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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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NA LCS: Five takeaways heading into the mid-season break

Close the book on another exciting week in the NA LCS and get ready for the grudge match with Europe to prove which region is the best in the West once and for all! This was a good week for fans who wanted to see several competitive series come down to the wire (except for that one series with Phoenix1 and Team Envy on Friday...that Game 3 was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen) and a week that still had plenty of implications for the playoff picture.

The race is getting tighter in the middle of the pack while the four best teams continue jockeying over position in the race for coveted first-round byes. The NA LCS takes a break heading into Rift Rivals, and this week was a good week to conclude the first half of the split on. Now we can only hope that the intensity from this week carries over after this special tournament.

Here are five key takeaways from this week’s action:

1) Phoenix1 (3-7, 11-15) and FlyQuest (3-7, 9-16) look poised to make late runs for the summer playoffs. Sparking Phoenix1's resurgence has been standout rookie MikeYeung, who continues to be a force out of the jungle. Like Team Envy's Lira last spring, MikeYeung may be the sole reason this squad avoids relegation. Teams should be wise to ban or pick Nidalee away from Phoenix1 moving forward following a 12/3/8 score in two games against Immortals (7-3, 15-10) on Sunday. This play at Baron changed the dynamic of the decisive Game 3, which can’t simply be put into words.

FlyQuest, on the other hand, finally found paydirt with their aggressive playcalling. Take the way they closed Game 2 against Echo Fox (4-6, 11-13) on Sunday. Balls's Equalizer and Hai's Package completely cuts Echo Fox off from the Baron. Couple in the damage from WildTurtle's Tristana - a champion that perfectly matches the veteran's hyper-aggressive playstyle - and FlyQuest takes Baron uncontested. From here, FlyQuest perfectly plays out the preceding fight and go on to take Game 2. The biggest factor behind FlyQuest's victorious week?

The man ranked in the D-Tier of AD carries according to Phreak. WildTurtle has caught a lot of flack for some questionable decision making, but he's earned a week of silence from critics after a 35/10/33 score over six games. Don't count FlyQuest out just yet - especially with Hai's track record.

But for FlyQuest and P1, their bids for late-season runs will be put through the ringer. FlyQuest gets a marquee match against Counter Logic Gaming (8-2, 17-10) while P1's next match after Rift Rivals will be against a surging Team Solo Mid (7-3, 16-7). If FlyQuest and P1 can pull off these upsets, the fight for the playoffs will get even tighter.

2) There's still reason to believe in Immortals as a top team that should be set for playoffs. The early return from the Dardoch/Xmithie trade with CLG is still a win-win for both squads. But after this 0-2 week where Immortals looked lost against TSM and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against P1, is it fair to blame Xmithie? He was nowhere to be found against TSM and made the back-breaking mistake that cost his team the series against P1 to cap off his worst week. This could be critical for Immortals' momentum moving forward. They'll look to rebound against an Echo Fox squad circling the drain before another heavyweight battle with Cloud9 (6-4, 15-10). Immortals can't afford another 0-2 week.

3) What's going on with Team Dignitas (5-5, 15-14)? They've now dropped four straight matches after a 5-1 start. Ssumday is doing his part to carry this squad, but his efforts alone aren't enough to shake off this slump. History hasn't been kind to Dignitas and its previous rosters with mid-season slumps and unforgettable Baron throws. This team is starting to look like the LCS version of the New York Jets. Even with new infrastructure and new players, the team is still the same old Dignitas, routinely disappointing fans just as consistently as Liquid in its prime (more on Liquid below)

4) The demise of Team Liquid (2-8, 6-18) is hard to watch. None of Liquid's changes to the starting lineup have resulted in any promising return. Goldenglue's worst greatly overshadows the best moment he's had this season. He was visibly tilted following an incredible stun from Darshan's Fiora that resulted in three kills for CLG and it carried over to the following game. Matt is far from the player he was last year while Slooshi and Konkwon have put up forgettable numbers in limited action. It's hard to blame Steve for bringing in Doublelift to save his team in spring, but this team is not better than the top teams in the Challenger Series. The summer promotion tournament may have only delayed the inevitable.

5) The biggest benefactors of Immortals' unproductive week? CLG, who now own sole possession of first place. This is a squad peaking at the right time heading into a mid-season break for the NA LCS. There's no denying what impact Xmithie has had on Immortals, but Dardoch has finally given CLG a playmaker to enable its talented solo laners. Huhi's momentum from spring has continued into summer, where he has blossomed into a formidable mid laner who demands respect, while Darshan has returned to the form that pushed CLG to the grand finals against SK Telecom at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. With the continued growth of Stixxay and the veteran leadership of Aphromoo, this is a squad that should be in the discussion to represent NA at the World Championship as the top seed.

#league of legends #lolesports #na lcs #bishop takeaways #joshua bishop #riot games #na #eu #rift rivals #analysis #opinion #amateur writing

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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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NA LCS: Franchising - good or bad?

Four weeks ago, Riot officially announced that the time for franchising in the NA LCS is now. Several writers and content creators have debated the positives and negatives of Riot's vision for the future of its professional scene. Specifically, the end of relegation - a move that marks the end of the Challenger Series and the beginning of a new Academy League - has drawn mixed opinions from fans and writers alike.

Dom Sacco of Esports News UK writes that "uncertainty is better than stability", arguing that relegation adds an element of suspense and competition for every team involved. This is a fair point given that teams are defined by their success or failure. For example, Origen in Europe took the world by storm with a memorable EU LCS debut in the 2015 summer split, capping off their season with a strong run to the semi-finals of the World Championship as Europe's third seed. Three splits later, Origen was relegated to the European Challenger Series after a winless spring, officially marking the worst season in EU LCS history. Relegation removes the flair for the dramatic, but as Dot Esports' Xing Li points out, the move "should lead to better scouting and player development as teams will now have the opportunity to practice in a more structured environment than ever before."

I'm inclined to agree with Li on this point. While removing relegation could potentially harm the amateur scene and stifle investors from spending money on a team that may be waiting years before being considered to join Riot's organized league, the positives outweigh the negatives. There's nothing to suggest that Riot would not expand the league to welcome more teams into the fold - a bold, ambitious task that might prove to be too costly for Riot's own good - but the better argument to make here is to find the infrastructure to organize another league for promising young squads while working with Riot to allow those teams to earn their spot at international tournaments through the wild-card play-ins.

Perhaps ELEAGUE wouldn't be objected to organizing a branch for League of Legends players to host a similar format to the LCS, especially considering ELEAGUE's television deal with Turner Broadcasting. If it can host Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Street Fighter V tournaments, why can't it do the same for League of Legends? Even if this what-if scenario was never going to be a possibility, that's not the point. The point is, if there are people who are passionate about having a scene for the amateur players and young organizations, then take the initiative and create a league that can stand on its own compared to Riot Games.

In other words, make a new, different LCS. (With blackjack. And hookers.)

But let's go back to the topic of the Academy League, which is a great move for Riot and the ten teams accepted into the franchise. This will allow teams to stock up on developmental prospects and take a better look at players who are serious about playing professionally. Here is an article I wrote last week on Team Liquid's signing of Rami "Inori" Charagh that illustrates exactly teams stand to benefit from this development. The league will also give organizations valuable reserves in the events that a starter goes down due to injury, has an immediate emergency that will take his time away from the game, or has visa issues that will affect his availability.

But the most important aspect of the Academy League with franchising will be an organization's ability to pull out underperforming starters in a lost season to give young players valuable time on stage, with the chance that those young players will earn long-term starting jobs. I'm sure Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett and Felix "Betsy" Edling can testify to that.

With the main league itself, teams will now have guaranteed contracts that will remain dependent on performance. Although I think the performance clause is too broad for those searching for a happy medium of turnover and longevity, that doesn't mean it still can't be a good idea in practice. Five splits, which is two and a half years' worth of LCS games, is a fair benchmark for patience. All organizations will go through a rough patch and won't find the same amount of success as years past. The rule respects those times of struggles.

However, Riot is making it clear that they will not tolerate intentional tanking or lack of effort. Teams who consistently finish near the bottom of the league will quickly be weeded out and valuable players will not want to sign with those teams in fear of ruining their chances at securing a job with a larger, more successful franchise that will take them to the next level. When the players avoid an organization like the black plague, so too will fans, meaning viewership and support will drop until the team is no longer in the league. Ask any team in major league sports and they will tell you that success drives most athletes to sign with their team.

Nobody willingly wants to be on a loser if they want to win now. But there will be the crops of players that just want to play and want to do what they can to turn the franchise around. Their jobs, and their organization's jobs, will depend solely on their success. That's the nature of the business and that's the major reason why I believe franchising is a wonderful move for Riot's long-term future. Teams will get long-term investments with a sense of security, but know they must perform in order to keep their business.

Players, in turn, will now be under a microscope from ten major organizations and will now be held accountable to a team's success or failure. If a certain signing ends up making a team's value drop dramatically, future teams will not look to sign that player. Likewise, if a player lights up the rift in spectacular fashion, every team will break the bank to secure that player to a contract, thinking they've now got the golden ticket to success. For the spirit of competition, franchising is a major improvement.

However, there are still questions remaining about the business model. The Rally Point Esports podcast does a sufficient job at illustrating the future concerns there could be down the road with the revenue share. It's one thing that teams have to shell out $10 million just to participate in the league. But now, teams will be required to share part of their revenue (such as sponsorships or merchandise sales) with Riot. On paper, this is a fair deal considering the long-term security Riot is giving ten organizations to participate in their league. The bottom line for Riot, just like the teams in its league, is in the numbers.

The concern comes from the exact numbers that Riot will take from these teams in the long run and whether or not these numbers will allow organizations a chance to make their money back. Knowing that Riot has control over how much of a team's share they take and how much they will give back, will investors still feel their long-term investment will be safe if Riot's share turns out to be their biggest losses?

Organizations are already operating at a loss as it stands, which makes their income entirely dependent on sponsors, merchandise, streaming revenue, marketing, and player success. Riot controls the portion they will take from the teams, which could be potentially damaging to young organizations. I expect Riot to be able to crunch the numbers behind a team's financial backing to determine if their organization is built to handle what Riot is building, but if Riot accepts a new organization into their league and that team can no longer field a roster after a year due to mediocre performance and low revenue, what does that say to future investors that do not have knowledge of the industry?

There is also a fair amount of concern over Riot's player association. Again, this is an idea that's solid on paper - Riot funds the association in its initial operation until the association has grown to a point where the players will assume full financial responsibility over the business - but the concern here comes with the representation.

As Xing Li puts it, although players can vote to reject Riot's recommended candidates for representation, "the fact that Riot is vetting reps at all is somewhat troubling." This could lead to a dangerous conflict of interest, such as this one with the Oceania Pro League's Tainted Minds, where Riot was found investigating themselves and finding nothing wrong as opposed to leaving this matter to third-party investigation. This means that Riot ultimately will have control over the potential candidates, unless the news comes out that the representation was independently elected by the players. Still, this should be seen as a positive sign moving forward, and at least shows Riot's commitment to improving the process for players in the present and in the future.

While the concerns for the future are worth a pause, fans should be optimistic heading into the future. From a pure entertainment standpoint, the potential storylines for the NA LCS are about to get even bigger with the moves being made for the future. Riot has shown they are listening to all parties involved with their product and they are slowly taking steps toward delivering the vision we all want for esports. The initial system isn’t perfect, but the vision for the future is promising and worth believing in. Riot deserves the benefit of the doubt here.

#league of legends #lolesports #esportswriting #opinion #analysis #lol #na lcs #lcs #riot games #amateur writing #freelance #franchising

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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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NA LCS: The fall of FlyQuest

In my Week 4 rundown of the North American League Championship Series (NA LCS), I argued that the veteran team, FlyQuest, was the worst team in the league. After some generous feedback on Reddit (thank you, Reddit!), I’ve decided to dive back into the writing to see what the numbers truly reveal about FlyQuest’s nightmarish summer slump.

I will mainly be using these incredibly detailed stats found right here at OraclesElixir. If you’d like to follow along with me or take a view at why your favorite team is doing well, why your team isn’t playing up to par, or just to take a look at who the league leaders are, feel free to click the link and see the numbers for yourself! So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at the numbers!

We’ll start with the simple numbers: Kills, deaths, and assists. These are numbers that we can equate to acting like yards and touchdowns in the NFL, points scored in the NBA, number of hits at-bat in the MLB, and so on and so forth. Why? Because these numbers, while a strong reflection of individual performance, may not directly correlate with a team’s success. A team’s success in League of Legends goes much further than who’s got the best KDA – a sentiment I’m sure fellow solo queue players can share in contrast to the LCS.

Player [Position]: Kills (Rank by lane position)/Deaths (Rank by lane position)/Assists (Rank by lane position) / KDA (Rank by lane position)

Balls [Top]: 43 (5th) / 70 (1st) / 86 (8th) / 1.8 (11th)

Moon [Jungle]: 44 (7th) / 63 (2nd) / 106 (6th) / 2.4 (11th)

Hai [Mid]: 61 (8th) / 74 (1st) / 88 (7th) / 2.0 (11th)

WildTurtle [AD Carry]: 53 (8th) / 60 (1st) / 79 (8th) / 2.3 (10th)

LemonNation [Support]: 20 (2nd) / 66 (3rd) / 108 (8th) / 1.9 (12th)

Total combined K/D ranked amongst all 10 NA LCS teams: 221 (8th) / 333 (1st) / 0.66 (10th)

The first thing you’ll see right off the bat is that FlyQuest are getting killed a LOT. Some of this can be from overly aggressive playcalls that don’t work out in FlyQuest’s favor (such as this botched fight around the 12:50 – 13:00 in-game time in FlyQuest’s third game against Team Envy from Sunday) while some of this can be from poor decision making or ill-advised rotations. Does this mean FlyQuest need to be more passive to insure more success? No, not exactly. Counter Logic Gaming has been one of the most aggressive teams in the league this split, ranking first in total kills and second in total deaths, and are currently tied for 2nd place with Team Solo Mid at 6-2. But in the linked clip above, you’ll see that FlyQuest had a great play in mind that looked solid on paper. If Renekton’s Slice and Dice is unavailable, Ziggs secures the kill thanks to Jarvan IV’s well-timed Cataclysm. If this happens, Ziggs can logically move in to continue raining damage down on Varus and Braum. Instead, Renekton simply E’s out of the pit and moves in to stun and kill Ziggs, a sitting duck by the time Lee Sin joins the fight. From that point, it all goes downhill for FlyQuest. (By the way, if the NA coaches haven’t figured it out by now, let this game against FlyQuest be the defining example why you don’t allow Lira to play Lee Sin.)

If the play worked out as intended, FlyQuest probably continues the momentum to a 2-1 victory and we’re potentially gearing up for a competitive second half of summer split. Instead, we’re wondering what in the world happened to this promising squad and why everything has gone so wrong so soon.

So, we know FlyQuest is dying a lot and aren’t racking up a lot of kills. If you went off these numbers, FlyQuest individually are among the worst in the league at their positions. But there’s more to the game than who’s dying and who’s doing the killing. After all, high-level League of Legends isn’t anything close to Call of Duty, so there’s definitely more to this than meets the eye here. To take a deeper dive into the players individually, we’ll have to break down more of their advanced stats, such as DPM (Damage Per Minute), GD10(Gold Difference at 10:00), and DMG% (Damage Share – how much percentage of the team’s total damage is one player is responsible for?). There’s a vast amount of information to run through here, so I’ll pick a few things that catch my eye and expand my view on what I think they say about the player.

Let’s start with FlyQuest’s top lane. A sentiment I shared with Aidan “Zirene” Moon during yesterday’s LCS broadcast was that An “Balls” Le has been FlyQuest’s most consistent player. I personally argued that Balls has earned more mileage on that front. That suggestion looks reasonable on paper when taking his spring numbers into account, especially given that his champion pool mainly consisted of tanks such as Maokai, Nautilus, and Shen. The spring numbers show that although Balls is far from the player he was in years past, he still turned out to be a serviceable, if unspectacular, top laner. This would only be a problem if FlyQuest were deliberately trying to funnel resources into Balls and relying on him to carry games, but his GOLD% (Average share of team gold), EGPM (Earned Gold Per Minute), and DMG% were among the lowest during spring – which should be expected from someone who played a majority of top lane tanks.

So what’s the problem in summer? A quick look at Balls’s current champions played in summer shows mostly carries or bruisers, and only one of those champions – his signature Rumble – has something resembling passable numbers. Perhaps the meta doesn’t suit Balls’s strength as a tank player. But it certainly doesn’t help FlyQuest’s dire situation. Balls is in the bottom five for DPM (363) and has the worst DMG% (18.7%). Even worse is that Balls is regularly down in gold with the worst EGPM (226.1) and the worst GD10 (-199), meaning he is in no position to help his team carry out of the top lane. Maybe the simple solution is to put Balls back on low-economy tanks and only require him to pick the odd carry once in a blue moon. But would this really fix FlyQuest’s problem at its source or make things worse? Put yourself in the coach’s shoes and think to yourself: “Do I stand to benefit from limiting Balls’s champion pool? Maybe so, but wouldn’t teams just ban out the meta tanks and force me to put Balls on a carry? Haven’t I seen this happen before at the first Mid-Season Invitational when teams pulled this exact strategy against Team Solo Mid during Dyrus’s final season? If not, who steps up for the team?”

Well, why don’t we judge by the numbers?

You may think Hai Lam is past his prime and should rightly sit as one of the worst mid laners in the NA LCS. What you’d be surprised to see is that Hai is actually very capable of handling himself against the stacked competition. Currently, Hai is in the top five for DPM (543), DMG% (28.9), GD10 (-16), GOLD% (24), and first blood rate (21). And he’s doing all of this while having the fourth lowest EGPM (255.2). When cross-referencing those numbers with his total K/D/A on the split, maybe Hai’s just been unlucky. Maybe some of those bold, gutsy calls he’s known for haven’t worked in his favor. As of right now, the numbers point in favor of Hai still being able to play mid lane at a high level. Even when you take his spring performance into account – he’s near the top of the leaderboards in several areas amongst all mid laners who played in spring – it’s insane to suggest that Hai is past his prime. It’s almost like Hai never left.

Maybe his own comparison to Brett Favre as Cloud9’s jungler during the 2015 summer split was appropriate after all; as a member of the Minnesota Vikings, Brett Favre proved he could still play football at a high level when surrounded by young, explosive talent such as Percy Harvin and Adrian Peterson. I believe the same could be true for Hai if the talent surrounding him was mechanically gifted, young, and motivated to make an impact on the LCS – three words I would use to describe FlyQuest’s jungler, Galen “Moon” Holgate.

Although Moon has more stage experience than you’d expect from a young player, take into consideration that this is only Moon’s third split as a full-time starter. His debut split with NRG Esports left a lot to be desired. He was routinely in the lower half of the league in almost every category amongst starting junglers. Take out the spot starters with less than 10 games and 2016 shows a player who wasn’t ready for the LCS. One year later, we see that Moon has made strides to improve. Some of the credit should go to FlyQuest’s veteran leadership, but let’s take a moment to appreciate some of the numbers Moon posted in spring.

2016 Spring- NRG Moon: 28 (8th) / 41 (5th) / 89 (8th); 2.9 KDA (6th), -240 GD10 (11th), 262 DPM (11th), 183.3 EGPM (11th) over 16 games

2017 Spring – FLY Moon: 158 (6th) / 105 (8th) / 240 (5th); 3.8 KDA (1st), 34 GD10 (5th), 336 DPM (7th), 225.1 EGPM (8th) over 43 games

The numbers will look skewed given that 2016’s LCS format was still under Best-of-1 rules, but the improvements can be found in the ranks. In spring, Moon was in reach of the top half of the league in almost every relevant stat. That’s a pretty big jump from year-to-year. If Moon could match those numbers in summer, he’d be a guaranteed league-average starter. Unfortunately, that’s not the case so far. Of junglers with at least 10 games played on the split, Moon has the lowest DPM (236), the third worst GD10 (-17), the second highest deaths (63), and the second worst EGPM (194.9). That’s not a good look for FlyQuest if its starting jungler isn’t able to lift the team’s performance up. Still, Moon deserves the benefit of the doubt after a solid spring. As the youngest player on FlyQuest’s starting roster, Moon deserves a fair shake to start the rest of the split and FlyQuest should trust Moon to shake off the cobwebs and get back on track.

For as much flack as Jason “WildTurtle” Tran receives for his positioning and ill-advised flashes, I still believe WildTurtle, like Hai, can help a good roster make a push for playoffs. He was far from the problem with Team Solo Mid’s disappointing finish at the 2017 Mid Season Invitational, he was still a good fit for TSM’s roster, and Peter “Doublelift” Yillang was the overall better option for TSM’s immediate future. All three of these things can be true. But no one can blame WildTurtle for wanting to be an unquestioned starter as he is in FlyQuest. As the AD carry of this squad, creep score and experience stats will provide more effective analysis here than they will for the other four positions. With every relevant stat in mind, WildTurtle is still far from the problem in FlyQuest. Among ADCs, he currently has the fifth best GD10 (49), fourth best XPD10 (91), sixth best CSD10 (0.2), second best CSPM with five other ADCs (9.0), and the fifth best DPM (516). He’s doing all of this with the fourth highest GOLD% at 24.7, slightly above Hai’s share in the mid lane.

The argument can be made that WildTurtle’s box score looks better than his tape. This is an argument worth making with the correct supporting evidence. But from a pure numbers perspective, WildTurtle is doing his job. He’s not the reason FlyQuest is 1-7 on the season. In other words, FlyQuest can do a lot worse than playing WildTurtle at ADC.

Supports are tough to judge based on the numbers. As the most macro intensive role in the game aside from jungling, reviewing the tape will say more about Daerek “LemonNation” Hart than the numbers will. But for the purpose of this article, we’ll use the limited information we can gather from the numbers to see where LemonNation sits on the season. There are positives to be found here. LemonNation has the highest DPM (268) and DMG% (13.6) among starting supports in the league. But with the worst KDA and the worst wards per minute (1.25), we can start to make an assumption from a pure numbers perspective. Taking a look at his champion pool on the season, we see that Zyra is his most played champion on the split. Zyra is a high-damage support, which explains his lead in average DPM. We can now assume with his high number in deaths and DPM that LemonNation typically goes for an aggressive play in an attempt to set up something for his team. Unfortunately, the aggression hasn’t paid off. One notable example I can immediately think of what happened in FlyQuest’s third game on Sunday against Team Envy, after the team fails to kill Seraph on an attempted pick. This point is where everything goes wrong for FlyQuest.

FlyQuest attempts to start a fight at Rift Herald around 15:23. Hai is immediately picked off by Lira in mid-rotation while Moon jumps the gun and is left to die against Apollo and Hakuho. At this point, LemonNation and WildTurtle should not be doing anything because the fight is over and the team can no longer contest Rift Herald. However, LemonNation makes the ill-advised decision to join the fight way too late with Tahm Kench’s Abyssal Voyage. WildTurtle goes along for the ride and it costs both members their lives. FlyQuest had the right idea to force the issue in the mid-game – their chances would be slim to none in the late-game with an assassin and an AP caster against Cassiopeia, Varus, and Braum due to their high damage and hard engage – but the execution was horrible. It’s almost as if FlyQuest decided to intentionally feed and throw the game when it wasn’t quite out of reach.

It’s true that the season is still far from over for this squad. But it’s going to take a superhuman effort to turn this squad around. Never count Hai out to pull off some more magic, but it’s hard to see this squad avoiding relegation, let alone making playoffs. The veteran instincts on this squad gave them their biggest edge, but just like Cloud9 a few years ago, it’s the biggest thing holding this squad back. FlyQuest could use some new blood in the ranks, particularly at top and support, while keeping their eyes on the future at mid and ADC. You never want to be ill-prepared in the event you avoid relegation or you believe you have a shot to make the playoffs. But if FlyQuest chooses to move forward with this roster, then the change has to begin with Balls, Moon, and LemonNation stepping up their play. Two of these players are arguably the worst at their position right now while one of these players’s bright spots get overlooked for his mid-game misfires.

After a magical start in spring, it’s amazing to see how far FlyQuest have fallen. If this doesn’t change now, FlyQuest fans will be in for a long season.

#league of legends #lolesports #na lcs #flyquest #balls #moon #hai #wildturtle #lemonnation #lcs #lol #esports #amateur writing #analysis #opinion

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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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NA LCS: Examining the IMT-CLG trade and seven other takeaways from Week 4

At the halfway point in the summer split, only one thing is for sure: Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming's jungler swap continues to be a win-win for both teams. Although the game of the week turned out to be a 2-0 that saw Immortals emerge over as the team to beat, the impact that Jake "Xmithie" Puchero and Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett have had on their new teams continues to deliver impressive results.

CLG finally have a young, aggressive playmaker to build around for the future with rising stars Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes and Jae-hyun "Huhi" Choi. But the most impressive aspect of CLG's success hasn't been Dardoch. Thanks to the veteran leadership from Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black and the re-emergence of Darshan Upadhyaya, CLG could potentially return to the form that saw them surpass expectations at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. Unlike Immortals in spring, CLG has not won or lost based on Dardoch's playmaking ability.

However, the adjustments from Xmithie to Dardoch are still being made as CLG's questionable decision-making at times has turned steady 2-0 performances into unnecessary three game nail-biters. Dardoch isn't the team-oriented jungler that Xmithie was but this move was made with here and now and the future in mind. Dardoch finally has a team with veteran leadership and no language barrier and an organization focused on the World Championship. His time on Team Liquid should prove that nothing should ever be a guarantee, yet there is no reason to suggest that this shouldn't work out for Dardoch.

Immortals, on the other hand, have kept their momentum from the second half of the spring split and have built on it. Xmithie's team-oriented playstyle has been the perfect compliment to all three lanes who should now confidently consider themselves among the best in North America. Ho-Jong "Flame" Lee has returned to form as a dominant force in the top lane. Eugene "Pobelter" Park has shaken off his spring slump and looks to make noise through the rest of the split. Cody Sun and Joo-sung “Olleh” Kim continue to build on their growing synergy. Xmithie is content with letting the strength of his lanes speak for themselves and the veteran leadership Xmithie gives this team has been a boon for Immortals. Perhaps Dardoch's comments about the organization have sparked a fire with his former team.

But if there's one thing that both CLG and Immortals share, it's the fact that their only guaranteed trip to the World Championship is to win the summer split. That's easier said than done.

Here are seven other takeaways from the past week in the competitive NA LCS:

1. Although summer split continues to the the most pivotal split in the current LCS system, let's not forget about the importance of winning in spring. With Peter "Doublelift" Yillang back in the bot lane, TSM has steadily picked up where they left off last summer. With convincing victories over FlyQuest and Echo Fox, TSM looked to be in cruise control this week. The team has still yet to match this kind of success on the Worlds stage, but there's no question that this is one of the most consistent organizations in North America. Immortals may be the team to beat here and now, but in order for any team in the LCS to win the summer split, they must go through TSM. TSM should be a lock to make it to the World Championships so long as they secure another playoff berth. But we know that Doublelift and star player Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg won't stand for TSM going to worlds as anything other than NA's top seed. Their play this past week reflects how dangerous TSM can be when they're motivated to prove a point.

2. Cloud9 plays better with Eon-yeong "Impact" Jung in the top lane. We should still see Ji-won "Ray" Jeon take a few games away for stage experience, which should be expected with arguably the best roster in NA, but at this point Impact has proven to be the more reliable play. For all the flack Nicolaj Jensen has given himself and received for his inability to deliver in the clutch, it still amazes me that Cloud9 trusted Ray in a pivotal game 5 for all the marbles in the spring final. Just as TSM is motivated to be the top seed in NA, Jensen is motivated to do everything in his power to not be the reason his team falls short of the finish line again. With a 33/3/17 statline that comes out to a staggering 16.7 KDA, Jensen undoubtedly had the best week of all NA LCS players. If Jensen can replicate these numbers against two heavyweight contenders in Team Solo Mid and Counter Logic Gaming next week, there will be no question about the frontrunner for summer split MVP.

3. A few days ago, I wrote this article suggesting that Phoenix1 was correct to cut bait with Rami "Inori" Charagh, who saw some stage time this week with Team Liquid. Mike Yeung continues to prove his worth with the organization and should continue to start. He was a key component in Phoenix1's first victory of the season against Echo Fox. The bigger question now is whether or not he can continue performing at this level a month from now. Inori's Liquid debut, on the other hand was uneventful. He replaced Yeu-jin “Reignover” Kim for one game against the dominant Cloud9 in a losing effort and was promptly kept on the bench for Liquid's close 2-1 win against his former team.

I also wrote that Team Liquid should be looking to improve at every position. Unsurprisingly, we saw two major changes to Liquid's starting roster. Andrew "Slooshi" Pham and Kevin "KonKwon" Koo Hyuk started all five games in the mid lane and support respectively to some promising results. Liquid put up more of a fight than expected in a 2-0 loss to Cloud9, and then promptly turned around to deliver two convincing victories in a three-game series with Phoenix1. Both of these teams look like long shots to make playoffs, but there's still some time to go before we can scratch anyone out of the playoff picture.

4. Just when you think Echo Fox is finally starting to put all of the pieces together, the team has a bad week at the worst time. Echo Fox has gone 1-5 after a hot start to the season. Perhaps part of this can be put on Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham as outlined by owner Rick Fox, one of the past great NBA players, in this incredible feature by Riot. Akaadian appears to be slamming into the famed "rookie wall" as expected, but Akaadian is also learning to adjust his style and become a more team-oriented jungler. Even a superstar like William "Meteos" Hartmann went through growing pains after a dominant start to his career. The process affects many players differently, but it's clear that Akaadian has the support of the organization. They trust him to be able to figure it out. Even through the struggles over the past three weeks, Echo Fox fans should have no reason to give up on their team. Yuri "Keith" Jew is finally starting to show signs of life while Henrik "Froggen" Hansen has been showing off the power that earned him a reputation as one of the best mid laners in the world. Next week should be a prime opportunity to Echo Fox to gain their confidence back with two winnable matchups against Team Liquid and FlyQuest.

5. Even after a disappointing 0-2 finish this week, Team Dignitas should still be a trendy pick for fans looking for teams other than NA's big three - TSM, C9, and CLG - to support for summer. A lot of things have gone right for Dignitas since the second half of spring split. David "Cop" Roberson and Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco have done a tremendous job making this roster a competitor. Credit Cop and Saintvicious for making necessary changes to their starting support and jungle as the driving force behind the growth. Alex "Xpecial" Chu will always be remembered as one of the most consistent supports in NA LCS history, but it was time for Dignitas to bring in some young blood. Terry "Big" Chuong has shown improvement from his time in Echo Fox while Byeong-Hoon "Shrimp" Lee has a chance to lock down the starting job after some promising performances, but there is a major concern moving forward. Lee Sin is Shrimp's best champion - he's currently undefeated in six games with the blind monk - but if you take Lee Sin off the board against Shrimp, he carries an abysmal 3-8 record. Shrimp must improve the consistency in his champion pool moving forward in order to keep starting over Sang-hyun "Chaser" Lee.

Also: The jury is out whether or not Johnny "Altec" Ru is an upgrade over Benjamin "LOD" deMunck at AD carry, but his first impression with the team was not a good one. He posted a 4/7/10 statline in his Dignitas debut - a paltry 2.0 KDA. In his defense, he has only been with the team for a week and was facing Cloud9, one of the best bottom lanes in NA. Next week's starting lineups will show us how much confidence Dignitas has in Altec as they look to regain their momentum against the floundering veteran FlyQuest and an improved Team Envy. Speaking of which...

6. Give credit to Team Envy where it's due. Something had to change after finishing dead last in spring and barely avoiding relegation thanks to the stellar play of All-Pro Tae-yoo "Lira" Nam. The jury's still out on whether or not Wu-Yeong "Seraph" Shin will be the answer in top lane moving forward, but the correct start was made by replacing Geon-woo "Ninja" Noh in the mid lane. Picking up ex-Fnatic Academy mid laner Yasin "Nisqy" Dincer to pair with Jun-Sik "Pirean" Choi may turn out to be a great move given the promising starts from Nisqy and Pirean this summer. While Nisqy remains the better start due to his versatility, Pirean has shown he is a reliable option with this version of Team Envy. The changes to mid lane have brought Envy to a 4-4 record. If the season ended today, Team Envy would be in the playoffs. But now with return matches on the horizon and their starting mid laner finally back in NA, it's time for Envy to step their game up if they plan on making it back to the playoffs. Team Envy faces off against a frisky Phoenix1 squad that is better than their record indicates on Friday and will close their week in a must-win matchup against Dignitas on Sunday.

7. Team Liquid's fall from grace draws the attention of many LCS spectators while FlyQuest's steep decline has flown under the radar. You could argue that three of FlyQuest's veterans were once considered the best players in the region and are now past their prime, but the better argument to make here is the complete disappearance of what made FlyQuest successful in spring. Hai Lam will be remembered as the greatest shotcaller in NA history and his savvy leadership fueled this team's rise to the top. But the league has adjusted to FlyQuest's strategies and FlyQuest, in turn, has failed to adapt. It's not time to completely throw these players out and start from scratch - An "Balls" Le has made a case to extend his playing career by another year with his consistently solid performances, Jason "WildTurtle" Tran could still help a competitive team make a push for playoffs, and Hai's aggressive shotcalling can still work with the right blend of talent (i.e. Cloud9 in 2015) - but FlyQuest needs young talent with promising mechanics to go with Galen "Moon" Holgate. Take Longzhu Gaming in Korea, a team that has gone from barely avoiding relegation to playoff contender thanks to the infusion of incredibly talented players at top, jungle, and mid to go with their experienced bot lane.

Could FlyQuest still be trusted to turn it around with this same roster? Anything is possible with Hai, but it's going to take a superhuman effort to save this squad at 1-7. A change in pace at support and quality substitutes at top and AD carry could help, but until something changes, FlyQuest currently sits as the worst team in the NA LCS.

#league of legends #lolesports #league esports #na lcs #lcs #amateur writer #blog #opinion #takeaways #professional league of legends #esports

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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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Inori signs with Team Liquid: Why the move is a win-win for Liquid and Phoenix1

Once again, Team Liquid has made a big move in another attempt to save what's quickly turning into a lost season.

Just yesterday, the team announced that it signed Rami "Inori" Charagh, another promising young jungler in North America, from Phoenix1. The move should elevate Mike Yeung to a full-time starter on P1 while Inori will have a chance to earn his way back into a starting role. With the move, Phoenix1 made it clear that Inori was expendable and decided there was no better time than now for a change. Team Liquid should be looking to improve at every position following the team's anemic performances over the past few weeks and the experiments start with a resounding message to its starting jungler: Improve your performance or ride the bench.

The writing was on the wall for Inori after MikeYeung's LCS debut last week, where Yeung posted a solid 28/17/41 (4.1 KDA) stat line in six games. It's clear that MikeYeung impressed P1 management enough to earn a longer look from the organization and should likely earn another start this week. While this should be a huge boost of confidence for MikeYeung right now, this could ultimately backfire on Phoenix1 in the long run should Yeung's play fall off as the season wears on.

Still, for an organization searching to regain its momentum after a strong third place finish in the spring playoffs, it's hard to blame Phoenix1 for making this move sooner rather than later. This is now Yeung's job to lose. He's proven that he deserves to have more playing time on stage and he's in good hands with Phoenix1's current lineup. He will have the opportunity to learn from former Cloud 9 superstar jungler - and Phoenix1's substitute jungler - William "Meteos" Hartmann. Additionally, he gets to play with the dangerous and consistent mid laner Ryu Sang-Wook, and the NA LCS Spring Split MVP, AD carry No "Arrow" Dong-hyeon. There is no better environment for a promising rookie jungler to flourish as a starter. It worked for Joshua "Dardoch" Harnett in Team Liquid and it's currently working for Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham in Echo Fox and Juan "Contractz" Garcia in Cloud 9.

In short, this is a high risk, high reward move for Phoenix1. Normally a move like this would be a low-risk scenario, but given the expectations surrounding P1 following their strong finish in spring, missing the playoffs would be a disappointment. You don't make this move if you're not trying to make it back to the playoffs, especially with an automatic trip to the World Championship on the line.

For Team Liquid, Inori brings a carry threat out of the jungle. With the highest damage per minute (DPM) and the fourth highest total damage share (DMG%) for junglers in spring (despite only play roughly half of the split), Inori should look to bring a more aggressive style to Liquid's games, which could help Kim "Reignover" Ui-jin return to a more supportive style, one that helped push Fnatic to a perfect summer regular season and a semi-final Worlds appearance in 2015. Make no mistake, Reignover is capable of carrying games - he finished in the top five for DPM & DMG% in spring - but Inori's presence should allow Reignover to lean on his strength on tanks and playmakers. Even if their pools look similar throughout the rest of the split, Reignover now has to look over his shoulder and step his game up if he wants to remain a starter. If Reignover continues to underperform, Liquid will turn its attention to Inori to make the best of another lost season.

For all we know, Inori could never see the LCS stage this split. But Inori should still push Reignover for the job just as Yuri "Keith" Jew pushed a veteran AD carry in Jason "WildTurtle" Tran to step up or get benched two years ago on Team Solo Mid. Assuming Liquid doesn't fall victim to relegation or is not accepted into the NA LCS when Riot will move to a franchising structure, this is still a good move in the long run for Liquid. Inori gives the organization an intriguing developmental prospect in the Academy League set to replace the Challenger Series or a future starter if Reignover departs. If there's anyone who knows the impact of having quality substitutes, it's Steve Arhancet, Team Liquid's co-owner. Even through heartbreak and through the struggles of 2017, Liquid fans should take away that Steve knows talent and knows how to prepare that talent for the stage. Several LCS players such as Pobelter and Hauntzer made their way through the organization and have become consistent starters on several teams.

It's easy to look at this move as Team Liquid once again trying to solve its problems by throwing money at their team until its fortunes turn around. But if you're a Liquid fan, would you rather have an owner complacent with its spot at the bottom of the league, or an owner trying to do everything he can to re-establish Liquid as a competitive team? Say what you will about Liquid's coaching staff or questionable personnel, but there's no doubt that Steve Arhancet genuinely cares about the success of his team.

After all, his job depends on it.

#league of legends #na lcs #riot games #team liquid #phoenix1 #inori #2017 #amateur writer #analysis #opinion

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mrjoshuabishop-blog · 8 years ago

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League of Legends: The West’s self-destructive pick/ban phases

As I watched game two of a series between Fnatic and H2K in this week's edition of the EU LCS, I couldn't help but be stunned that Rekkles, Fnatic's star AD carry, once again was allowed to play Kennen. I thought to myself, "Why would H2K do this to themselves? Wasn't [H2K coach] Pr0lly known for having solid drafts?" Kennen isn't just Rekkles's most played champion in the summer split - it's Rekkles's best champion. Any coach in Korea would take this pick away from Fnatic, either by first picking it or outright banning it. Yet, here was H2K, once again daring to accept the challenge of facing Rekkles's Kennen...and like many other teams in Europe this year, H2K couldn't live up to the task.

The argument can be made that, at least for one game, H2K tried copying what worked for Roccat the previous week - taking Shen and Thresh away from Fnatic to reduce the layer of protections around the Kennen pick - but when you look at the result of that Roccat/Fnatic series, you'll see that Rekkles still performed on the pick. In three games, Rekkles went 17/2/11 on Kennen for an incredible 14 KDA ratio. What's even more remarkable is the overall consistency for the summer split: according to Riot's own stats sheet found on lolesports, Rekkles has played Kennen eight times and has gone 44/4/32 for a whopping 19 KDA. Digging deeper into the numbers at OraclesElixir, what’s even more stunning is the fact that Rekkles is doing all of this while sitting in the bottom half of the league in damage per minute and overall damage share. But the important factor here is that Fnatic is clearly playing around their star carry. Rekkles sits at the top of the board in creep score (CS) per minute, creep share percentage post-15 minutes (CS%P15), gold per minute (GPM), and earned gold per minute (EGPM). Fnatic has consistently funneled all resources to their best player and it's all on the strength of how well Rekkles has played his Kennen.

With all of these factors in mind, it still amazes me how Europe has failed to adjust their pick/ban phase against Fnatic. If Fnatic were facing a Korean powerhouse on an international stage, Rekkles would never get to play Kennen. It would either be picked away first rotation or outright banned. A good example of this can be found at the 2015 World Championships, when Samsung White would outright pick Lee Sin or ban it away against Team SoloMid in order to keep TSM's jungler, Amazing, off his best champion. It's not to say that Korean teams aren't guilty of doing this - let's not forget what happened when Samsung Galaxy mid laner Crown was allowed to play Viktor recently in the LCK - but it is to say that Korean teams know how to stop Western teams from taking a game over off the strength of one strategy or one pick.

The fact there isn't a Western team that's been doing this domestically is alarming. With North America's Counter Logic Gaming, it took CLG's mid laner, Huhi, dominating most of the past spring split and one pivotal game 3 against Cloud 9 to open the summer split before teams finally started permabanning Aurelion Sol against CLG. Team Envy's jungler, LirA, was recognized as an All-Pro for his ability to single-handedly win games and that trend looks to continue every time he gets to play Lee Sin or Nidalee. When taking a look at CLG's series with FlyQuest last week, you'll see it isn't just reserved to comfort picks. In the second and third games of the series, both critical games for CLG following an efficient victory in the first game, FlyQuest changes their pick/ban phase to leave Caitlyn, arguably the strongest marksman in the current meta, open for both teams. This works to their advantage for the second game as they secure Caitlyn in their first rotation and ultimately win the game off her late-game strengths. But when they leave her open the third game, CLG instantly picks Caitlyn, one of Stixxay's strongest picks, and ends up taking the series off another strong performance from CLG's rising star AD carry.

Yes, teams will prepare strategies or counterpicks to play around these comfort picks and try to prove they can be beat. Look no further than Team Liquid's Reignover confidently playing Olaf against LirA's Nidalee and making plays all across the map to guide Liquid to a game 2 victory two weeks ago. But at some point, the Western teams are going to have to step up their pick/ban to take players off their best champions and force them to prove they can play other picks just as proficiently as their go-to picks. In the NFL, you don't see good teams playing against the New England Patriots not trying to kill the clock in order to keep Tom Brady off the field (unless you're the Atlanta Falcons and you promptly ignore the running game that put you up 28-3 in the 3rd quarter) because good teams know what happens when you let one of the best quarterbacks in the game pull his team back into a game they should not win nine times out of ten.

If the West is serious about making improvements needed to win it all at the World Championships, North American and European teams need to start the process by learning to stop disrespecting a player's strengths on certain champions. How many times do you need to put your hand in a fire and get burned before you finally learn it's hot? How many times do you need to shoot yourself in the foot before you finally realize you're not invincible, you feel pain, and you're hurting yourself in the long run?

I may not be a professional player, an analyst, or a coach, but I'm sure I have enough common sense to know when something works too well or when something isn't working at all. Letting players like Rekkles continue to play Kennen and continue to perform on it isn't doing the rest of the region trying to compete any favors. You don't win by playing into a team's strength, you win by exposing their weaknesses and forcing teams to adapt.

Can Fnatic continue being successful beyond their hot start to summer when they aren't allowed to play around Rekkles?

Who steps up for Team Envy if LirA is completely taken out of the equation?

If you know CLG's Aphromoo excels on playmaking supports but is shaky on utility supports, why wouldn't you be trying to force him onto a utility support?

All of these are hypothetical questions that can have many different answers, but all of these are questions that the Western coaches should be asking themselves - just as any great coach in sports before them have asked. Great coaches figure out how to hit teams where they'll hurt the most, and they methodically choke the life out of them until there's nothing left. That's why SK Telecom continues to crush teams on the international stage. That's why Korea continues to dominate against the West. There's many reasons why it will be a long time before the West - especially in the case of North America - ever sees a World Champion again, but until the coaches and the players get serious about taking the steps necessary to win as Riot & the major organizations in the LCS have been about improving the league's infrastructure, there's no team in the West who will be believed at their word when they say "Our goal is to win Worlds."

#league of legends #riot games #esports #first post #opinion #amateur writer #lolesports #league blog #hi tumblr #na #eu

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