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I Think This Series Showed One of The Glaring Issues NA Has

SpongebobIsLife·10/28/2018, 6:26:12 PM·3 votes·2,945 views

One of the biggest differences that I noticed between EU and NA, is the drafting. EU sticks loosely to the meta while putting their players on champions they know they excel at. Throughout worlds, how often did you see an EU mid draft Galio or Lissandra? Not that much if at all.

Caps, in this series, played LB, Azir, and Aatrox. Two of these champions have the potential to solo carry the game. And if you look at past games this worlds, you will also see Akali, Irelia, and maybe one ryze (overrated) and lissandra game. Their staff knows that Caps can carry so they him in on carry mids. The same is true of their junglers, they place them on champions they know they excel at rather then putting them on it because "it's meta."

Then take a look at NA. Jensen, who imo, is the 2nd best professional mid laner in NA, was told to pick lissandra in each of the games he's played today, and throughout worlds, he has picked galio several times as well. Neither of those champions are true carries, they are utility bots. They put their consistently best player, on a utility bot for their semi-finals series. Just let that sink in. They put Sneaky on Vik, which while it was a unique pick, Sneaky is not a viktor player. Where was the Xayah, the Draven, or the Tristana?

Even pobelter! Dude was put on Galio and Ryze nearly every single game this worlds. A utility bot. Yet, during his stream when he was playing with Qtiepie, he told qtie that his favorite champion to play mid is Irelia...how many Irelia games did he play at worlds? Even Xmithie, a very strong early game jg, was turned into a peel/utility/tank bot, when that is not at all his playstyle.

Even locally, Bjergsen, the best mid NA, is being put on utility mids waaaaaay too much. Both in S8 lcs and worlds s7 he was a glorified utility bot. The same thing happened to Faker and look at what happened to SKT! What sense does it make to consistently put your best players on champs in which their talents cannot shine or force a playstyle that they don't excel at? Until NA allows more carry potential out of their mid laners, and stops chasing these protect the adc comps (which are pretty bad atm, hence the reason RNG was halted), this is where NA will always end up.

C9 is the first to realize this to a degree, as they were the first NA team bold enough to step out of typical NA Comps, and put their players on things they excel at (hecarim, lucian for example), and look where it got them? Semis. NA is a stronger region then people have thought these past few years, it's just...we are never allowed to be strong.

9 Comments

JavelinJoe10/28/2018, 7:20:20 PM3 votes

Nothing makes me more frustrated than seeing these great mid laners pushed onto more team oriented champions, unless Zilean or the comp is built around protect the ADC/TOP in which Galio is ok... IDK why these teams try to force a group fighting comp when solo/duo play is way more effective currently. You do not need all 5 members to have perfect synergy and win most team fights if you are against 1 champion who is so fed you never even make it to that phase.

Now I dont know if some hidden agreement was made somewhere where NA teams must try and play around a group mentality or something, but this has got to stop. Let the players who are meant to carry, carry. I remember back in season 4 and 5 when Bjergsen was getting solo kill after solo kill in the mid lane because he was allowed to play high damage burst mages and assassins, not Lulu, Karma, and Lissandra.

Honestly dont even know why Lissandra is even considered a good pick currently because aside from that 1 group fight around 35 minutes that maybe decides a game, she is a B grade champion at best. She has no potential to hard carry due to being more of a psudo-control mage than a burst mage. She has low to nonexistent kill threat in a 1v1 vs most champions unless the fight is very drawn out. And she has no creative outplay potential since her kit is so good at revealing her intentions. Seriously, unless you are against a champion with a delayed/telegraphed burst (Zed, Fizz, Camille, Karthus, etc..) there is not a really good reason to pick her over someone more likely to carry.

AXayahAccount10/28/2018, 8:17:38 PM1 votes

In my opinion game 3 was their best game because, other than Ekko top which I didn't agree with, they finally had a semi decent comp. Game 1 was like an early game composition then they locked in Tristana, who might night be the worst champ ever but, it clearly isn't what you're looking for to close a game out during the mid game. Then game 2 they're like "Let's flex this Viktor + Aatrox, they're totally thinking middle Aatrox right now!" And they throw Sneaky on unsafe unreliable damage because he can miss his E and his R and AGAINST AZIR. I know they picked Azir last but this is why you have a safe damage source like an ADC, how is Sneaky supose to fight when Azir can kill him because he is like 200 range on Viktor.

I was so mad watching them play, FINALLY in game 3 c9 sort of showed up because they constantly faught and went for it, but games 1+2 they didn't play AT ALL. I just knew, without a doubt, Sneaky was over it because I mean you don't do that to a star player like Sneaky, forcing him onto a Viktor pick just so your top laner can get counter picked anyways...

Yfrappefort10/28/2018, 11:57:35 PM1 votes

I am also pissed that C9 lost. Not that they lost, but how they lost. It was such poor draft and just having Jensen playing Lissandra 3 times was a terrible mistake. Where are the picks that propeled them trough the quarters? Also, after that Svenskeren dive in game 1 (seriously, I just stared at my screen for 10 secs with my mouth wide open wondering wth just happened...), I knew Fnatic had it in the bag.

I expected the series to be much closer then this. C9 had the potential to win it all this year, but they went full "NA"...Fnatic came to win. C9 looked so lost it seems they came just to survive. So yeah, it's great that a NA team finally made it to semis, but man was that exit disapointing...

Virgin Ray10/29/2018, 1:12:49 AM1 votes

NA as a whole tries to copy Koreans on everything, make your own style, you're not gonna do better than them at something they had way more time to practice. I hope C9 can somehow inspire NA coming home to be innovative enough to make your own picks.

Ale non è male10/29/2018, 12:35:40 PM1 votes

{quoted}

One of the biggest differences that I noticed between EU and NA, is the drafting. **EU sticks to the meta **while putting their players on champions they know they excel at. Throughout worlds, how often did you see an EU mid draft Galio or Lissandra? Not that much if at all.

Heck, NO

Looking at the FNC vs C9 series only, REK'SAI in game 3 is meta? Jayce top in game 2 is meta (it was basically only banned vs PVB before being used by iG vs G2)? the Ekko pick used by C9 itself was even considered viable before EU (VIT's Jiizuke) pulled it off vs Korean team Gen.G in group stage (basically THE game that started the madness in these Worlds)? Sneaky ended up playing Viktor because they wanted to take it off from Bwipo, who was the only one capable to make it work in these Worlds (and destroyed them in game 1 and 3)

EU just plays what they think it could work for the given game, sometimes it works, sometimes it backfire

NA either chase meta or have laners that are weaker than the competition and try to make up for it with bad draft choices

And I'm sorry, C9 had a great run, but they actually got a bit lucky as this is the first time that what is arguably the 6th best team in competition get to semifinals (for how much people downplayed H2K in 2016, they were at very worst the 5th best team in those Worlds where literally there was a weak version of C9 who benefitted from the other team selfdistruction, EDG that H2K beat in groups for 1st place, and ANX who they roflstomped in the QF ), NA is not a stronger region than what people have thought, is just that C9 took EU lessons and were able to find their unique style and beat waker teams along the way to Semifinals, having the most success since they were the most similar team to EU/CN style that dominated this season Worlds

ShadWooo10/29/2018, 8:26:53 PM1 votes

But G2 just did same mistakes as C9. I don't understand it. Both G2 and C9 throwed so hard in draft. More so C9 who should have already analyze IG vs G2 games and take a lesson from it - but they basically repeated same draft errors and the games were so one sided it wasn't fun to watch. Which is funny because right now it were supposed to be 4 top teams fighting each other but the games were bigger stomps than we could see in Play-Ins...