Ekko Fox vs TSM

This is more of a random thoughts about the teams or players on the teams than any unified singular topic or point. So if that's not to your taste... you can't (honestly) claim I didn't warn you.

I'm sure there will be eventual Huni posts and ekko fox posts after their loss vs TSM yesterday. They will express surprise and claim a lack of comprehension for how this could happen with Huni being such a good player - even before he played for SKT. There will be questions as to whether he's lost his edge, gotten worse in various aspects of his gameplay, etc. So let me give a pre-response to all those ideas.

No, huni has not lost his edge. He didn't have an edge to begin with over the better NA toplaners. I said it when he came over here from EU and it was proved true back then. I said it again when he came back, and it was proved true... again. That's not to say he isn't a great player - he is. But what many analysts, casters, and fans fail to realize is that his playstyle is a double edged sword. The most similar player I can think of that many will know is probably Vizicsaci (I'm sure I butchered spelling, but it's 4am and I want sleep sometime in near future) in EU LCS. Both are players renowned for their ability to punish 1v1 and to outplay 1v2's and come out alive or dead but getting reply kill(s) at least... where most other pro's wouldn't. As with Vizi, Huni looks impressive when left to 1v1 or when given jg attention even if the enemy counter-ganks due to their willingness to play agro beyond what a challenger elo player logically would do. This means their opponent making the "correct" response vs any normal player is making a sub-optimal response vs either of these players... allowing Huni or Vizi to build a lead and potentially snowball off these little "disrespect" plays so to speak. But if their non-standard responses are accounted for by their opponent, if they do make a rare mess up, or if the enemy team makes a good gank or two to punish such over aggression early, they can quickly fall very far behind for their bold plays/disrespect. Put another way, other players invest their extra money in a low risk stock or savings account while these two go to Vegas and try to hit it rich or they buy Lotto tickets.

This is what I meant by Huni doesn't really have an edge - the edge he appeared to have is and was due to his willingness to gamble/disrespect the POTENTIAL for "x" to happen (such as enemy jg gank). That gives him edges when the gamble works in his favor and "x" does not happen. But when "x" does happen, he is punished and appears to have "lost his edge" even though he has not. The second part to go directly along with this is that many games Huni has been given a winning lane matchup too. If given a playmaking champ and/or winning lane matchup in the majority of your games, you SHOULD look better than your peers stat-wise. So we have 2 misleading factors which many people fail to account for when deciding how good a player really is... disrespect/over aggression and 1v1 counterpick advantage. Both of these helped build Huni up over and over again during his times in NA to convince people he is leaps ahead of "trash NA" toplaners when he in fact is not.

Furthermore, this very disrespect with which he plays is likely the primary reason he wasn't signed on again by SKT or snatched up by another Eastern team. SKT saw this, tried to teach him to only take plays where risk was outweighed by reward and failed, and due to this had him benched for awhile as well as not renewing his contract. This is not to say Huni is bad or Ekko Fox shouldn't have picked him up. I think he was a great pickup and that his playstyle complements Dardoch's playstyle. This helped make it easier for Dardoch to finally find a home and be a much improved player from a mentality and positivity standpoint.

I only watched game 5 of the series so far, but I would like to say the following - especially after poking at Huni so much. I don't believe that loss was primarily his fault. Sure he's the obvious one to point to with his numerous deaths, losing lane, etc. But while he did mess up to feed jayce a kill early, he played mostly very respectfully thereafter and largely positioned himself in a manner that he enabled his team to have the CHANCE to carry him. That's all you can ask for from someone who's behind and being focused by the other team as a weak point - play your best and safest to give your team the chance to help and carry you. How your team chooses to do that (win other lane harder than you are losing to pull focus away from you vs counter-gank, etc.) is up to them. Your job is just to give them a fighting chance which Huni largely did. I do feel that most of the losses were team errors in things like shotcall or positioning with only a few individual mistakes beyond what is normal for a pro player. The one major fault I can point out is that Fox had a 2v1 bot for about 50% of laning phase and yet there seemed to be zero punishment of the ezreal for being left in a 1v2 while leona was ganking Huni. Sure Ezreal is safe enough to avoid dying 1v2 pre-6, but he can be zoned off cs and xp by rakan. Rakan can force ez to expend mana on q's that hit HIM instead of hitting minions. And due to rakan's spells, he can even sustain up some of the damage ezreal will do to him... allowing him to tank even more ezreal auto's and q's. While it isn't a ton, keeping ezreal lower on mana and delaying his cs'ing would be something AND it would mean larger waves hitting TSM's bot tower... giving more time to damage the tower and potentially get first brick. That's something I think Fox needs to work on a bit. Or if they aren't willing to do that with rakan, then rakan should be roaming top to match the leona.

I think Fox is a solid team and they seem to handle adversity pretty well for an NA team - especially considering the history some of it's players have had. They should be proud of what they've accomplished so far in one season as a team and continue to work together to improve as a team. I'm glad to see Dardoch hopefully have a long term home as a pro player and to see the team working together. Hopefully they can run the gauntlet and make worlds as they have the caliber of play (when at their best) to represent NA as well as or better than any other team from the region. They are one of the team's I'm definitely rooting for to make worlds.