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C9 vs Gambit thoughts (spoilers)

Darkest Laugh·10/6/2018, 8:38:01 AM·5 votes·4,126 views

I honestly don't watch a whole lot of pro play outside of Worlds, maybe MSI (although I skipped it this year) or LCS finals. So idk what either team has been like outside of worlds really, but I've noticed C9 really likes dive comps. Noc, Irelia, Shen, Galio, Ryze, Kaisa, Alistar, and Braum, all champs they've done best on and they all have dashes. (Edit: Except Ryze doesn't have a dash, but you get the point. Also I'm not sure if Kaisa R is a dash or a blink, but the rest still applies for sure)

Gambit noticed this too, and that's definitely part of why they've gone Poppy. She can just run at them in a teamfight and they can't get at her back line. It hard counters their playstyle, not just their champs. I understand that was also a comfort pick for Gambit, but that's probably also WHY it was a comfort pick as I understand Nocturne has been popular lately as well. The Anivia pick was also pretty crucial, as she has synergy with Poppy and has little counter play in lane post level 6. Plus good in teamfights.

Now C9 losing game 2 was expected as they didn't seem prepared for that combo, that's understandable. But after seeing that once they should've banned both of those champs. In game 4 they banned Anivia which was a good idea, but they gave them Poppy. I feel like both the teams and the analysts didn't put nearly enough emphasis on how crucial the Poppy pick was. Because had Gambit picked Poppy game 3, they would've won that one too.

Watching the ban phase for game 5 gave me so much anxiety, because C9 waited until their last ban at the end of the timer to ban Poppy. At that point I knew they'd win. if they let that go, then Gambit would be going to the group stage. Hell, had Gambit picked in the first round of picks, they would be going to groups.

Also worth mentioning about that last game is that the reason why Gambit went support Gragas who isn't normally a supp is because his dash has priority over Ali headbutt, and can stop his engage. Although a much smaller scale than Poppy, same concept.

Anyone else Agree? Disagree?

10 Comments

TheBentOn310/6/2018, 3:16:43 PM2 votes

Some of the blame has to be put on Reaperd for trying to get too cute in draft (why pick a top lane Akali into a Urgot?????), yes. But frankly, C9 just played extremely sloppy league, especially on Red side, and its not like that was just in this series either, they were getting caught too far up, face checking with no wards, taking bad fights in disadvantageous positions and feeding unnecessary deaths throughout the whole play ins, they very easily could have been 2-2 in the group stages without Licorice making a few miracle plays on his Lissandra, and Jensen who should be smashing inferior competition mid lane has frankly looked uncharacteristically horrible on anything except his Ryze, particularly that game he spent soft inting on Kassadin was hard to watch.

They snuck by gambit, but the mistakes they have been making both in game and in draft are going to get them buried in the group of death if they don't clean them up. Hopefully they can, because this is a very mechanically talented team, they just need to stop playing stupid.

GeminiRune10/6/2018, 2:22:57 PM1 votes

That sounds like an alternate way to really evaluate it. However it's not all too spot on for a trend in picks by either C9 or Gambit. As a Bo5 series certain picks from the past or recent patches are able to come from under the rug (Shen, Singed, Nautilus, Gragas-flex support) that are rare or relatively unknown by both squads in their current iteration.

The game five could definitely be summed up as a series of what ifs. The Gragas support flex pick had its time in the spotlight. There is idea behind it similar to the capable flexibility of Shen to the support position as well which were both played in somewhat common awareness in the early summer split alongside multiple bot lane champs - Lucian, Ezreal, Kaisa, Varus, Swain and Yasuo just to name a few. Usually it's not necessarily a direct position counter but more aligned to needed utility.

Overall, while any series should generally be concluded with the statement "the better team came out on top," it's not as simple as that. Both teams came in arguably the weakest among the advancing seeds; they had their summer and play-in stage play as somewhat of indication to that. I'd be more harsh towards C9 being the major region team expected to prevail over the opponent with relative ease but I'm cutting some slack similar to how I am towards Gambit. They on the other hand I feel quite bad for them; it's almost as if they're always on the outside looking in due to group draws and bad matchups. This and the following series really made me want to see more events where the emerging region teams can see more exposure. Maybe not next year, but 2020 perhaps.

Eldeazar10/6/2018, 7:48:10 PM1 votes

Overall it was a very fun series to watch and both teams went for it wholeheartedly and respectfully, I loved it. Sometimes pro games get boring (the climax is someone missing a canon or negating a ward....) and the teamfights just happen in a flash and very one sided because X team amounted a gigantic gold lead for macro play. Not this series!! Many things were going wrong for both C9 and Gambit.

Blaber is a very fun jungler to watch, he is very aggressive and has this fight in him that I think fits so well with C9. That being said, he was making so much mistakes on that second game and losing again for that very same urgot ult, the same mistake they did with Detonation. I think he was starting to get nervous and they made the right call to switch for Sven, he was key in the third game. Meanwhile Jensen was making mistakes I just don't expect him to do anymore. Overstaying for an extra minion wave as Kassadin? Why? By the fourth game I think both teams were a bit exhausted and it showed so much, Gambit was making miscommunication mistakes, negating ultis of teammates, going for different things, it was painful. That Gragas ults cringed me to the moon.

The games were so entertaining, I was on the edge of my sit.

Morticianjohn10/6/2018, 7:53:10 PM1 votes

Picking akali when kai sa and ryze were both available in game 2 after having success on both champs game one smelled of experimentation and looking past the current opponent. I agree with Mark z. They should have just picked ryze and kai sa until it stopped working and not show other picks and options