Night Vision is your nightly recap of the 2020 League of Legends World Championships.
Look below for Recaps, Takeaways, and my pick for which player had a Night to Remember.
Recaps
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LGC vs. LGD
Game 1: LGD win
LGC Gangplank Nidalee Galio Kalista Taric
LGD Renekton Graves Twisted Fate Miss Fortune Leona
LGC Gangplank Nidalee Galio Kalista Taric LGD Renekton Graves Twisted Fate Miss Fortune Leona Langx completely top diffs Topoon. LGD rush to mid-game state with full Herald rotation -> FT top, big lead. LGC fumble execution on last-chance team fight.
Game 2: LGD win
LGC Poppy Lillia Twisted Fate Draven Braum
LGD Camille Nidalee Kassadin Ezreal Leona
Enormous early lead for xiye’s Kassadin. LGD give up 2 drakes, then start fighting, execute badly, LGC punish hard. LGD finally shape up, xiye quadra, LGD wrap it up despite some oopsies.
Game 3: LGD win
LGC Camille Lillia Galio Twitch Taric
LGD Volibear Graves Twisted Fate Ezreal Alistar
Slow early, some top ganks, macro trades. Then xiye starts taking over. LGC can’t set up clean 5v5s for Taric ults. LGC bad force onto Alistar; LGD ride it home.
UOL vs. SUP
Game 1: UOL win
UOL Wukong Nidalee Zoe Twitch Alistar
SUP Malphite Lillia Galio Miss Fortune Rakan
Nomanz dictates early game. UOL choose Herald side of Herald/dragon trade. SUP chasing big engages and wombos, but Gadget outplays for triple kill at dragon 2 fight. UOL close aggressively.
Game 2: UOL win
SUP Wukong Lillia Azir Senna Leona
UOL Renekton Graves Kassadin Ziggs Alistar
SUP attack AHaHaCiK early, KaKAO way ahead. SUP over-rotate for Herald 1, let Gadget recover lane prematurely. SUP pick attempt on SaNTaS backfires, Nomanz triple kill. Kassadin is fed, gg.
Game 3: UOL win
UOL Wukong Nidalee Vayne Jhin Braum
SUP Sion Lillia Sett Caitlyn Leona
UOL control mid, Herald, dragon, find a few kills. Armut roams don’t connect. UOL hit back on SUP plays, team fight better. Dragon 3 fight win -> Baron to seal UOL’s berth in Groups.
Takeaways
- Legacy and the OPL can be very proud of what they achieved at this tournament. They had great results in the group stage and put themselves in decent positions in today’s series, despite the 3-0 result. Mechanically, they may not have been on the same level as LGD, but I saw enough skill, and better, enough team play, that I can definitely imagine them repeating and improving on this performance in future years. I hope the momentum continues into 2021!
- LGD still don’t look good enough for the Group Stage. We saw the same early-game leads, applied somewhat inefficiently at times, and the same mid-game mistakes, basically the same everything. If they don’t get punished heavily by TSM, Fnatic, and GenG, I’ll be somewhat disappointed, honestly. But xiye was a bright point, for what it’s worth.
- Teams are still frequently over-investing in Rift Herald rotations, despite that topic being harped on for months by analysts around the world. We saw it from LGD in game 1 and SUP in game 2 today. It didn’t cost LGD, but it was an example of inefficiency in their play. It definitely contributed to SUP losing their lead in game 2, since Gadget’s Ziggs was able to create a much better lane state, in addition to earning plate gold and prepping a full tower kill a couple of minutes later when he was once again left alone in the lane on a SUP over-rotation.
Night to Remember
What a great series from Nomanz, playing Zoe, Kassadin, and Vayne and setting the pace and tenor of every game. He handled his lane opponent smoothly, worked well with AHaHaCiK, and dominated team fights. He’s definitely going to make a mark on the Group Stage one way or another.