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Rivaling of the Rift

Admiral Howe·7/7/2017, 10:13:40 PM·3 votes·684 views

TSM, C9 and P1 heading off vs UoL, FNC and G2 NA vs EU, things got spicy, teams crumbled and players showed their stuff, all in all this isnt a tourney to take seriously other than "Lol NA > EU" or "Wait till worlds fuqboi, NA will choke" It was nice to see these teams show what they got and i want to take a look at the best players from each role, team and both regions. This time im doing a top 3 since we only have 6 teams here. pls no bulli [zombie-nunu-tears]

Top:

  1. Visicsacsi - UoL: This guy was a top laner i looked at and thought, "Man if anyone tries to go aggro on him, he can be a murderer in the top lane but sadly i dont think anyone is dumb enough to do that". Well ding ding ding, feed this guy Ray and Hauntzer because he made them look silly. This dude was the best carry mentality top laner in this tourney and i was hugely impressed, the CS leads, the solo kills, the roaming and teamfighting. He was awesome

  2. Zig - P1: The man stepped up, being able to play his style and play for the team at all points of the game, as far as providing what P1 needed, he brought it in spades. I was scared this dude was going to go the way of Lourlo, a good split and falling off hard after so but he is proving he still has more to bring to P1.

  3. sOAZ - FNC: The veteran top laner with the most experience in this entire tourney. The juking off hauntzer like he was nothing and being able to be everywhere and shake off most top laners at times made me happy to see at least sOAZ was doing well for FNC

Jungle:

  1. Mike Yeung - P1: This dude was a ninja in the jungle, just not dying after getting caught, setting up plays and killing everything in sight or at least trying to, but what separates Mike Yeung from a lot of other carry style junglers is, he gets blood thirsty for his team. He is a true playmaker, willing to die for the 1 for 4 or for the ace, always willing to make sure the rest of P1 gets what they need even if its at his expense. I like it.

  2. Xerxeh - UoL: The dude played consistent, besides Mike Yeung, he was the most complete looking jungler in this tourney and my impression of him coming into Rift Rivals was that he was going to be this epic carry but ended up actually playing a control style in some games, strangling the vision game from some teams and getting important information for his team.

  3. Svenskeren - TSM: Im putting Svenskeren here because again i saw the same mistakes (although few and far in between gj Sven for improving a little internationally) coming from him where he goes for a dumb invade or is non-existent in some cases. I know, TSM went 5-1 but Sven felt like he was almost not the reason for that after some games.

Mid Lane:

  1. Bjergsen - TSM: I kinda expected Bjerg to not show up against Caps and Perkz but he made some seriously incredible plays and showed he is the best in the west when youre talking about Mid laners. I was craving Bjerg to show up and carry much like DoubleLift did in the bot lane, and he did this time in a lot of games. Seeing Bjergsen dominate was awesome and sad to see Caps and Perkz under-performing, i wanted to see a blood bath in the mid lane.

  2. Ryu - P1: This dude, where has this Ryu been all split? It was crazy to see him playing like a madman finally and it seems P1 as a whole trusts eachother now which is probably the reason why Ryu seems more confident to make monster plays.

  3. Exileh - UoL: When he was bad, he was baaaad but on the good side, when he showed up, he smashed everyone. Seeing him tear apart TSM with the Vlad pick was a holy shit moment. Im hoping to see more of him and Bjerg destroying eachother's teams in the final match.

ADC:

  1. Zven - G2: Even in losses, this dude performed well, great even. It was disappointing to look at the scores for G2, see everyone with a 0/3/2 kda and then see Sven and Mithy with the only CS lead and positive score. Hard times for what i still think is the best ADC in the west.

  2. DoubleLift - TSM: This group stage showed he's still kind of knocking off the rust from the days where he was seriously feared when he piloted a hyper carry. The near death experiences on Tristanna made me constantly think "If he does that again, TSM is screwed". Still though, rust or not, this guy showed up and showed that as far as western League is concerned, he sits with a rare few who can actually say they are some of the consistently best ADC's.

  3. Samux - UoL: I was expecting to give Rekkles this spot but the dark horse of ADCs that was Samux, with all these big names overshadowing him, put off one of the best performances and proving, EU still has a murderer's row of ADCs.

Support:

  1. Mithy - G2: Again, i could repeat the same thing i said about Zven here, i feel like Zven and Mithy were seconds away from spamming the map with question mark pings every game. A great support, backing a great ADC on a team that was struggling to exist in Rift Rivals.

  2. Biofrost - TSM: DoubleLift would have fallen to 3 if it werent for this guy making the saves, the Biodaddy plays, to save DL's ass. The barrel knocking a jumping Doublelift back into G2? Biofrost saves him, DoubleLift jumps too forward and almost gets blown up by Taliyah? Biofrost saves him. Bio showing up on Tahm Kench after me thinking "Oh god no he picked Tahm Kench" after seeing the hideous MSI he had on him, gave me hope that he's coming back to playing like he used to.

  3. Xpecial - P1: Mike Yeung and Xpecial connecting to step up for the team is something amazing to watch if you saw P1's games. For a support who has been wrongfully tossed aside his whole career, its nice to see him come back with a vengeance and help his team smash. the vision game, the plays, the saves, yes Bio and Mithy did a better job at that than Xpecial did, but for someone like Xpecial, it was nice to see him as a dominant support again.

Some honorable mentions coming in for me are

  • TSM Hauntzer, nothing really improved from him this time out but he still did his job, got solo killed by sOAZ and Csacsi but thats why they made the list and he didnt
  • FNC Broxah, he reminded me of Svenskeren during MSI, some flashes of why he is on a top team in EU but too many mistakes.
  • C9 Jensen the guy still didnt roam and he still didnt step up for team pre 15 and thats been his problem since the beginning of the Summer, but still had some dominating lane leads for whatever that was worth.
  • FNC Caps: He made me hype before Rift Rivals even started but not showing up just made me take a look at him and think "The young player having international issues/jitters/mistakes". Im sure thats the only reason he didnt show up, ill be damned to think he got plain out skilled.
  • FNC Rekkles: Dude just got straight up out shined and out performed
  • C9 Sneaky: Had some minor bumps and errors but again, in a top 5 list he makes it but for a top 3, he and Rekkles didnt step up as hard as DoubleLift, Samux and Zven did.

Well thats it for group stages, not going to do any listings for the final game, there would be no point since a 1 and 2 spot would be kind of obvious and un-needed. I know some of you will disagree on my picks, i really went back and forth on a lot, even the honorable mentions. Still let me know what you guys think though, thats it until the NA LCS start back up on July 14th.

3 Comments

Nipsahoy7/7/2017, 10:27:20 PM3 votes

I have to disagree with a lot of your ratings. Casci only really played Gnar and he only had 2 good games on it, can't really see him getting the top honors imo. Definitely can't put exile in the top 3. This dude did not play well at all. Contractz definitely should have been in the top 3 some of his numbers were far and above most of the other junglers of the tourney - did you see his Khazix game vs g2? I think Jensen should have got number 3 in your rankings his performances were far and above that of Exileh. Xpecial and Biofrost looked like the clear best supports of the tournament imo.

GeminiRune7/7/2017, 10:17:07 PM2 votes

Not gonna lie: I was expecting a post on this similar to your week recaps. I am genuinely impressed.

In my eyes, this tournament really showed many things while keeping it pretty chill to those not really for the trash talk. First of all, I had so many points where i was just grinning with envy on how well P1 was performing. I was one of those people who thought they were definitely last place performing material for the tournament due to their limited form of adaptation. I was wrong. I was thinking FNC's form in EULCS would translate and clear through the competition like the edginess that is the Urgot Rework. I was wrong. I was thinking this would be the tournament to kick G2 the right direction. Only problem is I don't know which direction that was anymore so by default I was wrong again.

Player for player, I have no objections to your list and I can't even think of a more standout honorable mention (maybe some kind of shoutout to the EU mids thing for the wrong reason - I dunno). The overall score does kind of lie to me as well. 12-6 in favor of NA yet there were quite a few games where it could have gone both ways. While it shows the competition between both regions has its ups and downs, some more than others, it is a kind of the best possible preview in my opinion of what could be ahead at Worlds in regards to the styles to expect or refine upon.

III BAKURYU III 7/8/2017, 3:59:25 AM2 votes

TOP 1. Soaz 2. Hauntzer 3. Ray JUNGLE 1. Mike 2. Svenskeren 3. Xerxeh MID 1. Bjergsen 2. Ryu 3. Jensen ADC 1. Doublelift 2. Zven 3. Arrow SUP 1. Xpecial 2. Biofrost 3. Smoothie

Would be my rankings from groups Ray - Why Ray - Having to sub in and out isn't easy, going 2-2 is forgivable considering it was only UOL that gave him/C9 problems.

Exileh - Why ? - Yeah, he has his games that he looks good and has his moments that he feeds, very similar to say Caps in RR.

Zven/Mithy - Ok, so tired of them being on like every top 5 op list, top 25 list etc and they just for lack of better word "suck" Zven has been hailed as the best ADC for EU for like 2 years now and everyone(Deficio) holds Zven and Mithy as the "best botlane in the West" when in reality they typically just go "even" so clap for going even ?

Rekkles - It's ok guys his deaths is only at 6 when Fnatic themselves got dunked on. Actually surprised you didn't put him in the top 3 considering he's "useless" more times than not, never plays aggressive when the team actually needs it, instead it's Soaz/Huni/Reignover/Xpeke/Cyanide/ everyone else that makes the play while he farms for 50 mins. Has a nice face and a better stat line that's about it.