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General12 years agoRadoslav "Nydra" Kolev

Breaking the meta: SAJ and the SEA grand finals

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Photo source: Vgn.vn

Dual mid lanes and solo APs bot: this is what Saigon Jokers brought to the table before crushing Singapore Sentinels to qualify for the Season 2 World Championship this October.

The picks and bans for the first game were nothing out of the ordinary with the sole minor exception of SAJ's Lux. A champion that rarely makes it to high tier competitive matches, Lux looked even more peculiar running teleport on a mid champion.

Little did SGS know that SAJ's plan was be anything but orthodox. From the first minute of the laning phase, the Jokers allocated the positions in a way that professional League of Legends had not seen for ever: Lux ran bot to face Alistar and Graves by her own while the mid lane was taken by Ezreal and Leona. By the power of crowd control galore and one very fed Ezreal, SAJ were able to take down the middle inhibitor, swoosh back for a baron kill and finish game one shortly thereafter.

sea-finals-game1.jpg

Saigon Jokers 1:0 Singapore Sentinels
Bans
Morgana
Gragas
Jayce
Karthus
Shen
Malphite
Picks
Ezreal (mid)

Maokai (jungle)
Lux (bot)

Leona (mid)
Irelia (top)
Graves (bot)
Alistar (bot)

Vladimir (top)
Anivia (mid)

Lee Sin (jungle)
VOD: Game 1


Singapore Sentinels were the ones to deliver metagame weirdness in the second game, going for a ignite/flash jungle Cho'Gath and a mid/roaming Nunu with smite.

Cute as it may have been, however, SGS's composition broke its teeth into SAJ's global ult picks with Shen and Karthus able to make plays despite laning far away from the action at top and bottom, respectively. By the 20th minute mark, Shen had pouched 4 kills and Graves was at 2/0/1 and one Bloodthirster ahead of Caitlyn, the two being the centerpieces of the snowball effect that rocketed SAJ to the Season 2 World Championship.

sea-finals-game2.png

Singapore Sentiles 0:2 Saigon Jokers
Bans
Leona
Ezreal
Malphite
Gragas
Morgana
Jayce
Picks
Nunu (mid)

Yorick (bot)
Vladimir (top)

Caitlyn (mid)
Cho'Gath (jungle)
Shen (top)
Maokai (jungle)

Karthus (bot)
Sona (mid)

Graves (mid)
VOD: Game 2


SAJ's victory means that there is just one more team to be determined before the Season 2 championship line-up can be complete. September 12-21, the LoL community will tune in to the Korean championship with CJ Entus, Xenics Storm, NaJin Sword, Incredible Miracle and grand finalists and MLG Arena champions AZUBU Blaze.

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