[OGN] Quarterfinal Reviews / Semifinal Previews

Before the games even began, the main storyline of this quarterfinal was clear: Reapered's quest to gain the ultimate revenge over his old team and prove that they made the wrong choice letting him go after their failure to make it to the season two finals. With both teams being carried by their top lane stars in the regular season, this was a match highlighted by the outstanding play from Reapered and his opposition Flame. While there were some questions on which of the two top lanes was the better coming in, by the time the games were over, no one had any doubt who was the true king of his position.

Game One

While SKT's attentions were clear by their bans in the first game, focusing solely on Blaze's two pillars in Flame and Ambition, CJ Entus didn't feel the need to do the same against Reapered, targeting Piglet's Twitch and SuNo's Karthus over any champion in Reapered's repertoire.

Deciding to go with an out of the box pick, Flame chose Ryze for the top lane, giving Ambition the choice of playing Kha'zix in mid. The strategy behind the pick was to get Flame farmed enough to get into the late game, knowing that while he might get ganked a few times in the early game, that he would be his weight worth in gold by the end of the match. SKT were able to catch Flame out a few times too far farming from his turret, but it didn't deter Blaze from their strategy, having Flame continue his split pushing and towering his opponent once again in CS.

On paper, SKT were head and shoulders above Blaze through the first twenty minutes, holding a 9-3 kill advantage and catching various Blaze members at the wrong time. Unfortunately for SKT, they learned the valuable lesson that gold from destroyed towers and slayed monsters can be more important than padding your KDA. Every time they would be able to eliminate one Blaze player, the rest of their team would be grabbing an objective or split pushing, gaining gold through playing against the computer than actually confronting their opponents.

By the time the team fights began, Blaze had completed their strategy they had hoped for from the start, getting Flame and Ambition 50+ CS up against their rivals Reapered and SuNo. Showing their experience together, Blaze proved why they are possibly the best team fighting squad in the world, wrecking SKT when it came to the 5v5 fights and rolling through to a surrender at 30 minutes.



The official MVP award for the match was given to Flame's revolutionary Ryze play in the top lane, but Ambition's play on Kha'zix was down right scary. Beating his lane opponent in every way, Ambition was able to pull 70 CS ahead of his opponent by the end of the match, using his reset ability to destroy every SKT player when it came to the late game team fights. Ambition can be seen as a conservative, laid back mid laner when it comes to his style, usually playing the role of the set up man to Flame or Cpt Jack's finisher, but this game showed that if given the chance, Ambition is more than capable enough of being the #1 option on a championship team and crushing everyone.

Game Two

Now being on the purple side, SKT's options of bans were limited with being forced to ban Twisted Fate first. They probably would have liked to stop the Ryze and Kha'zix combo that wrecked them in the first game, but with how scary Jayce and Diana are in the hands of both Ambition and Flame, SKT couldn't stop Blaze from playing almost the same exact composition as the game before.

If you're not into sequels, this game shouldn't be recommended to you. The game was eerily similar to the last, SKT picking up the kills and looking from the outside like they were in a close match, but losing when it came to farm and grabbing the map objectives. Upping their play from the first game, Flame and Ambition put on another show, both players having over 90 CS on their opponents by the 35 minute mark in the game. SuNo and Reapered might have been able to hold even when it came to grabbing the kills and keeping their death count low, but it didn't matter with how relentless Flame and Ambition farmed throughout the match, getting the gold they needed to snowball into the end game.

It was a slow, agonizing death for SKT, Ambition going 200 CS up against SuNo by the game was nearing it's end, becoming untouchable on his Kha'zix. SKT tried to hold on, having a clutch Baron steal and defending their base from the overpowered Blaze team, but it wasn't enough as the Flame and Ambition show were on full display. Ending another game with a surrender at 50 minutes, Ambition picked up a late quadrakill and sent SKT into an almost impossible position of having to take three straight games against a team they had waved the white flag twice to.



The unsung hero of the game was Helios' Lee Sin, contributing in 70% of the kills and setting up the perfect engagements at the right time for his team. Helios, while maybe not being at the same level as an Insec or bengi, is still possibly the second strongest Lee Sin in the world, only trailing behind KTB's Insec. On most teams, Helios' Lee Sin would be a ban every game, but with the luxury of having Ambition and Flame, two players who can wipe teams out by themselves on champions like Jayce and Diana, Helios can almost always have the opportunity to run his Lee Sin in the jungle.

Game Three

Banning out the usual Blaze picks such as Diana, Jayce and Kennen, Flame was left with another game on Ryze, a champion he had used to dominate SKT in the first two games. With the champion he had played all day open, he decided to go on an entirely different route, picking up Akali for the top lane and making a statement to the rest of the teams in Champions. By pretty much telling everyone that it doesn't matter who you ban because I have a champion pool wider than your imagination, Flame used game three to give another champion for teams to worry about when it comes to the pick and ban phase.

Not to take away anything from SKT's season, but this was a game where Blaze could outright flaunt their superiority over their opponents. Finishing the game with 335 CS to Reapered's 200, Flame carried the game as Akali, split pushing when given time and then coming into time fights to pick up the kills, being able to gain his farm and carry the game with his dueling skills. Not being able to ban Helios' Lee Sin due to Ambition and Flame, Blaze's jungler had another strong game, happily playing his strongest champion and setting up the kills for the Flame Show.

In the most stylish way possible, Blaze brushed off SKT in three games and made their way to the semifinals for the fourth straight Champions season. Having dropped the first three games of the season, Blaze has now gone on a ten game win streak, using their exceptional team fighting and coordination when it comes to grabbing global objectives to pick up win after win. Even when they're not shining on the KDA scores, Blaze still finds a way to win with their wealth of experience and partnership of Flame and Ambition, arguably the two best players of their position in the world currently.



You want to ban Jayce? Go ahead. Want to take away my Diana? Sure. Think my Kennen is too strong? Fine by me. Flame continues to show his insane growth and champion pool by picking up an Akali from out of nowhere and then using her to absolute perfection in the knockout rounds of Champions. He could have chosen Ryze and continued his merry way of destroying SKT in the late game, but now with this game on Akali, he has put it in the minds of every team he will face in the future that this is just another champion they have to worry about.

Final Thoughts:

SKT got taken out to the woodshed, but this is an important learning experience for their team. Reapered is an established name, but this was the first season for a lot of the other players on the team, getting their first taste of going deep in a Champions season. They still need to get much better if they want to go up against the top teams next season and have any hope of making the season three finals, but there is a lot of promise in this team. Reapered, who was asked throughout the season to carry his team to victory, will hopefully get much needed assistance next season with the emergence of Raven in the ADC role and SuNo's growth in the mid-lane.

For Blaze, this match pretty much cemented the fact that they're back as one of the top teams in the world and are favorites to take the championship. Helios, CptJack and Lustboy might not be having the best seasons, but with Ambition and Flame carrying the team, it's almost assured that every game will be focused on banning those two players out. With that being the case, Helios can continue his strong play on Lee Sin, and CptJack can play all the Kog'maw he wants in the bottom lane. Helios might become a weak link if his Lee Sin gets banned out, but that would mean leaving open a Jayce or Diana for Ambition or Flame, something that most teams shudder to even think about happening.

Introduction

Sword versus Frost is one of the more anticipated matches in the OGN Champions league. Both were top teams from the beginning of the Korean league. Their last encounter was the final of the Winter Season where Sword stomped Frost into the ground with a 3:0 sweep. Naturally Frost would want revenge for their loss at the final. This match promises to be one of the best series in the tournament.

Game one

The game started with a lane switch from CJ Entus Frost who moved their bottom lane into a 2vs1 in Top lane to apply early pressure on Maknoon. In addition, Shy was in Mid lane with Ryze and Rapidstar was against PraY and Cain in Bottom lane. Hermes and Madlife got an important first blood on Maknoon with a tower dive him 3 minutes into the game. Sword reacted quickly and destroyed Frost’s Bot outer tower. Around 10 minutes in Najin powered up their engine and surprised Frost with a sudden increase in tempo. Hermes was farming alone in toplane and SSong jumped on Hermes and killed him easily with a nice all-in. At the same time Rapidstar and Madlife were out of position in Mid lane which allowed Najin to secure kills on Cloudtemplar, Shy, Mid lane turret and Dragon. Frost with all their experience was able to recover from this little shock with a Flash Hook from Madlife, who grabbed Cain evaporated him dropped immediately. Maknoon, confident after killing Hermes some minutes ago, tried to duel Shy but Shy on Ryze managed to escape and eek out a kill on SSong instead. Maknoon saw that Frost was occupied in Bot and Mid lanes and pushed the last outer turret of Frost down. Thanks to the global objective advantage Najin had a comfortable 3K gold lead. Sword managed to relentlessly pressure Frost in every lane and Frost had to rush from lane to lane to stop Sword’s advance.

But then a pause happens because a player disconnected from the game. This pause allowed Frost to catch their breath and regain their mental state. Right after the pause CJ Entus Frost moved the entire team to Mid lane to apply pressure and Madlife hit a max range hook on PraY to drop him from 100 to 0 in a second. Cain tried to save him with a Crescendo but unfortunately he suffered the same fate like PraY. The assault from Frost was not over yet. As they were taking down the the tower, Shy Flashed forward to land a Rune Prison on SSong, followed by a hook from Madlife. With three people down Frost finalized the destruction of the second Mid tower. After that Sword was clearly shaken and the momentum was shifted in favour of Frost. This made it easier for Frost, specifically Madlife, to catch people out of position. The combination of Nautilus anchor, Blitzcrank hook and Ryze Rune Prison meant once someone on Sword was caught, he had no chance to get away. Cain’s missed Crescendo while under pressure also worsened the situation. The following fight PraY got caught out of position, which enabled Frost to get two kills and Sword surrendered shortly thereafter.



Madlife had several incredible hooks on Blitzcrank and allowed his team to comeback after the pause.

Game two

Right from the star Frost decided to invade Sword’s Blue buff while Rapidstar went to take their own Blue, but Sword reacted quickly and stopped Rapidstar from getting it successfully. Rapidstar had to recall and was enormously behind in lane from that point forward. Sword abused this and sent their Jungler down to get a fast tower. With the early tower kill Sword could place a ward at Frost’s Blue without any danger. This ward allowed them to contest Blue as soon as it respawned, which gave Sword first blood and control over Dragon. Sword was able to ambush Madlife and Rapidstar as they reacted to Sword’s movement at Dragon, which allowed Sword to take two more kills and the Dragon. Skipping forward to minute 17, Sword was sieging the Mid lane of Frost while Shy split pushed Bottom. In the end they traded two turrets against one in favor of Sword. The first big teamfight happened four minutes later when Rapidstar tried to assassinate PraY but since he was unsuccessful since he was very underfarmed compared to PraY’s defenses. Instead Maknoon jumped right into the rest of Frost and Frost focused their attention on him. Frost took the first killin this fight with their focus on Maknoon but Sword swiftly equalized it. The fight seemed pretty even until SSong hit a fantastic accelerated Shock Blast on Hermes and Madlife, which dropped them to very low health and allowed Sword to clean up the fight 4 to 1 with a triple kill for SSong. Just a few minutes later Frost caught two Sword members out of position and chased them down for the kills. However, they tunnelled too hard and overextended, which allowed Maknoon to come back in with Zac’s ultimate and he bounced Rapidstar and Hermes away from Pray. SSong and PraY joined in on the fight and they aced Frost with ease. Sword took down Baron buff and rolled Frost in one last fight to tie the series up.



Maknoon on Zac had good initiations and protected his team on more than one occasion with Zac’s disruptive abilities. Zac is champion who fits Maknoon aggressive playstyle.

Game three

Najin Sword went for a lane switch and sent Maknoon to the Bot lane. In response, Frost tried to push hard with the 2vs1 advantage but Sword recognized the situation quickly and countered it by sending SSong and Watch down to gank Madlife and Hermes from behind. Immediately after Watch and SSong showed themselves in Bot lane Rapidstar used his Teleport to assist his teammates in the fight. Frost managed to turn the fight in their favour and gave Rapidstar a fantastic start, completely opposite to that of game 2. He secured a triple kill at 5 minutes with a really great play. A big part was that he turned level six while fighting.
At this point Rapidstar was well on his way to achieve Raid Boss status after he picked another kill up in Top lane as he chased PraY and Cain down to their second turret. Sword turned and jumped on him with four members but Rapidstar made it out thanks to his gold advantage and a nice lantern from Madlife.

Just a few minutes later Maknoon had a poor engagement in a skirmish against Shy in the Top lane and wanted to retreat, but Madlife was already waiting for him in the tribrush. Maknoon tried to Elastic Slingshot over the wall but Madlife landed a perfect hook and jumped onto Maknoon with Shy following along for the ride on his lantern. Maknoon was so stunned by the play that it was easy for Shy and Madlife to clean up the kill.
+ Show Spoiler [Madlife fantastic play] +
17 minutes into the game Sword mounted a small comeback when they managed to catch and kill Shy and Cloudtemplar in Top lane. However, Frost took advantage of Sword’s Top three man stack to push two Mid turrets down and secure a kill on PraY. That was the last of Sword’s momentum as Frost steadily increased their lead used Rapidstar to split push with his incredible farm and the summoner spell Teleport. Sword finally managed to kill Rapidstar but Rapidstar destroyed the first inhib in the game. Frost went for Baron right as everyone from Sword was recalling. Equipped with Baron buff and super minions in the bottom lane Frost easily took the base and the game to retake the series lead.



Rapidstar, despite a poor prior showing, demonstrated confidence in his abilities and destroyed Sword from outset with brilliant Diana play.

Game four

Sword swapped lanes in an attempt to shut down Shy. However, CJ Entus Frost’s Bot lane was first to destroy a turret as Cloudtemplar protected their Top tower. Since Najin Sword did not have any vision over Dragon, Hermes and Cloudtemplar’s Nasus took an uncontested Dragon to extend Frost’s gold lead to nearly 2k at 8 minutes. Three minutes later, Sword’s grasp on the game weakened further. Shy all-inned Maknoon for First Blood while SSong got caught Mid and gave Frost a second kill. In addition Frost took their second turret and nearly took Mid inner as well. Sword respawned, killed an overstayed Rapidstar, Madlife, and Hermes, and secured their first tower, yet meanwhile Shy and Cloudtemplar pushed down both outer Top towers, allowing Frost to retain the gold lead. Shortly before Dragon respawned, Cain was caught out of position, and Shy killed Maknoon again. With two Sword members dead, Frost had free reign over Dragon. At 18 minutes, Frost contested Sword’s Blue buff. Frost engaged Sword well, but left Kogmaw untouched, but still came out as the victors 4:3. Frost took vision control of Baron; when Sword moved too far to contest in time, Frost took an easy Baron. With Baron buff, Frost pushed Sword’s last inner tower and sieged Bot inhibitor. Rapidstar then took a Rupture but activated Zhonyas before Cho’Gath’s Feral Scream or Zed’s Death Mark landed. Frost then pulled off a perfect counter-engage combination of Command: Shockwave, Crescendo, Slicing Maelstrom, and Bullet Time. Going 3:0 in the teamfight, Frost took two inhibitor towers and the first inhibitor of the game. While they were retreating, Rapidstar, despite low health, executed Maknoon with a cute maneuver, and Frost sieged the open inhibitor. Pray poked out too far, and Shy immediately jumped him. Pray melted away, and Sword was in no position to defend their base. Frost emerged victorious and vindicated from the Winter finals.



Shy’s Kennen was a force to be reckoned with: he secured first blood for his team and was a key factor in winning most of the teamfights with his aggressive engagements. In addition he had a perfect game; Sword couldn’t kill him even once.

Final Thoughts:

Sword did not have the same form as last Season. Maknoon and Ssong, especially, were not the threats they used to be. Frost were the clear winners and deprived fans of the first Blind Pick game of the season. As usual Frost is on their way to the finals, but in the upcoming match they must defeat their brother team, Blaze, to secure a finals spot. In addition, with Sword’s defeat, once more a defending OGN Champion could not reclaim its title.

MVP Ozone vs SKT T1 #2
+ Show Spoiler [The Starplayers] +
In a rematch from the group A, MVP Ozone and SKT T1 #2 will face off in a best of 5 semifinal matchup. MVP Ozone convincingly beat SKT T1 #2 in the final weeks of the group stages but it could be argued that SKT lacked motivation since they clinched 1st place and avoided SKT T1 #1. These two teams will heavily rely on Imp and Faker as they have been dominant this season. The winner of this match would go on to face one of the CJ teams in a match that would pit of one of these up-and-comers against a perennial powerhouse in CJ.

Top Lane: Homme vs Impact
Homme will look to stay on top form after he outclassed Ssumday in the quarterfinals matchup against KTB. Homme was consistent in the lane phase and split KTB in half with his kennen,which allowed Imp and Dade to hyper carry in a 3:1 victory. On the other hand, Impact has been consistent all season long with solid laning and coordinated top lane ganks with the jungler Bengi. Against Najin Shield in the quarterfinals, Impact played all 3 games on Kennen and performed decent against Expession. Homme played slightly better than Impact in the lane phase the last time these two met, but neither of these players would shy away from a duel if a 1v2 lane is not required by one of the bot lanes.
Possible Picks & Bans
Homme: Jarvan, Kennen, Renekton, Shen
Impact: Jayce, Kha’Zix, Kennen, Rumble, Shen

Jungle: Dandy vs Bengi
Both junglers have adapted well to a season in which every patch has shifted the metagame by nerfing the top jungle picks. They both heavily favor Jarvan and Lee Sin, but we could see zac being introduced as the current korean meta favor 2 AD solo lanes and zac is the perfect jungler to splash in some magic damage. I’m expecting multiple 1v2 lane phases aimed at shutting down Imp and Faker so we’ll see both junglers tending toward a support role and providing cover to their solo lanes.
Possible Picks & Bans
Dandy: Jarvan, Lee Sin, Nasus, Nocturne, Zac
Bengi: Jarvan, Lee Sin, Nasus, Zac

Mid Lane: Dade vs Faker
Dade and Faker are regarded as two of the best mid lane solo queue players in the korean ladder. While Dade has a more compact, defensive champion pool and style, Faker brings a flashier, higher dps, and squishier style to the lane. MVP Ozone will try to zone out Faker and limit his farm if Faker plays a high DPS mid. With both sides most likely banning TF, we'll probably see Kha'Zix aqnd Zed picks along with Dade's Ryze and Faker's Jayce or Orianna.
Possible Picks & Bans
Dade: Jayce, Kha’Zix, Ryze, Twisted Fate, Zed
Faker: Jayce, Nidalee, Orianna, Twisted Fate, and anyone Faker wants to play...

Bottom Lane: Imp & Mata vs Piglet & PoohMandu
The "korean Doublelift" Imp and his support Mata will look to hard carry against SKT’s bot lane pair of Piglet & PoohManDu. Imp has carried MVP Ozone throughout the season but will need to get out of lane phase against this SKT Bot lane duo which I rate higher in laning phase than MVP Ozone's bot lane pair. Teams have been banning out PoohManDu’s niche support choices in Elise, Fiddlesticks. Korean AD’s have recently shied away from Miss Fortune and opted for late game carries like Kog’Maw, Tristana, and Vayne which shows a fundamental shift from AOE team composition involving around Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time to more positioning focused, single-target DPS compositions. Ever since the Top lane and Mid lane started bringing out picks like Kha’Zix, Zac, Zed, teams have figured out that the AD carry needs to do as much damage as possible before the possible death from one of these assassins. We could see 3 automatic support bans revolving Elise, Fiddlesticks, Thresh which means viewers would see the typical Lulu and Sona picks.
Possible Picks & Bans
Imp: Caitlyn, Ezreal, Tristana, Varus, Vayne,
Mata: Lulu, Sona, Zyra
Piglet: Caitlyn, Miss Fortune, Varus, Vayne
Poohmandu: Elise, Fiddlesticks, Lulu, Sona, Thresh

Staff Picks
Mafia: SKT #2 3-1 MVP Ozone
Chexx: SKT #2 3-2 MVP Ozone

.... and we have come to it - another Blaze vs Frost knockout match. It seems all too normal for us that we expect these two phenoms of the Korean scene to match-up with each other at some point of the final stages of Champions. However, this one in particular holds some significance - it is the first intra-team match in the Champions where both teams are playing under the CJ ENTUS banner - the previous three clashes under the MiG/AZUBU names. Adding to that, players on both teams have something to prove to not only each other, but to the spectators and critics out there.

For reference, let's look at their previous three matches they played against each other in previous seasons:
AZUBU Spring 2012 Champions Final - MiG Blaze 3 : 0 MiG Frost
AZUBU Summer 2012 Champions Semi-Final - AZUBU Frost 3 : 2 AZUBU Blaze
Olympus Winter 2012-13 Champions Semi-Final - AZUBU Frost 3 : 2, 3 : 2 AZUBU Blaze

As we can see, disregarding the first clash where Blaze surprised the world by demolishing their older, experienced sister team, Frost has taken each match, albeit by very close margins. If you watched the games in detail, there was no way of telling who would have won the series until the very last moment. It's no surprise that these teams fight tooth and nail against each other. The psychology in entering an intra-team match, especially with so much on the line, is unlike any other. What is even better is that the final set blind pick helps add to the climax of the series.

Let's take some look at some story lines that have been developing over this season.

Flame's Ascension over Shy
I can vividly remember the first time I saw Flame playing for Blaze after Reapered's much-publicized decision to leave. It was the IPL5 Korean Qualifiers held by GOMTV with Tasteless and a guy named 'Andy' casting the games. After seeing him play, I was left unimpressed; a shallow pool of champions (Irelia, Irelia, Irelia) and a non-existent presence in the game.

Since then, he has grown out of his shell to become one of, if not, the best top laner in Korea, taking over MakNooN, Reapered and his team rival, Shy. With a deep pool of champions to play with (he has dabbled with Kennen, Jayce, Diana, Kha'Zix, Rumble, Elise, Ryze and Akali this season) along with his ability to make things happen, combined with surefire consistency in his laning phase and good looks - has turned Flame into Korea's hottest (no pun intended) player right now.

For Shy, the consistency he brings to the table isn't enough to leap over Flame. Now is the the perfect opportunity to prove that he is no pushover. Although he admits that Flame is the better player in practice, there's no doubt that in his heart, he wants to claim his title back as CJ Entus' best top laner. With a solid performance at the All-Star event in Shanghai last weekend, I expect Shy to push Flame to the extreme.

Good Bye Woong, Hello Hermes
There was no doubt that when Woong announced his leave from the professional scene, the majority of the community applauded the decision - many felt that Woong was the weakest link on the Frost team. However, it's hard to say whether his replacement, Hermes, is much of an improvement. While he has shown flashes of great play, his inconsistency may be the eventual downfall of Frost. That being said, with him partnered with MadLife, the best player in the world (in my humble opinion), it's hard to see them getting dominated in lane by Captain Jack and LustBoy, a partnership, while solid, doesn't appear to be game changing unlike duos such as DoubleLift/Chauster or Pray/CaiN. This is the time for Hermes to step up and make a name for himself before Frost consider using Space.

Blaze burns through the Spring
I know it's only been three seasons of Champions so far, so don't take this seriously, but last Spring season, Blaze tore through the competition, only dropping one match to Team OP. Is it possible that we could see another whitewash from Blaze against Frost? Who knows, but if short history is to tell, it might be.

Final Thoughts and Prediction
With these teams knowing each other inside out, it's going to be hard to predict what strategies each team will use against each other. I'm for certain that TF and Kha'Zix will be banned from Frost for Ambition, as CloudTemplar has said that he is pretty much unstoppable on those champions. As for Blaze, look to see them ban Jayce (against Shy) and possibly Thresh (against MadLife). Anything else is fair game.

As for a score prediction? I'm going to say Blaze 3-2 Frost, but don't be surprised if that result is flipped around.[