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ANX mastermind

AkirisReed·10/7/2016, 3:59:05 PM·7 votes·673 views

Now that group A is over, we can jump to some conclusions.

First, you can not ban this guy out. I've watched IWCQ and IWCI this year, so I knew what his Bard can do. He picked Bard in their first game vs ROX and failed. That day I said it was him, who lost this match for ANX and with this loss I personally thought that it is too soon for ANX to go to Worlds, since they looked like a smaller caliber team compared to others. After week 1 everyone was talking that Likkrit's Bard is no threat, meanwhile in week 2 he picks Bard again and this performance looks like two different people playing this champ compared to week 1. This second impression of Likkrit's Bard was quite what I expected after seenig his plays in IWCQ/I, which led to 3 target bans againist him in the very next match. With these two impressions of his Bard I started to think it was all planned. Like "I show you I'm no threat to smash you later and make you wonder what went wrong". Now after 7 matches he has shown 5 uniquie champs in Bard Brand TahmKench Taric Braum . This is it? Definetely not. This man has even more in his pool. I honestly wait for the moment when he unbenches his Zyra which is arguably his best champ.

Second, by now it's time to stop disrespecting wildcard teams. They may be weaker in some aspects, but they have better motivation coming to this tournament and ANX team has just shown what can sheer motivation combined with team spirit bring to the table. Now INTZ are to be at the center of attention since they have already won decisively over EDG.

8 Comments

xJLx MCHammer10/7/2016, 4:18:34 PM5 votes

I give them credit for winning. I don't doubt nor question their ability. However, if you actually keep up with EU/NA LCS and LCK, you can tell the other three teams in the group are just not playing well. RoX had one first blood in 6 games. Ty had the largest gold deficit this worlds.

TBakes10/7/2016, 7:05:19 PM2 votes

It's almost like so many teams have gotten used to this "etiquette" of Pro Play where they make moves on the map under several different assumptions and ANX just does not do that so it is catching everyone off-guard. They catch people out. They make proactive plays. They have some messy teamfights, sure, but they go in and commit. Then you watch G2 try to make a dive on mid with Trick and Perkz, they hesitate, then die under turret and don't get a kill. Some of these major region teams need to step up their scrappiness. I would love to watch SKT or TSM play ANX. It's like the difference between playing in the NBA and playing street ball. Sometimes you need to play with swagger and take more risks to reap more rewards.

I loved watching them play because of their passion, too. They feel like they earned those wins and grinded it out.