Photo: Riot Games
Since the start of the competition, the European community has been sleeping quietly. The MSI did not excite the crowds and the victories of G2 Esports against EG and ORDER were almost anecdotal. But yesterday, the Samurai achieved something big by chaining two prestigious victories against T1 and RNG. Some will even speak of an exploit.
In both games, the G2 players were excellent individually and collectively and we will never have enough compliments for Targamas. The old support of the Karmine Corp. is precious and fulfills its role as a detonator wonderfully. But another element struck us during the G2 vs T1 match… During the draft, the Koreans indeed decided on First Pick (and Blind Pick) Twisted Fate. Of course, we have a lot of respect for Fakerthe GOAT of League of Legends and his coach POLT. But with our low level of soloQ and our meager capacity for expertise, we find that this choice is really very debatable, not to say suspect.
Twisted Fate, a champion with well-known strengths and weaknesses
TF is a well-known champion of League of Legends which does not date from yesterday. Released in 2009, its signature gameplay has hardly ever changed. His signature ultimate allows him to have an improved “teleportation” all over the map, while giving a global vision of what is happening. The character is one of a kind and no other champion offers a similar range of skills. Among the pros, it is popular, especially among midlaners with a utility profile. It allows you to easily roam very early in the game, to support and snowball the sidelanes. Some formations also use it to play aggressively around an invasive jungler.
But individually, it should be noted that the champion is rather very weak in the lane phase. His mobility is very limited, if we remove his semi-global ultimate. The latter does not give any combat statistics (damage, shield, crowd control) and overall, the champion does not really have any pressure to kill his opponent in 1v1. It has a small burst that must be respected with its combo Gold Card/Wild Card. But unless you go full AP, it’s rarely enough to kill… The Rapid Fire Cannon and the Eternal Freeze provide utility but little damage. Note also that if his passive allows him to generate some income, he does not offer firepower either. The lane phase of Twisted Fate can therefore quickly become complicated. This is all the more true if he finds himself facing a counter-pick. And there are a lot of them: we can cite assassins (Zed, LeBlanc, Ahri) or champions like Yasuo or Fizz who can counter the golden card. Faker may be confident, taking First Pick Twisted Fate, he was immediately countered by caps who locked the disgraced swordsman. We could add that other champions at G2 had the capacity to nullify this famous Gold Card, the main asset of TF: ultimate of Kalista, the immunity of Ornn or the obligatory Zhonya of Diana.
Taking Twisted Fate so early in the draft, a bad strategy?
Beyond the champion’s mechanics and interactions, taking Twisted Fate so early in the draft is very complicated strategically. Twisted Fate is a mostly utility champion today and deals very little damage. We also know that in teamfights, his contribution is ultimately very limited. Its main interest is to be able to split push while managing the sidelanes.
The concern is that by displaying its intentions from the start of the draft, T1 opened a huge door for G2 Esports. The Samurai, for good reason, decided to play a teamfight-oriented composition, with champions tanky (Ornn) and able to regenerate over time (Yasuo and Kalista). It was therefore enough to hold on for 25 minutes to win. We have rarely seen such a clear draft diff at MSI and we can only congratulate Dylan Falco for the works. If Twisted Fate had been taken later and the Koreans had managed to hide their game for longer, the Europeans might have drafted a less teamfight and late game oriented lineup. But showing his hand so early, one had to expect an adequate response. Faker and his gang must have been a little disrespectful, and they learned a lesson. Finally, note that to compensate for Twisted Fate’s weakness in teamfights, Zeus chose to play Kennen. The idea could have been interesting, but the champions do not synergize very well together… While Faker wanted to split push to put pressure in the sidelane, Zeus was constantly looking to force teamfights with a flank position or a frontal engage . The Koreans had their butts between two chairs, while G2 had a simple but effective game plan! In the future, it is hard to imagine the team bringing out a TF in the blind from the first rotation of the draft.
esport-lol
Even in our wildest dreams we didn’t really dare to believe it… but as we pointed out, historically G2 has done quite well against T1 and RNG on League of Legends. And for its entry into the MSI Rumble, the Samurai crushed the competition. Enough to believe the title?