[Analysis] 'A New Dawn' Teamfight Breakdown

Hey y'all,

MrBuffington here to bring you a breakdown of the game-changing teamfight in Riot's new cinematic, "A New Dawn". Check it out if you haven't already, since there will be spoilers in this breakdown.

So the key theme I want to emphasize here is teamwork. This is probably the biggest factor that determines the outcome of the fight. Anyways, on to the action.

On the Blue side, Darius is in the top lane, with Nautilus jungling, Katarina mid, Draven as ADC, and Zyra as support.

On the Purple side we have Jax in the top lane, Rengar in the jungle, Ahri mid, Graves on ADC, with Leona supporting.

The play opens up with Leona and Ahri coming through the jungle. We see Katarina bait them into an ambush with Darius and Draven, a great play that catches both Leona and Ahri off-guard. Leona is able to block most of the damage from Darius, but here is where the play turns. At this point, Katarina has left the fight in what would have been a 3v2 where her team had the jump on the enemy. They could have easily won this fight and continued, but instead, Katarina chooses to leave the fight, presumably to search for other kills. Instead, we see some great teamwork from Leona and Ahri that is vital to the ultimate outcome of this fight. Leona is able to tank Darius' ult and survive, importantly denying him the reset and saving Ahri. Here, Darius and Draven switch focus to Ahri anyways, though Ahri lands a great Charm onto them, allowing Leona to escape.

Darius and Draven continue to chase Ahri, leading her into another ambush as Zyra throws out the Grasping Roots to catch Ahri out. Instead of letting Zyra clean up the kill, though, Draven gets greedy and tries to nab it himself, giving time for Graves to toss out the SmokeScreen, blinding Draven and denying the kill. After this, both teams are grouped in a 4v4, but importantly, Ahri's team is grouped. Zyra could have landed a great Stranglethorns to combo with Katarina's ult, instead, their hesitation allows Rengar to jump on Draven. Draven gets absolutely no peel here, and gets flat out Rengar'ed, without even using Rengar's ultimate. At this point, Katarina's team is in a 3v4, with their ADC down, and should try to disengage. Instead, Zyra decides to try to finish the kill on Ahri, but squishy support vs. mid lane assassin is really a bad match up for Zyra; she gets outplayed and loses her life in the process. Jax manages to lock down Darius while Graves and Rengar hunt down Katarina, which is Blue team's last major damage threat. Again, indecision on the side of Blue team forces Katarina into a 1v2. After being taken low by Rengar, Katarina tries to make a play on Graves instead of Shunpo-ing away, and ends up getting turned on. Remember, Graves is one of the few ADCs that excels at close range, due to the burst damage on his Buckshot.

All the while, Nautilus has been farming jungle, which highlights another flaw. Nautilus is the main tank for Blue team, and although Blue could have turned the fight earlier, having Purple team's main tank in Leona too low to fight means having a tank would be a huge advantage in the fight. Moreover, Nautilus has one of the lowest base speeds in the game, in addition to being a utility jungler over a carry jungler, meaning his presence in a teamfight is even more vital. At this point, Nautilus decides to jump into what is now a 2v4, and while Nautilus appears to be very fed, they have no carries to provide damage. While they do manage to pick up the kill on Jax, they are still caught in a 2v3, a tank and bruiser versus two carries and a Rengar. Nautilus is able to chunk Ahri very low, but because Purple still have their ADC, Graves is able to shred through Nautilus' defenses. Nautilus does manage to outplay Graves a bit, and they end up mutual-ing.

At this point, Ahri is incredibly low, but Rengar is also nowhere to be seen. We know he still has his ult up since he didn't have to use it to kill Draven. At this point, Darius should just disengage because he is outnumbered; Ahri is low and will probably just back to base, and even if he manages to pick up a kill, Rengar will still be around to defend any objectives that Darius could take. Instead he chooses to chase the kill on Ahri, who is far more mobile than he, not to mention she is ranged. Ahri is able to kite Darius around, stalling for Leona to find a great Solar Flare opportunity. Rengar ults into Darius, chunking him for a good amount of damage, and Ahri is able to clean up with her ult for the ace, and opening up Blue side's base.

Despite some positional errors on Purple side, their teamwork, in addition to the lack of coordination and greed for kills on Blue side, is the major factor that turned this initially equal teamfight into the one sided 5 for 2 that we saw.

Back to you, Phreak.