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

Samsung White vs. Edward Gaming Game #2

Standard Lanes

Bans

Zilean Yasuo

Rengar Kassadin

Thresh Alistar

Picks

1. Maokai 2. Ryze

3. Janna 2. Khazix

3. Twitch 4. Nami

5. Fizz 4. Kog'maw

5. Jarvan 6. Ziggs

Lane Match-ups – Samsung White

Top -

Ryze vs. Maokai will be a fairly farm centric lane. Maokai will sustain through Ryze's harassment while being unable to apply solo kill pressure against him. Both champions will be picking up Rod of Ages and will begin to scale up slowly. Maokai however, has great item pathing ability with EDG's team having a double AP comp, and a Kog'maw. Gank pressure will be stronger for Maokai, the dual CC of him and Jarvan will be able to put kill pressure onto Ryze, alternately, Maokai should only be under threat of a gank if he is pushes up to Ryze's tower.

Mid -

Fizz is going to have a rough time in this lane and should be spending most of his time farming under tower. Ziggs can heavily poke him at early levels, and trade very well with Fizz's level 3 combos. As the lane progresses, Fizz will have the kill pressure on Ziggs, if Ziggs ever gets in range of Fizz while Ziggs' satchel charge is down. Fizz will need to farm as best as possible, while keeping his HP high enough to be of use if Jarvan comes for an early mid game gank.

Bot -

Twitch/Janna have some very strong all in potential at levels 1 and 2. If they can earn themselves a lead here, they should be able to hold onto the lane pressure. However, past that mark, EDG will have the sustain to hold them in lane, and Kog'maw can get off a few shots of harassment with his E range. It will be up to Janna to stop this damage from coming in to Twitch and allowing him to possible return a shot or two with the shield. Level 6 will tilt the lane much more into EDG's favor, unless SSW can find a good all-in with Twitch dodging/flashing Nami bubble or ultimate. Ganks against Kog'maw will be really effective, especially once Kog'maw's flash is down.

Jungle -

Jarvan will get out-farmed by Khazix however his gank potential is much stronger. If he can avoid the counter-gank from Khazix, Jarvan should be able to turn the lanes into his team's favor. One kill in any of these lanes will provide a very large advantage to the kill potential and thus the lane dominance of SSW's team.

Lane Match-ups – Edward Gaming

Top -

Ryze should be able to easily farm and scale up in this lane, while applying some pressure to Maokai. It is unlikely that he will be able to apply enough pressure early on to matter though, and the same goes for Maokai. This lane will be an even farm fest unless the jungler's intervene. Ryze must be wary of the double CC combo of SSW, while knowing that Maokai must be far down the lane for Ryze and Khazix to secure a kill onto him.

Mid -

Ziggs has a very favorable match-up. While it is unlikely that he will be able to kill Fizz, he can keep him down extremely well. Harassment will be key for Ziggs in levels 1 and two. Lots of bombs and auto attacks to burn through Fizz's flask and pots. At level 3 and beyond, Ziggs must be ready to trade if Fizz goes in, and attempt to long range farm and harass with bombs. The biggest threat will come from jungle ganks from Jarvan as well as when Fizz reaches level 6. Ziggs however, with proper warding, should be able to easily farm from a safe range in this lane.

Bot -

EDG should be fine in this lane, they need to avoid the level 1 or 2 all-in from Janna and Twitch, however after this point they should be safe in lane. Attempt to get of some harass with Kog'Maw E, but be wary of the return damage from Twitch and Janna shield. Farm until 6 while warding against Jarvan. At 6, the lane should shift more heavily in EDG's favor. Kog'maw providing more harassment and Nami having greater disengage. Beware the Jarvan ganks against Kog'maw, especially at 6.

Jungle -

Khazix will out-farm Jarvan. His primary focus will be on farming and trying to mirror Jarvan around the map, providing counter-gank and counter-jungle opportunities. It's up to Jarvan to make the plays, and Khazix to prevent them. The best gank opportunities will come from top lane if Maokai is pushed up to Ryze's tower, sneaking into a bush in bot lane, or a counter-engage onto Fizz if he tries to trade with Ziggs.

Team Composition/Strategy – Samsung White

*Win Condition – Picks from Twitch, Small skirmishes with Fizz, and all-in 5v5 teamfights on good engages.

SSW have crafted a three strike point team. Fizz is very strong in a skirmish or split-push scenario. As long as he does not get shut down in the early game. Getting these skirmishes will be a huge boon for SSW, as they will heavily go in their favor. Twitch as well can get picks come mid game, stealthing in and surprising EDG in other lanes. With these two points going well, it will lead SSW into strong teamfights, both their engagement and their flanking abilities are very high. While they must be wary of EDG's disengage abilities, if they can get a lead, they will be able to continue the engage through them. Early dragon fights should also be a key point for this team composition. Much more suited to fighting in the open rather than on turrets.

Team Composition/Strategy – Edward Gaming

*Win Condition – Stay safe in lane, get the farm, and then transition to sieging turrets. Avoid deadly jungle skirmishes and dragon fights. Use their superior wave clear, poke, and disengage to put pressure on the turrets, and use clever rotations to keep SSW on the defensive.

EDG's team has some very major turret pushing power with Ziggs, Kog'maw, and Khazix. Their kiting and zoning abilities combined with Nami disengage are superior to the engagement that SSW can provide. SSW also lack good wave clear so EDG should be able to siege and slowly whittle down SSW's turrets all while keeping them on the defensive. While the lanes are similar in match-up strength, I would still like to see a lane swap. This would facilitate tower pressure earlier and a trade of top turret for dragon would be beneficial in my mind. Regardless, once the first turret falls, EDG should make a concerted attempt to start the siege. The biggest threat will come in the form of flanks, so good vision control to see TP flanks or Twitch stealth flanks coming.

Game Notes -

Nami gets some good harassment at level one, but then uses her heal more for harass after and loses out on healing potential. Kog'maw takes good harassment from Twitch.

SSW push bot lane to the turret right after level 2 and then take an early back to buy a few items/consumables. When they return, Janna gets some very deep wards. Does cost Twitch some CS.

EDG back soon after, most likely to pick up wards, however Kog'maw is unable to finish his phage, would have preferred for them to wait until Kog'maw could pick this up. As it stands EDG's bot lane has missed out on a better item spike. Kog'maw and Nami, with the levels and now a better lane, begin to bully SSW's bot lane and keep them at their tower.

Fizz is out csing Ziggs. Unfortunately we do not get to see much of the lane.

Nami gives away their ward placement. Twitch hits 6 first in lane and immediately goes on the offensive, while Jarvan waits close by. The range from level 6 does allow Twitch to get off some good damage, but earns nothing in the end result. However SSW wanted to back and shop anyways, so they lost nothing as well in the offensive attempt.

Ryze does not respect the power of Sheen Fizz that is heading top for him (seen through pink ward and by Khazix) and with his low mana is unable to fight against the damage of Fizz and lock-down of Maokai. Khazix simply lets the gank happen, choosing to farm his wraiths rather than follow Fizz.

Meanwhile in bot lane, Twitch and Janna have returned to lane while EDG's bot lane have backed. This gives SSW a window to 3 man dragon. Especially when they see Khazix in his top side jungle they know they have the opportunity to take drag before EDG can respond.

EDG still have great pressure in bot lane, by evidence of the CS lead and the lane bullying.

Maokai attempts to TP bottom, forcing EDG to back off of a fight they could have won, and causing Kog'maw to burn his flash. The TP gets stopped by Ryze though. If Ryze could have communicated the TP denial earlier, Kog'maw could have saved his flash and instead won the 2v2 fight. However, because Kog'maw's flash and Nami's ultimate is down, a bait by Twitch will allow Jarvan a lane gank into ultimate on Kog'maw and the kill.

On the back, SSW send their bot lane up top, since they are losing lane. The timing of the switch coincides with Ryze backing, and results in them taking top turret in exchange for bottom turret.

*It's at this point that I would love to see EDG move into tower siege. Unfortunately, it is 15 minutes in and everyone has their first item so it will be more difficult, however playing the split-push, lanes, or skirmishes will result in SSW winning. EDG need to group and put the pressure onto SSW.

As the second dragon comes up, Ryze is top lane while Maokai is already at dragon. EDG have no hope and give up dragon. Preferably, EDG would have been grouped mid, putting pressure on tower and getting damage. Taking something for dragon and/or dealing poke/kite damage if SSW tries to fight.

SSW put pressure on EDG's blue buff. EDG opt into the fight and give up 4 kills for 0 to Samsung. EDG had no reason to be in the jungle for that skirmish. That is where SSW's team shines and EDG's does not. At this point, the lead has shifted heavily into SSW's favor, and this is the really the closing point of the game.

SSW continue their rotational lane pressure in one's and twos, always staying close enough to collapse in the jungle. This results in more small skirmishes, eventually leading to Baron.

SSW shows their overconfident nature again, going from Baron in with the team is low, to EDG's blue buff. EDG get 2 kills, blue, and dragon from this overconfident play. EDG is still too far behind.

Twitch makes a super aggressive play mid, pushes Ziggs out of lane, removing the wave clear from EDG and netting them T2 mid turret.

With their 10k gold lead, and engagement potential, SSW dive deep into EDG's base, Ace them and take a turret. Really great play, even with the lead.

EDG go for a very deep, very aggressive pick onto Twitch. It is what they need to do to make a comeback, however it backfires and EDG lose a few members in the re-engage.

*Note – While SSW definitively win the game by continuing to build themselves a lead, once again they make a few overconfident plays as well as taking longer than necessary to close out the game.

End Game Notes -

Unfortunately this is another example of a team playing their composition incorrectly against Samsung White and playing into SSW's hand. EDG played too passively, allowing the lane phase to continue on too long. Not respecting the Fizz gank top as well as the bad timing on Khazix in the top jungle and EDG's bot lane backing resulting in a dragon for SSW gives Samsung a decent lead at this point in the game. At this point, or preferably before, EDG should have used the power of their team composition against SSW instead of fighting to SSW's team composition in the skirmishes and jungle.

What Edward Gaming should have done -

First and foremost I would have started out with 2v1 lanes. Ryze and Maokai should do evenly in the 2v1's. The advantage will come with an earlier tower take up top. EDG could then transition into the tower siege play that their composition is good at. EDG needed to put SSW on the defensive and control the map themselves, rather than letting SSW control the pace of the game. If they wanted to stick with the 2v2's, then EDG should have put some extra pressure on Bot lane with Khazix, or perhaps an Elise, and taken the bot turret much earlier, then transitioned into mid/top lane siege. EDG badly misplayed their composition, fell behind because of it, and essential got destroyed by SSW.

League of Legends Worlds Analysis, Group Stage - SSW vs. EDG Game #1

Edward Gaming vs. Samsung White Game #1

Standard Lanes

Bans

Yasuo Twitch

Kassadin Ryze

Alistar Janna

Picks

1. Maokai 2. Zilean

3. Thresh 2. Khazix

3. Lucian 4. Rumble

5. Jarvan 4. Tristana

5. Orianna 6. Nami

Lane Match-ups – Edward Gaming

Top – Maokai will be able to bully Rumble early and will be extremely safe. Will not be able to kill Rumble early though. Must build early MR to outlast Rumble's all in damage as it grows, especially when Rumble gets his double Mpen items. Needs Jarvan to gank for the kill, great CC on both and enough damage. Needs to be wary of the counter gank, as Rumble/Khazix damage will be much higher.

Mid – Orianna has an easy lane against Zilean. Most likely will not be able to kill Zilean due to his move speed and ult, however if Zilean tries to fight Orianna, Orianna will win. Zilean will wave clear and roam slightly faster. Orianna has the choice to either hard farm mid and jungle camps to out scale Zilean, or to attempt to follow Zilean and reach the fight a little bit later. Orianna can also attempt to zone Zilean to one side of the lane, predicting and limiting his roam options. I would suggest running Teleport in this match-up, focus on farming, and use Teleport to follow Zilean.

Bot – This match-up in my opinion is inferior to Samsung White's bottom lane. The only hope for Lucian/Thresh is to bully Tristana from level one or by getting the early level 2 to get her low. Once low, the harassment onto Tristana must be constant against Nami's sustain to keep her too low to fight in an all-in. Around level 4/5 if HP is even, then the lane will most likely be lost and Lucian/Thresh must now try to just safely farm against a greater scaling ADC. Lucian MUST save his dash for Nami's Bubble/Ult. Anytime his dash is down, Trist/Nami will have kill potential. Best hope is for Jarvan to gank and then bursting down Nami, Tristana will be untouchable. After level 6, it will be too late for Jarvan to successfully gank when either Trist or Nami's ult is up.

Jungle – Jarvan will lose in farm to Khazix, however he can gank much better early on and two of his lanes have hard CC to setup the ganks. As long as he can avoid the counter-gank, Jarvan should have very successful ganks. Top lane especially has good cc vs. no escape Rumble. A bottom gank right when Thresh picks up lantern would also be good too.

Lane Match-ups – Samsung White

Top – Rumble can attempt to bully Maokai early, but should not have too much success. Maokai will heal a lot from his passive due to Rumble's spell spamming. Rumble does win the all-in trades at the early levels, but since he lacks sustain Maokai will come out on top over time, this does however, mean that Maokai does not have kill threat on Rumble unless Rumble is significantly lower on HP. Once Rumble is able to get his double Mpen items (Sorcerer's Boots and Haunting Guise) he will have kill potential on Maoki, especially so if Maoki does not get early MR. Very vulnerable to a gank, but very high damage output if Khazix is there for the counter-gank.

Mid – Outside of ganks, Zilean is very safe vs. Orianna. Orianna will out farm Zilean if she focuses on jungle camps after the wave is cleared, but Zilean can clear mid lane safely and quickly and then is able to roam very quickly to jungle/side lane fights.

Bot – Tristana/Nami is a fairly safe and superior lane against Lucian/Thresh if played properly. Any minor damage to Lucian/Thresh will stick, while Tristana/Nami will easily be able to heal through poke. Lucian/Thresh must all-in to win this lane, however with Nami bubble and heal, their safety, escape, and counter-engage vs. Lucian/Thresh all-in is very strong. Get the safe harassment at levels 1-3; once level 4/5, Tristana/Nami should be able to win every aspect of the lane. Nami however, is vulnerable to Thresh hook into a lantern gank from Jarvan, especially before level 6.

Jungle – Khazix should focus primarily on farming and look to counter-gank and counter-jungle Jarvan as much as possible. All of Khazix's lanes, except for Nami, have weak help in the early ganks. Must reach a point where the damage alone is too high for an escape from the gank.

Team Compositions/Strategy – Edward Gaming

*Win Condition – All-in engagement and win 5v5 team fights.

EDG's team composition is very much your standard all-in 5v5 engage. Maokai and Jarvan will be diving into Samsung White's team with the support of Orianna ball and ultimate (delivery systems). Thresh, unless he gets a good hook, will be looking to peel for Lucian, primarily against Khazix, and to provide lantern escapes for his front line. They must not fight in small corridors or pile into a single spot (especially a dive onto one champion with Zilean around) otherwise Rumble's ultimate will shred them to pieces. Provided EDG do not fall behind in the laning phase and then switch their focus to 5v5 team fights, pushing towers and objectives together with the threat of a 5v5 engage, their team composition should be superior around the mid game mark. The real problem lies in the disengage of Samsung White though, so when EDG do engage, they must pick it carefully.

Team Compositions/Strategy – Samsung White

*Win Condition – Allow Khazix time to poke and then dismantle EDG's all-in engagement buying time for sustained poke/damage to bring down EDG.

*Note – As always, with Zilean on the team, Samsung White will be the team to first hit level 6 all else going even.

SSW have put together a very disengage style team composition that deals very well with EDG's all-in composition. While they lack a strong front line, their goal is not to engage, but rather they have put all the pressure onto EDG to engage. Without just the right engagement from EDG, SSW's team will be able to dismantle EDG's attempt to engage. Rumble and Nami ultimates, combined with the escapes of Khazix/Tristana, and the speed of Zilean make it very easy for SSW to back off of an engagement, kite it out, and then re-engage once EDG have lost their engagement tools. Zilean ultimate also provides safety in the event of someone getting picked, allowing the rest of the team to set up their disengage to save their teammate.

Game Notes – Start to Finish

Jarvan and Khazix both start Red.

Thresh/Lucian get behind in HP by level 2 and get level 3 later than Trist/Nami.

Thresh hook leads to a better trade for Trist/Nami.

EDG farm in top and mid is ahead early, too be expected.

Jarvan wastes time bottom when the lane was pushing, does not spend the time to stay around for the lane to push back, instead goes to waste time mid against another pushing lane.

Maokai's first back nets him HP pots and another Doran's Ring, this is a bad buy, especially when Rumble has bought Ruby Crystal and Amp tome, items building towards his Haunting Guise. Maokai should have bought a Negatron cloak.

Rumble baits Maokai into a fight, burning his ult and mana while Khazix is on his way. Rumble knows Maokai can't kill him, and that he can slow Maokai down the long lane once Khazix gets closer. Earns FB.

EDG respond, take dragon. Trade is actually in favor of SSW, they have focused the gold/exp advantage into a single lane, putting Rumble farther ahead of Maokai where as the first dragon benefit is more minor to the lanes (greater overall, less focus).

Nami/Trist catch Thresh, Rumble instantly tp's causing Thresh to back off instead of engage, and burns his flash. Rumble cancels TP after flash, saving cool down and allowing him to get to lane rather than be on the other side of the map

Trist uses ultimate for harassment in lane, knowing Lucian cannot heal it up. Thresh gets a hook onto Trist, but Lucian's dash is down. Nami ult and bubble provide MUCH more cc than Thresh hook and Lucian goes down.

Maokai returns to lane with catalyst (200 hp, only effective combat stats) where as rumble has returned with Haunting Guise. Khazix waits up top for another gank onto Maoki. The damage is just way too high for Maokai to even get close to escaping.

Maokai picks up a Blasting wand, still no MR and now Rumble has double Mpen items.

Take note of SSW's vision. There is no possible way for Jarvan to get top outside of from lane. And now Rumble can simply 1v1 Maokai every time.

Trist/Nami 2v2 bot lane, killing Lucian, even with Trist jump being down (though it got him in position). Lucian's dash is down, Nami ult catches him and they chase with speed ups and slows to finish him off.

SSW get overconfident and get caught in a blue invade attempt.

Rumble gets overconfident and engages Maokai, winning engage but gets ganked by Lucian/Thresh and dies. Ganks on Rumble should have been happening long ago with how much CC Maokai has.

SSW take the dragon though, prioritizing this later dragon over top lane due to its increased value now.

Orianna farming wraiths during SSW push on mid, w/o the wave clear mid falls.

Imp is now strong enough to split push, will move to side lanes over the rest of the game to push turrets and farm waves. The solo experience will really help him reach his range advantage Can 1v1 anyone on EDG, and has an easy escape during ganks. Safe strong split push with ward coverage.

Trist jumps at Maokai in a 1v1 knowing that he can win the fight. Even though Thresh is near enough to join in, Trist is safe enough with the knock-back to last long enough against the low damage Maokai/Thresh can provide until his team (who are already on their way) are able to reach him. This earns them the top tower before EDG can respond.

EDG out rotate SSW and take mid T2 turret. Trist responds by pushing bot T2. EDG has two choices, push mid in the 5v4 and race Trist, or collapse onto Trist. They should have chosen push, but instead choose collapse with Maokai tping to tower to save it. Without vision of 3 members of SSW, EDG split to cover all Trist's escape routes, and because of this, Orianna gets caught by Nami/Rumble, taking her to 1/3 hp and earning SSW the dragon.

EDG setup a trap in the baron pit, hoping to jump the wall and catch someone. However, SSW has just hit some huge item spikes. Trist has picked up Infinity Edge, Rumble finishes Seeker's Arm-guard, Khazix grabs Pickaxe and Negatron Cloak.. EDG has not picked up anything new. The difference in power from this spike is huge and EDG do not respect it. EDG get spotted out, miss the pick, and EDG engage with Nami ult. EDG do get out, though Maokai is stuck. EDG decide to engage with Maokai trapped and with the whole team at half hp., should have just backed off, EDG lose 3, SSW start baron. Orianna/Lucian try to stop baron, but Trist jumps right into them, knowing Zilean ult is up and takes them both out.

At this point the game is 95% over. Trist is strong enough to 1v1 anyone, potentially 1v2. SSW will send him to split and draw attention. EDG must deal with Trist by sending 2-3 people, allowing SSW to group as four. Either Trist or the group of 4 will take an objective depending on who and how many EDG send where and when.

SSW do make some mistakes, mainly overconfident, they know they have the win. A few players get caught by EDG and die unnecessarily so. But this still earns SSW objectives and pressure.

Trist picks up Bloodthirster 3^rd instead of Last Whisper. Shield and Life-steal will make him so safe while EDG has only a single armor item.

Trist solo pushes bot lane with EDG top, takes 2 turrets.

SSW play around Baron, baiting in EDG, until the point they decide it's safe to start Baron. Trist gets overconfident and leaps into EDG's team while Zilean is too far away to ult her. Trist gets locked down by CC and SSW proceed to lose the fight, even after getting Baron. EDG unable to take any other objectives after though and SSW is still safe with a 10k gold lead and 6 item Tristana.

SSW decide to finally push the bot inhibitor now that Baron is down. A good engage from EDG results in a solid team-fight, and once again Tristana jumps right into the enemy team, too far from Zilean and gets CC'ed and blown up. However, SSW is so far ahead that they are still able to clean up and kill several members of EDG, and take the inhibitor.

Now SSW will do the baron dance while super minions push bot lane and will keep the other lanes pressing. Rotates to top lane after taking out baron vision. Out rotates EDG and gets top turret.

EDG try to engage, but this time it is a bad one, and SSW disengage with Tristana in complete safety. SSW end the game off of this fight.

End Game Notes -

Early Game –

EDG's bot lane is unable to bully from level one (they leash for Jarvan) and do not earn level 2 before Tristana/Nami. Because they are behind at this point, the lane is essentially lost unless Jarvan gets a good gank. Lucian also has his dash down at several key points which end up getting him killed. This helps Tristana get past her mid game power dip much quicker.

Maokai does not respect Rumble's damage output and does not pick up any MR against Rumble's double Mpen build.

Jarvan does not gank top lane, even though Rumble has no escape and Maokai has great CC to supplement Jarvan's own. He also wastes close to a minute trying to gank pushed lanes against very safe opponent champions. His build is also extremely squishy, building Elder Lizard into Sight Stone, making him paper against Tristana.

Mid Game -

EDG are mostly playing catch up to SSW's map movements. We do see a good gank top, but it costs them the dragon. Then EDG get out-maneuvered and lose their mid turret due to Orianna farming wraiths.

EDG out rotate SSW during the third dragon, but make a bad choice in trying to collapse onto Tristana and splitting up in their attempt to catch her when they are lacking vision on three of SSW's members. This costs them the dragon.

EDG then try to set up a pick, but do not respect the item spike of SSW and then horrible lose a fight they never should have picked. This causes SSW to get a delayed Ace on them and pick up Baron. This is essentially the end point of the game.

Late Game -

SSW get a little careless, and Rumble and Zilean both die twice by being in side lanes alone. SSW is so far ahead though that the other members can still apply pressure and/or take an objective while this is happening. The lead stays the same, and SSW are able to slowly, but easily draw EDG out to baron fights and win the game, even though Imp plays careless.

EDG would have needed 2-3 good fights with objectives taken after to catch back up, but SSW would not let this happen.

What EDG needed to do -

Simply put, everything really snowballed from the laning phase. EDG's bot lane did not pull an early advantage to prevent SSW's bot lane from going all in and Lucian did not keep his dash up. Maokai up top did not respect the Rumble pick and eventually lost trades against him. Jarvan did not pull off any ganks when he had two solid lanes to gank for, especially Maokai up top. EDG got too far behind too early.

At this point they really had to try to stall and 5v5 fight around objectives during the right item spikes until Maokai could deal a bit with Tristana and Orianna would reach the point of being a major threat.

Item Notes -

EDG did not pick up an Aegis/Locket even when facing a double AP comp and Nami/Trist which deal a low to ok amount of magic damage.

Once again, I really dislike the Rod of Ages start for Maokai, especially if he is going to go into Frozen Heart later. Instead he should have picked up an early Spirit Visage (still good early-mid game versus Tristana who goes Statik Shiv), then moved into Frozen Heart or maybe a giant's belt/Rylai's from some HP and damage. All Maokai needed to do was to be able to tank, the slow scaling Rod of Ages is a bad choice when behind or even going even with Rumble.

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

AHQ E-Sports vs. Samsung White Game #2

Standard Lanes

Bans

Zilean Zed

Alistar Nidalee

Yasuo Maokai

Picks

1. Lee Sin 2. Lucian

3. Ryze 2. Thresh

3. Jinx 4. Khazix

5. Twisted Fate 4. Kayle

5. Blitzcrank 6. Katarina

Lane Match-ups – AHQ E-Sports

Top -

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

Mid -

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

Bot -

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

Jungle -

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

Lane Match-ups – Samsung White

Top -

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

Mid -

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

Bot -

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

Jungle -

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

Team Composition/Strategy – AHQ E-Sports

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

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

Team Composition/Strategy – Samsung White

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

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

Game Notes -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End Game Notes -

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

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

Item Notes -

AHQ gets behind and ends up with no defensive items.

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

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

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

What AHQ should have done -

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

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

League of Legends World Analysis, Group Stage - SSW vs. AHQ Game #1

Samsung White vs. AHQ E-Sports Game #1

2v1 Lanes, AHQ Top

Bans

Fizz Alistar

Lucian Ryze

Zed Zilean

Picks

1. Lee Sin 2. Twisted Fate

3. Thresh 2. Khazix

3. Maokai 4. Nidalee

5. Twitch 4. Jinx

5. Yasuo 6. Blitzcrank

Lane Match-ups – Samsung White

Top -

Maokai should have a safe time top. This lane is fairly passive. Nidalee will try to harass with auto attacks and spears but Maokai will be able to sustain as long as he does not get hit by spears and hunted by Nidalee. Maokai should not attempt to harass Nidalee, just farm safely and only fight if Nidalee tries to go all-in. Danger point will be when Nidalee picks up Trinity Force, but Maokai should have started scaling his Rod of Ages at this point. Expect the lane to be primarily 1v1 until Twisted Fate reaches 6, then be prepared for the two or 3 man gank.

Mid -

With proper flow and wind wall management, Yasuo should be fine in this lane. Blocking out stun cards in ganks will be essential. Other than that he should be able to stay close to the same farm as Twisted Fate until 6, in which Yasuo gets heavy kill pressure against Twisted Fate. May also go in at an earlier level if he can get in range by dashing after Twisted Fate uses pick a card. Ganks with Lee Sin will be highly effective, especially once they both reach 6.

Bot -

I really feel that Thresh is the superior laner compared to Blitzcrank. While Blitzcrank can land a hook onto Twitch and create a favorable trade, Thresh lantern will prevent the kill. However, a Thresh hook onto Jinx can very easily result in a Kill for SSW's side. Twitch will be able to out-trade Jinx early, while Jinx can out-range Twitch. This match really becomes one of who can land/dodge the hooks and who if Jinx can poke without getting hit by Twitch cask/expunge combo, with the favor slightly leaning towards SSW's lane pair. Both sides can have successful ganks that follow up a hook. Twitch/Thresh will have to watch out for Twisted Fate's level 6 as well.

Jungle -

Lee Sin versus Khazix is a fairly even farming match-up. Both have good clear times. Lee Sin will have a slight edge in ganks, especially with the lane partners that he has. Good CC from Thresh and Maokai as well as an amazing synergy at level 6 with Yasuo.

Lane Match-ups – AHQ E-Sports

Top -

Nidalee has a nice safe lane against Maokai. She will be able to harass him, out-sustain him if they fight trades (until she is out of mana), and will have kill potential if she can land a spear and Hunt Maokai. Will have her highest pressure point as soon as she picks up Trinity Force. Must be aware of early Lee Sin ganks. Being pushed up too far around level 2-4 could result in her getting caught by the CC and slow of Maokai/Lee Sin.

Mid -

Twisted Fate has a bit of a scary lane. While he should be safe for the first 5 levels, he will be much weaker once Yasuo gets his ultimate. Before then, Twisted Fate must do his best to out-farm Yasuo and attempt to keep him at his tower while also staying safe when his Pick a Card stun is down. Once Twisted Fate hits 6, he should focus his ultimate's on Bot lane, preferably when Thresh's hook is down, and then Top lane once Nidalee reaches her Trinity Force power spike. BEWARE of Lee Sin ganks after 6, NEED to heavily ward to stay safe.

Bot -

I really feel that Thresh is the superior laner compared to Blitzcrank. While Blitzcrank can land a hook onto Twitch and create a favorable trade, Thresh lantern will prevent the kill. However, a Thresh hook onto Jinx can very easily result in a Kill for SSW's side. Twitch will be able to out-trade Jinx early, while Jinx can out-range Twitch. This match really becomes one of who can land/dodge the hooks and who if Jinx can poke without getting hit by Twitch cask/expunge combo, with the favor slightly leaning towards SSW's lane pair. One thing that Blitzcrank/Jinx can do is for Blitzcrank to call out his hooks, right as or .5s before he uses it so Jinx can throw down her Chompers in the same instant, allowing them to arm before Twitch is able to regain control of his character. Both sides can have successful ganks that follow up a hook. Once Twisted Fate hits 6, try to bait out Thresh hook when Twisted Fate is in a position to use his ultimate and gank.

Jungle -

Fairly even match-up against Lee Sin. Should farm primarily and be ready to counter-engage Lee Sin if he ganks. Focus should be on mid lane pre level 6 if Yasuo is not pushed into his tower. Otherwise reliance will be on Blitzcrank hook unless he can sneak into a side lane bush. Needs to be very wary of ganking middle after level 6. A good Lee Sin knock-up onto him and Twisted Fate would be disastrous.

Team Compositions/Strategy – Samsung White

*Win Condition – Play safe in lane and do not let AHQ get a lead. Once Yasuo is level 6, fight small skirmishes and use the synergy the team has with him to take small fight wins. Transition into 5v5 team-fights and muscle down AHQ. Alternate option of having Yasuo split-push.

Samsung White's team is very much team-fight oriented with a strong front-line in Maokai, solid peel in Thresh, heavy damage in Twitch/Yasuo. The other key point to this team composition is its amazing synergy with Yasuo. Every other lane has a way to provide Yasuo with a knock-up for his ultimate and he will have his pick of the litter on who and when to use it. SSW's focus will want to be on Yasuo early to mid game, using him for small skirmishes with Maokai and Lee Sin, taking full advantage of the synergy. Come mid to late game, SSW will want to group up and go for the objective pushes and control in 5v5 scenarios. Yasuo can also split push, if SSW gets far enough ahead.

Team Compositions/Strategy – AHQ E-Sports

*Win Condition – Get fed off of Blitzcrank pulls and Twisted Fate ultimates. Get Nidalee strong enough to split-push and then rely on her split-push to win the game while the rest of AHQ play defensive wave clear and very slow and safe (highly warded) objective pushing. Avoid team-fights at all costs unless very far ahead.

I honestly feel that AHQ's composition lacks synergy. The concept of their team is all about getting picks and having Nidalee split-push. It is absolutely essential for this team composition to get ahead and stay ahead. If they get behind at all, the likelihood of coming back is very low. AHQ's team-fight is very lack luster compared to SSW's. In an ideal scenario, AHQ will go even or slightly ahead in lane against SSW until level 6. At level 6 Twisted Fate will get the Bot lane or Nidalee ahead (especially Nidalee once she has kill pressure on Maokai). Once Nidalee is able to split-push, Twisted Fate and Khazix will wave clear, either defensively or applying pressure as 4 away from Nidalee, but still in range for Twisted Fate to support her if she gets ganked. In the 4 man situation, AHQ will hope for a good Blitzcrank hook into Twisted Fate stun and Jinx snare. With Nidalee ahead and applying pressure, AHQ will slowly whittle away at SSW, spreading them thin until they can take objectives at the advantage. This is their ideal. However, against SSW's team it is very unlikely. The synergy with Yasuo will allow Maokai to catch and prep Nidalee for the Yasuo gank in split-push situations. Outside of the split-push, as long as Twitch and Yasuo do not get pulled in by Blitzcrank, SSW will be fine. If Blitzcrank pulls Maokai, SSW will engage. If he pulls Lee Sin, and Twisted Fate's stun card is not already active and in flight, a quick dash/flash and Lee Sin ultimate will set Yasuo up, or even just an ultimate towards AHQ's team getting a multiple man knock-up. All in all, AHQ's win condition will be very hard to pull off.

Game Notes -

Twisted Fate starts with Cloth Armor instead of Doran's Ring. Going for early Zhonya's but loses out on lane pressure against Yasuo though he gains some safety.

AHQ want to go for a quick invade with Blitzcrank, however SSW obviously know this and ward EVERY entrance. Samsung White get knowledge of the invade, move to counter-engage. The tri-bush ward gives SSW complete knowledge of where EDG is. Either they move back through it (as they do) or they go around towards red. SSW set up as 5 in the bush above red. EDG does not ward, hook, or spear check and instead face checks into 5. SSW gets the jump onto AHQ with a great flay, and with a better level 1 fight if they don't get blitz hooked, SSW clean up the fight, getting 5 kills for 1. AHQ is now behind with a team comp they have to be ahead with. This is essentially the game.

Lee Sin is able to get great clear speed with his now, spirit stone start and with Maokai jungling with him. Get an early 4 man dive onto Nidalee for the kill.

Maokai then tp's top to a huge wave of experience, Jinx having been unable to freeze the lane after the failed invade.

Lee Sin moves top, Maokai and Lee are able to get an easy kill onto Jinx.

Gold lead is now 12k to 8k. All lanes are far ahead, and Lee sin is already running Mobility boots.

An ill advised fight for AHQ's red buff leads to SSW getting 4 kills to 1. SSW take control of AHQ's top side jungle and proceed to take kills in it and put pressure on top lane while Yasuo split-pushes bot lane.

AHQ 2 man gank attempt on Yasuo in bot lane, Maokai immediately TP's to prevent it.

Blitzcrank makes some good hooks, SSW once again gets overconfident (though its very justified this time, 26k gold to 16k gold) and go for some crazy kills that get themselves killed.

At this point there is not much to say. SSW runs around trying to get kills, sometimes getting themselves killed but getting more kills than they give up.

First dragon isn't taken until 15 minutes.

Much the same continues until SSW idly and naturally push up into AHQ's base for the win.

End Game Notes -

There really isn't much to say here other than AHQ tried to cheese a level 1 Blitzcrank hook, and did so in a poor fashion. That late into the invade, AHQ should have been using Nidalee spear, Blitzcrank hook, and Jinx zap to check the bushes instead of face-checking both red bushes. AHQ's invade was very predictable, sloppily played, and with a weaker level 1, barring a catch. AHQ put themselves in a bad position and because of lazy play during the invade, lost the game at level 1.

What AHQ Needed to Do -

Play a more tricky invade. Their invade was too predictable and it cost them. Perhaps an attempt at a hook from dragon pit with an oddly place ward in SSW's red jungle. A rush down mid into the side bush and move through it to the red side of the mid lane river bush, put a ward over the wall and wait for a hook there. Even just a straight rush into SSW's red jungle from the top entrance to it would have been less expected, and more likely to split up SSW to prevent the counter-engage. The invade AHQ choose was simply too predictable and too risky. On top of that fact, they did a very very poor job at checking bushes and must have assumed that SSW had moved to take AHQ's red. Blitzcrank should have just blind fired his hook into that top bush, or at the very least had Nidalee spear or Jinx zap. There was literally nothing to lose from them doing so, even if there was no one there.

League of Legends World Analysis, Group Stages - Samsung White, Main Page

Samsung White

Top – Looper

1. Win – Rumble 3/3/10

2. Win – Maokai 3/2/20

3. Win – Ryze 4/0/2

4. Win – Alistar 3/0/9

5. Win – Kayle 7/2/22

6. Win – Maokai 2/1/13

Jungle – Dandy

1. Win – Khazix 3/1/9

2. Win – Lee Sin 11/3/13

3. Win – Lee Sin 2/0/9

4. Win – Khazix 6/1/8

5. Win – Khazix 6/5/17

6. Win – Jarvan 3/3/18

Mid – Pawn

1. Win – Zilean 2/4/10

2. Win – Yasuo 9/1/7

3. Win – Talon 1/0/2

4. Win – Zed 5/0/6

5. Win – Katarina 12/2/16

6. Win – Fizz 10/1/4

ADC – Imp

1. Win – Tristana 9/2/7

2. Win – Twitch 11/1/9

3. Win – Vayne 8/0/2

4. Win – Corki 5/1/6

5. Win – Lucian 13/2/9

6. Win – Twitch 11/1/9

Support – Mata

1. Win – Nami 3/1/14

2. Win – Thresh 0/5/15

3. Win – Janna 0/0/14

4. Win – Janna 1/0/14

5. Win – Thresh 1/3/28

6. Win – Janna 0/1/17

Banned Against

Yasuo – 5 

Kassadin – 2 

Alistar – 4 

Ryze – 1 

Zilean – 4

Tristana – 2

Banned By
Nidalee – 3

Maokai – 2

Thresh – 2

Zilean – 1

Rengar – 1

Twitch – 1
Ryze – 1
Janna – 1
Fizz – 1

Lucian – 3

Zed – 2

Group Notes -

Samsung White has great mechanical skill and great warding. Countering their vision control and keeping your own will be paramount to a victory.

Fighting small skirmishes and 1v1's or 2v2's in lane will be difficult, as Samsung White are very mechanically skilled. However, they are not unbeatable in the lanes.

Samsung White are very overconfident in these matches. They take 10-15 minutes longer than necessary in several of their wins, and they put themselves in positions to get caught, give up kills, and lose teamfights when ahead due to aggressive overplays. Often times they will lose out and getting objectives, to dive and get kills instead. However, this must be taken with a grain of salt because when SSW do this, they are generally far enough ahead that these mistakes still leave them with a large gap over their opponents.

Samsung White looked very dominant in their group stage, however, their group also looked like the weakest group in the bunch. I feel that while they have no shown their full strength, they have also looked much more dominant than they really are, because of the weakness of the teams in their group. Case and Point.

Kabum – Wild card team, hardly expected to put up much of a fight against the team favored to win worlds. SSW was able to easily outperform them.

AHQ – Picked Blitzcrank twice, both times into a bad lane match-up. Played a level 1 invade poorly and got aced, allowing SSW to steamroll through the game with their already superior composition and lanes. In the second game, AHQ again opt into a bad bot lane match-up, allowing SSW to get the upfront damage they need for their snowballing reset comp. Ryze also gets screwed by AHQ's failed invade, and AHQ as a whole do not respect the resets at a dragon fight, focusing on Thresh instead of Katarina or Khazix. Very poorly played both games.

EDG – Both games EDG misplay their team composition and play into SSW hands. In game #1, EDG lose out on the level 2 rush in a lane that they MUST establish their dominance from the very beginning. At this point the lane is mostly lost, and Tristana will begin the dominance she will show throughout the game. Up top Maokai does not respect the damage Rumble can bring and gets himself killed twice in ganks, and then proceeds to get pushed out of lane in 1v1s after that. Bad item choices against the Double AP disengage comp of SSW lead to EDG being unable to sustain through the disengage. Disrespecting SSW's item power spikes and then attempting to fight a 5v5 when already at half HP across the board, end up handing SSW the game.

In game #2, EDG play the lanes much better, but once again misplay their team composition, this time to an even greater degree, and play into the strengths of SSW.

On top of this, EDG flat out stated that they were not preparing to fight SSW, but rather the other teams in the group so as to make it out.

Samsung White faced VERY weak competition in the group stages.

Teams facing SSW in the quarterfinals need to respect their skill, but also understand how their group stage played out and why they looked so dominant. As the brackets progress, the qualify teams need to play their game against SSW, and not play into SSW's hands. They need to understand why AHQ and EDG lost, and realize that they did not play to their team's composition, or to lane match-ups.

I feel that Samsung White gained the least out of any team from these group stages. In the other groups, especially in groups C and D you could watch the teams grow and learn. The competition that was alive in the other groups will offer great experience for the qualifying teams, while Samsung White’s experience in the group stages really offers them nothing, except perhaps overconfidence.

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).