Final week of round robin #1, can the ROX Tigers finish with a perfect 9-0?
ROX Tigers vs. SBENU SonicBoom
We start off the last week of round robin number one with quite the terrifying team composition from the ROX Tigers, the Juggermaw. (Doors slam shut, curtains blow menacingly in the wind, candles flicker and then go out.) We haven’t seen a true Juggermaw out of Korea in a long time, and who better to demonstrate its catastrophic power than the best team in the league versus the worst? SBENU hilariously goes with a turtle-y defensive team, as if that will save them. Besides GyeongHo "Smeb " Song being solo killed by the opposing nobody, ROX pretty much would’ve had a perfect game. The rotations, outplays, pushes, power spike abuse, kiting, team work, communication, all of it – simply spectacular. True, just about any team would look good compared to SSB right now, but the sheer level of power in each player and as a whole looks completely unstoppable. No team - not the previous world champions, not any of the teams 3-way tied for third, not NA, not EU, not LPL, not a single one can stop the ROX Tigers hype train. Choo-choo.
Oh yeah, there’s a game two. SBB with the pick comp and ROX with teamfight. Tag this match with mature because it’s not suitable for younger audiences, this game was just… painful to watch. Not because SBENU played especially poorly, in fact, they played one of their best games of the season. In the mid game they put that pick comp to use with a few kills. What really hurt to watch was SBENU not getting a single buff the entire game. Peanut invaded early and took the first, then took the second, and kept it going through 6, 7, 8… 9? I lost count. It was so bad the SSB jungler didn’t even clear a buff camp so WangHo "Peanut" Yun wouldn’t get free experience and gold. Predictably, ROX close out the game incredibly confidently remaining 100% perfect in the first round robin, SSB the exact opposite.
Longzhu vs. KT Rolster
Thankfully a much closer game to end the day and to cleanse my soul of the darkness from watching ROX vs. SSB. Longzhu with a pick comp, KT splitpush. Where has this LZ been all season? Domination across the board because of JinYeong "Coco" Shin making plays with that Twisted Fate. Going late game, LZ push hard on all fronts rendering any chance of a comeback nil.
However, in the second game the exact reverse happens. With KT sticking with that splitpush and LZ going with teamfight, one would expect similar results as the first match. Rolster catch a strong lead early with fantastic vision control and great rotations, in the end, LZ get demolished themselves.
Strangely Longzhu’s draft became increasingly worse across the series, first game was a clear pick, second was a strange combination of Lulu and Ezreal, then the third… what were they even going for? I can’t even categorize it except to call it a gambit. On the other hand, KT take pick and siege – notably with Jayce, typically a Coco specialty. As they’ve done before, KT pull of the “scale to late game and hope for the best” strategy. Incredibly boring but hey, if it wins games then that’s all that matters. Basically they choose not to fight as much as possible while sneaking, or utilizing pressure elsewhere on the map, to take 5 dragons and win through sheer numbers. They do just that, sort of. With that 4th into 5th dragon pressure, Longzhu meet them at dragon to stop them at all costs - literally at all costs, they make a poor engage just to steal dragon and subsequently lose, oops.
Who is this kong…doo… monster? That used to be Em-fire, but got a sponsor – from weird name to weirder name. In this final series of the first round robin, CJ take a low damage team fight composition while Kongdoo go for the tricky splitpush and siege. For a large portion of the early game nothing happens - dead quiet, then, suddenly, bloodbath in KDM jungle. A huge team fight breaks out with CJ predictably coming out ahead, they snowball this lead into the thousands of gold and secure map control. What I really enjoyed about CJ’s play this match is the focus on their win condition, as mentioned before they have a teamfight comp versus a splitpush/siege. Best way to break a siege? Hard engage, find fights, force them out of their comfort zone, and they did just that.
In the next game CJ go for something similar, albeit risky since every match up loses in the early game. If, and only if, they can make it to the late game without giving up a huge lead then they have a pretty sure win. KDM try their hand at another tricky to pull off strategy with triple ad, the win condition being pushing turrets for the global gold. The entirety of the early game is just CJ trying to survive, luckily they make a few picks which buys them some time but evidently it wasn’t enough as Kongdoo siege until they can take baron uncontested and siege some more. Another instance of focusing on a single win condition, very enjoyable to observe.
Final match, go big or go home. Complete switch up of roles, CJ take splitpush while KDM team fight. Just like in game 1, dead quiet for the first 15 minutes then BAM! CJ get a clean ace and quadra kill on Kalista. By this point the game is pretty much over, CJ baron bait into 3 kills for nil and win the series.
