Worlds 2017: Group B Autopsy

What was supposed to be the most straightforward group of Worlds 2017 turned out to be its strangest, acting both as a confluence of unlikely events and referendum on competitive League of Legends.

Immortals were supposed to beat Gigabyte Marines to start the day, a result that would have all but secured their advancement to the quarterfinals with Longzhu Gaming. They didn’t, and the effects of that result cascaded throughout the remaining matches. Five games and two tiebreakers later, Immortals were eliminated from Worlds. Marines, whose heartbreaking defeat against Longzhu sapped the team of all its strength, were also out. And Fnatic, left for dead days ago after digging themselves an 0-3 hole, did what no other team had ever done before.

The results of Group B provided talking points that could fill an entire tournament. Regional strength, global meta, the benefits of experience and the costs of fatigue; they were all writ large on a day few predicted correctly. Enough preamble, let’s get into it.

FNC Make the Miracle Run

Here’s the list of things that had to happen for Fnatic to advance out of Group B:

Gigabyte Marines needed to beat Immortals. Check. Longzhu needed to beat Immortals and Marines. Check. Fnatic needed to beat Marines and Immortals. Check. Fnatic needed to beat both Marines and Immortals again, in a row. Check and mate. 

Until Fnatic’s 4-1 Thursday run, no team had ever qualified for quarterfinal play at Worlds after losing all three Week 1 group games (since the format change). Had one result gone the other way, Fnatic would have been finished, and rightfully so. They looked dreadful throughout play-ins and worse in groups.

It was easy to locate the culprit: sOAZ, the veteran French top laner who was repeatedly destroyed in lane, negating whatever early advantages Rekkles and Jesiz found bot. Gigabyte Marines famously denied him CS until six minutes into their first match due to the lane swap, and Khan buried him on Nasus, a literal dog champ. The whole of Fnatic seemed to echo his frustration, and most wrote them off as a team with good parts but zero central intelligence.

Then, Marines cheesed Immortals and suddenly the door was left open for a miracle. Fnatic lost to Longzhu as expected, but as they no longer needed to beat the Koreans, the defeat meant nothing. All that mattered was taking their first step against Immortals, another close affair that was decided by AD carry misplay. But this time it was Cody Sun, not Rekkles, who was killed flashing forward. With Immortals Aced, Fnatic gambled on a nexus push and broke it with the last auto from sOAZ before his death. That’s how close the run came to ending before it began: one auto attack.

For Week 2, Fnatic had the luxury of facing Marines last, and the space made a difference. Instead of being caught off guard by GAM’s Urgot/Kayn composition, they entered the Rift ready for it, having watched Marines dismantle Immortals with it only hours ago. That scouting, on top of the mental devastation of losing a 10k lead to Longzhu in the previous game, hampered Marines’ execution, failing to protect Archie from Broxah’s Rek’Sai chain ganks. Fnatic knew the key to breaking the Urgot 1-3-1 was stopping Archie, and they did so, burning his flash on a level 1 invade and killing him three times in a row, the deaths so similar it seemed like production was running replays.

Broxah’s excellence on Rek’Sai’s solo lane ganks, and the emphasis on putting sOAZ ahead, was a far cry from the Fnatic playbook just one week ago. The team that put all their eggs in the Rekkles basket, only to watch their comp dissolve if he was ever picked off, became balanced across the map. Instead of one winning lane they now had three. Immortals and Marines never stood a chance.

Well, at least Immortals didn’t. In the first tiebreaker, Fnatic dispatched the NA side with little effort, hard-countering Pobelter’s Ryze with Caps’ Malzahar. With no frontline and no money to buy a QSS, Immortals were eliminated from Worlds in under 28 minutes. More on them in a second.

Marines acted as the final boss of the three-way tiebreaker, and acquitted themselves well, pushing Fnatic to the brink with an early top inhibitor take and stellar play from AD carry Noway. But where Marines were fatigued, Fnatic were high on the adrenaline that comes with a suspended death sentence. That energy and veteran experience brought home the win, helping design two well-engineered Baron secures against the run of play. Marines were undone, and the old Kings of Europe had regained the crown, at least for one night. Cause of Death: None, resuscitated by divine intervention.

Immortals Wilt Under Pressure

Pressure exists at all levels of sport. A penalty shootout in your YMCA co-ed soccer league, the final drive of a Super Bowl, a pommel horse routine at the Olympic games; there is no escaping the tension of a big moment. Part of becoming a professional athlete is learning to approach those moments with poise and precision. While most learn to embrace the spotlight, few find themselves immediately at home.

Bigger than any macro decision, draft choice or individual misplay, Immortals’ exit from Worlds 2017 came down to one overarching factor: They couldn’t handle the pressure. For anyone who watched them lose to Team SoloMid in the Summer Finals, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Immortals aren’t used to playing at this level like a Cloud9 or TSM are; hell, they were the seventh-best team in North America just one split ago.

Meme Cody Sun all you want, this team didn’t lose because of him, though he is not without blame. None of them, from veterans like Xmithie and Flame, to World’s debutantes Cody and Olleh, escape this debacle clean. Ssong, the NA LCS Coach of the Summer Split, hardly covered himself in glory either. Ultimately gifted four chances to emerge from Group B, Immortals capitalized on none of them. They have no one else to blame but themselves.

Cody Sun succumbed to the pressure when he flashed into four Fnatic players during a critical retreat, a play that will live in infamy. Xmithie and Flame faltered to pressure when their repeated dives on Archie’s Urgot fell short of their expectations. Pobelter, who had been having a quietly solid game on Corki, fell apart when Khan picked him off mid, opening an eventual Baron for Longzhu.

We should have seen this coming. Looking back at their 2-1 Week 1, mistakes by their opposition were often as equally influential to Immortal’s success as Immortals themselves. They can thank Rekkles for his greedy Twitch death, and Gigabyte Marines’ Nevan for bringing a flashless Lulu to standard lanes, a target not even Xmithie could miss. Immortals took what the enemy gave them, nothing more, creating little by themselves. Proactivity has been a buzzword at the tournament, and Immortals were anything but. It’s why GAM were able to flawlessly execute their Urgot/Kayn comp, or why, after Xmithie's lighting fast start on Ezreal in the first tiebreaker with Fnatic, he disappeared, always a step behind Broxah.

I don’t enjoy piling on Immortals like this; I know they’re hurting enough. But along with the pressure that noticeably altered their play, consider this: Immortals qualified for Worlds based on one Split of success. Such runs are always fueled in part by the meta they took place in, and the meta shifted on Immortals just as Summer Playoffs concluded.

For evidence, look no further than Olleh, the First-Team All-Pro NA LCS Support that was virtually invisible for all seven games of Worlds. Xmithie’s acquisition raised the ceiling of this team, but the real engine behind Immortals’ ascendancy to NA’s best was Olleh’s playmaking on supports that have now fallen out of the meta because they cannot build Ardent Censer.

When you remember Olleh’s play over the summer, what champions do you recall? Thresh. Bard. Alistar. Tahm Kench. In 52 Summer Split games (including playoffs), Olleh spent 32 of them (62%) on those champions. His combined winnrate on those four champions was 75%. As for meta shield supports like Janna, Rakan and Lulu? Five games of Lulu; zero games of Janna and Rakan combined. Olleh won only three Lulu games, and when he did select the yordle, he went Spelltheifs/Thunderlords every time.

Quick: Name one standout play by Olleh at Worlds. Can't think of one? It's not an accident. Immortals essentially played Worlds with their MVP reduced to a walking Ardent Censer. No wonder the bot lane kept getting smashed. It doesn’t excuse the performance, but can go some way to help explain it. I expect Immortals to grow and return to the Worlds stage next year. Cause of Death: Choked.

Salute to Gigabyte Marines, the Meta-Breakers

Gigabyte Marines are gone from Worlds, but they won’t be forgotten anytime soon. You tend to remember things like an Urgot in the top lane, Zilean support, or a Blue Kayn sighting. This scene doesn’t deserve the Marines, but we got them anyway and are all better because of it.

The roller coaster ride that started in Brazil ended last night in Wuhan, with the Marines giving absolutely everything they had. By the time the tiebreaker rolled around, Optimus’ multiple whiffed Shockwaves—including one he sombrero’d himself with—told the tale of a team that was beaten by fatigue as much as Fnatic.

Before they could even qualify for a tiebreaker, Marines had to defeat Immortals or Longzhu, and were heavy underdogs in either matchup. They nearly beat both. Archie’s Urgot took Immortals completely by surprise; the champion had not seen play in a major region since his re-work this summer. The unfamiliarity showed, with Flame and Xmithie misjudging Urgot’s health and damage potential on two early ganks to their own downfall. Once Urgot got fed, he became an unstoppable lane pusher that required three or more players to stop. When Marines shifted into a 1-3-1 around the mid game, it was curtains for Immortals and a lifeline for Fnatic.

But the real highlight for Marines came against Longzhu, the LCK champions who might be the best in the world when this tournament ends. Coach Tinikun pulled out a Rengar/Zilean composition that snowballed early and put LZ in a 10k gold hole with two inhibitors down. It was a stunning advantage, equaled only by the comeback Longzhu then orchestrated, carefully playing around the iconic Zilean ultimate to win every proceeding team fight and later the game.

In a scene dominated by Koreans teams, Korean imports and the Korean meta, we needed the Gigabyte Marines to prove that there is more than one way to play League of Legends. Marines never sacrificed their identity, never drafted away from their strengths, and never apologized for it. Levi is downright otherworldly, not only for his individual play, but the way he bends champions to fit his style no matter the type. Tank, bruiser, assassin; it doesn’t matter. Levi will aggressively gank early and aim to snowball in the mid game, tank meta be damned. I hope we see more of him on the international stage, and so do his legion of new fans.

Vietnam has made outstanding strides this season, and with the talent on GAM and Young Generation, they’ll be around for years to come. I can’t wait to watch the Marines again. Cause of Death: Fatigue.

Longzhu Gaming, the Final Boss

Abreast of all the carnage below them, Longzhu qualified for quarters without much of a scratch (their epic comeback against Gigabyte Marines more exception than rule). They remain the tournament favorites with incredible talent at every position.

How do you scheme against this team? Who do you target? What lane do you prioritize, and what composition will do it? This is Pray and GorillA’s meta, the original ROX Tigers juggermaw duo at it again, bringing every opposing bot lane to its knees. When Pray can unleash 11k damage in one team fight on Varus, who among the remaining AD carries can match that? Bang?

Young as they are, Bdd and Cuzz do exactly what their team requires: Pressure sidelanes while not dying.  It sounds simple, but Bdd was the only mid laner who went deathless across three games in Week 1. Cuzz’s target selection during team fights has been excellent, able to crowd control the opposing carries while protecting his own. He may not be the best jungler at worlds, but few (if any) have executed 5v5 fights better.

And then there’s Khan, the attention demanding top laner whose carry potential warps drafts (when Longzhu deign to play him). Teams leave up Jayce, Jarvan IV or Jax at their own peril. His outplay potential and utter fearlessness in lane cannot be discounted. Every victory Longzhu earn goes through his sidelane pressure, and few teams left at the tournament have anyone who can outduel him. 

Longzhu are the final boss of the tournament, the measuring stick all will be assessed by. Frankly, I expect the game against Gigabyte Marines to be the closest anyone comes to beating them, and even if I’m wrong, good luck repeating it twice more in a best of five. Enjoy the other storylines, but know that at the end of the day, the road to the Summoner’s Cup goes through Longzhu. Cause of Death: N/A