Group Stage - January 16th - March 31st, 2019 Double Round Robin All matches are Bo3 Top 5 from regular season qualify for Playoffs Bottom 2 are placed in the Summer Promotion tournament Playoffs - April 3rd - April 13th, 2019 Top 5 from Group Stage Single Elimination King of the Hill. Wild Card Quarterfinals. Quartefinals onwards is Bo5. Top 4 qualifies for Rival Rivals 2019 - LCK vs LMS vs LPL Winner qualifies for Mid Season Invitational 2019
For the first time since Season 3, LCK Spring begins without the World Championship being held by one of its teams. Can Korea bounce back? Catch up on Korea's wild off-season with my quick recap!
- This will be the first season of LCK with no OGN. Riot Games has fully taken over the league and will be running it. For the English broadcast PapaSmithy, Atlus, and Valdes remain, with LS joining the cast. - MVP and BBQ Olivers have been demoted with SANDBOX Gaming (formerly known as Team BattleComics and DAMWON Gaming -- who're being hyped up as a potential dark horse underdog akin to Griffin last season) joining the league. - So far as roster changes go, the biggest change by far is from SKT. They've revamped their roster with only Faker and Effort remaining, signing Khan, Clid, Haru, Gori, Teddy and Mata. PraY has taken the split off and Ambition has retired. Here are the rosters as they stand now:
are there going to be korean casts? if so where are they gonna be streamed? the english casts are completely unwatchable, the casters not only lack knowledge of the game, theyre just really bad at casting too. ive never heard LS cast but if his streams are anything to go by, he isnt going to be a nice addition either so...
On January 04 2019 12:12 evilfatsh1t wrote: are there going to be korean casts? if so where are they gonna be streamed? the english casts are completely unwatchable, the casters not only lack knowledge of the game, theyre just really bad at casting too. ive never heard LS cast but if his streams are anything to go by, he isnt going to be a nice addition either so...
Yup, there's a Korean cast. I assume Riot Korea will stream it on Twitch. Don't see any reason that they won't. I know that Seong Seung-heon, Cloudtemplar, KangQui and Kim Dong-Jun are all casters.
Also, my power ranking is coming out next week. Pretty excited for the next split with so much talent split pretty evenly around the teams. It made for a pretty difficult ranking and I'll definitely have some people disagreeing with me.
Let's go SKT!!! Starting the LCK season, this season will be awesome. Looking forward to the games by SKT, KT and Griffin! Edit: Teddy vs Jin Air, lol, games will be exciting.
After Griff destroyed them lots of people were dismissing them as worse than GenG. People love Peanut super hard so they overrate any team he is in pretty hard.
On January 16 2019 23:06 Gahlo wrote: Where were you on reddit? Everywhere I saw people mentioning them they were being heralded as the second coming of Griffon.
The post for my PR on reddit had a bunch of ppl commenting that Gen.G should've been ranked like 2nd or 3rd because of Kespa lol.
KT looked like a mid tier team at best, they couldn't win team fights nor make big plays. Sad too because they still have 3 top tier players, but they haven't clicked (yet).
Can't believe I have to watch another season of Pawn. Yeah, it's Griffin, but I don't buy the hype, there are too many good mid lanes in LCK, and he's not one of them. This team feels like old KT, pray that Deft and Mata/Tusin can plow a path to victory. Meanwhile Viper gets blasted and still does his job, and Lehends gets to plays elise support.
Griffin stomping in style as usual, even as an SKT, it is hard for me to think that any other team (including SKT) that will take home the trophy. Griffin is just too solid. But I have my hopes that Dream Team SKT can take the title again.
Teddy with the 'masterful baiting' (Credits to Papa Smithy), one could call him, the Master Baiter XD. Insane games from SKT, wow definitely an improvement from last year.
It's nice to see the newer teams perform very well in the first week.
SKT gives me hope. It feels like the first time in ages that Faker shows some signs of synergy with his jungler. I didn't really know Clid before this year, but so far he's exceeded my expectations.
Give him so slack, whoever drafted taric was a bigger troll than lehends. All he could do was ward against Griffin, no point in even trying to save ezreal.
On January 19 2019 20:39 DarkCore wrote: Give him so slack, whoever drafted taric was a bigger troll than lehends. All he could do was ward against Griffin, no point in even trying to save ezreal.
they didnt lose because the pick was crap though. other than tarzan completely dominating the jg and stuff, kellin was just bad. first 2 deaths were just dumb positional decisions and poor ult timing + wasted flash at top when he could have saved ez is pretty clear that he was out of his depth
Idk why KT puts so much priority on bot. Should go all in on BDD 1v9.
They pick Absolutely trash comps with no recognisable winrare and every lane gets headstomped. Like game 2 they had 2 towers go down within 5 seconds from each other AND bot wAs 50cs down despite deft inting twice. It actually hurt to watch them.
On January 24 2019 09:33 AdsMoFro wrote: Idk why KT puts so much priority on bot. Should go all in on BDD 1v9.
They pick Absolutely trash comps with no recognisable winrare and every lane gets headstomped. Like game 2 they had 2 towers go down within 5 seconds from each other AND bot wAs 50cs down despite deft inting twice. It actually hurt to watch them.
Especially when they retooled this roster based around Smeb.
On January 24 2019 09:33 AdsMoFro wrote: Idk why KT puts so much priority on bot. Should go all in on BDD 1v9.
They pick Absolutely trash comps with no recognisable winrare and every lane gets headstomped. Like game 2 they had 2 towers go down within 5 seconds from each other AND bot wAs 50cs down despite deft inting twice. It actually hurt to watch them.
Especially when they retooled this roster based around Smeb.
Game one: pick full AD comp with Sion vs Urgot. The only reason that game was close was because of Kingzone being trash. If they weren't, it would've been finished in under 30.
Game 2: low pressure jungler vs high pressure jungler. Bot and mid perma shoved and smeb getting hard campedbon afeast or famine champ.
Like what the fuck is that? Tbh I hate Akali top in general. feel she can be easily abused now after nerfs.
So apparently Aiming has disappeared from the face of the planet, all his social media has been deleted. Hope he's OK, ADC Spirit is certainly amusing.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the heightening womens movement and counter movement over there. He did get in trouble last year for being part of the counter community. Super weird that Spirit is playing full match as AD with no mention of Aiming and now this.
On January 27 2019 18:18 iCanada wrote: LS' voice insta triggers me.
yeah i knew id hate his casting. im not sure he realises that he also has to do a job professionally, because the amount of times i heard him just say "um..." when a pro did something questionable is so tilting. his arrogance is disgusting
I mute him, a bit surprised that they need him for casting. He's always predicting stuff and getting it wrong, his tirade on picking Soraka into Olaf yesterday was pretty cringy.
Its weird, because for the most part I agree with everything that you're saying, yet teams for years trust and believe in his vision and thoughts as he keeps getting work
Well, this is an interesting game. Both super aggressive teams. When it works for Sandbox they look good and DAMWON looks like they're inting and then when it works for DAMWON, Sandbox look like they're inting as well.
They are clearly playing Spirit for the shotcalling at this point I am pretty sure. They just decided that Kiin Dread Ucal etc cannot shotcall between them and they need spirit and don't want to bench Dread
Sandbox looks like the team that has scrimmed China the most and has the best understanding of the current meta (win as many turret plates by 14 as you can because the amount of gold turret plates give is fucking bonkers). It's just a question of execution, but I feel like by the end of the split they can become the best team.
Suning, FPX and Top are undoubtedly the best three teams in the world though atm, the LPL is having its best year ever and the top teams are much better than Korea's
On January 31 2019 13:52 Urthor wrote: Tusin plays for Kingzone btw
They are clearly playing Spirit for the shotcalling at this point I am pretty sure. They just decided that Kiin Dread Ucal etc cannot shotcall between them and they need spirit and don't want to bench Dread
Sandbox looks like the team that has scrimmed China the most and has the best understanding of the current meta (win as many turret plates by 14 as you can because the amount of gold turret plates give is fucking bonkers). It's just a question of execution, but I feel like by the end of the split they can become the best team.
Suning, FPX and Top are undoubtedly the best three teams in the world though atm, the LPL is having its best year ever and the top teams are much better than Korea's
Yeah idk why i said that...brain fart from when afreeca were actually good ;(
That went pretty much as expected. The legacy teams in LCK just don't seem to know how to play league anymore for some reason. SKT has the best shot of the bunch and that isn't saying much.
Teamfighting and engaging in teamfights is what I'm seeing Griffin/SB shine at that really exploits the legacy teams. It's as if Korea doesn't really know how to engage in fights that aren't perfect structured engages. We see Griff engage in 1v3, 2v4 etc. where the rest of the team is all on the same page to turn that fight their way, they just engage to start it even if the initial engagement isn't "clean".
Perhaps the legacy teams need new coaches? Their vision might just be outdated and its reflected in the players' style. I mean, Khan was playing scared on the Urgot when all of Griffin was engaging around dragon in game 1. There's too much difference in playstyle and they desperately need to adapt quickly or they'll all fall into irrelevance (if they're not already)
On January 31 2019 20:26 Uldridge wrote: Perhaps the legacy teams need new coaches? Their vision might just be outdated and its reflected in the players' style. I mean, Khan was playing scared on the Urgot when all of Griffin was engaging around dragon in game 1. There's too much difference in playstyle and they desperately need to adapt quickly or they'll all fall into irrelevance (if they're not already)
It's possible it's on the coaches yea. I don't believe any of the new teams have old coaches? It's mostly new blood all round. I also think there's far too many legacy players in LCK that stopped being starter material at least a full season ago but still land up on roster starting spots.
On February 02 2019 19:41 DarkCore wrote: Think the old teams are slowly pulling themselves together, although I really didn't expect KT to win that series so convincingly.
On February 02 2019 20:00 Yorbon wrote: Those Griffin stats are interesting.
1st in GPM, 8th in DPM. I would love to see some breakdown of that over the course of a game.
That's because Griffin are farm animals, I have no idea how they do it but they always find that sweet 10cspm, chovy is at 11 or 12 by the 20 minute mark too. They're not looking for endless team fights unless it suits them, they prefer decisive plays that win the game. Like the game we just saw, there were barely any fights but as soon as Griffin saw the chance, they dumpstered sandbox.
His single target dps is absolutely nuts while maiden is up, and since it doesn't just int any more, keeping it up as a laning tool is pretty awesome as well.
Why are teams prioritizing other ADCs over Ezreal. Hell why are they prioritizing lackluster picks over Ezreal? Double tear Ez does good late game damage, no one is picking tanks outside of Sion(Urgot is kind of hybrid), and he's super safe in almost any lane.
Some heroes get super special treatment it seems. Zoe is busted, gets hard nerfed then buffed back up to strength in super short time. While other heroes land up shitcanned for months if not years.
So, SKT vs KZ game 1 was some of the weirdest stuff I've seen in ages. Never occurred to me that Frost could also be abused as a way to reach old warding levels, while simultaneously denying all vision for the opponent. Glad this is being fixed, although this week LCK is going to be a bit of a fiesta.
Sylas is good unless you're a monkey.
There are quite a few high level streamers that think he's actually completely busted, people just don't know how to play him. General consensus is AP good, tank bad, you're supposed to play him like old top AP Ekko. His heal is no joke more than double that of Maokai, and he's basically untradable if he gets his full combo off. His ultimate is also game changing, not just because he can steal powerful ults but also because he can steal multiple ults during prolonged team fights past lv 16. Biggest problem is that there are so many interactions that you would never consider when you see him picked, and it's possible to essentially suicide champ select by picking certain combos (ex: picking Karthus Kindred, watched a stream the other day where Karthus started channeling, Sylas ran straight at Kindred, stole his ult and saved one of his allies).
Sylas lost top lane today mainly because Cuzz got demolished in the jungle, either Faker and Clid are geniuses or the coaching staff realized that with Frost in the mid lane, Faker is free to push into the tower at lv 3 and roam all the way to golems with zero repercussions because it's Zac, it's even rewarding because no Frost stacks. He did it again at wolves as well, and Clid played it perfect too. Fiora is a good pick into him, but I think if she'd been ganked a few times or been forced to play more carefully, it might have been a different story, at least during the laning phase.
Ezreal is currently the most disgusting champ in the game, Riot needs to gut his ratios, or make it impossible to have two Tear items. But that's not enough, either bring old Klepto back or nerf his W and ult damage.
They might be a bit slower to nerf/change the current state of ezreal because of how shit people are on him in soloq. Of course soloq 'meta' isn't exactly good for a double tear stacking champion because of the faster pace either so that's another reason ezreal in competitive and soloq is night and day.
On February 15 2019 10:47 dsyxelic wrote: They might be a bit slower to nerf/change the current state of ezreal because of how shit people are on him in soloq. Of course soloq 'meta' isn't exactly good for a double tear stacking champion because of the faster pace either so that's another reason ezreal in competitive and soloq is night and day.
Does it make me a bad person for deeply enjoying listening to LS say over and over again how KT has hard won the game and Sandbox has no path back into the game, then watching SB win fight after fight?
I wish LS would realise he isn't cut out for casting. He shouldnt be in the picture as brand representative. Or maybe the other LCK casters have (too much) confidence in him...
As for the other casters, Valdes is my clear favourite. For some reason his play-by-play always me laugh (in a good way) or at least get me somewhat excited for what's happening. I don't know, I just like his humour. For some reason I can't stand Atlus; at every play-by-play moment I just want to turn off the sound. He just grinds my gears. I'm reasonably ok with papasmithy, I just wish he'd stop using some words, like min-maxing, narrative and some others I can't really recall atm.
I'm sorry for being so negative, but in terms of casters, imo there's no one even close to monte or deficio.
I like Valdes. Seems like every month, Papa finds 3 things to hound on and he doesn't shut up about them. I'm eh on both atlus and LS. Don't hate either of them. But don't like them either. I think if LS stopped thinking he was smarter than he actually is, he's fine. But that's kind of the persona he's built over the years.
Yes, LS analysis is astonishingly poor for the way he talks down teams and plays. Sometimes I also feel like he zooms on little things that are probably very obvious to pros, it's not genius play that when Spirit's bot jungle is warded and he's not visible that he's most likely top side, that's not what makes Tarzan so amazing.
On February 23 2019 17:09 iCanada wrote: Wait... KZ just picked jungle Aatrox?!
I thought Riot gutted that in a pre-attempt to redelete funneling mid like 2 patches ago?
Nah Aatrox is still a priority pick for the Jungle role on this patch, his nerfs won't impact him being in the jungle as much as it did in lane since he's not trading with champs. Sin he's just farming creeps, and also his q is aoe dmg the passive heal remove is less consequential because he can still kill the camps quickly.
Griffin picked him yesterday vs KT and it was very effective.
I love listening to LS make a wrong prediction and double and triple down all over the place and just be wrong all game. LOL.
Like... he made it sound like SB had hard won and continued to do so before minions even spawned, yet from minute 3 till minute 60 gold was even or KZ was winning.
On February 23 2019 17:09 iCanada wrote: Wait... KZ just picked jungle Aatrox?!
I thought Riot gutted that in a pre-attempt to redelete funneling mid like 2 patches ago?
Nah Aatrox is still a priority pick for the Jungle role on this patch, his nerfs won't impact him being in the jungle as much as it did in lane since he's not trading with champs. Sin he's just farming creeps, and also his q is aoe dmg the passive heal remove is less consequential because he can still kill the camps quickly.
Griffin picked him yesterday vs KT and it was very effective.
I'm talking about them literally just halfing is damage vs jungle camps for his Q in 9.1 or 9.2, not his raw nerfs. Rather untalked about a path or two ago.
On February 23 2019 17:27 dsyxelic wrote: speaking about jg picks
the camille one is a head scratcher
i guess even tho the champ is garbo at jungling the galio synergy still does stuff in fights
Yeah, both picks kinda blast from the past-y. Shows just how hard LCK teams value very very early fights. Both junglers pretty much only good for spiking at 2 and being strong then. Otherwise... just no reason to pick them over like Elise / LeeSin / Xin / J4.
Well, I expected this to happen eventually but the early season stuff had me double thinking. Sandbox just don't have the raw player talent to match the bigger teams.
Khan actually played the Urgot vs Jsyce matchup extremely well, it feels like I’ve only seen urgot get smacked by jsyce but he gave nothing over to Nuguri
Glad for flame. He had a good few splits over in NA but for some reason teams just didn't value him. CLG not picking him up may have been a real good move for his career if he keeps this up. Dodged the Weldon hole.
That also has to do with Gen G sucking atm, as Papa said, game 1 they literally did nothing and just waited to lose. Cuvee playing passive in an Aatrox vs Fiora lane was a summary of the series.
Game 1 was literally the worst drafting performance anyone has ever done ever by GenG tbh.
SKT genuinely looked subpar because they didn't have multiple inhibitors by 20 minutes they had literally everything in that draft and GenG sort of made it look a bit close at times
On March 08 2019 23:34 AdsMoFro wrote: Ruler still stuck in Elo hell. Fly is just trash. Not an LCK level mid at all.
to think you could make a team like Smeb/Kiin Score BDD Ruler and Life out of KT AF and GenG, its really a shame for all the good players trapped at the bottom
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
right now I'm still betting on Griffen, honestly I would be extremely happy with either of them winning and going to MSI, I really like all the new teams in LCK right now, its hard cause I'm basically a fan of every team in the LCK at this point lol. The only team i dislike is Kingzone
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
right now I'm still betting on Griffen, honestly I would be extremely happy with either of them winning and going to MSI, I really like all the new teams in LCK right now, its hard cause I'm basically a fan of every team in the LCK at this point lol. The only team i dislike is Kingzone
is it a strong dislike for KZ? or just like a mild 'eh, I don't prefer them'
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
right now I'm still betting on Griffen, honestly I would be extremely happy with either of them winning and going to MSI, I really like all the new teams in LCK right now, its hard cause I'm basically a fan of every team in the LCK at this point lol. The only team i dislike is Kingzone
is it a strong dislike for KZ? or just like a mild 'eh, I don't prefer them'
ehh more of a I don't prefer them, I really really hope Hanwha can finally make playoffs this split, I also don't really like afreeca outside of Kiin who I think is a super good top laner
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
right now I'm still betting on Griffen, honestly I would be extremely happy with either of them winning and going to MSI, I really like all the new teams in LCK right now, its hard cause I'm basically a fan of every team in the LCK at this point lol. The only team i dislike is Kingzone
is it a strong dislike for KZ? or just like a mild 'eh, I don't prefer them'
ehh more of a I don't prefer them, I really really hope Hanwha can finally make playoffs this split, I also don't really like afreeca outside of Kiin who I think is a super good top laner
If they beat DWG tomorrow, I think they might be guaranteed playoff spot. Actually maybe not, they still have to play SKT and Griffin after that and that SKT and Griffin will probably 2-0/2-1 Hanwha, then they play SB and KT, that said, I still think that DWG vs Hanwha game tmrw is going to be crucial
On March 14 2019 17:51 AzAlexZ wrote: GEN.G holy shit, Ruler is on fire
nice to see you here too lol
Likewise man, good day for esports (imo) Hope SKT 2-0's KT though
they probably should 2-0 pretty easily, now that Khan's champion pool is more in the meta they are looking super good
Yeah, TBH I still think that this season is SKT's for the taking. I think SKT can beat Griffin if they meet in the finals, but SKT need to make better decisions
right now I'm still betting on Griffen, honestly I would be extremely happy with either of them winning and going to MSI, I really like all the new teams in LCK right now, its hard cause I'm basically a fan of every team in the LCK at this point lol. The only team i dislike is Kingzone
is it a strong dislike for KZ? or just like a mild 'eh, I don't prefer them'
ehh more of a I don't prefer them, I really really hope Hanwha can finally make playoffs this split, I also don't really like afreeca outside of Kiin who I think is a super good top laner
If they beat Danwon Gaming tomorrow, I think they're guaranteed playoff spot (actually no, they have to play SKT and Griffin and they both will probably 2-0 Hanwha, then they play SB and KT)
GRF looks vunerable, but game 2 they looked more like themselves. Tarzan had some sweet plays, that split second decision making at the Krugs basically baited AF and they rolled the rest of the game off of that.
I guess the higher you climb, the greater the fall. Can't believe GRF lost that series too. The real irony is that SKT didn't win their series, but everyone else saw those matches and realized GRF isn't invincible.
I mean, he's the analysis caster, not the colour caster (so he looks at the state of the game and some micro situations players put themselves in/were put in, perhaps more so than other people though and that's kind of his forte, with his insight as a coach etc, because that's what he focuses on more than any other caster I know). But still, I watched 3 minutes of SB vs. KT and was like, nope. Atlus sounded uninspired and LS was just grating (like he is mostly). And I agree that he should be a little less abrasive towards the players he's talking about. On top of that he sometimes sounds too unprofessional, like he's doing a personal coaching session almost. Dude, it matters what you say before thousands of people, start treating it like that.
On March 17 2019 02:05 starkiller123 wrote: I actually enjoy all the LCK casters this split, Valdes and Papasmithy are my favorites but I still enjoy LS and Atlus
LS has never been a real caster for me, there was a point in time where I watched his coaching videos, but the way he talks is tiring, and I also don't think he's as knowledgeable as he makes himself out to be. But honestly this discussion has been brought up a million times in this thread, so I don't see the point of talking more about it.
On March 17 2019 02:05 starkiller123 wrote: I actually enjoy all the LCK casters this split, Valdes and Papasmithy are my favorites but I still enjoy LS and Atlus
LS has never been a real caster for me, there was a point in time where I watched his coaching videos, but the way he talks is tiring, and I also don't think he's as knowledgeable as he makes himself out to be. But honestly this discussion has been brought up a million times in this thread, so I don't see the point of talking more about it.
yeah everyone will have their own opinion, personally I enjoy the LCK casting vastly more than LCS
On March 17 2019 03:11 JimmiC wrote: I really enjoy valdes, atlus and papa. LS just isn't my taste.
Gotta echo this. Although I do acknowledge that clearly LS has a lot of knowledge as he's continuously been hired to coach teams so he can't be THAT bad.
On March 17 2019 04:53 JimmiC wrote: Perhaps is a fine coach, and perhaps he knows a lot. He just doesn't share it while casting, he just makes odd quips and often inaccurate analogies.
I totally agree with you, I just hear people also question his knowledge, which he clearly has. Casting just isn't for him imo
On March 17 2019 01:16 Uldridge wrote: I mean, he's the analysis caster, not the colour caster (so he looks at the state of the game and some micro situations players put themselves in/were put in, perhaps more so than other people though and that's kind of his forte, with his insight as a coach etc, because that's what he focuses on more than any other caster I know). But still, I watched 3 minutes of SB vs. KT and was like, nope. Atlus sounded uninspired and LS was just grating (like he is mostly). And I agree that he should be a little less abrasive towards the players he's talking about. On top of that he sometimes sounds too unprofessional, like he's doing a personal coaching session almost. Dude, it matters what you say before thousands of people, start treating it like that.
I dunno. I question his game knowledge too. I find often his opinions on the game are very insular. He frequently makes a read on a singular win condition or mechanic and just tunnels on it and has complete blinders up to literally everything else.
A good example would be how he talked about the draft in game three of GRF vs AF. He talked all game about how our was this perfect unstoppable teamfight comp... but like... how do you teamfight with no protection for your Kaisa vs Kha/Akali with support from galio / braum? Meanwhile Griffin has no ability to dive through whatever support lucian has because Galio / braum have no problem delaying Ryze / Liss from diving and lucian is one of the few adcs that can easily just run away from Olaf because of his ult and low dash cd.
Surprise surprise... Kaisa dies instantly in every fight then Lucian cleans up in an advantage fight like three straight times. This is somehow surprising because LS seemed tunneled on Ryze and Kaisa having the best scaling in a vacuum.
And more than just being arrogant and often wrong, LS frequently comes on and just frames the game in a way that is antithetical to enjoyment. All good plays are "whelp, that's what you should expect, and the other guy fucked up to let it happen." There is never any credit given to a team for finding opportunities and executing well. Its amateur hour on the casting desk and it makes it feel like all the games are complete fiestas. He never gets excited about a game or plays, he just sighs and pushes things negative narrative.
And more than just being arrogant and often wrong, LS frequently comes on and just frames the game in a way that is antithetical to enjoyment. All good plays are "whelp, that's what you should expect, and the other guy fucked up to let it happen." There is never any credit given to a team for finding opportunities and executing well. Its amateur hour on the casting desk and it makes it feel like all the games are complete fiestas. He never gets excited about a game or plays, he just sighs and pushes things negative narrative.
This. He kinda reminds me of a political reporter in a town that always votes the other way. Like a Republican reporter in Baltimore. "Another Democrat has won the mayor's race." "Oh the schools improved from worst to second worst in the nation" etc
On March 17 2019 08:12 Gahlo wrote: The analyst is the color caster.
Ah my bad, was looking for play-by-play, but couldn't think of it. Thought that next to the analysis the other guy brings the colour to the game commentary with epic word combos, fast talking and hype.
On March 17 2019 08:12 Gahlo wrote: The analyst is the color caster.
Ah my bad, was looking for play-by-play, but couldn't think of it. Thought that next to the analysis the other guy brings the colour to the game commentary with epic word combos, fast talking and hype.
PbP caster describes the action, color provides context for the situation that could, will, are, or have happened in game. LS is the color caster.
Now that we're inching closer to relegations, are there any CK teams that look like they actually could take out Jin Air/KT/Gen.G, or is the gap too high now that BattleComics/Griffin/Damwon are in LCK
Yeah there's some clear bottom teams in LCK, and then there's JAG. Curious how they'd match up against Rogue, my bet is Rogue. They might actually be the worst team in a major region, idk about NA though.
On March 22 2019 07:35 DarkCore wrote: Yeah there's some clear bottom teams in LCK, and then there's JAG. Curious how they'd match up against Rogue, my bet is Rogue. They might actually be the worst team in a major region, idk about NA though.
I'd be willing to bet 100T over JAG if they get to sit on KR soloq for a month.
On March 22 2019 07:35 DarkCore wrote: Yeah there's some clear bottom teams in LCK, and then there's JAG. Curious how they'd match up against Rogue, my bet is Rogue. They might actually be the worst team in a major region, idk about NA though.
I'd be willing to bet 100T over JAG if they get to sit on KR soloq for a month.
I'm trying and failing to imagine how bad of a game that would be lol
Jin Air vs KT Game 2 today was the most entertaining match I've seen in a long time. Jin Air with a lead is the equivalent of slicing bread with a butter knife, it can be done but it is incredibly crude. The fact that LS of all people had to cast this game is just icing on the cake.
Naturally, JAG lost but the real losers were KT, struggling vs the worst team in competitive is not the highlight of their career.
On March 23 2019 22:14 DarkCore wrote: Jin Air vs KT Game 2 today was the most entertaining match I've seen in a long time. Jin Air with a lead is the equivalent of slicing bread with a butter knife, it can be done but it is incredibly crude. The fact that LS of all people had to cast this game is just icing on the cake.
Naturally, JAG lost but the real losers were KT, struggling vs the worst team in competitive is not the highlight of their career.
There's a chance we lost both Telecoms in LCK next split...
GRF look so much weaker than at the start of the split. Not sure if it's because of confidence loss or because the other teams have really started to mesh well. Think it's a bit of both, KZ and SKT just look so strong right now when they play their best. Based on recent performance, I'd put those three in their own tier, Sandbox just isn't on that same level.
Really curious who will win the split, my bet is on SKT because they haven't reached their ceiling yet, but they have two really strong competitors who could easily take it all as well. And because of how play offs works, the chance of seeing KZ vs SKT, winner vs GRF, is practically guaranteed so we'll know the rankings for sure.
Game convinced me again that SB isn't the same tier as the top 3, but not gonna lie, this series was entertaining as fuck. Gen.G is such a sad team, I hope Ruler gets picked up and becomes the new Teddy. Maybe SB should get him lol, he'd be an upgrade for Ghost.
SKT didn't take AF very seriously, Faker looked like he was just derping around game 1, Teddy Mata could've probably just 2vs5ed the whole game.
It's going to be 2-3 more fights for SKT probably before they can potentially win this game, but Rascal not flashing for that last autoattack on the nexus turret(wasted it to run) will probably bite them in the ass.
The nexus turret will eventually heal up enough to hold for a wave or two of super minions.
On April 13 2019 16:32 Slusher wrote: I've actually got a confession to make, I've come around on LS this season, I've been enjoying his commentary this year.
no shame in giving someone a chance. Sure, he has moments of...... subpar commentary, but I think he has his his moments, and his shrieks are hilarious
SKT is so solid vs an aggressive early game composition, they definitely outscale Griffin so this game should be an SKT win IF SKT manages to not throw this away
Edit: as soon as I say this..... Faker and Mata dies.
On April 13 2019 18:53 Amui wrote: Chovy just making the tilt plays....
I remember a game in the summer season last year where Faker took GP in mid vs Griffin and did similar tilt plays where he flashed between the bot lane inner and outer lane turrets to try and kill Viper's Kaisa, fails to kill Viper and dies. Ah sweet, sweet revenge for SKT
Not like Panth Taliyah is a bad pick in this meta, it's just that Teddy is playing out of his mind, his playstyle is flawless, can't think of a single mistake he made this series.
SKT is back, you know the team is scary when you can't even clearly argue Faker is the best player on his team. Doubt the West can bring out a team of this caliber, looks like I need to start watching LPL exclusively again.
On April 13 2019 21:05 DarkCore wrote: Not like Panth Taliyah is a bad pick in this meta, it's just that Teddy is playing out of his mind, his playstyle is flawless, can't think of a single mistake he made this series.
SKT is back, you know the team is scary when you can't even clearly argue Faker is the best player on his team. Doubt the West can bring out a team of this caliber, looks like I need to start watching LPL exclusively again.
I'm not sure any team in LPL can challenge SKT, I might be wrong though, people in China are counting on IG, but they don't seem that invincible
I was so happy when SKT won, went to check out Liquibet ranking and then saw I was way down. Turns out I had actually not bet on SKT as I was sure I had lol.
Im very confused by Griff. I understand that Faker' didn't seem like the problem in Game 1 and Game 3, but no sane person could argue they made him the least bit uncomfortable in any of the drafts. TBH, who on SKY did they even try to make uncomfortable? Give Faker scaling carries. Ez and Lucian for Teddy. Standards at support/jungle. And Khan got a trololol Riven pick to close it.
game 1 was basically a cheese strat that didnt work out. game 2 they played standard because they are more than capable on a good day, but chovy and viper choked hard. game 3 was griffin not expecting to win the series because theyre all tilted anyway
The strat didn't work out because Teddy got caught out exactly once by Panth, sometime in the middle of game 3 when it didn't matter anymore. And he somehow managed to farm well both games as well. And yeah, Chovy choked so hard this series, the pressure must've gotten to him. Viper and Sword looked mediocre or outclassed most of the series too.
Banning Faker out is a sure recipe for getting dumpstered elsewhere on the map. For example, GRF banned Tahm in the first round twice because Tahm Ez is stupid in pro play right now, Tahm also works well with a bunch of other comps. Khan is also a good Jayce player, and the champ is S tier, no real losing lanes. Morg is too strong and versatile this patch, hence perma ban.
SKT first picked Ryze twice, a safe champ that has no real counters that are meta, and scales super hard. The other time they picked Azir into Liss, super safe lane for him if Clid knows what he's doing (hint, he does). There are too many good mid champs that Faker can play to try and ban him out.
Even if you aren't going after faker, which I agree is often dumb, can't you make someone uncomfortable? I just seemed to me they were all in on the cheese strat and they psyched themselves into thinking that was the only way they could win.
I guess its also a bit of a problem with the LCK gauntlet system. The #1 seed playing only 1 game is boring, we want to see them more. The LEC has probably the best playoffs currently that mixes rewarding the regular season with actually testing all the teams, but I also prefer the LCS system to this. The gauntlet was more fun when it was for qualification only.
The LCK system makes the regular season games hype though because teams actually care about the standings at the end of the day. Which is the most important thing.
Its not just no momentum, the meta shifts so fast in LOL that they end up having too little stage experience with the newest champs. Not only had they not played in 13 days, they played only 2 series on 9.6. In that week morg was only banned in the first round of bans once. Which shows how much was learned.
I mean, 1st has lost, what twice in ten series? Don't think it's that big of an issue for the first place team. Hype wise, I'm inclined to want to see first play more but yeah
On April 16 2019 14:23 JimmiC wrote: I guess their advantage is they dont have to show anything. But yeah i prefer more games so.I like the other systems. Id go lec>lcs>lck for my preference.
Strange they all diff. Is china différent as well?
China seeds everyone in a bracket (1st/2nd straight to semis-3rd/4th Quarters-5th/6th/7th/8th wildcard bo3 i believe). Used to give the higher seed a one game advantage which doesn't happen anymore.
On April 16 2019 14:17 AdsMoFro wrote: I mean, 1st has lost, what twice in ten series? Don't think it's that big of an issue for the first place team. Hype wise, I'm inclined to want to see first play more but yeah
2015 Spring GE Loses to SKT 2016 Spring ROX loses to SKT 2019 Spring GRF loses to SKT
But there are also instances where the #2 team lost its first match.
2016 Spring KT loses to SKT. 2016 Summer SKT loses to KT. 2017 Spring SSG loses to KT. 2017 Summer KT loses to SKT.
I guess one might just say you prolly just want to avoid SKT in playoffs. OTOH, it also seems like one of the reasons for the drought we had in #1 seeds being upset was due to a rash of #2 seeds being upset before they got into a rhythm.
On April 16 2019 05:01 cLutZ wrote: Even if you aren't going after faker, which I agree is often dumb, can't you make someone uncomfortable? I just seemed to me they were all in on the cheese strat and they psyched themselves into thinking that was the only way they could win.
I guess its also a bit of a problem with the LCK gauntlet system. The #1 seed playing only 1 game is boring, we want to see them more. The LEC has probably the best playoffs currently that mixes rewarding the regular season with actually testing all the teams, but I also prefer the LCS system to this. The gauntlet was more fun when it was for qualification only.
griffins mentality going into game 2 is pretty straight forward imo. on the back of a loss on the cheese strat theyve prepared for near 2 weeks, the obvious response is to play standard and see if you can claw back a game. i think the idea going through everyone in griffins head at this point is "if we cant beat them in a standard game, we wont win the series". skt's form was just too good for you to try and make them uncomfortable with drafting alone. you cant focus ban faker because his champion pool is too large, you cant ban out all of khans champions because bot and jg get to play whatever they want, you cant ban out clid and hope tarzan completely dominates jg because of form and because honestly the laners have too much presence to go completely unignored anyway. all you can do is just ban champions that are particularly annoying to deal with with the team you have in mind after losing game 2 its just confirmation in their minds that skt is too good. they spent 2 weeks trying to prepare a strat that can give them momentum in the series and since winning 3 games with standard drafts is going to be difficult you might as well go back to your original plan and attempt to start over. i do think griffin really screwed up their preparations for the finals overall though. 2 weeks of prep got them a strat that has such blatant shortcomings in terms of scaling and their pick ban order was extremely questionable. why would you pick taliyah panth as 2nd and 3rd picks and let their botlane play the best possible champions to deal with that, rather than waiting for their bot lane to be picked and picking taliyah panth at 4th and 5th pick if skt's bot lane is weaker (ie. not ezreal) or just pick standard. the success of the bot lane has so much weighting on the game it should have been a complete surprise or just substituted for something much less risky. sona/taric would have been better even because at least they provide buffs to your other laners too and mid/top could still be relevant
True, but lets assume its correct to think Morg and Jayce are OP. Why are you banning both even on blue side? Don't you want one? Particularly Morg. If she's as strong as people are claiming, its a brilliant #1 pick as would be jayce. In game 1 & 3 they didn't even try to get SKT to ban one.
Hell, they banned Kench in 1 & 3 and people assume its because EZ-TK is a killer combo. But that was open in G2 and they didn't pick it!
Not every team runs Tahm, he's not exactly a godlike pick, it's Ezreal which is the sore thumb. A quick check shows Mata played Tahm 13 games this split, his most played. Meanwhile Lehends played him twice. Also of note is that Mata has a 77% WR on him, compared to the 70% he has overall. So this is a clear target ban, GRF feels that Tahm was integral to many of SKT's wins, and if you watch the games you'll come to the same conclusion.
Jayce seems to be overall the same stats for both teams, sporting ~62% WR. Personally, I think Khan is a much better Jayce, mechanically speaking. But Chovy didn't play him once this split, so my guess is that the big power of Jayce as a flex pick is lost for GRF, SKT is going to predict that he's going to be in the top lane, meaning that they are free to pick a top laner later in the draft, and can greedily go for good picks in mid lane. Or they can straight up pick a top laner and force GRF to pick a safe mid laner, else Faker gets to counterpick. Either way, SKT is granted more flexibility.
Good chance that Chovy didn't practice Morg, or GRF thought SKT could abuse it better than them. The big problem of not banning these kinds of champions is that when you leave them open, you are kind of forced to pick them, leaves you open to getting counterpicked or the opponent building a full counter comp (for example, picking Orrn into Jayce, followed by a full engage comp, stopping Jayce from splitting). If you don't pick them, your own first pick has to consider playing against them.
Point is, SKT has pretty much always had godlike drafting, and I don't think we've ever praised GRF for the PB phase. In bo5, that's a really big advantage, hence their consistent domination when their team isn't shit.
morg ban is obvious if you arent playing her because your bot lane gets completely shit on by 1 morg spell. tahm would be the same. jayce is because khan is godlike at it and when your jg is going to be bot most of the time because you want to dive with panth and snowball your bot lane, you dont want a jayce playing with no pressure at top.
EPT
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