Nearly everyone predicted a clean sweep of 3-0 in Longzhu’s favor. Samsung Galaxy had struggled all group stage, finding wins and losses almost without prediction or reason while Longzhu handily defeated every opponent they faced. However, in the short time from group stage to quarterfinals, something strange occurred that seemed to swap the teams spirit and courage. Instead of the predicted outcome, it was SSG that went on to not only defeat Longzhu, but to dominate them entirely in a 3-0 sweep.

GAME 1

Going into Game 1, we had a feeling Samsung Galaxy would rely on the same top lane pushing strategy that had won against Longzhu months ago. SSG had tried this strategy again in August and failed with it, but something about SSG’s determination to play only their style had us convinced they would try again, and they did. Oddly enough, it was LZ, not SSG, that initiated this when they blind picked a Jax top lane. It seemed like history all over again as SSG confidently chose a Kennen top, but it became very clear who had made the mistake.

Though LZ seemed intent on sending a message to the rest of Worlds, first with a Jax challenge top lane and then with hyper-aggression from BDD in the mid lane, it was SSG that sent the message. Ever after BDD forced Crown constantly out of lane and then killed him under turret, it was SSG that turned the game around. The threat of Malzahar and AP Kennen was more than LZ could handle in the early game, and once these two had secured a lead, by the late game, SSG fell back onto Ruler’s Tristana, who was too powerful to be countered and who was playing into a team that had optimized for Magic Resist.

It wasn’t just that SSG played fantastic – though they did. There were also odd decisions by LZ. The blind pick Jax seemed unnecessary, and the Thresh bot lane was a pick that never panned out for the aggression needed to back it up. LZ also failed to build correctly against the threat of a Malzahar and build a QSS to counter his constant picks against the team.

GAME 2

Longzhu seemed to identify that their losing factor in Game 1 was a poorly chosen Thresh. They rectified this by first picking a Lulu and falling out of their Korean meta ways and into the more traditional Ardent Censer meta in Worlds. Unfortunately, this seemed to be all LZ tried to change.

Once again, BDD hyper-aggressed onto Crown for first blood, and once again, SSG’s Ambition came from the jungle and answered, trading more kills in SSG’s favor. From here, Ambition, combined with Crown’s roaming ability on Taliyah, simply controlled the map. It was as if Game 1 had only been to soften LZ up for what SSG had in store for them in game two. Not only was this game even more decisive and more crushing, Crown managed to get perfect kill participation, mostly by using Taliyah’s ultimate beautifully to bait and position around Baron the entire match.

By utilizing their team’s CC, SSG managed to force the entire game to revolve around the Baron pit. Unfortunately, LZ was never able to accurately attack them here, especially as Crown constantly used his wall to divide the team. However, even when LZ could make it close to the pit, Ambition’s Sejuani was always quick to answer and keep the team away.

GAME 3

By now, it was more than just Longzhu that were worried. Most everyone had expected the first seed from Korea to dominate SSG as the third seed, but no one had anticipated that LZ would simply disintegrate under pressure. It may have been the pressure of the quarterfinals, the slog-fest that was battling constantly through the Group Stage, or perhaps simply travel fatigue, but Longzhu never rose to the greatness they had achieved in other games.

Instead, LZ seemed content to let SSG constantly have comfort power picks in Shen for CuVee – probably the best Shen in all of Worlds – or Ambition on Sejuani – a play maker and constant threat that LZ had never been able to counter. Even Ruler’s Tristana – something he had been utilizing nearly as well as  Doublelift had to jump into and out of fights and be a dominating force –  was allowed through. LZ instead chose to ban traditional meta picks like Kalista, but it is hard to see how letting any of these picks through would have made the outcome of the games worse.

By Game 3, SSG was so comfortable with the draft that they had, that they almost casually went into the match. Although LZ changed up their own draft a bit, as with a Trundle in the top lane, it was too little too late. All of LZ’s responses seemed lethargic and weak as SSG out-rotated them at every corner. It didn’t help that LZ had twice picked Varus for PraY, a champ whose lack of escape mechanics severely cost PraY every match. It cost them, too, as PraY did virtually nothing the entire game, and it may be the root cause that dropped them out of the quarterfinals.