Night Vision is your nightly recap of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship.
Apologies for the late post on this one. I’ve been sick and wasn’t able to stay up overnight last night.
Look below for Recaps, Takeaways, and my pick for which player had a Night to Remember.
Recaps
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Game 1: TL def. SUP
SUP Wukong Lillia Akali Jhin Nautilus
TL Shen Graves Sylas Twitch Rakan
Impact active with Shen ults. Jensen big carry, decent coordination with Broxah. TL speedrun.
Game 2: LGC def. MAD
MAD Shen Lillia Syndra Ezreal Nautilus
LGC Ornn Graves Galio Jhin Alistar
Humanoid fails to win lane. MAD leave big holes in some map rotations. Tally has good engages; Kaiser does not. Carzzy carries but it’s not enough.
Game 3: INTZ def. TL
INTZ Camille Sett Orianna Senna Alistar
TL Renekton Lillia Twisted Fate Ashe Thresh
Jensen can’t get out of lane proactively, but TL get clean Herald, 1-3-1ing pretty well. But Tay outscales Impact; Tactical gets caught -> INTZ Baron. INTZ outscale and win.
Game 4: LGC def. SUP
LGC Ornn Lillia Sett Ezreal Karma
SUP Wukong Nidalee Lulu Aphelios Nautilus
SUP int at Herald 1 but have dragons stacking. LGC win several close team fights. Tally does great engage work; Raes enormous carry.
Game 5 (tiebreaker): MAD def. INTZ
MAD Wukong Graves Orianna Ezreal Leona
INTZ Camille Sett Kog’maw Senna Tahm Kench
Hole in MAD’s macro gifts mid outer for FT. INTZ punish Humanoid positioning for ace and Baron. But INTZ ARAM too much, MAD clutch the team fights.
Game 6 (tiebreaker): TL def. LGC
TL Shen Graves Syndra Caitlyn Braum
LGC Ornn Kindred Galio Jhin Rakan
TL win all 3 lanes. Broxah effective mid ganks and bot dives. Jensen major lane kingdom and set up Broxah’s snowball. Even bigger speedrun than vs. SUP.
Takeaways
- Reminder: when Team Liquid play their own game, they’re really a solid team. Aside from an “oopsies” game with Renekton/Lillia (don’t play through top lane when you have Impact, please), TL cruised to the top spot in Group A. In my “expectations” article about the LCS teams, I wrote:“In the Play-Ins, TL carry the burden of proving that North America still deserves respect as a major region.”I’d say they’ve done so, especially with the LPL and LEC 4th seeds failing so badly, both coming a single tiebreaker away from falling out of Play-Ins entirely. Now TL have to deliver on the increased expectations they’ve created for themselves.
- Raes had a pop-off game against SUP that prompted discussion of the volume of Bot lane talent Oceania has been able to produce. Some names on that list include FBI, who really came into his own as a star with Golden Guardians in the LCS this Summer; K1ng, who dominated LCS Academy with Cloud9 in Spring before having to sit out Summer due to visa issues; and Lost, whose LCS Academy work with TSM was exceptional all year long. Don’t be surprised to see Raes make the jump to NA, where the Academy import rules from Oceania are more relaxed.
Night to Remember
Tally had a pair of great team fighting performances, picking Galio against the MAD Lions and Sett against SuperMassive and being a difference-maker in both showings. He couldn’t stand up to Jensen in the tiebreaker, but that was partly due to Broxah’s strong work attacking him.
Tally is a longstanding Oceanic veteran who recently role swapped to Mid from Top, and his ability to show up internationally is great to see. He’ll have to show his best level to give his team a chance in their best-of-five for qualification into the Group Stage.