#i know i have completely left caitlyn out of the equation here

[revelisms]

Braindumping about Silco and Vi, because these two are such fantastic narrative foils for each other—and, in the same breath, completely cut from the same cloth.

I keep wishing they had more scenes together, another square-off, something to put them head-to-head—because there's so much potential for them to counteract the layers of each other.

At the root of it all, Vander's looming between them, this monolith of a presence that ties their pasts together. But above that, still, we have Jinx—who not only is their driving tension, but their greatest possibility for reconnection.

Here, we have Vander's daughter—someone who, for all intents and purposes, has become what he wanted, but who has also been someone he saw too much of himself in; who he did his best to reshape, instead of enable, and who put him on a pedestal, and truly saw him as hers, more than perhaps anyone (except, well, Silco).

Vi treasured Vander, fully looked up to him as her father—and losing him shattered her. In between all the layers of it, there's this underlying thread in his actions towards her, a tension that just sits with her through Act 1—Do as I say, not as I do (or, rather, as I did).

Here, we also have Vander's partner—someone who knew him before, knew what he was, what he resented, and what he became, instead; and who bears the scars of what all their fallout grew to be. Someone who holds the memory of him tangibly, in multiple respects, as though it is something he physically cannot sever: Vander's knife, the Drop—and even, in some ways, Jinx.

Silco is still clinging to the idea of Vander, throughout the entire series. To the potential in their reunion at the cannery; to the reassurance of what he knew him to be (I knew you still had it in you; Vander wasn't the man you thought he was); to this need he has to still speak to him, even after everything.

But Vi was raised with the burden of being the eldest; being the one most capable of providing protection—and, as a consequence, with the burden of responsibility.

She's not only a sister to Jinx. She's a guardian to her—and in many respects, a stand-in mother. And Silco, as a surrogate father, is standing right in the middle of that. A roadblock between "Powder," as Vi knows her sister as, and "Jinx," as Silco knows his daughter to be.

Right at the forefront, we have so much conflict here. Vi is so similar to Vander, to the point that she is nearly his spirit incarnate—so much so that having her resurface from a presumed grave just sets fuel to fire for a vendetta Silco has never been able to snuff out.

But beneath that—far beneath that—they have so much in common. Vi's headstrong rebuttals in Act 1 about going against Piltover and striking them down, about being made to feel lesser her whole life and needing to fight against it, just sings with Silco's anger in the cannery (You'd die for the cause, but you won't fight for one?).

These are two kindred spirits, two revolutionaries willing to do anything for their city and those they love, and who aren't afraid to fight for it. Who want to fight for it.

But trapped between it all, we have Jinx. Someone Vi is not willing to sacrifice (i.e., her memory of Powder), and who Silco, by the end of the series, isn't willing to sacrifice, either (i.e., his loyalty to Jinx).

Vi, of course, could never fathom Silco being a father to Powder (how could she, after he is the reason Vander was taken from her?)—and looks for justifications for her hatred, in everything he does.

But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that for all Vander cherished and nurtured Vi as a vision of himself—so has Silco, to Jinx. He sees himself in her. He has empowered her, cherished her. He is so incredibly tender with her, in his own ways. And—for all his absolute faults, his skewed morals, his tunnel-visioned zealousy to achieve Zaun—he is a good father to Jinx, just as Vander was a good father to Vi.

The question I keep finding myself mulling over, though, is whether these two could find elements of that, once again, in each other.

There are so many things Silco isn't—not only in Vander's shadow, but simply in the character that he is. He doesn't come in swinging; he plots, he strategizes, he fights with words. He isn't a warm presence, or a jovial one; he's chilling, he's dry, he's distanced. There are countless contradictions one can draw between the two of them—and so many layers one can tease apart, on how their opposites attracted each other, how they worked (a balance that will no longer ever be).

But there are so many things Silco is. He's critical, he's fiercely rational, he knows how to weave a crowd around his finger with a single intonation. He admires the outcasts, the scrappers, those that have dredged through society to claw for what they can. He surrounds himself with them—and he operates alongside them, as an equal as much as an usurper.

He's a flavor of parenthood Vi didn't receive, but could have—the one that would have validated her need to fight; who would have taught her that strength comes in numbers, not in one's single ability to protect; who would have seen her snarkiness, her quick wit on her feet, and taught her to use it to her leverage.

The tragedy of the whole series is that Jinx needs them both to have balance in her life—to keep the tether of her child self and her trauma from splitting her apart at the seams—yet for Silco and Vi, as the narrative destines them for (and as it destined Silco and Vander for), any semblance of a connection between them is doomed for destruction.

There's too much they hold fiercely to themselves, in their own traumas, that they cannot set down—even for the sake of Jinx's needs. They are equally selfish, in that way. They want the version of Vander that they are not willing to let go of; and they want the version of Jinx that they know her to be.

But they could change. They could.

Silco did, by the end. Chose his daughter, his legacy, over the cause, over his vision of progress. And Vi did, too. Chose "peace," chose to set down the gauntlets, chose politics (and—arguably—complacency, in the same way Vander did) as the path forward.

But what if they set it all down, for Jinx? What if they became what she needed, on both sides? A father who sees her, nurtures her, like Vander saw and nurtured Vi—and a sister who loves and protects her, like Vi loved and protected Powder; who could learn, maybe, to love and protect "Jinx," too?

And maybe—just maybe—Silco and Vi could learn to appreciate each other, for all their surface hatreds. Find mentorship, find balance again, in each other. And through it, Vi could learn that protection, responsibility, isn't the only quality to strive for. That even she can be nurtured again, too.

[mrjoshuabishop-blog]

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."