How teams are adapting for Day 4
Riot·9/27/2014, 8:24:14 PM·1 votes·11,523 views
With everything open going into Day 3, teams that performed in the clutch would set themselves up for getting out of the group. After the early success of North America on Day 1 and the opening of the groups on Day 2, Day 3 has been Europe's revenge.
Froggen also wanted to make a conscious change to the champions he played. "I prefer playmaking champions over sit-back-and-poke sort of champions… if you can play them well enough, you can kind of get going to get a good lead for your team."
In the match against Cloud9, an early Alistar pick -- a support pick, rather than top -- along with Froggen's Ahri and a surprise Rammus for Shook, enabled Alliance to make aggressive plays throughout the midgame. Froggen's Ahri and Tabzz's Kog'Maw were instrumental in putting damage onto Cloud9, as they otherwise utilized a fairly low damage team composition.
But their improvement against Cloud9 doesn't begin to touch what happened against Najin White Shield. Froggen once again picked a playmaking Ahri, but this time it seemed that all the individual mistakes finally faded away. Shook had the performance of a lifetime on LeeSin, snowballing each of his lanes and exerting his dominance all over the map. As a result, Alliance managed a perfect game -- no kills or objectives lost. Their breakout performance in Day Three has given them the inside track on Cloud9 to advance to the Quarterfinals.
Though its hard to fault Rekkles for lack of execution since he single handedly killed two members, Fnatic stands by it's choice in the closing moments of the game. "Its easy to be smart about what we could have done differently [after the fact]...if we had known I was going to kill two people [our team] would have just waited for me and gone in 5v3 and there's nothing [OMG] can do. But at that moment, going in 1 by 1 and trying to finish the game was our idea as a team, so there was no hard feelings after the game for anyone for making a bad call."
Fnatic ended up losing this game and had the monumental task of playing only an hour later against LMQ. "It was really tough [to get ready for the next game]. I had quite a few tears after the game. The emotions went up to next gear and everything was just coming out of my system."
Once on the rift, Fnatic managed to snowball Rekkles and xPeke after a rough start with their mid-game outplays in team fights and a few mechanical plays by Rekkles in bot lane. "It was a bit weird game because my mindset was a bit shaky," Rekkles said. "But I just tried to have fun on my favorite champion Lucian and then tried to make a win out of it, and we managed to get me super far ahead and I got a pentakill."
Looking ahead to Samsung Blue, Fnatic remains optimistic, but it's clear the pressure is truly on them now. "Our game plan will remain the same, our strategies will remain the same, but the focus and the nervousness going into the game will be totally off the chart, because this is basically an all or nothing game, its like playing [the final]."
Even though Fnatic isn't technically in control of their own destiny, they want to make the best of their chances. "If everyone is super focused, and we have a good mood before the game, I think we can put up a good fight against Samsung Blue..."
His performance over Cool and the rest of OMG snowballed his team to a relatively easy victory. But OMG wasn't a team Dade was particularly worried about. "XPeke has to be the most impressive player in our group," Dade relented. "With everything said and done, they did beat us, and he did beat me."
Though Fnatic has looked extremely impressive lately -- even in the games that they've lost -- Samsung Blue is taking this match very seriously. Blue believes in the first matchup they may have lost some of their identity and gave up too much to Fnatic. "We have to concentrate on what we're good at instead of trying to worry about what they're good at and taking away what they're good at," Dade explained.
Greatness Realized
Alliance struggled early in groups to adapt to the global metagame. Cloud9 was able to exert their will on Alliance in their first matchup, while Alliance failed to push their advantage against Najin White Shield in the mid game of that matchup. This time around Alliance was able to play their style of games, and force fights with their aggressive and playmaking champions. One of Froggen's concerns after Day Two was a problem of performance. "We knew what to do, but failed to execute it," he said about their inability to close out Najin White Shield. "We made the game really hard for ourselves, with the way to wanted to play the game."
Froggen also wanted to make a conscious change to the champions he played. "I prefer playmaking champions over sit-back-and-poke sort of champions… if you can play them well enough, you can kind of get going to get a good lead for your team."
In the match against Cloud9, an early Alistar pick -- a support pick, rather than top -- along with Froggen's Ahri and a surprise Rammus for Shook, enabled Alliance to make aggressive plays throughout the midgame. Froggen's Ahri and Tabzz's Kog'Maw were instrumental in putting damage onto Cloud9, as they otherwise utilized a fairly low damage team composition.
But their improvement against Cloud9 doesn't begin to touch what happened against Najin White Shield. Froggen once again picked a playmaking Ahri, but this time it seemed that all the individual mistakes finally faded away. Shook had the performance of a lifetime on LeeSin, snowballing each of his lanes and exerting his dominance all over the map. As a result, Alliance managed a perfect game -- no kills or objectives lost. Their breakout performance in Day Three has given them the inside track on Cloud9 to advance to the Quarterfinals.
Hopes Extinguished
After a decent recovery after a rough start in Day Two, Day Three could have taken Fnatic to the promised land, but they fell just short. OMG's Nexus barely lived through a mass rush by Fnatic in the late moments of the game. "The idea sounded good at first, but sadly enough I didn't get there fast enough to stop the Kha'Zix," Rekkles said after the game. "I stopped three people… but they split up so it was hard to stop them all."
Though its hard to fault Rekkles for lack of execution since he single handedly killed two members, Fnatic stands by it's choice in the closing moments of the game. "Its easy to be smart about what we could have done differently [after the fact]...if we had known I was going to kill two people [our team] would have just waited for me and gone in 5v3 and there's nothing [OMG] can do. But at that moment, going in 1 by 1 and trying to finish the game was our idea as a team, so there was no hard feelings after the game for anyone for making a bad call."
Fnatic ended up losing this game and had the monumental task of playing only an hour later against LMQ. "It was really tough [to get ready for the next game]. I had quite a few tears after the game. The emotions went up to next gear and everything was just coming out of my system."
Recovery and Redemption
Despite tempers and emotions running hot, Fnatic's coaching staff played a great part in calming their star players down. "Luckily I have Toyz and Araneae to help me out with that since they were not actually in the game," Rekkles explained. "Even though they were a little bit sad because we lost, they could still help me reset my mentality and help me focus on playing…"
Once on the rift, Fnatic managed to snowball Rekkles and xPeke after a rough start with their mid-game outplays in team fights and a few mechanical plays by Rekkles in bot lane. "It was a bit weird game because my mindset was a bit shaky," Rekkles said. "But I just tried to have fun on my favorite champion Lucian and then tried to make a win out of it, and we managed to get me super far ahead and I got a pentakill."
Looking ahead to Samsung Blue, Fnatic remains optimistic, but it's clear the pressure is truly on them now. "Our game plan will remain the same, our strategies will remain the same, but the focus and the nervousness going into the game will be totally off the chart, because this is basically an all or nothing game, its like playing [the final]."
Even though Fnatic isn't technically in control of their own destiny, they want to make the best of their chances. "If everyone is super focused, and we have a good mood before the game, I think we can put up a good fight against Samsung Blue..."
Overcoming Demons
Meanwhile from the other side of the matchup, Dade was able to shake off the demons of years past with a convincing win over OMG. "I wasn't worried [about repeating last year], because I think the biggest factor that lead to our [poor] play was the bans and picks," Dade said after his games on Day Three.
His performance over Cool and the rest of OMG snowballed his team to a relatively easy victory. But OMG wasn't a team Dade was particularly worried about. "XPeke has to be the most impressive player in our group," Dade relented. "With everything said and done, they did beat us, and he did beat me."
Though Fnatic has looked extremely impressive lately -- even in the games that they've lost -- Samsung Blue is taking this match very seriously. Blue believes in the first matchup they may have lost some of their identity and gave up too much to Fnatic. "We have to concentrate on what we're good at instead of trying to worry about what they're good at and taking away what they're good at," Dade explained.
