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The Good, the Bad, and the Weird: 4/13-4/16

The Good


Broxah's Brush-to-Baron-Steal play

Fnatic seems to have no shortage of strategies that involve bushes. They were well-known for the death brush strat, after all, and now FNC Broxah has established another strategy - the "wait around in a bush for a minute and see what happens" play.

While G2 rotated around the map to secure objectives and kills, FNC Broxah did nothing but hang around near Baron. It could have resulted in a ton of lost time from Fnatic's jungler, but G2 just so happened to swing by to start the objective without proper vision control. Suddenly, Broxah's love of brush didn't seem so weird, and Fnatic's jungler managed to steal away the objective from under Trick's nose. If the play failed, Broxah would've looked pretty silly. Instead, Fnatic's jungler managed to turn his bush-camping strat into a hero play.

WildTurtle solos out Moon

Generally when an aggressive diver goes for a lone marksman, it goes poorly for the marksman - unless your name is TSM WildTurtle. He masterfully outplays Moon after FLY's jungle ganks him from the brush, avoiding the rest of the skillshots while landing enough damage to take the kill. The Heal at the end wasn't even necessary - Turtle had Moon dead to rights no matter what.

To be fair, Moon shouldn't have gone for the saucy Explosive-Cask-into-the-Barrel-Roll combo, but he would have killed Turtle anyways if not for Turtle's slick moves. TSM's ADC has still got the touch, it seems.

 

The Bad


Origen get relegated

You have to feel a little sorry for xPeke. He's gone from a professional star and manager of a world-class LCS team to watching his squad lose every single game this split. Coming out of retirement to play for the team didn't seem to help in the slightest - xPeke's performances at ADC and support over the last year yielded middling results at best. Origen's slide to relegation was a long time coming, but watching the Team That xPeke Built disappear from the LCS is a sad day for professional League of Legends.


Hai's whiffed Shockwaves

Command: Shockwave is one of the most powerful ultimates in the game. Whether or not the ability lands can mean the difference between a teamfight win and a teamfight loss - and unfortunately for FLY Hai, the latter happened far too often against Team SoloMid. His first Shockwave of game 3 whiffed entirely during a duel with Bjergsen. His second in the toplane a few minutes later missed the retreating WildTurtle and hit only Hauntzer, who was able to shrug off the damage. His third and fourth Shockwaves hit multiple members of TSM, but didn't kill anybody. You get the picture.

By the time Hai managed to get a lethal Shockwave, it was already too little and too late for FlyQuest. With a gold lead mounted against them, FLY was unable to stop TSM from marching into their base and taking home the victory. Early Shockwaves mean lategame advantages, and Hai just wasn't able to get the Ball where he needed it.

The Weird


Mallets and guns don't mix

Remember kids - late game champions only spike late if you build them correctly. FNC Rekkles's Tristana could have been an excellent threat for Fnatic as the game dragged on, but a lack of crit in his build - and the inclusion of a Frozen Mallet, of all things - greatly hampered his ability to do any sort of meaningful damage in fights. It was a weird choice for a world-class ADC to make, especially when his team's playoff dreams were on the line. Guess he's been playing too much on-hit Kennen top.

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