Regional Qualifiers: EU and NA Finals

Today, we'll find out the #3 seeds from both North America and Europe.

It's come down to this:

Europe: Unicorns of Love vs. Origen (8 AM PST)

Unfortunately, Unicorns of Love have struggled quite a bit over the last few weeks.  Their style of off the wall picks and team compositions that most teams wouldn't run served them well in the past, but now has come back to punish them.  In general, they tend to fare well in best of five scenarios (until their 3-0 loss to Fnatic, then a back to back 3-0 loss to H2K); however, they've struggled to get their acts together in recent weeks.  Unless Unicorns of Love put adequate time into their preparations this week, there is a good chance they could get steamrolled again.  Origen, on the other hand, hasn't taken the easy road to this point.  They pulled the first two wins over Fnatic that any team has all season, but they struggled against ROCCAT in the Semi finals.

Prediction: Origen 3-1.  I'd like to see the Unicorns pull it off, but I'm afraid they've sort of lost their touch in recent weeks.

North America: Cloud 9 vs Team Liquid (12 PM PST)

Cloud 9 has made it back up through the ranks kicking and screaming through their last two showdowns.  Both victories have been down to Game 5,  Cloud 9 does have a bit of a comeback reputation in North America, especially in time for Worlds--you can be sure that Hai returning to the team brings back a much needed shot caller--so to be sure, it'll be an interesting game today.  On the other hand, Team Liquid has done fairly impressive things with their season.  The team has had a season to really work on unity, and has brought solid game play to the forefront across the board.  This should prove to be quite a fight.

Prediction: Team Liquid 3-2.  Cloud 9 does have a chance at taking that Game 5, but TL has paid their dues and should be able to pull off that win.

NA and EU Regional Qualifiers

We had quite the eventful weekend.

In both Europe and North America, our first and second seeds for Worlds were chosen.  In Europe, Fnatic is our #1 seed (Summer Split Champions), and H2K is our #2 seed (based on points).  In North America, Counter Logic Gaming is our #1 seed (Summer Split Champions), and Team SoloMid is our #2 seed (based on points).

The third slot for both NA and EU is chosen by another tournament, called the "Regional Qualifier".  It is a Best of 5 single elimination series between the four teams that have accumulated the most points in both Spring and Summer Splits (who also weren't sent to relegation, or didn't place 8th, 9th, or 10th in their regions).  Here is the format:

In Europe, the ladder looks like this:

ROCCAT vs Giants

---->  Winner vs. Origen

-------------->  Winner vs. Unicorns of Love

In North America, the ladder looks like this:

Cloud 9 vs Gravity

---->  Winner vs. Team Impulse

-------------->  Winner vs. Team Liquid

Round 1 of both regions takes place on Saturday, August 29th.  Round 2 will be on August 30th.  The final round will take place on Monday, August 31st.  As we get closer to the qualifiers, we'll analyze the teams and make some predictions for the 3rd seed slot in NA and EU.

NA and EU LCS Playoffs: Summer Split Finals

The time has come.

We're on the threshold of Worlds, whittling down the last few teams to decide who will represent North America and Europe on the World's stage.  Before we get into the matches this weekend, let's take an inventory of points already earned by teams from Spring Split.

Europe:

1 - 90 points - Fnatic
2 - 70 points - Unicorns of Love
3 - 50 points - H2K
4 - 30 points - SK Gaming
5 - 10 points - Gambit Gaming
6 - 10 points - Copenhagen Wolves

North America:

1 - 90 points - Team SoloMid
2 - 70 points - Cloud 9
3 - 50 points - Team Liquid
4 - 30 points - Team Impulse
5 - 10 points - Counter Logic Gaming
6 - 10 points - Gravity

Fnatic and Team SoloMid really only had to show up in the Summer Playoffs to go on to Worlds--not surprisingly, both teams have done extremely well in the competition thus far.  Now, the standings with an update as to the range of points they have the chance of earning (remember that four teams are still up in the air until Sunday).

*NOTE* : Points are minimum points earned - maximum potential to earn

Europe

1 - Fnatic: 180 - Automatically Qualified
2 - Unicorns of Love: 110 - 160
3 - H2K - 90 - 120
4 - Origen - 90 - Automatically Qualified
5 - ROCCAT - 20
6 - Giants - 20

North America

1 - Team SoloMid: 180 - Automatically Qualified
2 - Counter Logic Gaming: 100 - Automatically Qualified
3 - Team Liquid: 90 - 120
4 - Team Impulse: 70 - 100
5 - Cloud 9 - 70
6 - Gravity - 20
7 - Team Dignitas - 20

*NOTE: SK Gaming, although having earned enough points to qualify as #5, didn't qualify for the Summer Playoffs and instead ended in potential relegation, which doesn't allow them to compete for the third place spot.

There's a couple of different ways this could work out--all to crazy results in both Europe and North America.

Europe

1.  Fnatic wins their match, and UOL wins theirs.

• Fnatic goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Unicorns of Love go to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Origen, H2K, ROCCAT and Giants would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be ROCCAT vs Giants, the winner vs. H2K, then the winner vs. Origen.

2.  Fnatic wins their match, and H2K wins theirs.

• Fnatic goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• H2K goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Unicorns of Love, Origen, ROCCAT and Giants would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be ROCCAT vs Giants, the winner vs. Origen, then the winner vs UOL.

3.  Origen wins their match, and UOL wins theirs.

• Origen goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Fnatic goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Unicorns of Love, H2K, ROCCAT and Giants would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be ROCCAT vs Giants, the winner vs. H2K, then the winner vs UOL.

4.  Origen wins their match, and H2K wins theirs.

• Origen goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Fnatic goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Unicorns of Love, H2K, ROCCAT and Giants would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be ROCCAT vs Giants, the winner vs. UOL, then the winner vs. H2K.

North America

1.  Team SoloMid wins their match, and Team Liquid wins theirs.

• Team SoloMid goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Team Liquid goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Counter Logic Gaming, Team Impulse, Gravity, and Cloud 9 would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be Cloud 9 vs Gravity, the winner vs. Team Impulse, then the winner vs CLG.

2.  Team SoloMid wins their match,  and Team Impulse wins theirs.

• Team SoloMid goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Counter Logic Gaming goes to Worlds as the #2 seed (based on gaining more points in the Summer Split than Team Impulse).
• Team Impulse, Team Liquid, Gravity, and Cloud 9 would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be Cloud 9 vs Gravity, the winner vs. Team Liquid, then the winner vs Team Impulse.

3.  Counter Logic Gaming wins their match, and Team Liquid wins theirs.

• Counter Logic Gaming goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Team SoloMid goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Team Impulse, Team Liquid, Gravity, and Cloud 9 would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be Cloud 9 vs Gravity, the winner vs. Team Impulse, then the winners vs Team Liquid.

4.  Counter Logic Gaming wins their match, and Team Impulse wins theirs.

• Counter Logic Gaming goes to Worlds as the #1 seed.
• Team SoloMid goes to Worlds as the #2 seed.
• Team Impulse, Team Liquid, Gravity, and Cloud 9 would compete in a Regional Qualifier.  The tournament would be Cloud 9 vs Gravity, the winner vs. Team Liquid, then the winners vs Team Impulse.

Predictions.

Fnatic vs. Origen.  Although I'd like to cheer for Origen's meteoric rise through the LCS (xPeke sure can bring together an exceptional team), Fnatic has proven--quite definitively--that they are the best team in the European LCS.  There's a fairly decent chance that Origen will take the first victory over Fnatic this season, but the series can end no better for them than 3-1.

Unicorns of Love vs. H2K.  This is much harder to predict than who will take the top spot in Europe.  Between the two, H2K is much more consistent and puts out an expected level of performance.  They'd be the clear choice, if Unicorns of Love wasn't centered around the unpredictable nature of their play.  The introduction of Horo has brought some stable consistency to the team, but there's still a lot of outside picks that could go to their benefit.  H2K has looked a little better in the playoffs so far, but the Unicorns really fell apart at the hands of Fnatic.  Either way, the series will probably end 3-2.  We're favoring the Unicorns to bring their full power to bear.

Team SoloMid vs Counter Logic Gaming.  The rivalry between these teams runs deep--honestly, what would a Summer Split be without an epic showdown between these two North American titans?  Based on their track record through the regular season, CLG would be the better pick--but, historically, TSM has a reputation of pulling out wins in a series setting.  We're going to go with TSM on this one, but it will be a bitterly fought match.

Team Liquid vs Team Impulse.  Both of these teams brought their best to the forefront over the Summer--to be honest, we're a little surprised that the TSM vs TL matchup didn't go all five games--and this should be no different than before.  Team Impulse has been looking excellent with their early game aggression, but Team Liquid has been playing a solid game all around throughout the Summer.  They'll play at least four games, but in the end Team Liquid will most likely clinch the third place spot.  This means that they'll also clinch the second seed into Worlds for North America.

Summer Split: Top 5

Those of you who have followed my blog have noticed I took a three month hiatus, starting around the beginning of MSI and stretching through the majority of the LCS Summer Split.  To compensate, let's look at the highlight reel for the past three months with a top 5 list of biggest LCS news.

5.  The Volatile Meta.

Taric has been looking fabulous in the LCS.

Week to week in the Spring Split, the biggest shifts we saw in the meta was the initial popularity of Nidalee in the jungle, and the rise of the Cinderhulk.  Summer has been full of changes, and has opened up a wide variety of options in Champion Select.  After all, there has to have been a fairly big shift to have Gragas be the most picked/banned Champion in Europe.  Traditionally strong picks like Zed, Leona, and Vi have seen barely any play time, while less traditional picks (including dazzling Taric) have made their way on to the Rift.  Although we're seeing essentially the same setups we've always seen (tanky teams, protect the Kog'Maw teams, siege teams, etc.), the major Champions in those compositions have rotated significantly.

4.  The North American Bloodbath.

1-6 was up in the air all the way to the end of the regular season.

There's a healthy bit of debate over whether NA or EU is better.  At times--IEM Katowice, or the Mid Season Invitational--it seems like one clearly outshines the other.  This year, there is really only one rule to live by: in Europe, there are "Kings" of the League who are clearly head and shoulders above other teams (SK and Fnatic in the Spring Season, Fnatic and sort of Origen in the Summer Season) and in NA, we have a bloodbath.  There is no lofty throne, and no team so clearly dominant that a lower ranked team can't take down.  Although Europe appears to take the cake this time around (hello #1 on this list), there is something to be said about the "trial by fire" system here that helps prep NA teams for international play.

3.  The Focus No Longer is Mid.

Reignover gets a Quadra kill.

Traditionally, the mid laners garner a lot of attention and acclaim in the professional LoL scene.  After all, these mechanically precise players tend to play champions that look very impressive when they outplay everyone else--consider the FeniX 1v4 quadrakill on Azir, for example.  However, with the changes in the meta and especially the changes to how a jungler operates, we don't focus nearly so much on the early game duels between mid laners.  Early game action follows the junglers now.  Truly, their role in either creating picks for their team or coming to their aid has become the focal point of the laning phase.  Honest to goodness, we see less of the early solo kill and more of the jungle ganks (both the precise ones and the risky ones).  Riot promised that this year that they'd worked hard to change the way the Jungle worked--I'd say they were quite successful.

2. The Predictor: First Blood.

First blood C9 vs. TSM.  Incidentally, this wasn't the best indicator in this match.

There are many different things to look for as early indicators of how a game will go, but there are few more reliable early indicators than First Blood.  At Week 4, First Blood successfully predicted the winner with close to 80% accuracy in both NA and EU.  To be honest, 80% is extremely strong in statistics--after all, people feel pretty confident making predictions of Presidential candidates and weather with as little as 52-53% accuracy.  It'll be interesting to see how it continues to play out for Worlds--will first blood continue to be a strong predictor, or will another (first tower?  first dragon?) become more prevalent?

1.  Fnatic.

The logo says it all.

This is truly the team that can do no wrong.  As of this writing, they have played 21 games back to back without a single loss.  This makes them the most successful team in the world this season (and, dare I say, ever?), and quite possibly a chance to secure another Worlds title.  Let's talk a bit about what has led to their success.

• Synergy.  With the exception of Rekkles, this is the same team that dominated Europe in the Spring Split as well--and one can hardly forget that Rekkles came to Elements from Fnatic.  They have a lot of experience playing together, and that gives them an edge over the European competition.  In Worlds last year, the Rekkles/YellowstaR bot lane was a feared force that could only be matched by the most elite Asian teams.  Outside of the bot lane, the power of their communication is obvious--collapses, rotations, split pushing, and excellent team fighting is like watching clockwork.  Before the enemy realizes that a team fight is going to break out, Huni is teleporting in and Reignover is jumping out of the brush.
• Huni.  There is something special about Fnatic's top laner.  Everyone on the team is top quality, but Huni is truly a force to be reckoned with.  In the Spring Split, I explained how the only teams that managed to take down Fnatic (especially UOL) made it a priority to shut down and thwart Huni from the get-go.  The problem this season is that they've made it too dangerous for a team to focus on bringing down Huni early; if you leave either mid or bot lane alone for even a minute, the split push comes in strong and before you know it Fnatic has secured two objectives and Huni still took down half your team anyway.  Regardless of how the rest of the team performs at Worlds, you can be sure that Huni will perform exceptionally well despite the competition.
• Objective control.  When SK Gaming took the forefront of the European scene in the Spring Split, the way they did it was with precise objective control.  I described them as "playing against the computer" because kills took a backseat to securing objectives.  For the first half of the season, that worked really well for them--until teams realized that by shutting down FORGIVENGRE early and punishing the split push, SK became an easy opponent to deal with.  In the off season, Fnatic must have put in some time studying this strategy and adapting their own to include better objective control.  They still have the pack mentality--whenever you pick a fight with one Fnatic member, expect the rest to come along shortly--but amid their hunt, they've excelled at ensuring lanes are pushing their way, towers are going down, and they're on top of Dragon and Baron before the other team has had a chance to regroup.  This is why Fnatic has gone undefeated in the main season of the Summer Split: Fnatic never gives a team the chance to go back and lick their wounds.

NA and EU LCS Playoffs: Finals

Today is the day that we've been waiting for.  Who will be going on to represent their respective areas at the Mid Season Invitational, and who will relax back at home knowing they'll probably secure enough points to go to Worlds in the Fall?

Full Schedule and Predictions:

8:00 AM PST - Fnatic vs Unicorns of Love
Regular Season: 2 - 0 Unicorns of Love
Prediction: 3 - 2 Unicorns of Love.  No doubt Fnatic will have planned for this match inside and out, and will have a game sometime in the series that will convince people that they deserve to go on to MSI--but there's just something about the Unicorns of Love and their unprecedented rise to the top.  In the regular season, Fnatic has never taken a victory off of UOL.  Granted, both victories were really close, but the mere fact that the Unicorns were able to pull off two victories from behind shows they have what it takes to bring down the European heavyweight.  What remains to be seen are the exciting games that will lead to that victory.

12:00 PM PST - Team SoloMid vs Cloud 9
Regular Season: 1 - 1
Prediction: 3 - 2 Cloud 9.  This is a rough prediction.  Team SoloMid took the IEM Worlds trophy, and has played excellently all season long.  However, until today we haven't seen TSM up against a team that represented significant competition for them.  Although Cloud 9 isn't the flashiest of teams, if there is a team that will be able to pull off a victory in a best of five against TSM, it'll be C9.  Either way, it'll be a nail-biting close match.  A lot of the match comes down to how Cloud 9 plans their early game--will Dyrus be allowed to play League of Legends, or can C9 knock him out early on and win a 4v5?

As it stands:

EU LCS:

1st place - 8:00 AM PST - Fnatic vs Unicorns of Love
2nd place - TBD
3rd place - H2K
4th place - SK Gaming
5/6 place - Gambit Gaming and Copenhagen Wolves

NA LCS:

1st place - 12:00 PM PST - Team SoloMid vs Cloud 9
2nd place - TBD
3rd place - Team Liquid
4th place - Team Impulse
5/6 place - Counter Logic Gaming and Gravity

NA and EU LCS Playoffs: 3rd Place

Today should be quite interesting.  We haven't seen how H2K and SK Gaming really would do faced off against one another; likewise, the "new" Team Liquid that completely dominated CLG hasn't had a chance to play Impulse since the comeback.  Who will take 3rd place in their respective regions and square away points to Worlds?

Full Schedule and Predictions:

8:00 AM PST - H2K vs SK Gaming
Regular Season: 1 - 1
Prediction: SK Gaming 3 - 2.  Although H2K has been doing quite well as of late and it seems that SK's strategy has been laid bare, SK is still a really powerful team that is quite tough to interrupt.  With their chances to going to MSI gone, SK is going to do what it takes to make sure they can secure a spot to Worlds later in the year--which means they're going to prepare for this game much more than they did for UOL.  It'll be a close series, but SK will come out on top.

12:00 PM PST - Team Impulse vs Team Liquid
Regular Season: 1 - 1
Prediction: Team Liquid 3 - 1.  With their extraordinary performance against Counter Logic Gaming and solid game play against Cloud 9, Team Liquid has been looking much better in the playoffs than they did during the regular season.  Team Impulse, on the other hand, looks like they stepped up a bit for playoffs, but no where near the degree of Team Liquid.  Although no win will be an absolute blowout, Team Liquid should secure the 3rd place spot.

As it Stands:

EU LCS

1st Place Match: Sunday - 8:00 AM PST - Unicorns of Love vs Fnatic

3rd Place Match: Saturday - 8:00 AM PST - H2K vs SK Gaming

NA LCS

1st Place Match: Sunday - 12:00 PM PST - Team SoloMid vs Cloud 9

3rd Place Match: Saturday - 12:00 PM PST - Team Impulse vs Team Liquid

ADC Basic Builds: An LGS Guide

My wife recently has gotten into playing again, and made the astute observation that I'm absolutely horrible at recommending item choices mid game.

Wife (playing as an ADC): So, what should I buy?

Me (dodging skillshots): Um, I dunno.

Wife: That's not really an answer.

Me: What's on the recommended list?

Wife: Boots it is, then.

After the Game

Me: So, what did you think?

Wife: I was sort of squishy.  Like I died over and over and over . . .

Me: Well, what did you buy?

Wife: . . . and over and over . . .

Me (looks at items): You bought boots?

Wife: It was the only thing I could afford.

Me: Six pairs of Berserker's Greaves?

Wife: It was on the recommended list.

With that in mind, I decided that it'd be worth it to talk about the best item paths for AD carries.

Starting: Doran's Blade, Heath Potion, Warding Totem

(1) Standard: Infinity Edge (B.F. Sword first, sometime around 55 CS)

    Corki/Ezreal: Trinity Force (Phage, Sheen, then Zeal)

(2) Boots: Berserker's Greaves

(3) Attack Speed: Statikk Shiv (Corki/Ezreal build Infinity Edge)

    End Game: Phantom Dancer (As long as wave clear isn't a problem)

Trinket: Farsight Orb

(4) Lifesteal: The Bloodthirster

    Vayne/Twitch: Blade of the Ruined King

Boot Enchant: Furor

(5) Armor Penetration: Last Whisper

    Enemies not stacking armor: Youmuu's Ghostblade

(6) Defensive: Mercurial Scimitar

    Dying all the time: Guardian Angel