Worlds 2017: Top 5 Games and Storylines from Week 1 of Group Play
Week 1 of the 2017 League of Legends World Championship Group Stage is complete, with each of the 16 teams having played each other once.
The proceedings in Wuhan, China were pleasantly surprising. While the three LCK teams dominated as expected—the region tops all others with an 8-1 record so far—only Longzhu Gaming looked a class apart from the competition. Defending champions SK Telecom T1 seemed mortal at times, needing an incredible comeback to survive a Group A encounter with Edward Gaming. Samsung Galaxy dropped a match to Royal Never Give Up and were pushed to the brink by wildcard debutantes 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor.
As for the home region, the Chinese fans were treated to an entire spectrum of quality. On one end were RNG, a propulsive squad with aggressive jungler MLXG keying an undefeated first week in a difficult Group C. On the other, we have EDG, China's top seed who were expected to easily book passage out of Group A but, at 0-3, will now need nothing short of a miracle to advance. Somewhere between those two is Team WE, who have struggled for consistency in the tournament’s closest group.
While history suggests that teams from China and Korea will make up the final four, their road through the West won’t be without adversity. The NA LCS representatives are a combined 6-3 after Week 1 (second only to the LCK) with two of their three losses coming at the hands of Korean teams. Team SoloMid, Immortals and Cloud9 all sit at 2-1, each with legitimate shots to make it out of groups. EU LCS had a decidedly rougher start at 3-6, sunk in part by Fnatic’s woeful 0-3 showing in Group B. Still, there’s enough teeth to the upper echelons of the West to challenge Eastern hegemony. At least that’s what I tell myself.
All this only scratches the surface of the themes and storylines emerging from one of most competitive Worlds we’ve seen in years. Here are five that caught my eye, plus five standout games from the first week of group play.
Ardent Censer Dominates Worlds Meta
If Worlds 2017 could be summarized by one stat, it's this:
In 24 games at Worlds, 48 Ardent Censers have been built.
With the exception of mithy’s Alistar against Samsung Galaxy, every single support has bought an Ardent Censer (Trick’s Ivern purchased one in that G2 loss), often rushing the item before Sightstone and with the help of a Relic Shield on their AD carry. Its gold efficient stats, powerful attack speed steroid, and on-hit healing/bonus magic damage for the recipient of the carrier’s heal or shield has warped the meta so thoroughly that to draft a composition without one would mean certain defeat.
The support pool has narrowed to reflect the item’s importance. Three champions (Lulu, Janna, Rakan) make up 79% of the total supports picked (38/48). Seven of the other ten spots have been filled by either Taric or Karma, Censer supports all. Janna is the most picked champion at Worlds because she uses Censer best; both in applying the buff (plus bonus AD) with her Eye of the Storm shield to a single target and then using her ultimate’s AoE heal to buff her entire team at once. The rest of her kit is dead useful, what with the ghosted mobility granted by Zephyr and dash-cancel of Cyclone, but it’s the Censer synergy that has granted her 92% presence and a staggering 75% winrate.
The buff to Censer has reverberated outward to the other positions. Kalista has been banned in all 24 games in part because she benefits the most among meta marksmen from a Censer buff. Kog’Maw, whose Rageblade/Runnan’s/Wit’s End build already emphasized his powerful on-hit effects, stormed into the meta (ditto for Varus’ return). With tank supports all but absent, teams have looked to top lane to establish their frontline. Nerfs to Cinderhulk were supposed to widen the jungle pool, but tanks like Gragas, Sejuani, and Jarvan IV remain the most picked. Teams understand that a squishy backline demands more than one tank, or they risk losing map control when constantly grouping as five. Ryze is now back in the mid lane meta because his main weakness (survivability) is now compensated for by Censer buffs (among other reasons).
How did we get here? It all started innocently enough, with a Patch 7.2 change that made Censer's bonus attack speed and on-hit healing percentage scale with the target’s level instead of a flat number. But the real revelation came in Patch 7.12, when Redemption’s heal was changed to benefit threefold from other sources of healing and shielding amplification, incentivizing building Censer first to shake up the stagnant Sightstone/Mobility Boots/Redepmtion/Locket support build path. Suddenly, players were exposed to the incredible scaling attack speed and on-hit healing/magic damage of the Censer, and the meta never looked back. Riot frantically nerfed the scaling effects back to static values in Patch 7.17, but the significant removal of the on-hit healing was saved for Patch 7.19, one version later than the Worlds patch (7.18).
For better or worse, the Ardent Censer meta is the meta we’ve got. Could we see more experimentation outside group play? Maybe the debut of tank supports like Thresh, Braum, Blitzcrank, or more Alistar? I’m not convinced. A practiced strategy with these kind proven results isn’t so easily cast aside.
Early Game Snowball vs. Late Game Scaling
In the face of the Ardent Censer meta, teams at Worlds have largely approached building team compositions in two different ways: Early Game Snowball or Late Game Scaling.
Teams like EDG, RNG, WE, G2, Cloud9, Misfits, and Flash Wolves have favored an aggressive snowball composition that looks to end games pre-35 minutes based on advantages gained in the laning stage. These compositions often favor lane-dominate AD carries like Xayah and Varus with aggressive marksmen or assassins in the mid lane (ex. Lucian, Corki, LeBlanc) to bully vulnerable mages. It’s here you’d likely see aggressive gankers like Ezreal or Rek'Sai in the jungle to pile on early lane pressure, with a sturdy frontline tank top. This kind of composition looks to snowball bot lane (or mid in some cases) and control the map with strong team fighting and objective control, aiming to end the game off a single Baron push.
In response, teams like SKT, TSM, and AHQ have invested heavily in late game scaling compositions that rely on getting past the 35-minute mark to succeed. By then, their hyper-carries (Twitch, Kog’Maw, Tristanna) have farmed enough items to output game-breaking DPS no matter the opposition’s build or level. Late-game comps usually employ control mages mid (Syndra, Oriana, Taliyah) and two beefy frontliners top and in the jungle, all in the service of keeping their hyper carry alive. If the enemy team can’t get to the backline in a 5v5 past 40 minutes, they cannot win. Laning becomes a low-energy proposition, with the expectation to stay alive while farming efficiently and making conservative plays.
While the two styles of play seem to be set, the success of both approaches has been mixed, dependent more on the team’s execution than the superiority of one style over the other. Where SKT can comeback from a 10k gold deficit to win, 1907 Fenerbahçe and Fnatic couldn’t, due to devastating late game misplays. For every proactive Cloud9 or RNG victory, there’s a baffling EDG or G2 loss. Teams that understand their composition and play to their win conditions will find a way forward. Most don’t, or cannot.
So while the contrast in styles is evident, the selection of one over the other doesn’t guarantee victory, and that’s a good thing. The meta is already repetitive enough with Censer supports; the last thing we need is a proven style that trumps all others, especially if that style demands that you do little on the map for the first 15 minutes. It’s important that teams can’t simply stall out games and hope to win a decisive fight late after deliberately playing negatively; such a meta would be utterly uninteresting and unwatchable.
While the final week of groups in Wuhan will certainly feature more of the same, I’m interested to see teams become more comfortable in their chosen styles. Doing so will ensure more competitive and exciting games, facilitating adaptation as we move forward. Speaking of teams comfortable with their own style…
Gigabyte Marines Forever
There is no greater love in professional League of Legends than what I feel for Vietnam’s Gigabyte Marines. Their iconic brand of controlled chaos has electrified viewers and shaken a predictable meta, but perhaps more importantly to the scene at large, demonstrated that there is more than one way (cough, Korean meta, cough) to play the game.
Marines burst on to the international stage at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational. Emerging as the lone wildcard from the play-ins, Marines took wins of established sides like TSM, Flash Wolves and Team WE at the main event in Rio. Using superstar jungler Levi as a catalyst, Marines crashed through the early game like a wrecking ball, hungry for kills and buildings to a degree matched by few before them. It was here they tried to resurrect lane swaps (dead since the turret fortification changes) with mixed results. Marines didn’t make it out of group play, but gained a legion of fans through their exciting, explosive play (often literally as former AD carry Slay favored pocket-pick Ziggs) and plucky underdog status.
Their success at MSI earned the GPL an automatic bid into group play at Worlds, a spot Marines promptly filled themselves by steamrolling their regional opposition during the Summer season. Retooled with the departures of Slay and top laner Stark, Marines are better than ever, having added Noway and Nevan as the new bot lane duo while team captain Archie moved topside.
Even when playing among the top teams in the world (including LCK #1 seed Longzhu), Marines haven’t abandoned the surprise and verve that got them here. Nocturne jungle with a lane swap against Fnatic? Check. Complete role abandonment with a Mordekaiser bot lane against Longzhu? Check. An ignite/heal Lulu for Nevan twice in three games? Check. Kayn for Levi? CHECK ALL THE BOXES. MAINLINE THIS FEELING STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS. GIGABYTE MARINES FOREVER.
Not all these strategies worked. At this level, probably none of them should have (looking at you, Fnatic). But it’s one thing to theory-craft compositions in practice, another to bring them out on stage, yet another to do it on the Worlds stage, and still another to actually win doing so. Marines achomplished all four against Fnatic in one of the most incredible games of professional League I have ever witnessed (more on that below). Their willingness to try things stems from their shrewd coach Tinikun, but also from the realistic assessment that if they played meta strategies against top teams, they’d lose because the skill gap is too wide. That Marines are willing to trap the enemy team on the Rift with them, and not the other way around, is a huge part of their appeal.
Could Marines advance from Group B? With Longzhu almost guaranteed to enter the knockout stage undefeated, they’ll need to beat Immortals and Fnatic to have a chance. Both Western teams have shown exploitable flaws, so the job is doable, but it remains to be seen what gambit Tinikun will draw up. Whatever the result, you’d better believe I’ll be watching with everyone else.
NA LCS Report Card
A surprisingly good showing from North America. Cloud9 have held their own in Group A with SKT, Immortals took care of business despite some inconsistent play, and Team SoloMid gutted out wins despite three games of early passivity. Each team finished the first week with two wins, and will likely need two more to secure their spot in the quarterfinals. If they do so, it will mark the first time all three NA teams have advanced from group play.
How have they done it so far? Cloud9 continues to excel playing through Jensen mid, and while it didn’t work out against Faker, they got the better of Westdoor and Scout. Contractz has impressed with aggressive junglers like Ezreal, Graves, and Rek’Sai, propelling C9 forward with strong snowball in the early game. C9 are top-five at worlds in K:D (1.27), GPM (1880) and GDM (141) so far, the only Western team that high. If EDG cannot right the ship, look for the NA third seed to once again make quarters.
Immortals have a more straightforward route, benefiting from the bane and boon that is having Longzhu Gaming in your group. IMT can count on the Koreans walloping Gigabyte Marines and Fnatic, meaning that wins against those two teams should be enough. With Fnatic slumping and Marines on a high-wire, Immortals should like their chances. Still, they'll need more from Pobelter and Cody Sun, whose positioning in team fights have been problematic so far. Cody is averaging 2.3 deaths a game, tied for highest among AD carries at Worlds, and Pobelter is lacking when it comes to CS in lane, averaging 8.6 CSM (near the bottom of mids at Worlds).
And then there’s TSM, NA’s great hope and #1 seed. Drawn into their easiest group at an international tournament probably ever, TSM have not displayed the kind of dominance their draw and talent would imply. You could feel the loss to Misfits coming, as it was an extension of the flaws they displayed in the comeback win over Flash Wolves. TSM need to be more proactive in the early game, and to stop using Svenskeren as a sacrificial lamb in fights. The TSM jungler is tied with Karsa for the highest death average among Worlds junglers (3.3) and has been utterly invisible until the 12-minute mark of every game, content to farm and then do nothing with it. If TSM continue to believe their superior lane mechanics can carry them to victory, they’re sorely mistaken. NA Grade: B+
Group “D” for “Death”
Group D was supposed to be the weakest group at worlds, but the relatively equal power levels and pedigree of all four teams has turned it into the Group of Death. Flash Wolves, Team WE, Misfits and Team SoloMid have all given each other close, competitive games that no team has emerged from unscathed.
TSM, WE and MSF all sit atop the group at 2-1, having created a win-loss cycle among themselves that complicates any discussion about who is favored to advance. WE barely broke a sweat disposing of Misfits, who then outplayed TSM down the stretch for a win, who looked at their best when they were slamming WE. Flash Wolves are the outlier at 0-3, having severely underperformed after a backbreaking loss to TSM to kick off Group D play. The dynamic LMS duo of Karsa and Maple have yet to impact a game, strange in a meta the favors teams with strong mid-jungle synergy. I don’t expect Flash Wolves to play this poorly over their next three games, making Group D even more of a beartrap than the records would indicate.
WE have the home field advantage, but should strongly consider subbing in Zero over Ben at support. Zero’s a more mechanically gifted player than Ben, especially when it comes to Taric, a pick that when piloted expertly has the potential to outplay the other meta supports (especially Rakan). Misfits are brimming with confidence after two excellent games against TSM and Flash Wolves, the nerves they showed during their loss to WE a thing of the past. If Maxlore and PowerOfEvil can continue their fantastic interplay and control the map with well-timed roams, they are a real threat.
TSM’s advancement out of the group is slightly less endangered than panicked fanboys would have you believe. It's true that their loss to Misfits stemmed from systemic strategic issues, but there was an underlying sense of disrespect that I doubt they’ll emulate. A Cull start from Doublelift on Kog’Maw was a headscratcher, as was the Nami pick from Biofrost, perhaps executed under the belief that Hans sama and IgNar weren’t to be taken seriously in lane. Misfits have their attention now.
Prediction: WE ride Condi’s coattails and the home atmosphere into the knockout round, with Team SoloMid joining them thanks to Hauntzer’s stellar top lane play.
Top 5 Games of Week 1
5. Samsung Galaxy vs. 1907 Fenerbahçe (Group C)
This game should have been over in about 25 minutes. Samsung Galaxy had all the momentum, the farm, and the skill necessary to close it out thanks to the lead Haru’s Ezreal established early. But Frozen and Crash weren’t having it, and did everything they could to pull the unthinkable upset. If FB can play like this for the rest of groups, life for G2 just got that much harder. Trigger warning for Cloud9 fans who still suffer from Zhoyna’s PTSD after Spring Finals.
4. Royal Never Give Up vs. G2 Esports (Group C)
When two of the best AD carries meet, the match is rarely decided by anyone else. Watching Zven and Uzi’s duel in this back and forth was a treat, but don’t overlook the plays from Letme and MLXG that kept Uzi alive and RNG in the game. Loved the proactivity from G2, especially the smooth Realm Warp Baron, but if you let Twitch get fed, the rat tends to find a way to win.
3. SK Telecom T1 vs Edward Gaming (Group A)
A prime example of how you can do everything right in this game and the result can still go wrong. Edward Gaming resume their old rivalry with SK Telecom T1, only to watch their 10k gold lead crumble after one immaculate wombo combo by the defending champs. Scout wanted to prove he’d outgrown his old team, but his Lucian was found lacking when judged by God. Maybe three teams in the world could pull the kind of comeback we saw in this game; bad luck for EDG that SKT was one of them.
2. Fnatic vs Gigabyte Marines (Group B)
Unless Gigabyte Marines have something truly special in their bag of tricks for Week 2 of groups, this game against Fnatic will go down as my favorite. I don’t want to spoil the experience of watching this game, save to say that unlike most teams who try to cheese the enemy with pure chaos, there was never a moment from Marines that lacked control or the foresight of careful planning. GAM had all the information they needed from Young Generation, their sister team from Vietnam that beat Fnatic in the Play-Ins, and the execution was perfect. Sit back and enjoy.
1. Flash Wolves vs. TSM (Group D)
An instant classic between two storied organizations, Team SoloMid and Flash Wolves went down to the wire, stopping several fanboy hearts along the way. The star-studded sides traded body blows for 50 minutes, culminating in a final fight around Elder to decide the match. Each team won and lost this game twice en-route to the final result. Doublelift’s shaking hands after the nexus fell told the whole story.
