What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, it means you should take everything I say with blocks of salt. I'm bad. Chances are, you're probably better. That also means you'll see things I've missed, and I would love it if you could point it out to me. Alternatively, if you think I made an error in judgment, please correct me. Proof is always needed, of course.
You can always contribute yourself by posting your own videos and analyses. I'm sure there are many many lessons to learn from OGN, LPL, and LCS, and there are only so few written analyses.
Anyway, onto the content.
C9 vs LMQ from Week 10 of NA LCS 2014 Summer Split.
+ Show Spoiler [Analysis] +
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +
Ban - Gragas.
Chances are, it's because C9 has seen how well ackerman does on the fat man, so they choose to ban him out. Perhaps Balls isn't that comfortable on Gragas either seeing as he prefers Ryze and Nidalee, both of which have a hard time dealing with Gragas. C9 has also never picked Gragas even when he was available since he got popular. Therefore, this ban is pretty strategic in hurting LMQ's champion pool without hurting C9's.
Ban - Kog'Maw.
Staple pick from C9 lately because Sneaky seems to really like to enjoy it. LMQ also doesn't pick Kog much. They often ban it with Vasili opting for Corki or Tristana instead.
Ban - Lulu.
It's surprising C9 bans Lulu here because they seem to like having Sneaky play hyper carries. It seems they're choosing to go a different route than "protect the hypercarry" this game. If that's the case, LMQ might want to focus on Hai/Balls for the last two bans then.
Ban - Kassadin.
Very generic. I guess it focuses hai? Nobody gets to play Kass anyway.
Ban - Lee Sin.
Interesting. Meteos has a good Lee Sin, as far as NA goes anyway, but they don't want to give it up. NoName is also relatively non-existant on it. My thought is they don't want to deal with the early game pressure of Lee. This, however, means that they probably would've given Lee away to LMQ. chances are, they're not first picking for meteos then. He might go later in the pick order. It also means C9 isn't looking for early game prowess but are more aiming for mid/late game.
Ban - Eve.
Ah, duh, now the Lee ban makes more sense. It would be pick the poison because Eve would still be up, and Eve can be a menace early game too. Of course, there's still elise for Eve, but that means elise is up at the end of this round. Other decent junglers? I don't really know.
Pick - Tristana.
This is a very great pick up. They know Vasili likes Trist. Kog got banned out. Sneaky gets his hypercarry. To similarly carry the game, Vasili would need to play Jinx, but I think Vasili cares about mobility too much to play Jinx. I mean, previous picks have been Corki, Lucian, Trist, and a single Kog, no Jinx, despite them being up.
Picks - Braum/Elise.
That's a lot of CC and disengage. Braum and Elise aren't really great engages, although Elise is decent at picking people off. It also leaves Meteos with very few junglers to choose from... Rengar? Anyway, C9 will probably pick their top now and a support/jungler. They might do top/mid because C9 has a tendency where they pick whatever roles the other team hasn't picked yet. For blue side, this means they essentially get 3/5 picks uncontested. Not a bad idea.
Picks - Ryze/Yasuo.
Okay, so they picked Top/Mid because those roles have yet to be picked. Ryze and Yasuo both provide some lockdown, but this will be a risky comp. It'll have a lot of late game strength, since Tristana is amazing, and there's now a nice balance of AP/AD with Ryze and Yasuo, but there's no knock ups for Yasuo except Trist. That's a bit worrisome?
[b]Picks - Ezreal, Jayce.
Wow, so a poke comp comes out. Works very well with their disengage. Only problem is Yasuo who's wall can prevent a lot of damage and give C9 time to set up. However, if C9 gets behind, they're screwed. Windwall only holds out for so long before LMQ's poke comp wrecks them.
[b]Picks - Morgana, Nunu.
Slows, catch potential, not really hard initiate though. More zoning... huh. Honestly, LMQ would've done better with Nunu. Does Morgana count as hard initiate?
Picks - Xerath. Well, LMQ committed to the poke comp. Thinking back, I'm not sure about Ezreal personally, but what better poker is there? Hmmmmmmm, maybe Caitlyn, but meh.
LMQ Invades: Lemon spots it, and LMQ invades C9's red with Jayce. Minions are already on their way though, so Balls doesn't lose anything from helping leash for meteos. Spotting it also means C9 can counter, so it's an even trade. On the way back, though, Lemon hits Vasili with a binding and gets hit by an Ezreal Q. Even trade, but it might cause Vasili to be zoned from 1 melee creep's exp. Very close. A bit more, and they would've lost lvl 2. 1 melee creep is crucial because you need 1 wave + 3 melees for level 2.
Hai lvl 1: Went too agro there, but man, that lvl 1 all-in could've wrecked XWX. too bad hai went a bit too deep and took a tower shot. Otherwise, he could've won lane right there. Hai gets Lvl 2 first, but he can't go in anymore. XWX has a 2nd potion which will allow him to have the upper hand until Hai gets some more Qs/Lifesteal.
Meanwhile, we see on the mini-map that Elise is taking Meteos's wraiths. Meteos, meanwhile, has to walk all the way to LMQ's red. Elise is clearing faster atm and has an upper hand.
First gank: Meteos is off doing Wraiths in LMQ's jungle while NoName comes to gank from right side of lane. It's a bit uncoordinated by LMQ which costs them the kill or even Hai's flash. However, it did force Hai to back and makes Hai lose a bit of his lane advantage.
Another thing was that helped Hai survive was that he went to ward at 3:15. Remember this because it seems like 3 minutes or so is a good estimate to watch for your first gank. Hai went down and to the right because he knew Elise would come from that direction since she started at C9's red. 3:15 for first gank. I'll be sure to watch for that in the future.
Also, interesting how Meteos was forced into a certain jungle path (going top for LMQ's red) to maintain 2 buffs. Jatt points that out as a reason for Meteos not being at NoName's first gank, but it wasn't just because of maintaining the two buff start. It was also because Meteos wanted to keep take Wraiths/keep even in farm. We saw Elise take Meteos's Wraiths earlier, but we see Meteos at 9 CS vs Elise's 8. This means Elise left 2 small wraiths and Meteos only 1. Meteos was also late to the gank because he was at wraiths since he had to walk C9 Blue -> LMQ Red -> LMQ Wraiths which ended up taking him more time than NoName's C9 Red -> C9 Wraiths -> LMQ Blue. In fact, NoName was on LMQ's Blue while Meteos was still on LMQ's Red. 1 step behind.
This is an interesting picture because of the mini-map. Look at C9's ping. It pings LMQ's wolves. How did C9 know that? Here's what I think: The gank happens. Meteos comes to hold lane. The minions meet in the middle, and NoName makes a mistake by broadcasting his move toward the right side of the screen before getting out of minion range. This could be a ploy, but C9 can catch that with Meteos's deep ward. At the same time, we see Vasili and Mor backing off so Elise is probably not there for a counter gank. There's also no gank to be had bottom, so Elise is not there. It makes sense, then, that Elise would go back to farming wolves. However, this analysis is ex-post and at my own leisure. It's amazing for C9 to deduce that in real time.
Meanwhile, Balls backs as soon as he has enough for Tear + ruby crystal + ward after pushing Jayce under tower. Note to keep in mind for Ryze. As soon as you can get Tear + ruby crystal, get them. XWX also pushes to mid tower and backs. Meteos takes the farm and the exp, so now he's ahead of Elise in farm.
Meteos tracks NoName with a pink, and as long as he can cover NoName, he knows that Hai can bully mid and Balls can bully ackerman, especially since Balls just recently bought. In fact, C9 has both bot and top pushed up. NoName goes into the brush Meteos is hiding in. Meteos's advantage begins to show. That extra wave mid allowed Meteos to go up a level (4 to 3), making this fight in Meteos's favor despite the strength of Elise. Hai comes and NoName is in big trouble, but luckily, he rappels to Hai.
Hai tries to flash/ignite and kill Elise, but fails. Hai burns NoName's flash in the process. At this point, Meteos is pretty far ahead of NoName, and XWX has no kill potential on Hai. NoName might want to gank Hai next since flash is down, but Yasuo has windwall to escape.
Another picture of interest due to the minimap. C9 sees NoName is hurt. Right away, C9 plans to exploit this with deep wards. Meteos goes to counter jungle because NoName can't respond. Lemon roams to try and kill NoName, but also because he can now place deep wards without their jungler's presence threatening them. Meteos does the same and wards deep in LMQ's jungle with his quill coat ward. Advanage C9 atm, but it'll depend on how well Lemon gets back INTO lane. The lane is pushed up well. Lemon gets back safely.
Ackerman backs, but teleports back into lane. Next time Balls gets teleport, C9 have dragon advantage. Elise is also going for a gank on hai since his flash is down, but Hai is nicely positioned thanks to Lemon's earlier ward. As soon as Elise steps on it, C9 pings.
Elise clears the ward, and seeing Hai in good positon, he just places a ward and leaves. Knowing Elise's location means Bot and Top once again push in. Meteos is still nowhere to be seen for LMQ, which is dangerous for them, but he's farming up a nice lead. lvl 5 vs lvl 4.
Meteos eventually gets spotted near mid by NoNames' ward, so NoName proceeds to move down after Wight. Meteos sees LMQ's pink ward near red, but probably can't clear it yet.
C9 sees Xerath back, and C9 sees Elise near her red. Meteos just finished his blue, so he knows LMQ's red is coming up. Hai roams right away. Timed with Meteos, C9 has a numbers advantage in LMQ's jungle. They see the pink ward near baron, and this time, they can take that. Balls goes into tri-brush to be able to help if needed. Especially since he has jayce pushed in. He puts down a pink ward, and Ackermann has to be scared now that tribrush control up top is gone.
Xerath isn't back yet. Nunu starts to look for LMQ's red, but NoName spots it. Jayce comes down. Xerath is here. Red isn't done yet. Hai gets stunned. LMQ isn't completely grouped.
Very smart! Hai puts down a windwall so jayce can't poke 2 people, only 1. Balls snares NoName so Hai can get his Tornado off! Hai doesn't ult though. Meteos hits 6 on the red!!! Despite the poke on Balls, LMQ can't fight or Meteos would wreck them. Meteos's advantage has built up and he gets a red for his efforts. Beautiful play from C9.
Balls's TP comes online. Time to take Dragon? They start to gain ward control by taking the pink. Lemon also wards deep. How do they know elise isn't there yet? Either way, they have advantage at bot since Ackerman can't go down. I guess that's why Lemon wasn't afraid of warding so far in (at LMQ's blue with 3 people). C9 backs though... why? Probably to buy since Hai is still on a Doran's. Sneaky gets a nice powerspike of BF vs Mallet. Hai has Zeal + Brawler's gloves. C9 are on a small powerspike at the moment.
Meteos gets a sightstone and immediately starts to ward up LMQ's red-side jungle. However, LMQ spot him with their own wards and start to collapse. Meteos burns flash, and sees NoName. They know where he is, and they've warded his exit routes. That's why Meteos goes top, expecting an Elise gank.
They see Elise leaving and ping it out right away. C9 is doing a great job of tracking NoName. C9 sees XWX backing, so Hai follows suit. XWX takes Chalice + Codex. He has to play far back or Hai will all-in with Static Shiv.
Bad teleport by Balls here imo. They didn't need that. He was holding lane, and I think C9 would've gotten out for free, but I guess they wanted to be safe. I mean, just in this picture, C9 is grouped as 4 while LMQ is split. The only reason you'd want Balls down here is if you think you can make a pick. Otherwise, I think C9 would've won the 4v4 anyway. Still, that's very good positioning by C9.
Ackerman takes turret and backs as the creep wave is too far south. Balls starts to pushes to Ackerman's turret immediately. LMQ starts to group as 5, but C9's double wards on right spot this move. Everyone on LMQ has completed their first respective items, but C9 has too. In fact, sneaky backed just in time to match Vasili's Triforce buy with IE and meteos got Ancient Golem.
LMQ starts to group, but C9 sees it. In fact, LMQ is standing on top of 2 C9 wards right now. Right away, C9 starts to collapse by bringing balls down and lemon up. They also stop Hai's back and gets him to stay mid.
NoName gets caught out trying to hit the turret right after Jayce's gate ends, like Jatt says. Balls flashes in to get a root. Everyone collapses perfectly, and LMQ's team disengage is gone. Lemon gets a root on Xerath too. Ackerman barely saves it from being a 4-0 by knocking back Lemon. C9 right away gets their deep wards, and Meteos does some counter jungling. They get a turret off of it, too. Meteos now goes for merc treads. Hai gets his Cutlass, and balls is working on his Seraph's.
LMQ goes 5 mid, and happens to get a turret. Meteos is behind them, but he could get caught. Balls is still farming top. Turret trade? LMQ backs off. Yup, they get a turret trade. LMQ sweeps wards to make sure balls can't come in.
LMQ goes to dragon, C9's ward spots them. C9 immediately goes toward mid. LMQ does NOT want to lose the turret. Poke comps need turrets if they're behind because C9's comp can just engage on them again and again in open ground. Unfortunately, LMQ is too out of position. C9 takes the turret while LMQ is still trying to poke them down.
LMQ goes again to dragon to try and bait C9 into taking their dance. Meteos and Hai are topside. LMQ has no wards there. C9 sees Jayce and Ez and Elise at Dragon. They go for baron right away. This is risky, but knowing that there's nobody there, they can get it. LMQ has to get something back, so ackerman takes bot.
Right after Baron, C9 goes to buy. Ryze gets archangel's. Meteos gets Negatron's. He has a lot of defense against Xerath/elise poke. Hai gets BOTRK, and sneaky gets a zeal.
C9 sees they can't do anything with 1/4, so they go for 1/3/1. They go for Yasuo/Ryze in solo lanes like normal and Nunu, Trist, Morgana in mid. This makes it so they can disengage very easily in Mid if LMQ tries to catch them out 5v3. Ryze can also escape with his Ult. Yasuo, though, might have a harder time if he misuses his windwall. LMQ sees Hai do just that by throwing it in front of the turret when Vasili is trying to stop the split push. They bring Braum up. Hai hits a tornado, ults, but as soon as he sees braum, he uses BOTRK and runs out. That was Brilliant! He BOTRK's the Ezreal, who has both Tri force speed and Heal, meaning Hai can run stupidly fast even while exhausted. He also dashes to a minion behind him to ensure his escape.
Hai continues to split top, but LMQ swings upward, trying to get a catch. C9's warding comes into effect. They ping out the flanking Mor, so Hai should be ready. Indeed, he dodges the Braum ult. C9 swings up too. Ryze ports onto a minion. And they turn because Mor used his ult, Jayce used his Acceleration gate. LMQ has no disengage anymore! C9 gets 2-0.
Jatt brings up a good point: Disengage. Braum is actually quite good. The problem might be itemization. He should've gotten Ancient Coin once they were behind. Easier disengage and catch potential. Balls goes Cowl to help sustain against poke better. Hai goes GA so he can dive even if behind, and so he won't get caught. Sneaky gets Vamp so he can sustain back up too. Meteos goes Locket to help against Xerath's poke. They're itemizing very well.
But anyway, C9 continues to push on to towers. They take all 3 inner turrets and go up 10k in gold. At this point, the game is basically over. C9 is too far ahead. They bait baron a few times, get a catch, and take baron. After that, they can basically just straight up dive LMQ, so they do.
Some things to remember:
[list]
[*]3:15, watch for gank depending on where jungler starts, if you can see that.
[*]If their jungler is hurting, go for deep wards. They can't stop you really. Also applies if one of their lanes is hurting much more than your own.
[*]Try to deduce where their jungler is/is going when they leave lane. Really helps if you have wards, and make sure to ping it to team makes too.
[*]Ryze: Back early with Teleport top, since you want that tear staking ASAP.
[*]Watch for not only Jungler's entrance toward your lane, but also their exit. *Ugh, this has caused me deaths before >_>*