Great balls of fire! Or, uh, magical energy. Or whatever Syndra’s Dark Spheres are made of.
The Dark Sovereign has made her mark all over the North American playoffs so far, with both TSM’s Bjergesn and Team Curse’s Voyboy using her in five of the seven games played over the course of the quarterfinals. And for good reason - she found wins in four of those appearances. She could have gone undefeated, too, if not for a
spectacular backdoor maneuver from Team Dignitas’ ZionSpartan. I mean, Bjergsen was 9/1/3 on her when his Nexus went down.
Despite both of their successes, Voyboy and Bjergsen don’t play Syndra the same way. Thanks to the versatility of the champion, they were able to win games with two distinctly different styles. Let’s take a look at the differences in the two guys’ play.
Straight kill ‘em - The Bjergsen way
It’s no secret that TSM’s mid laner likes to kill things. When he’s playing to his fullest, he’s an absolute killing machine.
He plays Syndra no differently. Take a look at these killer instincts he’s got during TSM and Dignitas’ first game of the quarterfinals.
That double kill.
Note how Amazing knows exactly what Bjergsen wants to do. He wants to kill someone, anyone, to get a bunch of gold so he can snowball harder and harder as the game goes on. He’s a true carry, and his team knows it.
Where many players typically use Scatter the Weak to stun enemies away from Syndra, Bjergsen uses it for two reasons: To do significant damage, and make sure KiWiKiD and Crumbzz don’t get away from his full combo. He’s an aggressive player, and aggressive players make aggressive stuns.
When it comes to teamfights, Bjergsen’s Syndra has one goal: Kill the nearest enemy champion as fast as possible.
Assuming he can bring someone down before anyone on his team dies, TSM will have a man advantage right off the bat. Even if it’s just the support - like in the clip above - that creates a
massive advantage for TSM. Very few players play the assassination-focused Syndra quite like Bjergsen. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he regularly picks up a Zhonya’s Hourglass, giving him both the damage and the safety to make sure he gets off a full damage combo before going down.
Keep 'em safe - The Voyboy way
Voyboy, on the other hand, is a more patient Syndra. He doesn’t get tons of kills, preferring to dish out sustained damage and give his teammates the opportunity to pick up the leftovers.
There’s a couple things to notice in this clip from Game 1 of the CRS/CLG quaterfinals. First, take a look at how many Dark Spheres Voyboy lays out while CLG sets up their siege. Not only is he doing his best to keep Twitch and Kog’Maw away from the tower, saving it from as much damage as possible, but he’s also threatening to use Scatter the Weak to initiate on a low-mobility squad.
Sure, he gets snagged and dropped, but there's the thing: He felt confident being where he was because he knew that Xpecial's Zilean would be there to bring him back. Essentially, he's aggressively supporting, knowing he's got a more defensive support at his back. He even manages to pick off Seraph’s Lulu before his first death - and eventual resurrection.
When setting up for an offensive siege, he’s just as careful with his setup. Again, he sets up zoning Spheres to make sure his team has enough time to take down the turret. Once its gone, he knows exactly what to do with the subsequent CLG engage: Stand back, lay down enough damage, and let Cop’s fed Jinx do the work.
Watch his positioning. At no point does he go in to secure a kill like Bjergsen would. Instead, he makes sure Cop stays safe, knocking away the potential Link’s Ryze and his potential Rune Prison and making sure he does enough damage to him to take him out of the fight. Seraph and his Maokai may find Cop, but not before Voyboy makes sure the rest of CLG doesn’t have the capability of following up. Again, he’s playing a bit more of a utility role, using the threat of his damage as a deterrent rather than an initiation.
Cloud9 and LMQ had better take note. Both Voyboy and Bjergsen are looking very strong on Syndra, and they'll have to figure out a way to deal with her.
Related articles
