Welp....that was SKT being........well, SKT.

Electro522·Oct 5, 2017·19 votes·2,561 views

Could you really point at anything in that game for C9 and say "That's where you screwed up?" save for Contractz getting caught out once, and them focusing too much on Huni when they had Baron?

And Faker........god damn, I didn't even know you could dodge Rek'sai's ultimate.....and to be honest, I don't think even the game itself knew it until it happened (you could see Rek'sai like try and reach towards Cass).

I guess the question now is......did SKT show any weakness in that? Is there anywhere we can try attacking next time, or do we have to just win through lanes? And if it's the latter......does C9 have any hope against SKT?

54 Comments

Electro522Oct 5, 20178 votes

As an off topic side note, why does EVERYTHING get downvoted here in the Esports board? I can understand some threads getting a ton of downvotes for obvious reasons, every sub-board has that. But every thread is getting downvoted for seemingly no reason. Just...why?

IncrediPhiLLOct 5, 20173 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=6Z9EhLqE,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2017-10-05T12:30:27.474+0000)

As an off topic side note, why does EVERYTHING get downvoted here in the Esports board? I can understand some threads getting a ton of downvotes for obvious reasons, every sub-board has that. But every thread is getting downvoted for seemingly no reason. Just...why?

I've always wondered this myself XD The community here is just bad.

AcidTheWarlockOct 5, 20173 votes

Because the boards blames esports for balance issues and they hate the scene for no reason

ThefrostyvikingOct 5, 20176 votes

Because all the people hating meta's gather to hate on posts like this one unless it bashes the current state of the game.

They think silently downvoting everything to oblivion is the way to get what they want x)

Or that bashing a particular team that beat their own favorite is good for one reason or another.

Big Black CrocOct 6, 20171 votes

Because riot balances some stupid shit because of esports, like random buffing, towers being weak, games being short, certain champs being strong because LCS BIG PLAYZ, etc...

People hate esports because it seems riot balances the game of off LC$ rather than the actual game, which gets annoying.

Also most of the community think LC$ is boring as shit.

xJLx MCHammerOct 5, 20174 votes

C9 got out played in mid lane

Past that, it's just better decision that made SKT win. Not warding the dragon pit despite having the numbers to win

Also, those two death pretty much gave SKT about 1,500 gold. Their focus on kid lane so much also cost them first tower

I think c9 should have taken Mao instead of RekSai as the 4th champions

Electro522Oct 5, 20174 votes

I kind of agree on Mao, but I can also see why they didn't take it. Huni likes carry top laners, so giving him the counter pick could hurt Impact more in the long run. Though.....Nautilus was an odd choice. I think Shen would have been better, no?

xJLx MCHammerOct 5, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=6Z9EhLqE,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2017-10-05T12:51:43.150+0000)

I kind of agree on Mao, but I can also see why they didn't take it. Huni likes carry top laners, so giving him the counter pick could hurt Impact more in the long run. Though.....Nautilus was an odd choice. I think Shen would have been better, no?

Huni may like carries in top but it's just not the meta especially with them picking J4. They can't protect KoG as good without a tank.

Either that or J4 would have to be taken by a huni

Naut was a decent pick. He has the Good lockdown but Mao is better

x Royal Solo xOct 5, 20172 votes

They needed to match Maokai CC and Nautilus was the best choice. Shen is weaker as a late game tank. Although it would have helped bot lane which it needed.

SciFi ScrivenerOct 5, 20174 votes

Ever since the mana nerf on Nautilaus (which Riot needs to reverse ASAP) I cringe when I see Impact get stuck with him. Shen, or Renekton, would have been better options. A tank that can do some dmg is what they needed. I love Reapered, but he makes a lot of mistakes in pick/bans this year.

HellbornCreatorOct 5, 20174 votes

How did you not know you can dodge rek sai ultimate? You must never play this game then.

Raven RedeemedOct 5, 20175 votes

I mean her rework was fairly recent and she sees very little play in solo que. Maybe the OP has a life and thus didn't spend the time to learn the intricacies of the least used ability of one random champion.

Electro522Oct 5, 20172 votes

I try to keep up with changes as much as possible, but somehow, I missed this. I have known that Rek'sai can dodge abilities using her ult, but until today, I had yet to see a single Rek'sai ult dodged.

statelesskillerOct 5, 20172 votes

plenty of videos have been on it. iwilldominate if you watch him had SEVERAL videos of new reksai, and you can see people dodging it all the time. usually its with a flash or a movement spell though. you cant really . . . sidestep it anymore

MistroTTCOct 5, 20172 votes

It was really bad on release, like if you had boots all you had to do was walk left and you would dodge it.

TeralisanOct 5, 20174 votes

Eh, GAM vs FNC made my day.

IncrediPhiLLOct 5, 20173 votes

Riot's inability to make this league competetive is the reason viewership numbers are down. That's the only thing I take away from that game. It pleases me that RIOT is struggling so much.

Electro522Oct 5, 20179 votes

I'm sorry.....but what? What does viewership have anything to do with how a game played out? Are you going to say that about every game going on at Worlds? If so, you should just stop watching dude, and go find a different hobby.

Sp33d Zer0Oct 5, 20173 votes

He's salty because he's a C9 fan.

OleandervineOct 5, 201722 votes

You are aware that players govern competition, and not the game itself. SKT dominates because they have the skill that other teams do not. Riot does not control the skill level of competitive teams.

ChompyWulfOct 5, 201712 votes

It's just salt because this guy apparently believed his favorite NA team should be able to compete with the 3-time champs and lost a lopsided game.

BigBellBruteOct 5, 20171 votes

{quoted}

It's just salt because this guy apparently believed his favorite NA team should be able to compete with the 3-time champs and lost a lopsided game.

I think it's someone that probably got punished or something awhile back and now just bad mouths things at every opportunity. Most C9 fans figured they'd lose to SKT. But given how the other game from their group played out, I think going up against the team you're not supposed to beat first is fine. Get in, get your feet wet and warm up for the two games you really want to win. And it doesn't look like EDW is all that either. So I'd think most C9 fans wouldn't be that upset.

ChompyWulfOct 5, 20171 votes

Maybe he's more upset because IMT looked like they had a chance to beat LZ while C9 was never in a position that challenged SKT.

III BAKURYU III Oct 5, 20172 votes

0 hope at this point, if the underdog can't really land a blow on the juggernaut of the scene SKT, I doubt NA who as a region already struggles with confidence will be able to do anything in the second meeting.

AcidTheWarlockOct 5, 20172 votes

Well, I mean IMT vs LZ wasn't too bad and LZ is a better team than SKT, so I still keep hope.

I don't know how much the teams have changed, so I don't know if SKT would beat LZ in a rematch, so due to past results I'm gonna say they're better.

MysterQOct 5, 20174 votes

I don't know if I would call LZ a better team than SKT.

robot takeoverOct 6, 20171 votes

they did beat them in the LCK Finals...just sayin.

III BAKURYU III Oct 6, 20171 votes

The thing about NA and hope is NA's first half is typically better than the second half, even with 2-1 or 3-0 leads in groups, to lose this early is pretty much a death sentence.
C9 and IMT are 0-1, with TSM being well, TSM who will most likely fumble in groups again, NA has 0 real chance at doing anything again, another year wasted as a spectator thinking possibly NA could gather enough(Koreans and Imports) to actually put up a fight but suppose not.
NA's achievement will most likely be beating Eu, n which we've haven't seen that in awhile(past 2 years NA>EU). So........... this Worlds should be somewhat different, yawn

Linna ExcelOct 5, 20172 votes

Could you really point at anything in that game for C9 and say "That's where you screwed up?"

In champ select when they took Lulu while Janna was open. If you aren't going to take Janna right now and she isn't banned, you have to take either Sona or Soraka. Not banning Jarvin either, but banning his meya counter of Sej was a misstep. Both of those champs are very good and C9 made a yuuuuuuuuuuge mistake letting the best team in the world get both.

Then there's the fact that Faker took Cass but Jensen took Ryze instead of someone like Malz, Jaycw, or Anivia.

C9 basically threw the game in champ select. It's like they intentionally counter-picked themselves.

ThewannabegamerOct 5, 20171 votes

Ryze was picked before cass in that draft. Lulu also typically does better in the 2v2 early on and soraka and sona are good but not better than lulu. Soraka doesn't belong in pro play tbh. The only really weird thing was Nautilus when shen, gnar, and renekton was still up. The lulu and Ryze priority may just be a misread on the meta based on play-ins and scrims but atleast cloud 9 is trying to play their style. Sejuani also had a 100% red side ban rate until edg vs ahq.

13900 EssenceOct 5, 20172 votes

They actually had to change reksai's new ult a while ago because you could just walk sideways to dodge it.

Now its a little more difficult, but it is certainly still not too hard to dodge.

BarcidOct 5, 20172 votes

I think it's funny that you had hope that anyone at all would be matching SKT.

Virgin RayOct 6, 20171 votes

really the only team that might beat them is any korean team esp LZ, the fact that 4/5 LZ roster is on top 20 means that if they choke up that'll be the most meme worthy top 20 in top 20 history.

GeminiRuneOct 5, 20171 votes

It's kind of a shame that the game had to turn out being the most decisive game on the day. C9 seemed to have played with that chip on their shoulder or just ignorant to the foundation of the kind of team SKT is utilizing this version of roster. While Contractz did need to act somewhere, hammering mid lane as much as he did was the nail in the coffin for them.

On analogy, beating SKT's 5-power player roster is like breaking limbs of a body. But just breaking one limb is usually not enough unless you absolutely shatter it.

Electro522Oct 5, 20171 votes

So then whats the head? Sure, you can break both arms, and be fine; you can break both legs and be fine. But you can't break your head and "be fine".

Or is SKT more analogous to a starfish?

SciFi ScrivenerOct 5, 20171 votes

C9 fan, and that game was just hard to watch. The guys did all they could, and it just wasn't enough to even be competitive. SKT plays so sound in every phase, every lane, and with every objective. I only hope C9 doesn't let this hold them down as they are more than capable of beating EDG and aHq to go to the knock outs in 2nd place.

KloqdqOct 5, 20171 votes

I mean I wouldn't consider any NA team a strong match for the Korean teams. Only TSM is decent and even then they get bodied when they go against someone like SKT. One thing I think SKT has always had a weakness of is their aggressive play making nature. Rarely see them play it passive, so the best way is to figure out how to punish their aggressive early game.

ThewannabegamerOct 5, 20174 votes

You can't SKT actually isn't balls to the walls aggressive in the early, they slowly methodically set up and choke out vision to set up and prevent proactive plays. They're actually extremely risk averse and try to generate leads with lane control and numbers advantages in skirmishes or if need be they just outplay you with a summoner.

KloqdqOct 6, 20171 votes

That's very true. SKT is just such a monster of a team like every year it seems.

JustMonika13Oct 5, 20171 votes

Yeah, Rek’Sai ult is dodgeable. There was quite the amount of bitching on the Boards about it after her rework, how they didn’t like the fact that even simple dashes could dodge it when it was a “targeted” ability.

Raven RedeemedOct 5, 20171 votes

It was pretty easy to doge when she got reworked, Riot made it harder to doge later. When you have a targeted ultimate, it's pretty important it be at the very least difficult to doge if not impossible as the ultimate is the most valuable ability in your kit and if you can't aim it the champ will suffer if it can be dodged easily.

PaffWasTakenOct 5, 20171 votes

To be honest, SKT dominates every single teams, the ones that are worst than C9 along with those that are supposed to be stronger

Monsta MooOct 5, 20171 votes

I've known how to dodge reksai ult and Im a mere gold player lol. SKT is solid team, very few roster changes. Truly the best of the best where as NA teams circulate through players way too much imo. SKT know each other well enough to able to predict each others moves, I'm sure they could win without coms vs most NA teams to be honest. They aren't unbeatable though, we've seen some pretty close games and even seen them get utterly dominated in past splits. I highly doubt the current C9 has a shot of beating SKT. [sg-ahri-2]

NineTailedMysticOct 5, 20171 votes

All I'm hearing is that SKT are still scumlords and I should get ready for when they win. Again. And get another set of SKT skins.

MysterQOct 5, 20171 votes

They aren't scum. Unless you mean dropping ?Untara for Huni is scum, poor Untara.

I think other teams can challenge SKT this year.

DubshokaOct 5, 20171 votes

I think C9 could have played much better. Tried to force too many plays that they should have just cut and run on. It's weird to have watched them play in groups and be generally clean, then make boneheaded decisions left and right against SKT.

Mystique?

KotexOct 6, 20171 votes

Pick'em should be letting us pick which champions we think will get SKT skins for their win this year, because seriously theyre just going to win again.

And ill happily be wrong. PLEASE prove me wrong, because its boring to know a team is always so strong theyre always going to win.

woodvsmurphOct 6, 20171 votes

You didn't know you can dodge Rek'sai ult? People have been doing that for months. And not just with flash.[zombie-brand-facepalm]

Sahn UzalOct 6, 20171 votes

And Faker........god damn, I didn't even know you could dodge Rek'sai's ultimate.....and to be honest, I don't think even the game itself knew it until it happened (you could see Rek'sai like try and reach towards Cass).

On release, Rek'Sai's ultimate would basically miss if you simply walked away. They then buffed it to make it more reliable, but definetly still dodgeable. :P

sky blowerOct 7, 20171 votes

To beat SKT, you should never put too much emphasize on Faker. Everyone knows Faker is the best player in league and most teams focus on Faker when they face against SKT, and guess what? Very few of them succeed. SKT is so used to the enemy's pressure against mid-lane that they have developed specific counter play style. When you put all your eggs against Faker, you fall into SKT's trap already.