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Well it was a few things. Despite the first blood on Dyrus, they honestly weren't shutting down Karthus, which means if you don't get work done before level 6, he doesn't even have to come down to participate in fights, but he also pulls one of your players up top. Which opened up those two gold dragons.
But yeah, I think Karthus is getting banned, but that shouldn't really slow down Dyrus.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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That was all team fight coordination, and TSM had the right moves for closing out fights. Vulcun wasn't slouching, but TSM clearly managed to eek out just a few more seconds of performance during those fights.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I'm watching their first game right now and Dig started very well, but what the heck happened afterwards? From 6-2 for Dig in kills it went to 7-6 for C9. And then 10-6 *and* baron. Are you kidding me?!
Edit: Yeah, no more kills for Dig after the first 6. Incredible...
Now I really want to see how C9 do at worlds.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I watched the first game, and from the scoreboards in the others I see things went pretty much the same way in all three. Who knows? NA might have the first team that can challenge the Asians. But I'm a bit disappointed with TSM, especially after their performance against Vulcun.
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Yeah. I'm still not sure Cloud 9 is ready for Worlds, but even I will get squarely behind them when they are playing other countries. They are still Americans. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Which begs the question. If CURSE NA starts recruiting players from say OGN at what point is that stopped? I mean Edward is on Curse, but he's from Europe.
What rules are there for an NA team fielding a Chinese team for example and trying to dominate the league?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I don't think it should matter if someone's from Europe and not OGN or vice versa. Either put a quota for people who aren't citizens of a country in the region, or let everyone play where they want. Although the quota might not fly in Europe where the EU rejected a similar quota in football calling it discriminatory. There's another quota now based not on nationality but on having a certain number of players who've played in the team's youth academy, but I'm not sure how that would work with LoL. Especially for such small teams. Also, if you include reserves you could see teams having 3 out of 5 starting players from OGN, 2 from the region and 3 more reserves from the region which wouldn't really solve the problem.
Anyway, there's still the language barrier in some cases, not only between the players (could be countered by bringing a full team) but also with fans and/or sponsors. And the fact that they'd have to find players with both the desired quality (and role) and the willingness to move that far.
So as of yet I'm not really worried about this being a possibility.
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Also, BloodWater (Vulcun) is Bulgarian and Nyjacky is Chinese, so Edward isn't the first/only "outsider" in NA.
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There's been some talk lately about season 4, especially about support/jungler gold and support spending on consumables (mainly wards). I wonder where they'll go with this. Maybe add some lane/jungle items that provide wards, so that supports don't have to buy them all? Of course the problem with that would be that supports might still buy wards and just light up the map, and then if you're not Nocturne/Zac/Shen you can't gank from the jungle... If they reduce the vision radius then supports would still buy wards to counter the vision reduction. I'm not even sure limiting the number of wards would work unless they want to do something drastic (no more than 2 wards of each maybe?). Or who knows, some of the support items would provide wards too (Shurelya's, Locket, etc. - I'm writing "etc" but in truth supports rarely get to finish even these two in addition to the Sightstone), so that they'd have more of an incentive to buy items instead of straight up wards?! Anyway the NA thread is huge (101 pages and it's only 1 day old), so I hope there are some good ideas in there.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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And speaking of forums, there's a thread about this on EUW, but none on EUNE. If I were still playing and implicated in the forum life I'd be pissed that EUNE is again considered second tier...
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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There are some great ideas even on the last page of the EUW thread: Ruby Sightstone passive that gives a discount for wards, a player can't place more than 5 wards on the map (kinda adapted from Sightstone but used for all wards), a mastery that gives "credit" on killing wards to buying wards, pink wards as invisibility detection only but needing the vision of a champion/ward/allied something to "function", etc. I just hope that rioters have enough time to sift through both threads and find the best ideas. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I'm sure they have designers working on it, I'd be surprised if they didn't have moderators forwarding the best ideas.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Oh yeah, definitely. It wasn't perhaps obvious from my post but the threads were started by a Rioter (hence my bitching about no EUNE thread). It's just the number of posts that amazes/scares me. If there were 4-5 ideas on one page, going through 100+ on NA and 60+ on EUW is gonna take a while.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I just looked at the schedule of the World Championship on leaguepedia. Looks like I'm going to watch mostly replays again... The final starts at 5AM CET (so 6AM for me on a Saturday). If there's gonna be a pre-game ceremony I might actually get to watch the final live without straining my sleep schedule too much.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Surprisingly I caught game one about 15 minutes in. TSM pretty much cleaned house, but I have to say I am not sure how wise it is to let your team become sloppy when they are far ahead.
On the one hand it's relaxing to cut loose a little and have fun. But on the other, if you demand constant discipline from your team regardless of the game they are in, you get that when it becomes hard to keep your composure.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well, we'll see soon enough. They have another game against OMG right after SKT T1 vs LD.
I'm really curious how the SKT T1 vs LD game will go, if LD can actually put up a real fight. GG.EU vs TSM seemed like a warm-up. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Oh I really hope LDs can trounce a Korean team. It would make me feel *way* better about C9 and TSMs chances.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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So, OMG beat SKT T1 in group A, while Vulcun beat Fnatic and Gambit beat Ozone in group B. I can't wait to see those games. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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So Fnatic also beat Ozone, and Gambit beat Vulcun. I watched the day 1 games, and Vulcun was doing really well against Ozone for a good while, but made too many mistakes in the end. Fnatic on the other hand went behind against Vulcun from very early on (two kills at level 1) and never recovered.
I'm now awake just in time to see Fnatic vs Gambit. Fnatic with the double reviving champions Zac solo and Aatrox in the jungle, and with Leona support, while Gambit has Shyvana (!!) solo and Xin Zhao jungle. Gambit swapped lanes so Shyvana is in a 1 v 2 lane.
Fnatic did just take a kill in bottom lane with a three man dive which turned into a BF sword for Varus, but they didn't take the turret. Later on Gambit got a similar kill top, top turret and enemy blue while Gambit took dragon, Gambit's blue and later on bottom turret. Fnatic with just a 500 gold lead despite one dragon and first kill advantage.
And just as I typed this a great CC chain from Varus and Leona take out Gambit's MF. First little mistake of the game, as MF was pushed too far there. A bit later TF tries to get a kill top on Zac but he gets away, and Fnatic answers in mid, getting the turret. Gambit on the other hand take *both* remaining top turrets, including the inhibitor one. Fnatic take bottom inner, a kill on a yet again pushed Genja MF (really dude, stop it), and dragon. Aaand a pause.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Wow, Fnatic getting kills after kills, and it's now 8-1. Amazing play for both Leona and Varus. And at the last team fight MF had already used her ulti so didn't have it available. Gambit really need to concentrate on fights more. Still, Fnatic only just took a turret after all those kills (inner middle). They almost take inhibitor middle, but Gambit stop them. and while Gambit pushes out, Fnatic lay a trap and take out Sona in an instant (and dragon afterwards). Fnatic in control here but only a 4.5k gold lead, so it's not over by any means. The momentum is definitely with Fnatic though.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Gambit take baron! And lose three people for one for it. Oh well. Better than leaving it for Fnatic, but now Fnatic finish off inhibitor turret and middle inhibitor.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Gambit lay a trap in top lane but Fnatic come back in force to take out 3 people for 0. The item difference is getting too much for Gambit to handle. The double revive champs doesn't help them either. Fnatic now took all inhibitor turrets; middle inhib will respawn soon but Fnatic can pick whichever lane they want and I don't think Gambit can do anything. Nope. Another Leona perfect ulti and first Xin, then Sona and Shyvanna are taken out. Two inhibs dead, TF killed on the fountain, and game over. 21 kills to 3 (well, to 4 after a fountain dive ). Amazing play from Fnatic. Much better than what they did against Vulcun.
Well, I'm off to work now. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Anyway, Leona and Varus were really the stars of that one. And MF (and to a lesser point Shyvanna) the black holes, so to speak. Really an off game for Gambit. I'll watch Ozone vs Fnatic and Gambit vs Vulcun tonight. Nice to see Fnatic and Gambit at the top of the group. Although I have to admit, the thing I'm really waiting for is to see C9 play. (I know, I know...)
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Like I said, I think C9 needs to get punched in the face, but they are an American team, so I will still root for them. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I just watched Gambit vs Vulcun and it was pretty much perfect play by Gambit. Vulcun made a few mistakes and Gambit took every small advantage and never gave Vulcun a chance to get back in. Too bad they couldn't play at the same level against Fnatic. Their bottom lane played much better vs Vulcun despite (or maybe because of) the fact that there wasn't much synergy between Sona and Kog'Maw.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Watched Ozone vs Fnatic and I quite liked Fnatic's team comp. Ozone's Kog'Maw was kind of a sitting duck against Lyssandra, Orianna and Leona even with the benefit of a Shen.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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One (not quite) surprise as TSM wins against LD, but OMG win against LD and GG while SKT T1 win against GG and TSM. I just caught the last one, and TSM made way too many mistakes to even hope to win. From Dyrus giving away kills in top lane to several facechecks and fights in which they were separated and picked off one by one.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Yeah, probably. Even Gambit after their game against Vulcun played quite badly vs Fnatic. Not to take anything from the winning teams, but some of those games feel lost instead of won. I wonder if it's also a question of discipline, as these players are good enough to know they've made a mistake, but in some games they make the same mistake twice or three times. The morale and the discipline might be shot after the first few times and they don't recover. There have been few comebacks so far from what I've watched and the scores I've seen. The only one that comes to mind is Ozone's vs Vulcun. LD started well vs SKT T1 but not that well as to call SKT T1's win a comeback.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I'm watching LD vs OMG now, and it's a very, very good game for both so far. OMG with the turret lead at 28 minutes but LD with the better team fights somehow: great Sona ulties and extraordinary play from Fizz, even against Ahri, Kennen and Zyra. I wonder if this ends in a big teamfight that leaves one team unable to defend their base.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Ugh, just as I said that LD tried to tower-dive OMG and lost two people and then baron. Still just 2k gold difference, so that's very small, but OMG might pick more advantages with baron. And they do, finishing mid inhib turret and inhibitor. What can you do against level 18 baronned-up Tristana?!
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Yeah, that tower-dive cost LD the game. OMG knew that the advantage they got from that was enough, especially Tristana on their side.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Watching TSM vs LD right now. A very quick move to bottom lane by LD gives them second blood, and lately their Elise also refreshes her buffs by taking out TSM's Vi who was trying to steal wraiths and walked over a ward. There was a perfect taunt by Shen while Vi was trying to jump over baron wall.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Despite LD's good start several ganks mid by Vi which even Ahri couldn't escape meant that TSM got 3k gold ahead around 20 minutes. And a perfect fight by TSM at 23 minutes ended up with 4-0 for TSM and baron, and it was an easy job from there. Just one more kill for LD when they baited Reginald into a 2v1 (even baronned-up Zed can't fight Ahri and Vayne). SKT T1 didn't make the mistake of giving Vi to TSM later on, and TSM last-banned Zed while leaving Ahri up...
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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TSM is actually playing better than I thought they would.
TSM's weakest player is Regi. He's cocky, arrogant, and immature. If TSM got rid of him and had another mid, this group stage would be going very differently.
Gambit is doing better than I expected. Their style reminds me more of season 2, and honestly I enjoyed watching Gambit more last season than this one.
Can't wait for the quarter finals. I want to see if Cloud 9 can take on the Asian teams.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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I wonder if Regi is playing Ahri or not. There were a couple of games in which both Ahri and Zed were available, and he picked Zed and won, so fair enough. But against OMG they let Ahri through only to first pick Sona, while against SKT T1 they last-banned Zed and let Ahri through as I said previously. If they'd let both go through even if Faker picked Zed he could have gone with Ahri. Versus OMG his Fizz fell behind early, while versus SKT T1 he missed a lot of skillshots with Gragas and was constantly away from team fights. They haven't banned (or played) Ahri once so far, maybe they should start now.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Hmm... Regi did play Ahri twice vs Vulcun in the playoffs, and twice more against Curse and Coast in week 9 of summer season. All wins. Nothing before that going back to week 6, even when Ahri was available.
Anyway, I think it's not just Regi's fault. Vs SKT T1 they were the ones ending the 2v1 and then SKT T1 camped Dyrus's Rumble top and made him useless, with the opposing solo laner (Renekton) several levels and lots of cs ahead. TSM could have reacted differently; let the 2v1s continue for example or send the jungler top to help.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Drat, Gambit lost to Ozone. Fnatic beat both Vulcun and Ozone. They can only lose their place in the quarterfinals in a tiebreak now, but they still have a game against Mineski so I doubt that will happen.
As for Gambit, at least they played Mineski after Ozone and they didn't end the day with a loss. There's still a possibility that they don't qualify (or end up in a tie-break too) since they have to play against Fnatic and Vulcun on the last day. I hope they pull together and get through though.
As for group B, TSM's gonna have a hell of a night, playing against both SKT T1 and OMG. I think they need to come up with something crazy, as I doubt that they can beat any of these teams head-on.
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Really an off game for Gambit. I'll watch Ozone vs Fnatic and Gambit vs Vulcun tonight. Nice to see Fnatic and Gambit at the top of the group. Although I have to admit, the thing I'm really waiting for is to see C9 play. (I know, I know...)
