EU LCS Week 7 Analysis: From the Depths

This week of the League of Legends EU LCS has been as dramatic as we could have hoped for. There were lower tier teams rising to cast off the shackles of reputation and bad match history, and some surprise results came out as well as disappointing mistakes. Across the board matches are becoming more and more even (with the exception of a few easy stomps here and there), which has made this week one of the most hard-fought and exciting thus far.

In regards to picks, Rammus was one of this week’s biggest successes. He took to the top lane in a flurry of spinning shells and taunting his enemies to their demise. Nautilus was also huge priority to due to his unequaled crowd control and ridiculous tankiness. In almost every game, this lumbering scuba-diver dominated team fights and helped carry his team to victory. Our little friend Kog’Maw, although banned consistently this week, was not used to great effectiveness in the games he did appear in, and due to the nerfs in Patch6.4 it’s unlikely he’ll be seen much next week. However, hints for yet more balancing changes surrounding Kog’Maw’s kit in Patch 6.5 could suggest him coming back in a big way later this year.

Without further ado, here is a run-down of this week’s games.

Day 1

The fearsome G2 faced Elements in the first game of this week. Here, we saw Gragas coming out again for G2’s jungle with Poppy in their top lane, while Elements chose Zilean for their mid laner. G2 applied serious pressure from the get-go all around the map and succeeded in securing the first dragon of the game. However, Elements, in a rare moment of superb reactionary play, took the game’s first three kills off an attempted tower push by G2. Later, the score evened out and Elements once again began to fall behind. An outplay by Kikis gave G2 another kill on Steve, and an unnecessary engage from Elements gave G2 the win, albeit more narrowly than they would have liked.

Next Giants were matched with Vitality in one of the week’s more one-sided games. The two previously powerful picks of Malphite and Gangplank for Giants were countered well on the side of Vitality by Nautilus and Quinn. Despite these teams’ previous history, the kills were even at 20 minutes 3-3. Giants definitely gave a much better performance in this game, however, Vitality’s superior communication and map control gave them several fights as well as Baron buffs, and they were able the take the game with relative ease.

H2K battled Fnatic next, and merely looking at their compositions would tell you how much more current H2K is in terms of play style and strategy surrounding champions. H2K picked up Nautilus, Nidalee, Corki, Caitlyn and Braum (an exceedingly long-ranged composition that is difficult to deal with in any situation). On the other hand Fnatic chose Maokai, Gragas, Gangplank, Ezreal and Thresh. Now, although it can be argued that all these champions bring something valuable to the table, it’s also apparent that they don’t particularly fit together in any comprehensive way. Despite this, H2K performed very poorly early on by failing in a teleport gank, taking bad fights and walking straight into several baits. However, their two Baron steals and the resulting mistakes from Fnatic gave them the game. An ill-deserved win for H2K at this stage in the competition.

Game 4 saw Splyce take on Origen. Although Gangplank was once again picked up on the side on Splyce (in the top lane), Origen was simply able to counter it with the massive flex pick of Quinn. Add Lee Sin and LeBlanc into the mix for Origen and you have one extremely mobile and explosive composition. Although the game was very even early, with kills matched 2-2, Origen pulled ahead and began to control the flow of the game completely. After applying serious pressure around Splyce’s base, Origen managed to take a decisive win with little in reply.

Lastly in Day 1, the trailing team Roccat took on the powerhouse of team fighting prowess and ballsy moves: Unicorns of Love. Roccat picked up some safe picks in the form of Gragas and Kalista as well as bringing out Bard support and Rammus top. Roccat secured First Blood off a fantastic use of Bard’s ultimate to dive the mid lane tower. Thene UOL pick a very bad fight and give up another four kills! UOL looked like a different team, and Roccat exploited these opportunities well, taking Baron and another kill. Even when UOL looked to be pulling ahead in a fight, Roccat came back with the DPS on Kalista and swayed the balance their way. UOL’s stupid mistakes, and Roccat’s near-flawless play, comfortably gave the game to Roccat.

Day 2

Origen faced G2 in Game 1 of the second day. Oriana was picked up for Origen, while quite apart from being off-meta, and a great asset in this game. G2 began the game looking like their old selves- making confident moves around the map and picking off isolated members of Origen using their double teleports to great effect. However, they overstayed their welcome in one such fight and conceded a number of kills to Origen. Perkz carried out an excellent bait on Lissandra and managed to pull Origen into an Ace. Origen were by no means out of the game at this stage though, and G2 bit off more than they could chew with Powerofevil and he picked up a Quadra kill on Oriana. The game was still back and forth at 40 minutes and G2 only took down Origen narrowly after a hard fight. By far this was the most exciting game of this week.

The second game of Day 2 followed in a similar manner with Giants giving H2K a serious run for their money. I have to say, I had concerns in champ-select when I saw the absence of any real tanks on the side of Giants. However, their insane level of damage proved difficult for H2K to deal with at several moments during this game. Early on, every attempt made by Giants was thwarted by H2K and they seemed to be once again outclassing their opponent. Giants eventually managed to steal the Baron and came back into the game in a serous way! They pushed their advantage instantly and took an inhibitor. Later on they were able to take yet another Baron out from H2K’s nose owing to their incredibly quick clear time. Unfortunately, they overstayed on a number of occasions and despite a near-successful backdoor attempt, they fell apart during a team fight mid and gave up the game to a victorious (if somewhat shaken) H2K.

Unicorns of Love faced Splyce next, and in the beginning it seemed as though Splyce might have the upper hand coming into the game. The Rammus pick from UOL was countered by solid magic damage and mixed damage on Splyce’s side. However this thought was quickly disproved as UOL took an easy First Blood and made it to 25 minutes with 7 kills and no reply from Splyce. UOL took Baron and Splyce’s magic damage, it seemed, was not enough to cut through Rammus’s thick outer casing. Splyce finally secured a couple of measly last-minute kills at the cost of several key structures in their base, including the Nexus.

Roccat’s composition versus Fnatic in the second to last game of the week was (despite some serious mobility problems surrounding Anivia and Kog’Maw) well-tailored with hard CC and a powerful front line to exploit the Kog’Maw pick. However, Fnatic’s answering comp (which included Lee Sin, Kalista and Lissandra), with the ability to isolate and take down a high-priority target, looked well-equipped to deal with their opponent. Kills were traded early, and despite their slow reactions and lack of early power, Roccat managed to stay in the game. Roccat started Baron and managed to pick up a Quadra Kill, which later became an Ace from a snipe by Airwaks on Rek’sai. Unfortunately for Roccat, a great engage by Fnatic later on obliterated Roccat’s members along with any hopes of winning the game.

Finally, Vitality went head-to-head with Elements to claim the last game of this week. Despite taking First Blood, Elements conceded an early kill to a clinically executed tower dive by Vitality- using the Nidalee and Nautilus combination perfectly. This situation was echoed exactly later on and Vitality began to pull ahead considerably. Vitality took control of this game in the early stages by starving Elements of kills, vision and objectives through use of great communication and gobbling up teammates to carry them to safety in Tahm Kench’s stomach. Vitality made some great decisions this game and Elements came out with another loss.

As I mentioned before, this week saw previously unsuccessful teams put in some surprising and calculated plays. Roccat, Elements and Giants have all come along leaps and bounds from where they were two weeks ago, and this week has proved that every team is still here to play in the EU LCS. The fact that Giants gave H2K (who currently top the board with 12 wins) a serious fight will give all the other teams more confidence in facing them in the future. Vitality and G2 came up strong again of course, but even G2 showed some cracks in the armor. These historically weak teams are rising from the depths to surface in an attempt to sink the flagships of G2, H2K and Vitality.

Picks this week have seen emphasis shift from top laners like Gangplank and Fiora to tanks- namely Nautilus. Nautilus has seen a huge amount of play this week and his absolutely insane levels of crowd control (the most in the game on a single champion), coupled with his late-game tankiness make him perhaps the strongest utility pick at the moment. He can pretty much be added into any composition (either in the top lane or support position) and instantly strengthens your team’s pick potential, team fights while providing a veritable tidal wave of CC and front line power.

Even if Nautilus is nerfed in upcoming patches, his kit is so inherently powerful that I can’t see him falling off much in terms of popularity this year. Because of this, I think he will continue to be considered extremely strong and safe for any team in the coming weeks. Alistar, Braum and Malphite (with the possibility of Rammus) will occupy the other spots for tanks. In fact, with such strong tanks available (especially ones with inherent powerful armor scaling like Malphite and Rammus), the ADC role in general has attracted fewer bans. With Jhin now enabled will we see the Virtuoso hit the Rift?

In the coming weeks, look out for the lower tier teams and don’t rule them out of your considerations. Keep your eye on the Patch notes and don’t miss next week’s update for Week 8 of the EU LCS!