Well Stunt isn't on Flyquest anymore, but at the same time I don't know what the deal with that guy is, every team benches him with a winning record.Probably the best fit for him is Optic, since he's played with Arrow before, but Arrow benched him too so idk

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 15 2018 21:08 GMT

#244

Finally got a chance to watch today's games, boy what a fiesta. FNC really falling short, luckily POB decided to play boring Karma again, completely outclassed by Caps in terms of map presence. And FW beat KZ again, that's pretty crazy.

In any case RNG look like the best team by quite a margin now imo.

As someone who loves RNG and LPL, I still wouldn't consider them favorites, I still think KZ will take it. RNG have looked very good the last two days, and Uzi is in top form, but if KZ gets their act together they will will the tournament. Besides, FW is looking great too, and Fnatic has a decent shot of making it to finals.

red_

United States8474 Posts

May 16 2018 01:53 GMT

#245

So TL failed to make playoffs because of their loss to EVS ya? Granted FNC also lost to them to force the tiebreak which is hilarious, but ya.

Gahlo

United States35146 Posts

May 16 2018 02:09 GMT

#246

NA has a tragic history of doing expected against regions generally viewed as better (Korea/China), okay against regions around its level(LMS, EU), and then slightly below expected against Vietnam and Wildcards.

That last bit is often the sticking point that fucks them, since NA's performance abberates down, while LMS and, mostly, EU tends to abberate up.

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

May 16 2018 02:54 GMT

#247

Ok, rewatched the game. Olleh trolled bg.

cLutZ

United States19574 Posts

May 16 2018 06:16 GMT

#248

As a human who watches League of Legends, I have not seen League of Legends played as it has been in this group stage for quite some time. This makes me both happy and suspicious.

I am glad to see teams snowballing lane dominance (even without kills) into victories. I am suspicious that this is all just a result of patches + best of one. If its just the game focusing more on laning at the pro level, count me in as stoked. I am tired of games that are 20k vs. 20k where I know one team just needs to stall more, and also tired of a team dominating for a mere 21k to 20k lead. On the other hand, if Kingzone comes back and wins it all and/or this trend reverses, Riot needs to end BO1 forever.

amd098

Korea (North)1366 Posts

May 16 2018 07:17 GMT

#249

Playstyles have to change, you can't always play let DL carry the game at international events, you won't always get to farm up. And the synergy issues of DL/Olleh we saw all split were huge here. Just one win in the first 2 days would have gotten TL out of groups, but Olleh tilting off the Earth cost it big.

Kinie

United States3106 Posts

May 16 2018 07:37 GMT

#250

On May 16 2018 16:17 amd098 wrote:
Playstyles have to change, you can't always play let DL carry the game at international events, you won't always get to farm up. And the synergy issues of DL/Olleh we saw all split were huge here. Just one win in the first 2 days would have gotten TL out of groups, but Olleh tilting off the Earth cost it big.

But this tournament was going to be so heavily bot lane focused because in the pro scene right now, ADC and supports are insanely strong, being able to hit 1-2 item power spikes pre-20 minutes and then take Baron to snowball that lead into map control. It's not like in prior international tournaments where top lane could be a split push threat (via 4-1 or 1-3-1 compositions) and mid lane still hasn't had the AP item rework hit yet which changes a lot of the mages.

It's also not like other tournaments where mid lane dominance can equal an insta-kill pickoff into map objective via an assassin champion like Zed or Leblanc. Caps popping off like he did is really the exception to the current trend, but even he is taking mages who have a fast roam and can hit top and/or bottom with 3-4 man turret dives when they hit level 6, and this was a thing you started to see get picked up by the other regions as the tournament went on.

TL getting Pobelter to perform on Malz ended up being a false flag for NA fans to hoist, because the moment it was banned or itemized against he went back to being useless and TL was trying to hop into the DL backpack.

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 16 2018 07:45 GMT

#251

It's sad too, because they should've realized that strategy was never going to work when enemy teams have Uzi or Pray, both far better than DL. Even Betty and Rekkles, when he feels like playing well, are strong ADC in their own right, DL can't just win the game by himself. Picking Karma mid just for the shields isn't going to cut it Pob, you'd be better off playing like Caps on Sol/Taliyah, roaming the map to get people ahead.

Ansibled

United Kingdom9872 Posts

May 16 2018 09:02 GMT

#252

How is Pobelter supposed to play like Caps when he isn't even half as good? We saw Pobelters attempt to do thst already this tournament and he clearly can't. The best thing for him to do is play Malz Karma and hope that's enough for TL to not have a massive hole in the middle of the map.

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 16 2018 09:35 GMT

#253

Yeah well that's the problem, Pob isn't as good as Caps. But if all he can play is Malz Karma, then it means he needs to be benched. Mid lane has historically always been a high impact role, either by being the carry or getting the other lanes rolling, in fact I don't think it's been a farming lane since S2.

Mid laners need a deep understanding of how to roam and apply pressure on the map, and it looks like this is a fault of the TL coaching as well if they don't drill this stuff in Pobelter. We've seen Galio, Taliyah, Sol, Ryze getting picked because they have high roam potential. Karma is a good champion in the mid lane only when you play her very well, and that means applying pressure on the map because her shield is not good enough to solo win games. Watch Xiaohu play her, and watch the minimap because he often leaves lane even if there's no chance he'll get anything.

It's an ADC meta that revolves around applying pressure in the bot lane. We've seen multiple games where winning conditions were created by plays in the bot lane. Hell, even TL beat RNG solely because they got a massive lead in bot lane, and DL snowballed so hard he was two shotting Rakan/Noc. And to get that lead in bot lane, you need to apply pressure, maybe even get kills. Only Uzi/Ming consistently win lane by themselves, which forces teams to put even more priority into the lane.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

May 16 2018 16:49 GMT

#254

Karma was a good pick he just played it really badly , just look at his build if you think he has any idea why the champion is meta.

dsyxelic

United States1417 Posts

May 17 2018 04:30 GMT

#255

its not that pob doesnt know how to roam, he was one of the best roaming mids in NA

he just got outplayed hard and never really had good opportunities too. the fact that he got behind in CS that game while caps was roaming on his ass just shows how badly he got outplayed both in lane and out of lane

Yorbon

Netherlands4272 Posts

May 17 2018 17:01 GMT

#256

Poll: Semifinal 1 MVP?

Uzi (4)

80%

Caps (1)

20%

Xiaohu (0)

0%

Rekkles (0)

0%

Any other (0)

0%

5 total votes

Your vote: Semifinal 1 MVP?

(Vote): Caps
(Vote): Xiaohu
(Vote): Rekkles
(Vote): Uzi
(Vote): Any other

Just for fun.

Uzi will probably make the difference imo

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 17 2018 18:51 GMT

#257

I voted Uzi, but I wouldn't be surprised if Xiaohu carried games hard as well. That's when RNG is scariest, because Uzi will always do well when his team is also winning in other parts of the map.

Hope Caps beasts a few games too.

Yorbon

Netherlands4272 Posts

May 17 2018 19:19 GMT

#258

Darkcore, since you and I made some posts before the tournament about reddit saying Caps was way better than Xiaohu, a question: has your mind changed at all about Caps? Not that he's much better than Xiaohu, but he seems better than I've seen earlier, and than I expected before the tournament.

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 18 2018 08:03 GMT

#259

He has expected much better than I expected, he is definitely contender for MVP in groups stage. But you might notice that RNG came a solid second place, and looked much better as a team in the latter days: Xiaohu was big reason for this change of pace, he started playing much cleaner again. Also, his macro play was not the thing that faltered, it was dying multiple times that made him seem to be playing badly, and being dead obviously hurts macro.

Xiaohu is also very good at roaming and applying pressure on the map. It's always interesting to watch the minimap in pro games, because these things aren't often shown since they're boring to watch when they don't stumble on a random opponent. But short of Fnatic winning their series, Xiaohu will look just as good or better than Caps. It's the matchup I'm looking forward to today, since I expect little to change in the bot lane.