OMG's New Game Plan
Riot·4/2/2014, 10:23:09 PM·0 votes·1,422 views
OMG, previously known for their dominance of China's LPL, experienced an off-season of losses upon returning home after World's. With their star mid laner, Yu "Cool" Jiajun stepping down for the split due to health reasons and Yin "Allen" Le (known in Season 3 as Lovelin) and Ouyang "bigpomelo" Wei-Qi returning to their Season 3 Spring roles of support and jungle, it seemed OMG might continue their decline.
So far in 2014 LPL Spring, however, OMG has remained nearly undefeated with a record of six wins and one tie in LPL's group stage. Role swaps and roster changes often spell doom for top teams, yet OMG has managed to change their style and return to the throne as LPL kings. We had a chance to ask the first place team a few questions about their new approach to the 2014 season and what makes them so successful.
It seems for OMG, the more important adjustments were to the new gameplay changes. The role swap reversion occurred as a result of alterations to the jungle and support roles. "We have assessed the changes to jungle in Season 2014, and with increased gold rewards for jungler, the personality of bigpomelo is more suited." The team agrees that, in the 2014 season, both jungle and support can exist as carry forces, and they wanted to optimize their roster so that carry champions could occupy both the jungle and support roles.
Those aren't the only changes OMG have concerned themselves with. Anyone who watched LPL in both Season 3 and the new season may have noticed a change of pace. Many teams, including OMG, seem to have slowed down their game and dropped some of the more aggressive early dives that made the region so famous. OMG is conscious of the change. "In this season, turrets and early games being strengthened and spawning of monsters being pushed back make our early game play more cautious than last season."
One of the most interesting changes in 2014 has nothing to do with the team's roster or patches, but rather the format of LPL itself. Previously, LPL had three rounds of best-of-ones. In the new season, LPL has adopted a best-of-two format in which each team faces every other team in LPL on two separate occasions, but they play two games instead of one. Many LPL teams have struggled with this format, most notably Invictus Gaming, the only team so far to have failed to win two games in a row.
OMG by contrast, has excelled, consistently winning the second game in a series quicker than the first. As a team, OMG are excited about the ramifications this new format will have on LPL teams as a whole. "Some pro teams in China aren't that good at adapting and taking prompt countermeasures… With this format in LPL, all teams will become stronger at this." As OMG has lofty goals in the international arena, this can only mean good things from their perspective.
In practice, OMG favors assassins and burst mages in the jungle and support role respectively. Bigpomelo heavily favors Kha'Zix, and it is by far OMG's most commonly picked champion. Allen has played most of his games on the popular Annie, but he has brought Leblanc and Syndra to LPL's bottom lanes as well. He was also the first support Morgana player in LPL after it proved effective against World Elite at IEM Katowice. Aside from the inherent crowd control spells these picks provide, Allen also believes "high damage [is]…much needed in the bottom lane" and that these abilities "are proven [to be] very powerful in laning and teamfight."
OMG, instead of relying on massive amounts of utility or shield compositions to protect their AD carry, seem to believe in a kill-them-before-they-kill-san approach. Allen's early game power on high burst mages piles kills and gold onto san, and bigpomelo's presence as an assassin allows OMG to quickly eliminate any threats to him in major fights. Gogoing and xiyang provide more traditional roles, with Gogoing picking standard tank champions like Renekton and xiyang favoring Lulu or Ziggs to zone and provide crowd control.
In this way, OMG has begun to rely on xiyang as something of a backbone for the team. While Cool was prone to more flashy play-making, OMG describes xiyang's performance as "stable." For a new player, his teammates say, "he did very well in terms of composure and good mind state in game." Many members of OMG already have the capacity to make plays, and xiyang is a balancing factor, adept at backing them up when his team requires.
On Friday, OMG came out with their first Nautilus pick, so we know that they're not a team that makes idle promises. Nautilus is a big departure from Kha'Zix, and xiyang played Leblanc to complement the absence of the assassin in the jungle. One of OMG's greatest strengths is the versatility of each member of the team and their willingness to play to the needs of the composition. As 4.3 Kha'Zix changes hit LPL, we can expect OMG to bring us more surprises.
OMG may have a long road ahead if they want to compete with the strong Korean hopefuls, but they're off to a promising start. In the meantime, they're happy to reach out to their western fans. "Thank you very much for your support for Team OMG which makes us more determined and dedicated for our goal. We still clearly remembered back in Season 3 Worlds your passion and enthusiasm. Thanks again for being by our side."
STRANGE NEW WORLD
For outsiders, the most monumental change seems to have occurred within the team itself. With Cool taking a break to recover from health problems, the team acquired a relatively unknown solo queue Syndra player, Hu "xiyang" Bin. In addition, some may remember Allen's run as a support player, but he might be more familiar to newer fans as Lovelin, the early level, tower-diving jungler from the Season 3 World Championship. He and bigpomelo have returned to their original roles from 2013 LPL Spring. When speaking to the team, however, they agree, "the roster changes aren't that big for the team because Xiyang is a very good mid laner," and "Bigpomelo and Allen switch back to roles they most excel in."
It seems for OMG, the more important adjustments were to the new gameplay changes. The role swap reversion occurred as a result of alterations to the jungle and support roles. "We have assessed the changes to jungle in Season 2014, and with increased gold rewards for jungler, the personality of bigpomelo is more suited." The team agrees that, in the 2014 season, both jungle and support can exist as carry forces, and they wanted to optimize their roster so that carry champions could occupy both the jungle and support roles.
Those aren't the only changes OMG have concerned themselves with. Anyone who watched LPL in both Season 3 and the new season may have noticed a change of pace. Many teams, including OMG, seem to have slowed down their game and dropped some of the more aggressive early dives that made the region so famous. OMG is conscious of the change. "In this season, turrets and early games being strengthened and spawning of monsters being pushed back make our early game play more cautious than last season."
One of the most interesting changes in 2014 has nothing to do with the team's roster or patches, but rather the format of LPL itself. Previously, LPL had three rounds of best-of-ones. In the new season, LPL has adopted a best-of-two format in which each team faces every other team in LPL on two separate occasions, but they play two games instead of one. Many LPL teams have struggled with this format, most notably Invictus Gaming, the only team so far to have failed to win two games in a row.
OMG by contrast, has excelled, consistently winning the second game in a series quicker than the first. As a team, OMG are excited about the ramifications this new format will have on LPL teams as a whole. "Some pro teams in China aren't that good at adapting and taking prompt countermeasures… With this format in LPL, all teams will become stronger at this." As OMG has lofty goals in the international arena, this can only mean good things from their perspective.
SECRET TO SUCCESS
China has been the stomping grounds of many famous AD carries in competitive League of Legends. Gao "WeiXiao" Xuecheng, Zhu "NaMei" Jia-Wen, and Jian "Uzi" Zihao, who returned to the bottom lane last week, currently compete in the LPL. With the highest KDA in LPL at 3.7, OMG's Guo "san" Jun-Liang has been cutting down the cream of the crop. Part of this is OMG's move to more AD carry centric compositions this season. In the past, OMG has often been all about Cool's plays in the mid lane, and OMG has had to adapt to a new star. By many accounts however, the 2014 season is a difficult time to shift a team's focus to protecting an AD carry, but OMG has an interesting take on the matter. While one might argue that increased gold income for supports and junglers increases the threats an AD carry faces in addition to top lane bruisers like Shyvana, OMG's players believe an AD player might actually have an easier time surviving. "In Season 2014, there have been big increases in gold and experience rewards for jungle and support, which means these two roles could better collaborate with AD carry for dealing out more damages. The new items…for support could also provide substantial help for AD carry."
In practice, OMG favors assassins and burst mages in the jungle and support role respectively. Bigpomelo heavily favors Kha'Zix, and it is by far OMG's most commonly picked champion. Allen has played most of his games on the popular Annie, but he has brought Leblanc and Syndra to LPL's bottom lanes as well. He was also the first support Morgana player in LPL after it proved effective against World Elite at IEM Katowice. Aside from the inherent crowd control spells these picks provide, Allen also believes "high damage [is]…much needed in the bottom lane" and that these abilities "are proven [to be] very powerful in laning and teamfight."
OMG, instead of relying on massive amounts of utility or shield compositions to protect their AD carry, seem to believe in a kill-them-before-they-kill-san approach. Allen's early game power on high burst mages piles kills and gold onto san, and bigpomelo's presence as an assassin allows OMG to quickly eliminate any threats to him in major fights. Gogoing and xiyang provide more traditional roles, with Gogoing picking standard tank champions like Renekton and xiyang favoring Lulu or Ziggs to zone and provide crowd control.
In this way, OMG has begun to rely on xiyang as something of a backbone for the team. While Cool was prone to more flashy play-making, OMG describes xiyang's performance as "stable." For a new player, his teammates say, "he did very well in terms of composure and good mind state in game." Many members of OMG already have the capacity to make plays, and xiyang is a balancing factor, adept at backing them up when his team requires.
STILL EVOLVING
Xiyang currently fills the role of utility and backup damage, but he has proven himself more than capable of excelling at high level assassin play. He has recently wrested the Leblanc pick from Allen's hands and taken it to the mid lane against Invictus Gaming and Positive Energy with strong results. It's very possible that, as OMG's jungle picks diversify away from Kha'Zix, xiyang will have more opportunities to shine. In the past, OMG has been known for bringing strange new champions to the jungle role like Yorick, which many Chinese teams began to ban against them last season. By comparison, their dependency on Kha'Zix has seemed stagnating. "Under current build, Kha'Zix is a little OP and it could deal tons of damage and reap kills in game," the team explained, but they are looking forward to showcasing more of bigpomelo's talents. "Bigpomelo is good at playing a lot of jungle champions… So in the future, we might see some less popular jungle champions like Nautilus."
On Friday, OMG came out with their first Nautilus pick, so we know that they're not a team that makes idle promises. Nautilus is a big departure from Kha'Zix, and xiyang played Leblanc to complement the absence of the assassin in the jungle. One of OMG's greatest strengths is the versatility of each member of the team and their willingness to play to the needs of the composition. As 4.3 Kha'Zix changes hit LPL, we can expect OMG to bring us more surprises.
SUMMER AND BEYOND
Even with xiyang's success, OMG still awaits Cool's return for 2014 LPL Summer, and his teammates wish to assure his fans that he is healing well. "Due to health reasons, Cool is currently unable to take part into Spring Season of LPL. But he is on a quick recovery now and will start training soon." It's likely we can expect to see him return to the team in LPL Summer. Knowing OMG to be an ambitious team, we closed the conversation by asking what their plans were for the rest of the season. "Our goal is to take home the Summoner Cup in the Season 2014 Worlds and this is what the whole team has been striving for. In 2014, we will try to have more people know the aspiring young players in team OMG striving for their dream in LoL esports."
OMG may have a long road ahead if they want to compete with the strong Korean hopefuls, but they're off to a promising start. In the meantime, they're happy to reach out to their western fans. "Thank you very much for your support for Team OMG which makes us more determined and dedicated for our goal. We still clearly remembered back in Season 3 Worlds your passion and enthusiasm. Thanks again for being by our side."
