EPTOne of the most interesting quarter finals of this round, taking in consideration that both teams are newcomers to do LPL. None of them entered the LPL announcing huge names from former Samsung/KT teams. at this point it doesn’t matter because both of these teams made it into the quarter finals.
King
In the pre-season, King got the title of “old OMG” assigned to them thanks to their playstyle. Fighting and taking no prisoners I’d like to call it. King is a team that isn’t build around a specific player. Each and every one of their members can carry a game so they aren’t bound to committing resources onto 1 person.
The problem with King is that they are too inconsistent. They have taken games off top teams and then dropped games against the lower ranked teams.
King has a very talented team, none of the players stand out in terms of performance. I like to see King more as a team that works well together than a 5 individuals who happen to be on the same team.
Their toplane Skye was well known as a Irelia player, since you cannot play a single champion for 44 games he was forced to pick up the likes of Maokai and now even Sion. His laningphase on these champions is decent if we would rate it and his teleport plays are getting to the point where you could call it a danger.
MLXG has stepped up his game, his recent Rek’sai performances have been terrific, the initiation into the teamfights have been splendid. His jungle pathing has improved and is not as predictable as before.
The midlaner for King is Assassin, he played 16 different champions this split, all with random success. His strong laningphase is not always winning his team the game and perhaps as his winrates don’t look too great, he does stand out atleast on the Ahri. Ahri has been a top pick for many Chinese midlaners, her mobility allows them to dominate their lanes and apply map pressure. This is what Assassin loves to play, these high mobility midlaners but he isn’t shy in taking a Cho’gath to the rift now and then either.
If we do have to pick a star for King, it would be Wuxin, their ADC. Several times this split has he been the top performing player in the team that just stood out in teamfights. Decisive landed skillshots, great positioning and a strong laning phase. Wuxx, as he is refered too, has a strong champion pool and can play almost anything.
Where SHRC’s Zero locked in Irelia once, Leym did it twice. Support Irelia, don’t expect me to give a lecture on how good this pick is, because it’s not, I just want to give you an idea on what type of player Leym is. Playmaking supports are his thing, Thresh and Morgana are his most played champions, especially his Thresh plays are great. He can win lanes for his team, create picks across the map and in teamfights his Death Sentences can literally honor that name. Leym just needs to work on providing his team some more vision when we get into the later stages of the game and even early his vision game can be a bit sloppy.
The beauty of teams like King is that you see a couple of boys getting into the strongest competition of the world, as cocky as they may have seemed they struggled. It took them 44 games to lock in their 7th seed, it was no easy ride, but they made it. Teamwork and being critical towards their own play is the reason why they are standing here today up against Snake.
King’s top picks for each role this split
Skye (Top, 10 different champion picks)
1. Irelia – 10 picks, 50% winrate, 3.9 KDA
2. Maokai – 8 picks, 50% winrate, 4.3 KDA
3. Rumble – 8 picks, 42.9 winrate, 2.2 KDA
MLXG (Jungle, 8 different champion picks)
1. Rengar – 11 picks, 63.6% winrate, 3.5 KDA
2. Lee Sin – 10 picks, 20% winrate, 2.6 KDA
3. Rek’Sai – 9 picks, 77.8% winrate, 6.5 KDA
Assassin (Mid, 16 different champion picks)
1. Azir – 7 picks, 14.3% winrate, 2.3 KDA
2. Ahri – 5 picks, 100% winrate, 7.1 KDA
3. Chogath – 5 picks, 80% winrate, 5.3 KDA
Wuxx (ADC, 12 different champion picks)
1. Sivir – 10 picks, 40% winrate, 3.8 KDA
2. Kalista – 9 picks, 55.6% winrate, 3.6 KDA
3. Corki – 7 picks, 57.1% winrate, 5.9 KDA
LeyM (Support, 11 different champion picks)
1. Thresh – 14 picks, 42.9% winrate, 2.2 KDA
2. Morgana – 7 picks, 57.1% winrate, 2.9 KDA
3. Janna – 7 picks, 57.1% winrate, 4.6 KDA
Snake
Snake has been the centre of everything that is negative regarding to their playstyle and ADC. At the end of the split, they managed to knock OMG off their second seed and let them suffer from the worst split seeding in OMG history.
Part of the reason Snake receives so much heat is that the true carries are slightly underappreciated and their midlaner is mediocre. Baka's champion pool leaves something to be desired, it is simply too small right now.
Let’s take a look at the recent performances of Snake in the LPL, they bring out the Shyvana with Teleport/Smite which not just worked for them but the surprise factor that lied behind this choice got them a very big dragon to lead the way. Aside from this game, Teleport/Smite has conquered the world and Flandre’s Snake or perhaps the staff of Snake E-sports have contributed to the meta of the tanky toplaners.
If you look at the losses that have been suffered by Snake, you can see that either Beast or Flandre was getting shred with camping, starving or any other form of a disruptive tactic. Now, that being said, looking a the ADC that goes by the name of Krystal, I am not too impressed by this player. Don’t get me wrong here, I do think he is a skillful player, otherwise you wouldn’t play in the LPL(Wei you are an exception!). It’s just that he is getting fed, he is getting babysit by Beast & Ella mainly. Ella who is a superb support player who in any other region would be a top 3 support player. The peel that comes out of these two players during the early stages of the game is beyond recognizion. When the teamfights occur, a third member by the name of Flandre joins the party and makes sure that Krystal will be freely to walk around and dish out abilities or auto attacks.
To give you an idea of how strong Snake their team is and how unbelievable good their frontline is, perhaps you should meditate about why teams ban Draven against Snake. I can help you out by saying that Krystal is allowed to play Draven because of his frontline, because of the true carries in the team that make sure that his immobility get’s covered by walls of health and crowd controlling abilities.
Baka, the midlaner, is a very special case. Now that Azir is viable again, his champion pool counts 4 champions. Xerath, Azir, Lulu and Karthus. Karthus was only added recently, that’s all he plays. Now some of these champions are considered situational, which means that he can be easily nutrilized by the enemy team in the pick and ban phase.
Snake’s top picks for each role this split
Flandre (Top, 11 different champion picks)
1. Maokai – 12 picks, 66.7% winrate, 5.0 KDA
2. Rumble – 7 picks, 57.1% winrate, 2.4 KDA
3. Morgana – 5 picks, 80% winrate, 4.1 KDA
Beast (Jungle, 11 different champion picks)
1. Nunu – 11 picks, 90.9% winrate, 9.9 KDA
2. Jarvan IV – 10 picks, 70% winrate, 4.9 KDA
3. Rek’Sai – 7 picks, 71.4% winrate, 4.7 KDA
Baka (Mid, 11 different champion picks)
1. Xerath – 15 picks, 80% winrate, 4.6 KDA
2. Azir – 10 picks, 70% winrate, 3.4 KDA
3. Lulu – 4 picks, 75% winrate, 2.9 KDA
Krystal (ADC, 9 different champion picks)
1. Kalista – 12 picks, 91.7% winrate, 6.4 KDA
2. Kog’maw – 8 picks, 50% winrate, 3.1 KDA
3. Draven – 7 picks, 85.7% winrate, 5.7 KDA
Ella (Support, 6 different champions)
1. Janna – 20 picks, 60% winrate, 4.8 KDA
2. Thresh – 10 picks, 90% winrate, 7.5 KDA
3. Morgana – 5 picks, 60% winrate, 2.8 KDA
Match-up:
Their last meeting was in Week 7, where Snake made quick work of King. Taking both games within the hour together. The only shining light on the side of King was Wuxin who had a good performance in the second game on the Corki.
Now both teams have changed a lot since that meeting and I don’t think we will have such a one sided series when it comes to these teams again.
I cannot say about King that their players are easily banned out, they are all well skilled players both strategicly(early) and mechanicly but their mid/late game decisions cost them games and might even cost them the series against Snake.
The key for King to end this series in their advantage, lies in disrupting Beast and Flandre, the true carries on the side of Snake. If you take out Beast and Flandre, you take out Snake.
To make this series lean towards Snake, will mean that they have to put a lot of resources into both disrupting MLXG, who has lately been the playmaker on the side of King and to get both Beast and Flandre in a good position to be that front line.
Once Snake manages to get that frontline working, Krystal can fire away together with Baka, who does make the plays for his team when he is playing Karthus.
My prediction for this series is a 3-1 victory for Snake, because I think that their ability to get games towards the late game and their teamfighting is far superior than that of King.
Viewer info:
16th of April, 2015
Timezones:
PDT: 02.00
EDT: 05.00
CEST: 11.00
KST: 18.00
The games are live on:
http://www.twitch.tv/riotgames2 English stream
http://star.longzhu.com/lpl Chinese stream
If any grammatic errors were made, please let me know, not a native english speaker
