The synopsis indicates these games were highly one-sided in one direction or the other. Gotta have made for a pretty unexciting final.
I missed most of yesterday and today :-/ Too much family stuff. Just have to watch the VOD's at work, I suppose...
sithload wrote:Jow wrote:I've only recently started paying attention to the competitive scene but man does it seem like competitive champ diversity is WAY down. Seems like the bans are always chosen from the same pool of 10-15 champs and what's left is chosen from a pool about the same size. There are occasional outliers of course, but in a game with a champion population over 90 it's pretty disappointing seeing the same 20 champs represented every time out.
True. It'd be interesting to go back through the last couple big championships and note champ frequency. If there are five roles on a team, I'm guessing there are about 5 champs per role that are played regularly - but that's a gut feeling. I don't know if it's accurate or not.
Are you familiar with the Tier lists? The pros definitely think some champs have more value than others. I guess I'm not too surprised by that; it'd be pretty tough to balance 90.
The pro scene is partly balance, partly flavor of the month meta, and partly playing champs the players are good at. It's pretty much impossible to be good at every champ with the rate they're released, so players tend to practice a handful of champs that do well in the current meta. So you often get very similar picks and bans.
It's always fun to see someone pick an unplayed champ and do well with them, like when Dan Dinh played Heimer once and just wrecked face with him. Heimer then got banned in all of Epik's remaining games because no one ever plays against Heimer.
Hey, look what I found on Reddit - a link to all the champs picked at IEM Kiev.
Sona is awesome: confirmed.
Kinda like I expected - the top 10 picks have nearly as many individual picks (165) as the rest of the field combined (186). Make it the top 11 and they outnumber the rest of the field.
Sivir became AD flavor of the week in a hurry and either no one expected it or no one cared (no bans). Meanwhile, Vayne was only picked 5 times, lost 4 of those, and was only banned twice. I know this is on old patch, before the recent Vayne nerfs, but portent of changing of the guard maybe?
Also, i really can't wait to see some new support champs.
Something I think you are omitting is that you need to be able to play not only your champs, but also the champs of your opponents because if you pick before them, you eliminate their option like it's a ban.
I agree, I'd love to see another support champ with the same level as Sona – slows, heals, buffs, and a massive crowd control. Hard to beat that.
On the subject of supports, Morello said somewhere on the forums that getting some supports out this year was a major goal because they knew they were lagging behind. He said something about it NOT being the next champ out, but soon.
Re: sona... balancing these champs out seems kinda like long-distance shelling of warships back in the WW2 days. You straddle the target, missing one side or the other as you gradually home in on it until finally, bam. She got some early nerfs, followed by some tiny buffs and then a huge combination of nerfs/buffs in the same patch. Unfortunately, in a game with this many variables I don't think there ever really is a "bam" moment, but that's the nature of the beast.
Kings of Europe just went live, ogaming.tv. SK vs a team I haven't heard of, exGBT.
Here's another link through Own3d. Against All Authority vs. CLG EU about to go live now.
damn. I caught part of the stream in midgame but had to leave for a while and when I came back it was all over. How soon does the VOD show up post-game usually?
Interestingly there was a Shyvana vs Irelia top lane, which messed TSM up hard with Shyv just controling the lane and counter jungling every double golem and red spawn. This time with Wickd Irelia the lane was controlled far better than Rainman could and Shyv couldn't counter jungle. After Kiev there was so much talk about Shyvana apparently being this genius counter to Irelia which I didn't understand. Looks like it was just bandwagon hype as usual.
They were talking about this on the last episode of State of the League and Wickd basically said there's no excuse for Irelia not stomping Shyvana hard. Guess he was on the money.
I've only watched the end of game 2 in the finals but from what I've read game 1 was pretty crazy.
M5 ran jungle Mundo (and went 0-6 with him :D). It seems like their strong counterjungling and map control strategies from Kiev aren't working so well vs CLG.euInterestingly there was a Shyvana vs Irelia top lane, which messed TSM up hard with Shyv just controling the lane and counter jungling every double golem and red spawn. This time with Wickd Irelia the lane was controlled far better than Rainman could and Shyv couldn't counter jungle. After Kiev there was so much talk about Shyvana apparently being this genius counter to Irelia which I didn't understand. Looks like it was just bandwagon hype as usual.
If TSM had that game to play again, I think they'd ward the sh*t out of their own jungle and make Shyvana pay for each trip in. We knew how many times Shyv was hitting their jungle, but I don't TSM knew it in-game.
Last game of Kings of Europe (third game of three in the finals) was pretty damn good. A good comeback to make it an even game after it looked like it was getting a little lopsided halfway through.
Also, there's a really good Reddit thread for Kings of Europe with all the VOD info too - might save Fedora some work?
EDIT - I'm a filthy skimmer, Fedora already had it linked.
Anyone rooting for M5 because of their "unorthodox" plays?
Finally watched Deman's cast of game 3. Crazy!
[spoiler]Two straight hellacious comebacks, the second one from nearly 7k gold down... Pretty incredible. I watched that last Karthus ult incoming and expected total carnage, but knew it was game over when it took out absolutely nobody. Gotta wonder what might have happened if Darien hadn't gotten spanked so hard up top early-game.
This should be awesome. TSM in the same group as M5... can't wait!
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