Team 8 vs Cloud 9: By the Numbers

For 82% of the fan vote, the way this game turned out was a surprise.  Even though we're used to seeing a little bit of shuffling around and middle-of-the-pack teams taking victories off of top tier teams (Team SoloMid vs Gravity, for example), the fact of the matter is that no one really saw Team 8 coming.

Although, their record is of note--they took down Team SoloMid in Week 1, and the last few weeks they've done rather well in their matchups.  Even when they lose they're looking like a better team than they were in Weeks 2 and 3, when it appeared they would need to struggle just to stay relevant.  Now, they're looking like they could make an impact on the Spring Playoffs.

For the vast majority of the game, the gold difference was in favor of Cloud 9--for as much as 8k gold at around 31 minutes.  Cloud 9 was reliably securing objectives, taking three dragons, a baron, and all tier 2 towers by 31 minutes.  Team 8 had been forced on the defensive from about 20 minutes on, only taking down three Cloud 9 turrets by the same point.  It looked like it would be a classic Cloud 9 game--out rotate, collapse quickly for the team fight, and ultimately allow the pressure to build enough so that the base would crack.  Cloud 9 even managed to apply enough pressure that the Team 8 top inhibitor tower and inhibitor fell around 34 minutes.

It all changed at the second baron.

With the pressure that they already had on the base, it seems in retrospect a misallocation of resources to go after baron.  Team 8 had only taken down one tier 2 tower at that point, and at most could break through the mid inhibitor before baron buff would wear off.  With super minions coming from the top and all the lanes pushing in favor of Cloud 9, there would be a limit to the amount of pressure Team 8 could apply.  Regardless, someone thought it would be a good idea to stop backing despite their low health bars and contest the baron.

Cloud 9 decides not to recall, but to contest the baron.

The mistake resulted in an Ace, and the gold difference shrinking from nearly 9k to a little less than 4k.  Cloud 9 still had the advantage at that point, but it seemed like the turn around at baron threw them off.  They did manage to collapse the top inhibitor again and pick up a dragon between that baron fight and the end of the game, but Team 8 started calling the shots from the baron fight onward.

Slooshi8 prevents Meteos from recalling.

Another catastrophic team fight at 44 minutes forced Cloud 9 into a corner where they were unable to recall safely, and effectively cost Cloud 9 the game.

The baron fight that went so wrong for Cloud 9.

1.  The shot calling.  There were some really good calls made by Cloud 9 at the beginning of the game--the out rotation that cost Team 8 four turrets in as many minutes was downright mechanical in precision.  It's unfortunate, though, that the incredible rotations won't be the highlight of this game, but instead the miscalls to contest baron and the misplays at the end of the game.  Cloud 9 had a comfortable lead, and could have closed out the game with some steady pressure, but the bad call led to an Ace and eventually the Team 8 victory.  On the other hand, Team 8 struggled with their shot calling throughout the first 2/3 of the game, but brought it back at the perfect moment with the baron rush.

Maplestreet takes his 8th straight kill.

2.  Maplestreet8 on Graves.  Even though things didn't go well for his teammates, Maplestreet8 had an exceptional game.  Overall he did 48.1k damage to champions (CaliTrlolz8 was next on his team with 38.4k), 9 kills, 6 assists and only 1 death.  The whole team can be thanked for his success, though, because so much of their composition hinged around keeping him safe.  When all was said and done, he took 27.3k damage--about half that of either Porpoise8's or CaliTrlolz8's damage.

CaliTrlolz8 and Porpoise8 effectively split up Cloud 9, allowing them to turn the fight around.

3.  CaliTrlolz8 has the top lane figured out.  The truth is in the gold differential between CaliTrlolz8 and Balls at the end of the game: 18.7k to 15.8k.  Both top laners served similar purposes--a tanky peel that could apply positioning pressure and lock down targets as necessary.  In that regard, they both did well--CaliTrlolz8 took 56.1k damage to Balls' 53.8k (which was nearly 14k more damage than Meteos and over 20k more than LemonNation).  CaliTrlolz8 brought his tankiness to bear in the team fights, but was also able to wave clear and split push as necessary.  He was also able to do all this on Vladimir, who hasn't seen much professional play since Season 2.

Baron  goes down for Team 8.

4.  Baron buff.  What is surprising about this match is how baron buff was used.  Typically, when a team takes baron, they take down a tower within a few minutes.  In this match, though, neither team used the baron buff to take a tower.  In fact, both teams used the baron buff to establish enough dominance that they could get another dragon.  Baron buff grants a buff to AD/AP (up to 40, scaling with game time).  It also gives players a faster recall and a movement speed boost upon returning to the fountain.  Minions receive a number of benefits, including reduced damage from Area of Effect spells and abilities, increased range (especially for cannon minions), and some damage buffs.  The buff lasts for 3 minutes.  In the long run, however, the benefits from Dragon 5 (Aspect of the Dragon) far outweigh the benefits one can receive from baron--12% increased ability power, a true damage burn, more damage to minions, towers, and monsters, and amplified movement speed afford a team more power in those 180 seconds.

Despite their great positioning, Cloud 9 lose this fight because they couldn't churn out the damage.

5.  Perhaps the double AD carry has met its stride.  The first time we saw the double AD composition it looked like this new team composition could pull off more wins pretty handily.  Now, though, in Week 8, we've seen our fair share of double AD carry--and it's frankly not looking very impressive any more.  It's nice that they usually have coordinated spikes, and that they are able to push down towers harder than most other carries, but the fact still remains that instead of one auto-attack reliant teammate, there are two.  In fact, the only real burst that Cloud 9 had to offer was Trinity Force combined with Corki abilities--which, although substantial, is much more predictable and less intimidating than a 100 to 0 nuke from more traditional mid lane picks.  It's a great composition for the team that plans to have a great deal of map control and pressure down objectives, but is lacking for the team that plans on diving in to team fights.

Other interesting statistics:

• Vision control is falling more and more under the wing of Junglers.  Porpoise8 dropped 55 wards to Dodo8's 52, and Meteos placed 47 to LemonNation's 48.

• Despite the loss, Sneaky earned the most gold (20k) and had the largest CS (429) in the match.

• Meteos and Hai had the best kill participation, at 89%.  Porpoise8 and Slooshi8 were right behind them, both with 81% KP.