE-T1, +4-6
27.61 - 33.61 = SE-T2, +8-12

Total if Primary buy's Relic Shield - Assuming Support has T2 item.
32.72 - 35.72 = T1, RS on Support, + 4.17
38.47 - 41.47 = T2, RS on Support, + 10

36.39 - 39.39 = T1, AC on Support, +6.38
42.23 - 45.23 = T2, AC on Support, +12.22

33.99 - 40.99 = T1, SE on Support, +6.38
39.83 - 46.83 = T2, SE on Support, +12.22

Add (Unlikely) - If Support runs gold runes
5.3 = Runes

Final totals if Primary runs RS-T2
43.77 - 46.77 = RS (add .22 per 3 mins for creep gold increase)
47.53 - 50.53 = AC
45.13 - 52.13 = SE

-----Primary vs. Support-----  
For ease of comparison I will leave out the creep gold increase over time and will assume T2 item on Support.
 
Likely - This the important one
41.33 = Primary
27.61 - 33.61 = Support
32.72 - 40.99 = Support w/ Primary RS-T1 (18.5% to 21.9% increase)
38.47 - 46.83 = Support w/ Primary RS-T2 (39.3% increase)

Unlikely - Maximum potential with realistic values for M(Bandit) and SE
54.46 - 57.46 = Primary, Utility Masteries, gp/10 runes
43.77 - 52.13 = Support, Utility Masteries, gp/10 runes, w/ Primary RS-T2

Unrealistic - Just for fun, if you could max the potential of M(Bandit) and SE
63.46 = Primary
66.13 = Support

-----Conclusions------
The ability for supports to gain gold is extremely high and in some cases it is actually higher than what their lane counterpart has the ability to earn.  On top of this, the Support receives less downtime on gold generation than the Primary does, they still generate gold outside of lane as well as generating even more gold when the Primary is outside of lane.

However, this hinges on your Primary picking up RS, and hopefully building it into its T2 version.  RS-T1/T2 is such a massive increase to support gold while also being extremely consistent, as RS is highly consistent and suffers from very little downtime.  While the numbers put the increase around 39%, I believe the increase is actually higher, just because of how consistent RS is compared to all other forms of lane gp/10 generation.

This allows Supports to plan for the extra gold generation and actually build in a manner to be just as powerful as their Primary counterparts.  It also opens up paths of sacrificing other forms of gold generation for more early game oomph.  This can include not using gp/10 runes, or the Utility mastery tree and instead running 21 in Offense or Defense.  In the next section I will talk about the trade-offs in lane that this can cause.

Relic Shield on Primaries
So we have established that picking up RS on the Primary lane partner is a huge increase in gold generation of the Support partner (the largest single increase possible). The question then becomes, what are you sacrificing by picking up Relic Shield as the Primary.  In most cases, the primary will be an ADC, picking up Doran's Blade.  Let's look at the differences between the two.

Doran's Blade
+8 AD
+30 HP
Relic Shield
+2 Health Pots
+Proc Heal

The regen on both items is pretty similar when you take into account how often attacks are made versus the constant hp/5, so we can call that similar.  Taking that out, Doran's Blade has slightly more hp and gives some damage.  With Relic Shield however, you get 2 extra pots.  These extra pots provide much more sustain than Doran's Blade, and can make up for the HP if used during a fight.  The biggest trade off, is the damage.  So lets look at what bringing a Relic Shield on your Primary, allows for your Support to bring, without sacrificing gold generation.

If your support moves from a deep Utility tree mastery build to a deep Offensive tree build, they can bring much much more damage at level one that the +8 from the Doran's Blade brings.  With AP blue/Quints, the change gives your support +11 AP at level 1, on top of all the other damage increase masteries like Havoc, Executioner, and Arcane Blade to name a few.  Not only does this bring more damage/defense in the lane, but it also brings more of the same to the late game, as your Support will scale even better.

Starting with a Relic Shield, and potentially upgrading it to Targon's Brace is a personal sacrifice yes, but its only a very small one, especially compared to the massive benefit it brings to your partner.  It's one that all Primary lane partners should start to consider.  In my opinion, its far superior to any other item you could start with.

Relic Shield Changes
Relic Shield has to change. In it's current form it has the power to be Meta defining.  Relic Shield is the only item in the game that has the ability to create gold for another player, there is nothing else like it.  With how strong Relic Shield is in terms of gold generation for your partner, on top of how strong gold generation items are for Supports, the ability to essentially give a support TWO gold generation items is borderline game breaking.  A single item should never define the metagame, but Relic Shield is very close to doing so.  If it comes to light that it is the vastly superior choice (which I think it is), there will no longer be a choice.  It will end up defining roles, and the champions that can fill them.  This is simply way too much power for a single item.

As much as I enjoy Relic Shield, one of two things need to happen.  First, they add in more items that give gold to your partner, essentially creating choice in items.  However this would not change the power that these items have, only solidify their role in defining the metagame.  The other solution, and seemingly more useful one, is to make it so that Relic Shield cannot share gold with someone who already has a gold generation item.  This simple design change would halt this item's hiding power without hampering it for supports who want to pick it up.

And as one last small note, I'd like to see the execute return for ranged champions, but at a much lesser amount, say 25-50 + AD.  Its a large quality of life improvement, especially in solo Q's for supports who have to deal with lane partners who do not let them last hit.

Ending
I hope this was informative.  I know I can be a bit long winded, but I actually love Relic Shield a lot in it's current form, I just believe it will become too game defining, potentially reversing the roles of Primary/Support as well as removing a dedicated jungler.  Until then, and if it doesn't, then I hope it inspires you to try out some more unique setups (Ashe + Volibear is currently my favorite).

Some Infographics from the World Championships - League of Legends

World's is over, and there's a plethora of stats that I've taken from it, and I wanted to share in an easier manner than my spreadsheets, so I made some infographics.  They aren't the prettiest, but I hope they get the information across easily!  I would love to know what you think, or even just here if you think these are neat or peaked curiosity.  Also if you have any questions on what these numbers mean in terms of Game Analysis, please ask, I'd love to answer.   I'll be putting up some of my thoughts on them later, but for now, here they are!

Spreadsheets from the Worlds can be found here.
Information may not be 100% correct, but should be extremely close.  I did have to take these stats by hand.

1. Team Scores

2. Champion Overview

3. Champion Details

4. Objective Control Overview

5. First Objective Control Details

Fnatic vs. Club Royal, Game 4 - A look at Post-Fight Decision Making and Objective Control

The semi-final games between Club Royal and Fnatic were exciting to watch.  As a spectator it was enjoyable to see so much fighting going on and so many back and forth battles.  If you haven't watched them, you should go and do so, they are worth it.

There is one thing I found particularly disappointing though.  Consistently, Fnatic was winning team-fights and getting kill leads, however, they were not doing very much with these.  This was a constant problem for Fnatic throughout all four games and I wanted to take a deeper look into why Fnatic lost the series, even while winning most of the team-fights.

Though there were multiple problems - losing lanes, cs numbers, vision control, etc - I feel that Fnatics biggest problem was their decision making after team-fights and their general lack of objective control throughout the series.  Aside from Game 1, Fnactic had the kill and teamfight leads, but even so, in all four games Royal was the first to secure the primary map/vision control objectives, the first turret and the outer turrets.  I feel that Game 4 exemplifies this problem best, with Fnatic's huge kill lead but lack of doing anything with it, so I will be using Game 4 as an example.

                                        Game 1           Game 2           Game 3           Game 4
First Kill -                            RYL                 FNC                 FNC                FNC
First to 5 Kills -                    RYL                 FNC                 FNC                FNC
First to 10 Kills -                  RYL                 FNC                 FNC                FNC
First Teamfight Win -            RYL                 FNC                 FNC                FNC

First Turret -                         RYL                 RYL                 RYL                 RYL
First Outer Turrets -              RYL                 RYL                 RYL                 RYL
First Inner Turrets -               RYL                                        FNC                 RYL
First Inhibitor -                      RYL                 RYL                 FNC                 RYL

First Dragon -                       FNC                 FNC                FNC                 RYL
Most Dragons -                    RYL                 FNC                 FNC                 RYL
First Baron -                        RYL                 RYL                 FNC                 RYL


First Dragon

6:04 - This is immediately after Jarvan tries to kill Elise mid, and she barely gets away.  Elise is forced to flash and to back, Annie has expended 90% of her mana and her ignite summoner (making her mostly useless in a fight) and Fnatic, with the exception of Jarvan, are all moving out of base, having just shopped.  Rumble also has his ultimate where as Shen does not.  These factors put Fnactic in a superior dragon position if they would collapse and immediately take it.  They would reach and kill dragon before Royal could effectively respond.   (Also note Rumble has 26 cs).

6:34 - If Fnatic had made the call to dragon after Elise was forced to back, they could have been at dragon as a 5 man team for roughly 8-12s, enough time to kill it.  Even if they did not have enough time, it would have been a 4v5 as Shen does not have his ultimate at this time.  Instead, Jarvan farms mid and burn his mana, vastly reducing his fight effectiveness and Royal takes note of this.

6:47 - With Royal noting that Jarvan was low on mana and at half hp, they immediately set up vision around dragon.  Seeing that Jarvan has backed, they immediately turn to start dragon.

6:55 - Royal have started dragon without hesitation.  Jarvan is all the way back in base.  Kayle has now hit 6, Shen is about to hit 6.  Rumble begins to head towards dragon, having only gained 6 cs from his trip top.

7:22 - Fight has broken out at Dragon after Royal have already secured it.  Fnatic kill Kayle, but because Shen had just reached 6 and Kayle had been 6, their ultimates were enough to delay Kayle's death so that Royal could secure the kill on Varus.

Results - Fnatic do win the fight, but the kill score is 1 - 1 and Royal secured dragon, pulling them ahead from the engagement.  Royal noticed that Jarvan was backing and that they would have an advantage and did not hesitate to go after Dragon.  If instead, Fnatic had been proactive and headed towards dragon when Elise was forced to back, they would have been at an advantage to take it.  Kayle and Shen would not have been 6, but Rumble would have been, leading to a massive 5v4 advantage for Fnatic.  Instead, Fnatic get some minor farm.  6 cs on Rumble for his trip top, and a few cs for Jarvan farming mid.  Fnatic did not capitalize on their opportunity, but Royal did and they come out on top for it.

Post First Dragon Fight

7:40 - After the fight at dragon, Fnatic come out on top even though the kill score was even.  Elise is low on both HP and mana and cannot be useful in a defense situation.  Fnatic have 4 members near the bottom tower while Cait heads mid and Shen heads top.  Fnatic could and should at this point, push bottom.  They would be able to take the turret uncontested and when Varus respawns he would be able to head middle to defend.

7:48 - Instead of pushing an objective after the fight, Rumble goes back to base an heads stop, Jarvan and Fizz take blue, and they leave Leona to farm bottom.  This effectively takes their power play time and nullifies it.  Instead of pushing for an objective that gives them global presence, they head back into laning phase mentality.  Fnatic gain nothing from winning the previous fight.

Fizz Dies Middle

8:18 - Fizz attempts to make a play mid, but is caught by Annie and dies.  Royal immediately respond by pushing mid with Shen and Kayle heading towards mid tower.

8:39 - Since Shen and Kayle collapsed to mid, Fnatic were unable to defend mid turret and Royal secure it, giving them a large advantage in vision control and map presence.

Blue Buff Posturing and 2nd Dragon

11:47 - 12:27 - With the mid turret down, Royal begin to take vision control of Fnatic's jungle.  They notice that Varus is backing and with 3 people they force their way into Fnatic's jungle while Kayle pushes bottom lane towards the turret.  The jungle dance goes on for a bit, but when Jarvan decides to head towards wraiths, letting the blue buff jungle go, Royal use their superior position and objective focus to collapse on bottom lane and take down the turret.

12:40 - With Royal grouped up after pushing bottom turret, they have the better position for dragon, which is going to respawn.  Fnatic are divided, both by positioning and decision making.  Leona/Varus/Jarvan posture around dragon while Fizz make no attempt to head that way.  With Rumble so far away and the threat of Shen ultimate at dragon, Fnatic decide to let this dragon go, even though they don't act like it.  Fizz heads towards wraiths, but decides against it, heads to posture around dragon, then decides against it again.  Fizz could have just pushed mid, while Royal are distracted with dragon, and take the turret or at least put on a lot of damage.

13:10 - After being indecisive about dragon, Fizz returns to middle to clear out another creep wave.  However, he still does no damage to Royal's mid turret, even though they are currently distracted by dragon.  With no pressure on mid turret, Royal are free to take Fnatic's blue buff after dragon.

Result -  Royal's superior pressuring and map positioning along with Fnatic's indecisiveness allow Royal to get 4 different objectives - Jungle control, Bottom Outer Turret, Dragon, and Fnatic's Blue Buff.  Because Fnatic did not take this time to pressure anything, particularly mid turret, Royal gained these 4 objectives without any cost to them.


Top Lane Fight - 16:30

16:16 - With their objective focus, Royal start to group up towards the last outer turret of Fnatic.  During this, Royal end up catching and killing Leona in the jungle.  With Fizz bottom, Royal immediately collapse top for a 5v3 in their favor.

16:46 - While pushing the turret, Shen and Rumble die, trading 1 for 1.  Even though Royal have lost 1 member already, they still continue to push the turret 4v2, even though they know Fizz is en-route. The bigger thing to note here, is that Leona DOES NOT head towards the fight and her team, but heads middle.

17:08 - Fnatic get 2 kills and come out of the fight very healthy and with Fizz/Jarvan ultimate still up.  Now with a 5v3 advantage, Fnatic have two choices.  First - They could 3v2 top turret (4v2 if Leona had headed top) or they could rush middle, meet up with Leona and Rumble and push middle.  Unfortunately, Rumble decides to head bottom.

17:15 - Instead, Fnactic opt to back and shop.

17:38 - Caitlyn however, does not back, continuing to farm top lane.  With Fnatic gone, she pushes top lane and at 18:14 she takes the top turret.

Results - Fnatic are able to turn around a bad situation.  Effecively a 5v3 fight for top turret, Fnatic hold out until Fizz arrives and turn the fight around.  Fnatic comes out with 2 kills and has a 5v3 advantage on the map.  Unfortunately they do nothing with this advantage while Royal keep on the pressure and gain a turret.  In the end Fnatic take 3 kills while Royal take 2 kills and a turret.  If Fnatic has pressured their advantage after the fight, they could have been the one up a turret instead of Royal.


3rd Dragon

18:35 - Fnatic attempt to get a pick middle in a 3v5 situation.  Unfortunately they target Kayle who along with Shen ultimate, easily survives the attempt.  This could not come at a worse time.  Dragon is spawning soon and Fnatic will not have 3 of their ultimates.  Royal will pick up an easy Dragon.  Fnatic should have waited till dragon to fight, as they have been repeatedly winning team-fights so far.

Mid-lane Teamfight - 19:53

24:18 - Fnatic win the team fight, and even though both sides are low, Varus is full hp and Leona is at half.  With Royal having the lower HP bars, and Shen pushed out of the fight, Fnatic have the advantage.  Fnatic have the positioning to push mid turret 4v3.  If a fight were to engage, Leona could run defense and Jarvan has his ultimate coming up.  At the least, Fnatic could trade kills and keep their advantage on the turret.

20:22 - Instead, Fnatic backs.  Caitlyn however stays mid and farms the pushing waves, lessening the gold gain Fnatic acquired from the teamfight and pushes the creep pressure back towards Fnatic.


Blue Fight - 23:40

24:18 - Fnatic win the fight substantially.  This time they do decide to push an objective, however this is mostly because they happen to be there.  Fnatic have a decent sized wave and could push onward to the inner turret, especially in a 4v1 situation when Elise showed middle.  Leaon and Fizz however, end up backing.


Dragon Fight 26:05

26:45 - Fnatic once again come out on top after a teamfight and this time substantially ahead.  Fnatic push the inner bottom turret and take it out.  If they had previously taken down the inner turret with their last win, they could have swung middle and gained a 4th turret and their 1st mid one.  Barring that, this pressure after the fight was well done.

Mid-Fight 30:09

30:42 - Fnatic win the fight going 3 kills for 1 and successively take mid turret.  While they have the numbers advantage, they still don't push the inner turret.  Being fair, this is another case where doing so might put Baron at risk.  However, neither Baron nor the inner turret are on Fnatic's mind at this moment.  They do not push their current 4v2 at middle turret, and Varus/Rumble do not go back to base to heal for Baron (Rumble will die because of this in the next fight).


Baron Area Fight 31:38

Fnatic with yet another teamfight, this time near Baron Pit, getting the ace.  If Rumble had healed after the previous engagement, then the fight would have been even more of a Fnatic win, with 3 or potentially 4 up. That didn't happen however, so lets look at what did and what Fnatic have for options.  I believe that this fight is where Fnatic could have secured themselves the win.

Notables:
Jarvan and Varus are alive.
Varus is strong and has B.T. for lots of leech.
Baron is mere feet away.
There is a massive creep wave in bot lane.
Leona has 23s till respawn and has level 2 boots.
Elise has 33s till respawn and has level 1 boots.

Option 1 - Baron
I believe that this would have been the best option for Fnatic to take.  Clearing the map of Baron would have removed it's threat and further increased Fnatic's fighting potential, even if it was only on a few members.  At this point in the game, turrets are worth less as 1 good fight can lead to an inhibitor push or even a nexus push and having Baron siege/fight benefit would almost secure the next fight for Fnatic and would give them the confidence to, for the first time in this game, take the fight to Royal.

Jarvan and Varus could have split baron aggro back and forth, and Varus could have created a lot of tank time with his life leech.  They could even delay a few seconds before starting so that they sustain less damage before Leona arrives.  With Leona spawning 10s earlier than Elise and having the ability to purchase homeguard, she could have arrived at baron 15s+ earlier than her.  Fnatic had a good 35-40s window to two-man Baron.

We won't actually know if they could have two manned it, but I believe that they could have started it, delayed for Leona, and finish it and get away before Royal could respond.

Option 2 - Push Top
This is the option that Fnatic chose, but they hesitated a few seconds which turns out to be crucial.  Jarvan and Varus head top and take the inner top turret.  The massive creep wave there would have taken the turret without them though.  Unfortunately, Jarvan decides to back, a huge mistake.  Varus continues to push and takes down the top lane inhibitor turret and moves on to the inhibitor.  Varus alone is not enough though and has to back off before it is finished.

If Jarvan had stayed, the extra damage and AS he provides should have been enough to take out the inhibitor.

Option 3 - Push Mid
Not really a better option, but just one.  Fnatic could have pushed mid, but it would have gotten them the least value.

Results - Because Fnatic pushed Top lane and did not commit to getting the inhibitor, they effectively only gained 1 turret as the result of this teamfight.  Unfortunately, throughout the game Fnatic has not been putting the pressure on Royal at all.  The extra inhib turret take-down only net's them the global gold, which is not too effective this late in the game.  Committing to the inhibitor or choosing instead to take down Baron would have created pressure on Royal that Fnatic so desperately needed.


Royal Catches Jarvan - 35:08

35:08 - This is were the game really ends.  Annie makes an amazing play and catches Jarvan and Rumble away from their team.  Because Royal are OBJECTIVE FOCUSED, they are group up while Fnatic are not, a common problem throughout this match.  Royal get a clean kill on Jarvan and then proceed to win their first team fight.

36:00 - After winning their first team fight, Royal show no hesitation and push through middle all the way to take Fnatic's inhibitor.  Granted that this is a much easier decision than most Fnatic has had to made, but the difference is Royal makes it WITHOUT hesitation. Before the fight began they knew what they were after.


At this point the game is 90% over.  Royal have gained their first lead, won their first teamfight, and have generated a ton of map pressure by taking Fnatic's inhibitor.  Uzi has reached the point where he is almost unstoppable, out-scaling Varus.  Royal has gained a Royal Flush and the only way to lose is to fold at this point.  For the rest of the game, Royal plays it by the books, slowly pushing with lane advantage and taking Baron and lanes while Fnatic is forced on the defensive.


Synopsis:
Even though Fnatic wins every team fight until the 35 minute mark, they never put pressure onto Royal. Throughout the entirety of this match, Royal are constantly looking for objectives.  Their fights have purpose and Royal has a plan for every move they make.  Even though this only pans out for them in the beginning of the game, they do not cease.  They constantly pressure Fnatic and in return Fnatic only play re-actively, not proactively. Throughout the series, Royal do not hesitate to pressure even the smallest advantage.  Anytime they have a numbers or position advantage they put pressure onto Fnatic.  This fourth game shows that Fnatic did not do the same.  Even while winning every team fight, Fnatic does not push objectives to force them.

Fnatic's reactive play, even while winning, fell short of Royal's proactive play. Fnatic needed to show aggression and push their numbers advantage onto objectives, but they did not.  As we have heard in the past, winning a team fight but not getting an objective after means nothing.  This game exemplified that more than any other.

Banner of Command - Analysis and Ideas for Change

The problem with Banner of Command is that it serves no purpose to players. In its current state of being Banner of Command is really just a toy for players to mess around with and ultimate adds little actual benefit to players.

Let's take a quick look at the stats. 

Banner of Command provides:

40 AP

30 Armor

10% CDR

10 HP/5

2360 Gold

Let's compare it to

Seekers Armguard:

20(35) AP

30(45) Armor

1160 Gold

Picking up Seekers Armguard gives up more armor after a few creep waves and almost the same AP, but that also leaves us with 1200 extra gold to spend. With that extra 1200 gold we could buy several items that would push us far above the base stats of Banner of Command.

Codex - 820G

30 AP

10% CDR

Emblem of Valor - 650G

20 Armor

7 HP/5

Hextech Revolver - 1200G

40 AP

12% Spell Vamp (Generally providing more regen than Banners HP/5)

Or one could just save up for a Needlessly Large Rod to build into Zhonya's for 400G more than Banner.

Banner of Command has comparatively weak base stats and bad defensive timing compared to the Seeker's Armguard at less than half the cost. On top of this, Banner of Command is a fully upgraded item, taking up a slot with very sub-par base stats. So, seeing that Banner of Commands gold cost is not within its base stats, there is a massive amount of weight being applied to both it's passive and active. Lets take a look at them and why they are ineffective in their current state.

Banner of Command Passive -

10 HP/5

15% Damage to Minions

Let's assume you have a full creep wave including a siege minion. And we'll place it at the 21 minute mark for creep damage calculations.

Combined Creep Damage - 3 Melee, 3 Ranged, 1 Siege

229 AD Damage

195 AD Damage to Champions

344 AD Damage to Turrets

With the Passive of Banner of Command

+34 263 AD Damage

+29 224 AD Damage to Champions

+51 395 AD Damage to Turrets

If we assume turrets are running around 70 armor and Champions around 100, then we get.

+15 AD Damage to Champions

+30 AD Damage to Turrets

These numbers aren't too bad, providing close to the worth of a Pickaxe to player in an optimal situation. However, very rarely does this occur. Creeps are easy to kill, often at this point getting instantly killed by AP mid or at least close to it. With each creep that dies, the value of this passive goes down and down. It's greatest use would be against a tower, during a split push, when left alone. In this case, that passive of Banner of Command would in handy. We can estimate that over the course of a full wave only being attacked by the tower, that the extra damage would be somewhere around 150-250 to a tower, a solid amount. Against champions this is much harder to determine, but we can assume it will be much less significant as the uptime of minions attacking creeps is normally pretty low and hard to predict outside of the early laning phase. Even if we consider it to contribute a healthy 100 damage (that's 6-7 attacks from each creep in the wave), the value of that passive compared to a pickaxe pickup (which would contribute guaranteed damage) is far far less.

As we can see, the value of Banner of Command's passive is fairly low, situation dependent, and unreliable. Personally, I'd value it around 200 gold, but that's just my opinion. So what accounts for the high Gold Cost of Banner compared to other similar items. It's Active. Let's take a look at it.

Banner of Command Active -

+500 HP

+.5 AS

+40 Armor

This is actually a very significant difference. The 500 hp and the 40 armor almost if not more than double the Effective HP of Siege Minions. Adding on the 30% less damage they receive from turrets and these beefed up Siege Minions can take a lot of tower hits. If left alone, a single minion wave with one of these in it can deal 1/4 to 1/3 of a towers HP. With the right timing this can be pretty significant. However, situations where the creeps are left alone like this do not happen too often. Let's look at two other situations and then at the most optimal.

Situation 1: 5 Man Sieges

There is not much to say about the active in this situation other than it is extremely sub par. Since it does not provide any MR, only the 500 HP affects casters, at the point of 5 man sieges this is roughly 2 extra spell casts. If one or two people would normally nuke down the creep wave, having 5 defending makes the impact of this HP increase less effective. Adding on top of that the ADC damage will further decrease the extra time the siege minion will be alive. At most, I'd wager that in a 5 man push situation, this active would allow your ADC 1-2 extra shots on the turret for that wave. At a 3 minute cooldown, this is pretty insignificant. During a 5 man dive, the benefit would be even less, as the minion will not take turret aggro, and the .5 AS increase is fairly negligible after armor/hero reductions.

Situation 2: Split Push

In a split push situation, the active becomes much more useful. The AS bonus and especially the Effective Health increase will allow a split pusher in a 1v1 situation to apply significantly more damage to a turret. This is especially true in tank vs tank split push situations due to the enemy being slower at killing the boosted minion, while be less true against more damage oriented split pushers. However, there is a large downside to this. By picking up Banner of Command you have dedicated a large amount of gold into this active, making you weaker personally than you could have been if you spent the gold differently. This most likely means, that if they opponent choose to fight you, you will lose, as the active is unlikely to help you in any significant or reliable manner against champions. Being able to be 1v1'ed easily, effectively cancels out your split pushing ability, so while Banner of Command's active is more significant in a split push, opting into Banner of Command is detrimental to your split pushing ability.

Optimal Situation:

In my opinion the optimal situation for using Banner of Command's active, is when you are able to prevent the enemy from being able to dedicate any resources to stop the buffed minion. For example, using the active from base, to send the minion down the lane opposite from the one your team will be pushing. This is the only situation in which the active has a chance of shining. Superbly timed, using it this way has to potential to result in a turret kill, in extreme cases, maybe even two. The major problem with this situation though, is the immense amount of logistics it requires. Let's take a look.

Creep Wave Timing - Using the active is limited to Siege Minions. Therefore your opportunities to employ this strategy and make effective use out of the active are limited to 1:30 intervals.

Split Pushers and Teleport - If even one champion is in the lane that you use this active on, its effectiveness drops drastically. If you cannot force the split pushing champion out of lane in time to react to your 5 man push in the opposite lane, then your creep split push attempt falls to pieces. This forces teams to HAVE to make a move even if one is not available, or having the opt in to Banner of Command be detrimental.

Positioning - you must be in the proper place at the proper time to effectively utilize. This makes your map movements predictable and any plan to use this active optimally dictates when the player(s) must be in position. Opportunities can rarely be reacted to and seized by this active.

While at first, it may not seem impossible, remember that the opposing team is going to unintentionally and possibly intentionally hampering your ability to pull of this optimal strategy. If your turret is being pushed, or you are currently pushing a turret, you cannot simply back out of your current action or required action to use the active. While you can time your own actions, you cannot time the actions of the other team. Even if you are able to manipulate them into the timing and situation that you want, the reward you will get from the amount of resources required seems hardly worth it.

So, as Banner of Command, in its current form, is a sub par item in terms of stats and the active is too lackluster to account for the stat gold sink that Banner of Command is. What can we do to improve its viability as an item and potentially as a strategy?

First, its gold cost and base stats need to be looked at. Making this item more appealing outside of its active would be the start of improving Banner of Command. How exactly, to make changes to its base stats though, will depend on how we want to define the purpose of its active. Split Push Power (alone or with champions)? Combat Related? Siege Power? Group effectiveness vs. Solo effectiveness. Here are my ideas.

Note - In all purpose I feel that requiring the siege minion should be removed. However, having one could provide extra benefit.

Creep Split Push -

Active: with this purpose in mind, it would best be suited to being a globally targeted ability X number of creeps near the target location would be either upgraded or buffed, priority falling onto siege minions. A small HP bonus could allow each creep buffed to take 1 more tower hit, and damage boosts would help take down turrets. Against an undefended turret (no creeps defending either) and with a siege minion, this active should increase the minions damage to the turret by 25-45%. So if they would have dealt 1/4 of the towers hp, a well timed use of this would increase it to 1/3. Gaining gold from buffed creeps kills could also remain.

In this role, Banner of Commands primary purpose would be to give your creeps a way to push without a Champion needing to be in the lane. As the item's purpose would be to cause an effect on the map without champion involvement, its base stats should most likely change to something more neutral/utility oriented. Having another HP/CDR item choice would be nice, especially if it came with a little bit of armor.

Siege Power -

Active: in this role, Banner of Command's active would provide a massive defensive bonus to your minions in a large area around you for a short period of time. In essence, using the active would made your minions nearly or completely invulnerable to champions (turrets would be unaffected) for 3-4 seconds. This would allow Banner of Command to provide a small window of siege power play for your team. Guaranteeing turret damage by preventing your minion wave from being instantly nuked down.

As for the base stats, they would stay relatively the same, but with higher values. AP/CDR/AR are a unique combination and provides a choice in item pickup. By increasing both the gold cost and AP value, Banner of Command could be turned into a more late game item, and further it's Siege Power Potential.

Split Push -

Passive/Active: turning Banner of Command into a split push would come in two parts in my opinion. Adding in a small passive to increase wave clear speed would be necessary. I would give it something like, [on hit, chain lighting will hit up to 3 other minions, dealing 10% of your AD]. As for the Active, there are two possibilities in my mind. The First would link you to X number of surrounding creeps, redirecting 15-20% of the damage dealt to you to those creeps for 3s. This would give you split push safety while being counter-able by being able to burst down the wave of creeps. The 2nd idea for the active would increase your AD/AP based on the number of nearby creeps, up to 5. This would give you some dueling potential while split pushing.

The base stats could be done in an AP or AD manner. For AP, I'd go with a solid amount, say 65-80 and some HP, potentially with some MP/5 thrown in as well. In and AD version, I'd run with AS/HP/CDR from to accentuate the split push power and safety.

Combat Oriented -

Active: This one I think would be neat, though it might not be as viable as the others. In this version, using the active would give you "control" of all nearby minions. For 5-7 seconds all nearby creeps would gain a damage boost and would attack the target you attack with your AA's (like Champion creatures). This would run with the minion central theme of Banner of Commands active, and give the player reliable combat potential from its use. The minions would also grant gold for their kills while under this effect.

As for base stats, this version would be AD oriented, primarily ADC/Fighters. AD primarily followed by AS and potentially some Armor. Useful for going toe to toe with other champions in 1v1 or skirmish situations.

And, I'm finally done! I always love unique ideas and Banner of Command is one of them. I'd like to keep its minion oriented active, but switch it into a more viable place while increasing the base stats of Banner of Command to stop it from being a sub-par buy.

LoLByTheNumbers - A Look at Worlds

Greetings fellow Summoners,

The World Championship is upon us with the first of the group stage matches underway. So what can we expect during the course of the World's, and what can we expect from each team? After having watched all 92 regionals matches and doing some stat taking, I'd like the share with you a few things I noticed.

Sorry its a bit late as the Group stages have started, wanted this to be up yesterday, but life got in the way.

Combined Regional Stats

For those of you interested in the statistics of the regional qualifiers, all of the data I've collected can be found here.

Regional Spreadsheets

.ODS files up currently, Excel will be up shortly.

Champion List – Contains Pick/Ban, Win/Loss percentage, KDA and avg KDA as well as Champion Picks and KDA/avg KDA of each player.

Items – Contains (primarily) finished/intermediate items picked by X role for each game as well as the total pick-up percentage per game. Broken down into individual games, teams, and champions.

Objective Control – Contains a few major objective points found in most/each match, the times they were taken, and the win rates associated with controlling that objective.

Things to watch for

Outside of the normal, high-skilled play that is associated with the professional teams. There are a few things to watch out for. If you regularly watch the LCS and the professional scene you probably already know these, but if you are a bit newer to the scene, here are a few things to keep your eye on.

Trinity Force

Just a small note, its back and in full force. Expect to see it, and Trinity Force champions making a huge showing. With only two of the Regional Qualifiers being played on the buffed Trinity Force patch, several new champions for the various regions teams may be coming out.

Contested Champs

Even though a total of 81 champions were picked/banned throughout the course of the Regional Qualifiers, there are some very highly contested champions among all the regions.

Champion – Pick/Ban Rates

Shen – 81 – 88.04%

Thresh – 77 – 83.70%

Jarvan – 73 – 79.35%

Zed – 70 – 76.09%

Ahri – 66 – 71.74%

Sona – 63 – 68.48%

Zac – 63 – 68.48%

Zyra – 57 – 61.96%

Elise – 54 – 61.96%

Ezreal – 53 – 57.61%

Lee Sin – 52 – 56.52%

Caitlyn – 51 – 55.43%

Orianna – 48 – 52.17%

During the regionals, these were the champions that were either picked or banned in over half the matches. With the exception of Sona and Zyra (rarely banned but picked a lot due to being the primary supports currently), these champions are very highly contested and often banned out or taken as first or second picks. You can expect to see a lot of decision making and mindgames happening during the pick and ban phases in an attempt to secure these champions for their own team or deny them from the opposing team.

Fast tower pushes/trades

During the beginning of the summer split, we saw a lot of very fast tower pushing with the first outer tower falling around 3:30 and sometimes the following inner turret by 5:30. Since the buff to the outer towers though, this has become a lot less likely. But, it does still happen, especially in the Asian scene. Anytime you see a 2v1 lane at the start of the match (especially with Caitlyn), there is going to be a high chance of the jungler moving to the 2v1 lane and fast pushing towers. Most teams have seen this kind of play before, and will most likely react appropriately by doing the same in the opposing lane, but with this type of strategy having mostly died out over a month ago, it may be possible that a team gets caught of guard by this. Regardless, in the event of extremely fast turret pushes/trades, expect to see the rest of the game accelerated and laning phases ending shortly after.

Champion Combos

Some very potent champion combinations have cropped up over the past few weeks or months and we can be sure to expect them during the World Championship. If you see them picked up, be prepared to watch some pretty destructive plays coming from the combos.

+ Ashe + Zyra: Probably the most well known combo and made popular by Cloud 9, the Ashe/Zyra combination brings a ton of control from the bot lane, a rarely known for the control they bring. Inside of the lane, the long poke range provide good harassment, as well as the ability to both engage and disengage with 4 different types of CC (Stun, Knock-up, Snare, and Slow) provide this combo with a lot of safety and kill potential. Outside of the lane, the CC that Ashe/Zyra provide allow for more pure damage champions to come from the other lanes. With high pick potential from Ashe's ultimate and the CC/Protection/Zone Potential of Zyra, this bot lane combo allows teams to almost always choose how and when to fight.

Variations of this combination include replacing Ashe with Varus, or Zyra with Sona. Though not as effective, they still provide a large amount of control from the bottom lane.

+ Vi + Ahri/Shen: Recently picking up steam, particularly in the Korean scene, Vi + Ahri/Shen have been causing huge amounts of problems for the opposing team. Vi's ultimate is guaranteed to hit here target and with the extra range she can get from her Q Dash, she can almost always reach the high priority targets in any fight. This long range, guaranteed crowd control allows Vi to setup her teammates. This is hugely effective with Ahri and Shen. Ahri, with her ult, is able to easily follow Vi to her target. With her targeted CC'ed Ahri is guaranteed to land her charm on her target, resulting in her entire combo hitting on top of Vi's damage. 99% of the time this will result in the targets death. Shen, as the other combo with Vi, is also extremely effective. Shen will Ult onto Vi as she is dashing in. The result is having Shen teleported into the opposing teams back line and following up Vi's CC with even more CC.

+ Ori + Delivery System: Another well known combo and seen time and time again throughout the world, is the Ball Delivery System. Basically it consists of Orianna + any champion that can cover a very large distance quickly while holding onto Orianna's ball. This allows fast and easy positioning of Orianna's ball into the middle of the opposing team for her Ultimate. Many champions work well for this, though some of the more notable ones are Jarvan, Zac, Vi, and Nocturne with their long range engages.

Regions, Teams, and Differences

China

The Chinese League of Legends scene can be summarized in one word, aggresion.

+ See Kill, Get Kill Mentality - If there is any chance for a kill, the Chinese players will go for it, even if it means committing themselves to their own death. This often puts the players in very high risk situations. Rarely faced with defensive teams in their region, Teams OMG and Royal may potentially set themselves up to get their aggression countered. However, if they are able to draw other teams into their style of play, they will most certainly come out on top.

+ Low Warding – The Chinese region seems plagued by low warding, especially when you compare them to NA/EU regions in which often times you will see 7+ wards out per team at one time.

+ Teir 2 Turret Trades – A common tactic in China, often times in 2v1 lanes, not only will the outer turrets be traded by 3:30, often times the inner turrets will fall by 5:30 as well. Beyond that, on a rare occasion even the Inhibitors have been traded during that first turret push and have fallen before the 9 minute mark. No other region has ever done this, so they need to be prepared for the Chinese teams to not back off from the intial pushes.

+ Hectic Play – While controlled and understood by the teams, most of the games from the Chinese region feel extremly Hectic. More often than not a fight resulting in a kill is going on, someone is out getting caught, a tower is being pushed, or a gank set up. Things are always happening in the games, but just as often as this accomplishes beneficial goals, it also causes teams to put themselves into bad positions and be punished for it.

Team OMG -

+ Yorick Jungle – Team OMG love to play Yorick Jungle. A very unique pick-up, he does extremely well at early turret/objective pressure. He is also a very strong duelist in the jungle, potentially the strongest and is played with a very strong counter jungle preference. If Yorick makes it way into the hands of OMG, expect their jungler to bully the opposing teams jungler and to have high presence in objective play. However, do not expect him to be ganking very often, as his ganks have little effectiveness. Team OMG love to combo this with Renekton Top so that they can use Yoricks ultimate on Renekton after he has used his Ultimate, so that there are two lizards running around with the AOE damage.

+ Very Strong Orianna – If Team OMG's mid laner gets his hands on Orianna, be prepared to see some extremely strong play out of him. His Orianna is one of the best in the world and though I would love to see it played, I would prioritize target banning this champion against them.

+ Mundo Top – Picking up a little bit of steam lately, Team OMG will run Mundo as a top laner. Only seen in the Korean scene as well, most region's teams will not have played against this. Watch out for this pickup and enjoy watching something most unplayed to great effect.

Team Royal -

+ Support Annie – Team Royal's support player loves to play Annie and is highly respected at it by his region. More often than not, Annie draws a ban from the opposing teams and when she does not, Royal will pick her up immediately. If Royal gets their hands on Annie, you can expect to see the ADC/Support combo run in the mid lane. This allows Annie to have the greatest zone of influence and you will see her participating in counter jungling, objective control, and running off to gank both top and bottom lanes. You will also see Team Royal going very aggressive during the pre-minion spawn time.

+ Very, Very Strong Fizz – Ban Fizz versus Team Royal. Their mid laner absolutely loves to play Fizz and is extremely good at him. Even when shutdown in 2v1 lanes, he still manages to come back and carry extremely hard on this champion. Expect to see him banned versus Royal, or to see some amazing play out of their mid laner on Fizz.

Europe -

During the Summer Season, Europe had the highest amount of competition for the top spots of the region. The teams are very used to playing in high pressure situations and the practice under the stress of every game having large implications for them may provide the EU teams with a small edge in that area.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – The EU teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

+ Mercury Treads – EU teams have the most willingness of any region to pick up Mercury Treads on any of their champions. Just as often as their carries will pick up Sorcerer's Boots or Berserker Greaves, they will pick up Mercury Treads. Opposing teams need to recognize this and be prepared for EU's carries to be less susceptible to CC.

+ ADC's as Casters – EU love to play their ADC's as casters. With a heavy focus on their mid laners, the EU use their ADC's for upfront damage. Expect to see EU's ADC's building Bloodthirster, Last Whisper, and Infinity Edge before they pick up Attack Speed outside of Berserker Greaves.

+ Mid Lane Focused – EU focuses a lot of their effort and attention into the mid lane. Their mid lane players are some of the best and you can expect junglers to be providing a lot of support to get their mid laners rolling into the play makers they love to be.

Team Lemondogs -

The new team on the scene, but holding the number 1 spot in EU for the longest time, the Lemondogs are a strong team. During the EU Regionals, they seemed to be playing a little lackluster, but I believe this is due to them being satisfied with just making it to the EU Regionals. With the time since them, I believe they will have picked up their desire and effort as being in the World's after their first season in professional play sets in.

+ Twisted Fate – One of the few teams to still employ Twisted Fate since the nerfs, the Lemondogs actually feel he is stronger since his passive change. Expect to see him banned or played, and to have a very large effect on the outcome of the games he is in.

Team Fanatic -

Taking the number one spot from Lemondogs during the EU Regional Qualifiers, Fanatic is most likely EU's strongest team. Constantly keeping control of games and forcing them to played at their pace. Breaking their flow will be key for other teams.

+ Aatrox – Both Fanatic and Gambit really love to play Aatrox and they are the only teams in the Worlds that put priority on him. Aatrox is a big pick in EU and no where else. Teams from the other regions need to be prepared to see him played both in the Jungle and Top lane. Whichever lane he is in, Aatrox will be a bully and in any duel situation players cannot forget about the massive leach that he has.

+ Yorick – The only team to play Yorick outside of China. Fanatic prefer to play him top lane though as a lane bully.

Team Gambit Gaming -

EU's most aggressive team, Gambit Gaming are definitely a favorite in the EU scene. Their play style is very aggressive and if they can get even a small lead in the early stages of the game they will turn it into a huge win.

+ Aatrox – Both Fanatic and Gambit really love to play Aatrox and they are the only teams in the Worlds that put priority on him. Aatrox is a big pick in EU and no where else. Teams from the other regions need to be prepared to see him played both in the Jungle and Top lane. Whichever lane he is in, Aatrox will be a bully and in any duel situation players cannot forget about the massive leach that he has.

+ Miss Fortune – Gambit's ADC loves Miss Fortune and will pick her up almost anytime she is available. Teams need to be prepared for his very aggressive lane presence on his favorite champion. I wouldn't be surprised to see him pick up the new Trinity Force on Miss Fortune, but we will have to wait and see.

+ Eve Jungle – Gambit's Jungler's favorite champion to play, Eve creates a lot of pressure around the map just by being Eve. The constant invisibility causes her to be in the back of the opposing teams mind at all times. Gambit also know how to make great use out of Eve to creat teamfights and during them as well.

Korea -

The region hailed as having the strongest teams of all, we can expect big things from all three teams from this region. Interestingly enough, the Korean teams are the ones that play most like the current NA/EU LCS teams and the same strengths can be seen from them as well.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – As top of the top professional teams, the Korean teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

Team Najin Black Sword and Team Samsung Ozone -

Unfortunately, these two teams were not a part of the regionals, having bypassed them with the amount of League points they have accumulated. Both will be extremely strong teams and from what games I was able to find and watch, play very much the same as most of the region. We can expect very strong play, very objective controlled styles, and a large variety of team comps. Analysts and casters of the Korean region however, are toting SK Telecom as Korea's currently strongest team, not the 1^st place Najin or the 2^nd place Ozone. This is due to the play styles and champion choices of SK Telecom in relation to patch 3.10 and 3.11.

Team SK Telecom -

A favorite to take first in the World's, they are an extremely strong team right now. The changes in patch 3.10 and 3.11 have vastly increased SK's chances with how well the patches have fit into their champ picks and playstyles.

+ Extremely Strong Mid Laner – Faker of Team SK is a very large portion of the team. His ability to make plays, carry, and keep his team strong in bad situations is greater than even most of the professional Mid laners. Shutting him down will be hard, and potentially necessary for opposing teams.

+ Elise Top – Used to be a very popular pick, playing Elise top is rarely seen as of late. Team SK however, will still pull her out. Other teams top laners need to remember her strengths.

North America -

Constantly poked at as being the lesser of the regions, this year may be the year that NA teams prove the world wrong. With strong showings from all three qualified teams, the NA region is out to prove that they deserve to be fighting for the top spots.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – The EU teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

Team Cloud 9 -

Cloud 9 has been dominating the NA scene. Having one of the best seasons in any region and showing their strength time and time again, Cloud 9 is a favorite, at least in NA, to take the World Championship. With extremely coordinated team fights and probably the highest objective focus of any team, Cloud 9 are going to be a massive threat.

+ Dragon Fights – Cloud 9 love the dragon. More specifically, they love the fight that dragon creates. Cloud 9 excels at fight at or near dragon and many of their games are won at the first dragon fight. Teams need to be aware of how strong Cloud 9 are at dragon and be prepared to let it go and take other objectives, or to come in to the dragon fight with a very strong teamfight.

+ Ashe/Zyra Combo – Cloud 9 popularized this combo and they play it to great effect. I expect to see it either banned or picked out. Cloud 9 need to be ready for the amount of priority that other regions put on Zyra as a support, even outside of the Ashe/Zyra combo. No doubt Cloud 9 are just as solid without this comp, but if they get it, expect great things.

+ Metoes' Jungle Style – Metoes his highly acclaimed as the most efficient jungler and possibly the best jungler. His style of play is maximizing his time. He will rarely go for a gank unless he knows that he has a kill, preferring to get the guaranteed gold from the jungle, than spend a minute or more trying to make a gank happen. However, his positioning sense and presence are uncanny and rarely is he not where he needs to be. Opposing teams junglers will need to be able to keep up with Meteos or the presence he provides will be their undoing.

+ Rumble – C9's top laner is extremely potent on Rumble. Often times he will turn a 2v1 into a double kill for himself while on this champion. His ultimates are always spot on, providing huge impact in any fight. While not the highest priority for other teams, I still feel that Rumble deserves a targeted ban when it comes to Cloud 9.

Team TSM -

A fan favorite in NA and a long standing team that has been to Worlds before. TSM are expecting a lot out of themselves and put a lot of pressure on doing well in the worlds. They may be the team putting the most pressure on themselves in the Worlds.

+ Long Standing – One of the teams that have been around the longest, TSM is comfortable playing in the large scenes with lots on the line. Their best performances happen in high pressure situations and I expect their play during the worlds to be a step above their play during the LCS.

+ Mid-laner Reginald – Owner, Shot caller, and Play maker for TSM, Reginald puts a lot of weight on his shoulders. A very strong player, expect to see a large portion of TSM's ability to win games centering around Reginald. The downside however, is that when Reginald gets shutdown, he frustrates easily. Get Reginald frustrated and TSM falls apart.

Team Vulcun -

NA's second strongest team during the LCS, Vulcun have made just as strong a showing throughout the season as Cloud 9, being the only team to really give Cloud 9 a challenge in the season.

+ Large Champion Pool – Vulcun have one of the largest champion pools out of any team in World's. Every player has played a wide berth of champions over the course of the Regional Qualifiers and the season itself. Their pick/ban phase is one of the strongest, because it is near impossible to ban any of them out.

Southeast Asia – Team Mineski

Playing similarly to the Chinese scene, Team Mineski very much prescribes to the see kill, get kill philosophy. Capitalized by very high aggression, large kill/death counts, and a willingness to fight to the last hit, be prepared for some high action games coming from Team Mineski.

+ Good Bans – Expect this teams research to be done. The pick/ban phase will be highly effective for Team Mineski, as in the Regionals they seemed 100% ready for every team they fought.

+ Very Strong Mid and ADC – Be warned, these two will carry the games. Team Mineski's mid lander and ADC are highly skilled and if not shut down early, will be huge problems for other teams.

+ Scattered Teamfights – Team Mineski love spread out teamfights. They are very skilled at exiting and entering battles at the right time, maximizing the effect they can have on teamfights. They will attempt to separate opposing teams, catching out high priority targets if any mistakes are made.

+ High Kill Counts – With the see kill, get kill mentality prevalent in their region, Team Mineski's games have very high kill/death counts, often ending with over 50+ kills between the two teams. This play-style accelerates player builds. It may be possible to throw a wrench into their game by not allowing Team Mineski to pick up so many kills. The lack of accelerated builds could potentially throw off their game timing.

+ Ryze and Top Lane Jarvan - While most other regions and teams have dropped Ryze, Team Mineski's mid laner still plays him, and to devastating effect. The rest of the World's teams will need to be prepared for this. The other quirk, is that they like to play Jarvan top lane as a Burst Damage dealer. Rarely seen in other regions, teams need to be ready to face a very high damage Jarvan and not be caught off guard by it.

TW_HW_MO – Gamania Bears

Though only having a few games to go on from the Regional Qualifiers, there are a few things to note coming from this team. Playing much like the Chinese scene, here are a few things you can expect from the Gamania Bears.

+ Extended Engages – Generally starting engages in small skirmishes, the Gamania Bears are quick to rotate and collapse from all lanes to join any fight. This often results in engages that last for a minute or longer as each new person joins the fight.

+ Fighting with Low HP – Expect the Gamania Bears to fight even with HP so low that a soft breeze will kill them. They are very good at knowing just how much damage they can take (especially from towers) and will stick around until the last moment. Though this is high skill play, it also gets them in to trouble as sticking around so low has gotten them killed unnecessarily.

+ Lots of Roaming – Gamania Bears almost play without a lane. With their preference for extended engages and desire to chase down any fight, Champions are constantly moving from one lane to the other, clearing out a wave of creeps and then running off again.

+ Unimpressive CS - With their priority on fighting and roaming, the Gamania Bears CS is not very impressive compared to other regions. Often times, by the 30 minute mark, only one champion would be above 200 CS, and rarely by much.

+ Always Carriers Red Pots – An interesting tactic, every player on the Gamania Bears will generally have a red pot on them throughout the game. With their preference for extended fights, even one pot can be the difference between a win and a loss. The extra hp it provides for its low cost is a huge benefit to them

+ Very Aggressive – Gamania Bears like to fight, and they will almost always seek them out or be harassing in lanes. The downside to this though, is that they put themselves into a lot of danger by doing this. Their aggression is not often backed by a safety net and can be easily punished.

Wildcard – Gaming Gear

Though having a strong showing during the Wildcard tournament, Gaming Gear are the underdogs of the tournament. Having the least experience at this competitive level, it will be unlikely that they make it out of the group stages, however, I would not count them out completely. Being the team that others will have focused on the least, they have a great opportunity to prove themselves a threat, especially if we assume that they have been training with EU's professional teams lately.

+ Good Berth of Champions – Over the course of their Qualifiers, Gaming Gear showed the largest variety of played Champions. With only one loss during the Qualifiers, they also know how to play all of their Champions. It will be difficult to shut them down through picks/bans.

+ Solid Gameplay – For the most part, Gaming Gear's play was very solid, following primarily the NA/EU styles. However, their biggest weakness was knowing when they were ahead and how to take advantage of it. Opting into the slow burn style of winning, other teams in the World's will be able to take advantage of that.

+ Weaker Team Cordination – While far above most teams still, the coordination of Gaming Gear's team play, both in team fights and map control, is lacking compared to the more experienced teams.

Twitter: @SnowSpotsGaming