Analysis and Opinion

NIGHT VISION: Group Stage, Day 5

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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TL vs. G2: G2 win
TL Lulu Hecarim Syndra Kalista Sett
G2 Sylas Volibear Ekko Ashe Tahm Kench

G2’s lanes+pathing secure both scuttles, big tempo lead. G2 superior wave management and jungle/lane coord: gank top, gank bot, dive bot. Game effectively over before the much-memed dragon fight.

MCX vs. SN: SN win
MCX Jayce Volibear Syndra Ashe Nautilus
SN Irelia Graves Galio Jhin Bard

Bin solo kills PK for FB, completely controls the matchup. SwordArt strong playmaking throughout. MCX find some picks against the grain, doesn’t mean much. SN crush it.

G2 vs. MCX: G2 win
G2 Shen Lillia Lucian Jhin Rakan
MCX Ornn Graves Orianna Ezreal Alistar

G2 early lead from Caps Jankos mid 2v2 pressure. Some G2 inting at dragon 2. MCX stacking drakes; G2 rolling big gold lead. Purposeless engages cost MCX their scaling win con; G2 punish.

SN vs. TL: TL win
SN Jayce Graves Twisted Fate Senna Tahm Kench
TL Malphite Lillia Sett Jhin Bard

Chaotic lvl 1, TL 3-1 but weird lane starts. SN prio top mid, invading, gold lead. Good CoreJJ Tactical rotation punishes SN invade. TL take over, scale heavily, close decisively.

TL vs. MCX: TL win
TL Shen Lillia Syndra Senna Pantheon
MCX Ornn Lee Sin Kassadin Ashe Bard

CoreJJ beasts lvl 1, puts a choke hold on Gemini’s jungle. Broxah uses the setup to roleplay SofM. Jensen lane kingdoms Mission. Game effectively over before 5:00.

SN vs. G2: SN win
SN Camille Jarvan IV Syndra Ezreal Bard
G2 Renekton Graves Ekko Kalista Senna

G2 fail lvl 1 invade & 4-man bot dive, but Perkz Mikyx lane kingdom. G2 bring tempo bot to top then back bot but expose 3-man group to TP disadvantage, SN 3 kills, Bin snowballs.

SN vs. G2 (tiebreaker): SN win
SN Gangplank Graves Akali Ashe Leona
G2 Sion Lillia Syndra Senna Sett

Jankos SwordArt trading ganks. SN winning map early and throughout. SN get picks, Barons, inhibs, but messy, losing momentum. Bin game-winning flank TP.

Takeaways

  • The lack of respect shown to the LCS has bothered me all year. It’s one thing to criticize North America’s level of play, but it’s another thing entirely to claim the LCS should be removed from the “major region” group and repeat the “NA is a wildcard” meme ad nauseum. The best way to push back against things like that is to go out and win and prove the haters wrong, of course, but when Team Liquid went out and did exactly that by defeating G2 Esports last week and then still were getting disrespected afterwards, it ground my gears a little. Today, Team Liquid dropped the G2 rematch, but came back and knocked off Suning before demolishing Machi. These were legitimate wins with strong game plans and execution, not flukes or cheese strategies or opponent throws. TL deserve criticism for failing in the first round robin, especially for losing to Machi, but they also deserve respect for being competitive in this group.
  • Congratulations to Suning on qualifying as 1st seed out of Group A. Some potential Quarterfinals matchups for them are JDG, DRX, or just about anybody from Group C. They’ll be underdogs against JDG, a fairly even match against DRX or GenG, and favourites against any other Group C team.

Night to Remember

Team Liquid’s huge wins over Suning and Machi were powered by CoreJJ, the two-time LCS MVP who is by far the best player to ever wear a Team Liquid jersey. His IgNar impression in the level 1s against Suning and Machi was spot on, and the way he used his leads to create map pressure and work with Broxah was very impressive.

Bin was also very good for Suning, earning his team the first seed with his Gangplank play and crushing G2 in the game before on Camille to put his team in the 1st place tiebreaker to start with.