Analysis and Opinion

NIGHT VISION: Group Stage, Day 1

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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FLY vs. TES: TES win
FLY Volibear Lillia Syndra Jhin Thresh
TES Camille Graves Akali Senna Sett

FLY look okay very early, Santorin pathing advantage, heavy bot lane trading. Then knight escapes IgNar roam, 369 solo Ks Solo. Karsa ganks both sides. TES don’t snowball; they avalanche.

UOL vs. DRX: DRX win
UOL Renekton Evelynn Orianna Jhin Alistar
DRX Ornn Nidalee Sett Ashe Pantheon

Chovy+Pyosik mid/jungle stomps Nomanz+AHaHaCiK. BOSS fails to bully Doran. Pyosik ganking and counterganking, Keria aggressive. DRX avalanche as if they think they’re TES.

RGE vs. PSG: RGE win
RGE Malphite Evelynn Lucian Kalista Rakan
PSG Renekton Graves Orianna Senna Nautilus

Hans sama Vander lvl 1 kill mid, lvl 2 roam mid and dive for second kill, very cool. Malphite engage at Herald extends the lead. RGE snowball easily with full map control, easy rotations.

DWG vs. JDG: DWG win
DWG Camille Nidalee Twisted Fate Jhin Leona
JDG Volibear Lillia Jayce Ashe Nautilus

DWG counter standard JDG lvl 1 raptor invade for FB. Ghost gets way ahead off bot skirmish. Canyon runs the map, controls neutrals. JDG look for comeback fights, give up aces.

GEN vs. LGD: GEN win
GEN Volibear Gragas Lucian Ashe Sett
LGD Renekton Kindred Syndra Senna Leona

GEN get Bdd Ruler ahead, but no clean snowball. Many close team fights at neutrals. LGD go up an inhib; GEN win next fight. Clid gets 50/50 Baron smite.

TSM vs FNC: FNC win
TSM Camille Nidalee Syndra Senna Alistar
FNC Volibear Evelynn Lucian Jhin Rakan

FNC late lvl 1 invade gets FB. Bjergsen good in lane, working w/ Spica. Mid-game very close. FNC smart Baron rush at 25:00 puts them ahead, mid inhib and second Baron to close.

Takeaways

  • Top Esports executed a speed run of FlyQuest by expressing themselves through strong solo lanes, in particular 369 having his way with Solo, and Karsa offering high-paced gank help all over the map. In fact, TES handled FLY in pretty much the exact way that I described their play style in this week’s episode of Run It. Go figure!
  • Are Fnatic and TSM the two strongest teams in their group? GenG should have beaten LGD far more convincingly, given the level LGD played at today. Ruler was pretty good and Life and Clid had positive moments, but GEN couldn’t put together a clean enough run of play to put the game away with the lead they had. If GEN plays at that level against FNC and TSM, it might not be enough.
  • Selfmade was the big carry of FNC’s win over TSM, but Bjergsen and Spica controlled the early game pretty well, especially given the level 1 setback Spica had to work through.
  • Broken Blade had a rough one, failing to recognize Bwipo’s incoming level 6 and giving up a death for it, and later pulling the trigger very late on a dive into the backline in a fight around 32:00 and giving away any chance TSM had of effectively contesting the final Baron. He had good moments too, notably in the 1v2 outplay, but on the whole this was not a strong showing for Broken Blade. TSM will need better.

Night to Remember

Two LCK Nidalees popped off today, with both Pyosik and Canyon having nights to remember with massive individual performances. Pyosik helped DRX push back against the recent wave of doubts people (including me) have been expressing, with a very convincing performance. And Canyon led DWG to an impressive win over a JDG team that is supposed to be one of the three best in the whole tournament. Expect some Nidalee bans to come in against these guys going forward.

Side note: Spica played Nidalee, too, but couldn’t find the same level of game influence, mostly because Broken Blade didn’t give him the same quality from the top lane that Pyosik and Canyon received from their teams. Also, shoutout to EU Evelynns, Selfmade in particular.