Shooting's easy. Aiming's hard. In the wise words of Twitch, Samsung White's AD carry Gu "Imp" Seung-bin has been shooting, looting, and chewing on his enemies throughout the League of Legends 2014 World Championship. In his recent Quarterfinal bout against Team SoloMid (TSM), the Korean star of the bottom lane managed to rack up an astonishing 18/7/25 KDA in just three games as the mutated rat, including a festering pentakill (his second of the Championship). How did he get the best of Twitch and manage to take down America's "Baylife" bros? Let's take a look.
The Runes
Imp went with a typical set of Runes for
each of his games on Twitch. For damage he picked up three Greater Quintessences of Attack Speed and nine Greater Marks of Attack Damage. Percent Attack Speed Quintessences have been the Quints of choice on many AD carries because unlike flat Attack Damage, percent Attack Speed scales much harder into the late game. Imp did choose to pick up some flat Attack Damage through his marks, but this is almost exclusively in order to help with last hitting and damage trading in the laning phase. As Twitch is generally a squishy AD Carry, Imp also picked several defensive runes in the form of nine Greater Seals of Armor and nine Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist. These defensive runes allowed him to be more durable throughout the game.
The Items
Throughout most of his Quarterfinal matches as Twitch, Imp tended to try and rush for a Blade of the Ruined King, followed by a Youmuu's Ghostblade. Samsung White decimated TSM so quickly in Game 1 that he was only able to snatch up these two core items. It was all he needed.
Ghostblade is particularly worthwhile on Twitch, as it brings a lot of synergy in terms of his ultimate, Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat. Since the ult increases Twitch's range and gives the vulgar vermin bonus attack damage, the Ghostblade's active attack speed and movement speed bonuses work well to keep Twitch in range of his opponents so he can get more auto attacks and abilities off. Additionally, a Ghostblade allows Twitch to become an even more dangerous 1v1 assassin. Using Ghostblade in combination with the bonus attack speed granted by his stealth ability Ambush, Twitch can sneak up and burst down any squishy champion in mere seconds.
Similarly, a Blade of the Ruined King works well on Twitch because it gives lifesteal and attack speed, allowing Imp to sustain himself while farming and in team fights. Its active, which deals additional damage and allows the user to steal the movement speed of an opponent, also helps in 1v1 assassinations, making it harder for Imp's targets to escape. In Games 1 and 2, Imp opted to not build too many attack speed items other than a Blade of the Ruined King. He took another route in Game 4, seen below.
First he rushed his standard Blade of the Ruined King into a Youmuu's Ghostblade, then things took an interesting turn. Rather than going for the standard Infinity Edge to increase his attack and critical strike damage, he instead bought a Last Whisper, presumably to allow him to pierce through the high armor of the tanky frontline Dr. Mundo of TSM. Things got even more interesting when Imp proceeded to buy two Cloaks of Agility, at the same time, tripling his critical strike chance from 15% to 45%. This prompted confusion from the casters and even had them wondering if it was some sort of mistake. The king rat silenced his critics (and TSM’s Lustboy), by starting out the next team fight with multiple crits, shredding TSM’s frontline and sending the Americans scattering. With the second Cloak Imp went on to complete a Phantom Dancer for slightly more movespeed, easily allowing him to chase his victims down.
The Positioning
Every ADC, especially this distinguished sewer rat, only gets stronger with the help of strategic team positioning. Sure he isn't the best in the laning phase, so lane-swapping is almost required with the pestilent champion, but if a team can properly set Twitch up with some crowd control towards the mid and late game, his opponents better start saying their prayers.
In this engagement in Game 2, Imp essentially becomes a turret himself, intelligently setting up behind his team for safety and poking his enemies down without having to readjust too much.
While his teammates Dandy, Looper, and Mata tower dive TSM’s WildTurtle and Lustboy, Imp cleverly stealths in and is able to catch the bottom lane duo by surprise. Using his Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat ultimate immediately, Imp deals a significant amount of damage to the duo, strategically staying in the back of the fight and pelting them down.
Towards the end of the game, Imp stealthily sneaks around towards the foot of TSM's base and surprises three members with a poisonous Venom Cask, followed up by a devastating Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat. Solid positioning by all team members sets up a double kill that allows White to stomp into TSM's base to take a tower and an inhibitor in just 21 minutes.
Let's be honest. Imp's control of Twitch is very likely going to be superior to both yours and mine. But, by understanding his Runes, Items, and positioning, we can all get a little closer to becoming that filthy, game-changing sewer rat.
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