game 1: team solo mid vs team we

Day 3 of Worlds was marked by slow, defensive plays, and it all started with the first match between TSM and Team WE. Both teams were reluctant to engage, very slowly feeling each other and looking for opportunities. Interestingly enough, TSM played like a much better WE, giving up kills so they could push objectives. This is what caused TSM to get ahead in turrets, drakes, and Barons and ultimately what won them the game.

TSM simply had better map control as well. They drew attention to top lane so they could focus mid, then they went back for items and immediately grouped bot lane for another turret. When fights did happen, TSM patiently baited out the Taric ult, and once it was gone, Doublelift engaged hyper aggressively, diving into WE and crushing them as he has been doing on Tristana.

WE also severely underutilized Shen, something many teams have done in Worlds and shown their inexperience with the champion. Shen could have been a play maker for the team, coordinating with Taric to setup devastating team fights, but he ultimately faltered against Hauntzer’s Cho’Gath and brought little to WE’s lineup.

game 2: flash wolves vs misfits

Finally the Worlds’ teams are starting to choose some off-meta picks that make sense, and it is paying huge dividends. Flash Wolves once again chose Cho’Gath – a near constant presence in every Worlds’ game – and Misfits finally chose Trundle to take him on, a champion whose CC and ultimate make him the perfect tank buster but also make him an ideal tank all on his own. It wasn’t just the Trundle pick that led to Misfits remarkable 12-0 win though. MSF’s Maple was a split pushing nightmare on Corki and a huge reason the team was able to constantly keep Flash Wolves struggling to keep up.

This was an extremely slow game, like the one before, with only a single kill on the board at the 25 minute mark. But if Flash Wolves had been more aggressive and proactive, the game could have gone much differently. FW just seemed too afraid to step in to stop Corki or Trundle, who became too difficult to handle. FW’s Betty was also far too fearful of really engaging to be useful.

Considering the fact that FW chose Jinx for Betty, we were expecting something out of the team to set him up for success. Jinx’s strength is as a Twitch-lite utility – let her drop CC with her chompers and give her a hurricane to decimate teams with rockets – but FW failed to draft a team to engage or CC MSF in any way. It was a complete failure on both parts – Betty was too fearful and the rest of the team couldn’t give him the openings to take off.

game 3: g2 vs 1907 Fenerbahçe

G2 has also been listening to the community, and the moment Fenerbahçe picked up Cho’Gath, G2 snatched Trundle. It really is a mystery why this champ has been so underutilized until Day 3, because the first two teams to use him, Misfits before and now G2, both utterly annihilated their opposition. G2 had an even more impressive game against FB with a lower kill count but with a perfect game.

This was another slow and steady game, but the strategy behind this one made far more sense. G2’s pressure on the map was so intense that even without ganking, FB had to slowly retreat. It’s hard to recall a Worlds game that has ever been this overpowering. G2 not only didn’t let FB get a single turret, but at 25 minutes, FB couldn’t even leave their base. G2 had complete control of the map and was slow farming both jungles. Whatever tricks and tactics FB had tried in the past, they were completely overwhelmed and dominated by the superior picks and strategy of G2.

game 4: samsung galaxy vs royal never give up

Something fishy was happening on Day 3. Teams were terrified of being aggressive and were falling apart left and right. SSG’s match against RNG marked the third game in a row where a team had zero kills, with RNG closing this game out at 11-0. Unlike the other games, no Trundle showed up to disrupt and terrify SSG, in fact, RNG’s team comp was fairly standard. The only noticeable point in this game was that RNG was aggressive and decisive and SSG was completely out of sorts.

Take a look at the early Rift Herald pick-up by RNG as an example. RNG had low health after a gank and decided to collapse at Rift Herald. SSG could have pressured Rift Herald, either trying to drive them off or turn it into a team fight depending on their confidence. They also could have retreated to the other side of the map and traded the Rift take for a Drake. Instead, SSG danced indecisively around the mid-lane and simply let RNG have it. Whatever was going on with SSG, RNG quickly picked up on the weakness and capitalized. They routinely found SSG out of position and picked them off. It was an embarrassing match to watch, as the normally stellar team couldn’t compete at all against RNG.

game 5: sk telecom VS ahq e-sports

SKT had something to prove this game. Not against AHQ, but to themselves and everyone else. Like C9 in the Play-in stage, SKT was flexing their muscles and showing the variety of their skill level, and they started it all off by picking a Fizz mid-lane.

SKT knew that Faker would lose this lane against Syndra – which he did – but he also kept himself safe. He didn’t feed Syndra, and he didn’t fall insanely low in CS. Meanwhile, SKT was hyper aggressively invading AHQ’s jungle from the start. Even  after AHQ’s Ziv teleported bot lane for a great gank into infernal, SKT immediately responded by heading bot lane for a kill and then camping a bit longer to get a second kill, essentially one-upping AHQ.

It was an odd game out of SKT, a game where they focused on kills and ganks far more than playing the map to their usual skill, and it almost didn’t work. AHQ had control of the early game, and though SKT took control of the mid game, AHQ swung it back into their favor.  If AHQ had controlled their aggression, they wouldn’t have given up two kills needlessly while pushing into SKT’s base, and they probably wouldn’t have thrown the game by a poor elder dragon call that wiped out their team. It isn’t that SKT always plays so much better than their opponents; it’s that they simply don’t make the mistakes their opponents do.

game 6: cloud9 vs edward gaming

C9’s Contractz has clearly been trying some new things at Worlds. Never the all-star of the team, since Play-ins, he has been aggressively stepping up and choosing champions that dominate the game. He did it with Nidalee, he tried to do with Rek’Sai (though SKT fought him off), and he did it on Ezreal. Against EDG, he brought back Graves, and though it wasn’t as effective as Ezreal, it showed the direction C9 and their jungle are taking in aggression over defensive, and it is one of the reasons they beat out EDG in this game.

C9 was simply better at reading their opponents. Clearlove thought he could get a gank on a low health Contractz, but Graves managed not only to fight him off, but to force EDG’s Mouse to run from top lane just to save him. This was followed up by Contractz constantly going mid to support Jensen defensively and offensively. Combined with Impact on Shen, who played the first aggressive and proactive Shen of Worlds, the two were a deadly duo constantly arriving to get kills and save lives. It was C9’s synergy, ultimately, they put them ahead of EDG and led to their victory.