SLE finals thoughts

     SLE Season 3 finals

    Same as last season I will give my honest thoughts about the finals and how it went.

Pre-series

    We had scrimmed Black Manta 1-2 months ago when they started their comeback arc and lost to them both times 1-2, but there is an asterisk to those results. Iirc we did try some different strats in those games and we did not lose a single game to the original 5 man squad of BLM, In all games, they defeated us they used subs. That being said, they showed some solid teamplay as well as showed us the strategies that they can use to give us trouble. In the games, we defeated them, it was more about us rolling them with early game domination, while games they won were by dragging it into deep waters with heavy AoE buff champs like Karma, Seraphine, and Sivir. 

    That plus some extra research and vod review explains our bans versus them. Our idea was that without champs that boost their team like that and force them to play more individually, we will have the edge. We also prepared a lot individually. Rengo reviewed Maybies gameplay, so did Sovonix with Denzer. We had only 2 scrims since Reef series, but we still felt confident as we had a solid plan. Everyone looked to be in good form, I personally felt like I am in my best form of the whole split.

Game 1.

Draft - Expected BLM to ban Azir, Gwen, Cait, but they decide to go for Azir, Aatrox, and Varus. I guess the idea is to take Cait away from me while banning the other top 2 adc that I play, which is a plan, but I don't think it will put me in discomfort, I think it actually puts them in more discomfort as Caitlyn is a champ that requires team to play a certain style and the Cait player to execute the champion to a decent level. We go for MF, Amumu to secure a solid lane where Cait is in danger + strong teamfight. They counter with a smart Taric pick, but I think it might have been too early in the draft as with our remaining 3 picks we pivot away from wumbo combo draft. They get a great matchup in mid, but we have Sovonix with range advantageous matchup so I am not sure that Denzer can win that. Overall I liked our adaptations in the draft and the idea was that we win as long as we don't let them cleanly engage on us 5x4 with Kled ult. We round up with Fiora counter vs Kled and an overall strong, versatile tank in Maokai.

Gameplay - 

Laning - BLM does some creative pathing and starts the repeated top camp, which proved to be the plan of the series meanwhile we are soft winning bot, which is huge since Cait is behind as Cait(tbh I have no idea what is the point of Cait when you pair it with Taric, if it was me I would ask my team - why am I playing Cait here?) and Sovonix is just gapping mid with excellent fundamentals and wave management, making Denzer bleed 100 gold every minute via cs denial, outcsing, and first strike. Tbh I think Denzer should have called for help to fix the wave or just used TP to make himself healthy.

Midgame - BLM tries to 4x4 us at drake, but our teamfight is just superior, Taric doesn't get his ult off on time and the leads on our carries are just too much for BLMs frontlane to handle. After that first 4x4 at drake, the game was in our hands and unless I and Sovonix would sprint it, they did not have the tools to kill us and they were playing 4x5 since solo backlane Cait wasn't able to participate in teamfights.

Game 2.

Draft - We keep the bans, they switch varus, aatrox to cait, mf. I guess they can't pick it away from us this time and they don't want to face cait, also if they want to pick xayah, mf is a soft counter and maybe they don't want to pick Taric again, so they just ban mf. We open with Maokai, which is a strong pick no matter what, they answer with xayah, mundo. We assume that mundo is top, so we go for camille counter and Varus. Tbh these picks might not be the best here since Varus engage is negated by both mundo and xayah, and camille turns out to be countered by illaoi. Going in 2nd phase, they have an advantege, so we have to fix this draft. Their Ekko pick foreshadows Syndra on b4, so we ban it. They r4 Janna. Why? Already engageless team, goes for more peel? We take Cassio and Nami, securing a good bot matchup and ways to kill tanks mid/late. They finish with Orianna... Maybe if BLM gets really ahead, then they can be unkillable, but other than that I feel like we outrange, outscale, and have better engage and peel tools than they do. They legit have 0 ways to engage. I go for the most glass cannon setup possible on Varus, lethal tempo, alacrity, manaflow, gathering storm, since I can't find a way anyone can ever get to me.

Gameplay - 

Laning - Same story repeats as Sovonix is winning mid by superior laning, and we are winning bot by cs and outplaying them in great 2x2, meanwhile BLM gets some leads in top with their own 2x2s. Kaptenen almost brings it back, but tight 1x1 goes Linus way by a little. BLM are making some good plays, but we outscale and don't let them gain a snowballing lead. 

Midgame - we are slowly outscaling and BLM needs to make plays to close out the game. Chwichi gets a good pick on me in the bot as I am caught looking at the map, and with cleanse and galeforce he runs me down. Manta makes some good plays, and some bad plays, but overall it's not enough to gain a lot. We possibly mess up our lane assignments as Cassio might have been able to kill Illaoi, but we mostly match it with Camille. BLM makes some critical mistakes with Linus getting caught this all slows down Blm's win condition.

Late-game - We have fully outscaled them and the champ diff is huge, Camille and Cassio can kill both BLM sololanesrs in side. The lack of engage is making it hard for BLM to even make desperation plays and we see Chwischi of all people being forced to use cleanse, flash, gelforce, and ult just to engage in a teamfight, and after all the tools are used they lose teamfights anyways. Unwinnable lategame for BLM, 2-0.

Game 3

Draft - They switch out the mf for Maokai ban, a champ that has been very impactful the whole series. We take Varus b1 as its flexible pick, they counter with Kaisa, Nautilus. A very aggressive botlane and I understand wanting to go in as they have been pressed down bot for 2 games and you could already start to feel the frustration in game 2. But picking kaisa, naut this early feels way too early, we double counter with Renata and poppy, and now manta could have pivoted away from running in head first like we did in game 1, but they double down with Vex. Not sure how are they ever supposed to win a controlled teamfight. We take out some oppressive Linus special toplaners, while they do the same for Kaptenen. Maybe picks Voli as he usually does when BLM is with backs against the wall, we call it in voice. We do Kassadin into Vex and Seju blind as she has very few bad matchups that Linus could play. Linus goes Garen as it has worked for him throughout the playoffs. There was a lot of talk in twitch chat about Kassadin pick. I feel like Vex is not a champion that Kassadin will struggle within lane at all and with Garen and Kaisa/naut on sidelines it really shows that Vex will focus on roaming. As a team comp - Kaisa, naut, vex, voli, garen wants to run into us. How can they ever run into varus, Renata, poppy, and seju? They can't. Now their comp is being completely countered, they are in danger of being picked off themselves and Kassadin is the best champion in punishing misspositions. Even with the cc on BLM team, it's very hard for BLM to actually get on top of the Kassadin as his mobility is too much, only Nautilus ult can work as a pickoff tool, but I don't think its enough. A hard draft win for us.

Gameplay

Laning - Similar story as in the game before. Vex is unable to punish Kassadin in the lane. We are dominating bot with a massive range advantage, a lowkey unplayable lane for Kaisa. A long teamfight goes even, as BLM escapes with blinking health bars as I troll Sovonix by not tanking another turret shot. Maybe is playing his best game of the series, BLM tries to make plays and get Vex fed, but they just can't get away as our csing leads just negate any gold lead. 

Midgame - I get solokill on Chwichi. Revenge. BLM keeps trying to make plays since they are on a clock, but it's not enough. Their only teamfight win comes when we use too many resources to kill their support, and they are able to run it around 4x5. Once our teamcomp is online, it's just too hard for BLM to ever get an engage onto us, and even when they find an opening, counter engage is too strong from Renata and Poppy. We close out the series as Sovonix gets an adriankill.

After the Finals - I truly think that Black Manta played solid series, but just ran into the best form of the split, of the Good Chi squad. We really were a 5 headed monster in this series, it was a game of whac-a-mole for BLM as when they shut down one player, another popped off, and our read-on draft made it even harder for them. Well done for my guys and thank you all for participating in the split.