OCE’s Wild: How International experience shaped two Playoff teams
With the Split 2 Playoffs already underway, it's important to remember there's much more on the line for the teams in contention than just an OPL Championship. The winner of this Postseason earns the right to represent Oceania in this year's International Wild Card Qualifier.
Of the teams in the OPL Playoff race, both the Chiefs eSports Club and Legacy eSports have had the benefit of international experience at prior Wild Card events. That experience -- and the improvement that we've seen from these two teams in the intervening months -- will certainly give them an edge as they head into their upcoming games.
LEGACY
Legacy took their shot at a Worlds appearance during last year’s International Wild Card Tournament at Gamescom 2014 in Cologne, Germany.
With enough Pulverize engages to fill a highlight reel, Legacy's support Bryce "EGym" Paule controlled the games on Day One with Alistar, even when playing from behind. In their first game, Legacy managed to upset Dark Passage and come back from a sizable deficit on the strength of their team fighting. They finished out the Group Stage tied for 1st, and were only a single Best of 3 from a trip to Southeast Asia to face off against the best teams in the world.
That final match proved to be too much for Legacy, however, as the veteran Dark Passage squad adjusted their draft phase to take away EGym’s ability to successfully initiate team fights. By banning Alistar and first picking Braum, Dark Passage minimized the impact of Legacy’s primary initiator. Additionally, the choice to give over Kassadin instead of Zilean to Legacy ensured that the Oceania team wouldn’t have enough early power to keep afloat until their predictable scaling compositions kicked into gear. With their small champion pools and focus on late game fighting at the cost of laning, Legacy's limitations were laid bare.
Legacy has seen a few roster changes since then and looks much better for it, having secured wins in seven of their last eight games in the Regular Season. The old Legacy would have played out their games predictably, with top laner An "Minkywhale" Trinh on a split-pusher and the rest of the team hoping to scale into the late game and win off of a few well-played team fights. After sitting out Split 1 as a substitute, Minkywhale returned to the top lane with a much more substantial champion pool and the proficiency to use it. In Split 2, he's been the one pushing the envelope in the OPL with picks in the top lane that have run the gamut from AP carries like Ryze and Diana to support tanks like Curtis "Flying Joo" Schembri's Banner of Command Shen.
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With their top lane once again in top form, the infusion of aggression with the addition of Brandon "Claire" Nguyen to the mid lane seems to compliment Legacy's playstyle well. The team as a whole is more willing to initiate brawls, enabling Legacy to flex their team fighting muscles. The bot lane of James "Tallywhacka" Shute and Flying Joo is able to reliably compete for advantages in standard lanes as well as lane swaps, allowing for diverse lane assignments and team compositions. For a team whose one-dimensional playstyle had once been a point of weakness on the international level, these new strategic options make Legacy a legitimate threat throughout the entire game.
CHIEFS
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The Chiefs kicked off the Round Robin stage at the IWCI with a pair of wins against Kaos Latin Gamers and INTZ e-Sports. In their victory over INTZ, mid laner Simon "Swiffer" Papamarkos had an absolutely massive performance on LeBlanc, netting 15 kills, as well as 84% kill participation. The magic didn't last long though, as the Chiefs soon found themselves struggling in games where Swiffer was unable to take over. They narrowly lost their spot in the Semifinals to the eventual winners of the event, Beşiktaş e-Sports Club, who were tied with the Chiefs in points, but up in the head-to-head.
With the addition of EGym to the roster, the Chiefs are now a complete package. EGym’s aggressive laning has empowered Derek "Raydere" Trang to regularly secure the gold he needs in lane, allowing him to reliably hit his item timings and carry from the laning phase and on into team fights. Brandon "Swip3rR" Holland has been able to take over games from the top lane on the likes of Hecarim, but also looks quite comfortable on team fight champions like Rumble and Maokai. The current incarnation of the Chiefs is less reliant on Swiffer to carry and has realistic carry threats coming out of every lane -- a definite step up from the team we saw at the IWCI.
While all five members of the Chiefs are among the best in the OPL in their respective roles, it has been their ability to play off of whoever they get ahead that has made them such a consistent team in the league.
A WORLD AWAY
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The winner of this Postseason earns the right to represent Oceania in this year's International Wild Card Qualifier, with a victory there resulting in a trip to the 2015 Season World Championship. Neither team can afford to look that far ahead, though! For now, it's far more important that they stay focused on Oceania. After all, only the winner gets a second chance.
Find out more about the OPL here, and don't forget to watch the OPL Playoffs on July 23 at 6pm AEST on Twitch!
Cassandra Oh is a recovering Darius main with a penchant for nostalgia gaming. Follow her on Twitter before it’s cool.