Gaming
Which champions were the most influential during last weekend’s World’s semi-finals, and why? We take a close look as the finals draw near.
With the semi-finals now wrapped up, all eyes are looking ahead to the grand finals of the 2017 League of Legends World Championship, so we’ve got a short window to look at just what went down during the thrilling semis in China.
SK Telecom T1 beat Royal Never Give Up to secure their chance at winning a fourth trophy, while Samsung Galaxy triumphed over Team WE to set-up what’s sure to be an exciting rematch in the finals – the first of its kind in Worlds history. While we wait for the weekend’s monumental final, let’s take a closer look at what went down during the semis – and which champion picks were the most pivotal for the four teams.
Ardent Censer has been one of the most powerful items during the World Championship, so it comes as no surprise that teams have tried to build entire compositions around it. While some say the item makes the meta look stale, for us, it’s interesting to see what teams can come up with to make the item the most effective.
Protecting the AD Carry is the most used composition we’ve seen throughout Worlds, and Ardent Censer gives great healing early to mid-game which helps late-game carries like Twitch, Vayne and Tristana to come online a lot earlier. The mid-lane is all about roaming power which is why champions like Ryze and Corki are popular, while the top-lane has seen different approaches with carries and tanks. Carries can be used to shift away the attention from the bot-lane for a split push win condition, and tanks are used in the protect the ADC compositions – all valid strategies. But which champions have been picked to turn the tide in a team’s favour? Let’s take a close look.
Galio
SKT T1's Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok is still the best player in the world. The South Korean player is most known for absorbing pressure from ganks without dying, which gives his other lanes the chance to do whatever they want. The way he does this is by contesting almost every creep; this way he creates openings for the enemy’s jungler to gank him, but Faker rarely dies to ganks. While his Galio won’t win the game alone, he’s a champion made for absorbing pressure from lanes – and Faker utilised this and picked him throughout all five games against RNG.
The gargoyle also brings great roaming potential with his ultimate and teleport. With the tank in the mid-lane, the rest of SKT T1 could use Huni as a carry in the top lane. But whenever Huni or the SKT botlane was in trouble, Faker was there to help: Galio’s damage absorption and knock-up part of his ultimate are also great in late-game teamfight initiations, allowing him to keep controlling fights and remain as an integral part of the team.
Gnar
The little monster was used by three out of four teams in the semis – showcasing just how good of a pick he is. Gnar is usually picked into tanks, which he can bully in the early game with the three-hit-passive on his Hyper ability. While he is quite vulnerable in the early game to ganks because of his low base health, he still scales incredibly well into the late-game. He fits into the meta so well because there is so much botlane focus. This means he can simply farm up to a point where he is unstoppable in lane. Which is why it isn’t uncommon to see a Gnar solo kill his enemy top laner later into the game. Split pushing isn’t the only thing that he is great at either: In the SKT vs RNG series both Let-me and Huni used their ultimates in spectacular fashion to set-up team fights for the rest of their team.
Twitch
The toxic rat is one of the best late-game ADCs in the game. His early game is poor, but with an Ardent Censer support he rarely gets punished. When Twitch gets up to three items he gets scary in teamfights. RNG’s Jian ‘Uzi’ Zi-Hao could only play him a few times before SKT T1 started to ban him away – and for good reason.
Twitch can destroy the enemy team if they don’t have armour with his ultimate. Couple that with one of the best ADC players in the world, and you’ll start to understand why SKT started banning him away from the hands of the RNG ADC. SKT T1 played smartly around it though: while Lee ‘Wolf’ Jae-wan’s Blitzcrank didn’t really work against, the Leona sure did. By abusing Twitch’s early game, SKT T1 were able to delay his power spike and come out ahead in later game skirmishes.
Jarvan IV
The Exemplar of Demacia brings the early game to a late-game team composition. With his fast clear and ganks that bring in swift crowd control, he is great at securing first bloods for his team. Jarvan can build as a tank, but if he is able to get some early kills, he can also opt for a Duskblade of Draktharr – which can really up the ante for a champion.
Jarvan’s incredibly useful, so much so, that entire compositions can be built around him. For example, couple a Jarvan ultimate with a Galio ultimate for a guaranteed multi-man knock-up (or at least a handful of flashes). Most teams that draft a Jarvan will also look for a Galio in the first rotation, especially SKT T1 and Samsung Galaxy. It’s no surprise that this champ has almost a 100 percent pick/ban rate during the playoff stages during this year’s Worlds – he’s just that impactful.
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