Week 4 - Will the Dust Ever Settle?
New teams, old faces and standings that can't keep up.
Welcome back, Scuttlers!
Week four was filled to the brim with redemption stories, new champions and some unconventional tactics. While it was an entertaining week in and of itself, it sets the stage for week five to make or break a handful of teams. Let’s dive into the rift.
On the Rift:
When it comes to good weeks, chalk Evil Geniuses, TSM, and Cloud9.
Evil Geniuses went 2-1 with a sloppy loss to Team Liquid and wins over TSM and Dignitas. Their Team Liquid loss fell mostly on Jizuke’s shoulders, who tried to bring Neeko into the mid lane but failed to leverage the high-impact playstyle he’s known for. The win over TSM proved that Evil Geniuses will be a strong wildcard contender with the ability to take games off of top teams. If this continues and the team builds out its champion pool as they have been, they’ll be a strong best-of-five team come playoffs, which seems to be their strategy.
TSM’s biggest game was their Sunday win over Team Liquid which highlighted their considerate, decisive playstyle. TSM knows how to take an inch and turn it into a mile, if not the game in some cases, making games like their Team Liquid game a perfect showcase why they deserve to be at the top of the standings. Seeing PowerOfEvil on a control mage, Spica on a carry jungle and Huni on a Dr. Mundo is a joy to see, and I hope that trend continues. Still, their loss to Evil Geniuses shows that there’s still work to be done in time for playoffs. I don’t mind TSM finding their place in the meta, but the Evil Geniuses loss means there’s much to be sought after.
Finally, Cloud9 made a splash as Zven returned to the bot lane. Going 2-1 overall (with a respectable loss to 100 Thieves) is a nice turnaround from their 0-3 week prior, but Cloud9 is still not the North American MSI representative we saw after Spring Split. However, this week made me appreciate the size of the team’s champion pool, with only a single repeated champion (Fudge’s Lee Sin) the entire week. While yes, it’s fun to watch and it will surely keep teams on their toes, it means that even a Cloud9 team out of form will give teams a run for their money come playoffs. Fans should be somewhat optimistic after this week, but there’s a long road ahead.
But when it comes to great weeks, look toward 100 Thieves
100 Thieves finally contested the first place slot as they ended the week 3-0, taking quality wins off of Cloud9 and Immortals. Cool, congrats Nadeshot. The real news is coach Reapered is playing chess while every other coach is out here playing checkers. 100 Thieves flaunted a Lee Sin and Senna bot lane that 1) Highlighted FBI’s surprising proficiency on the champion evident of some practice and 2) Showcased 100 Thieves’ fearlessness to play with new compositions whale simultaneously dominating.
As for the ugly, look no further than CLG and FlyQuest.
As expected, CLG opened the week with a return to form in the shape of their Bongo Comp (or the Bronze Exodia Team) and, as expected, teams prepared for it this time. Immortals sprinkled on a little bit of peel, utility and poke/split potential. Team Liquid banned out core pieces, forcing Pobelter onto a subpar Lissandra. Cloud9 brought a pick-based team to get around fights, as well as a Xayah on Zven that shut down engages early.
FlyQuest was replaced on stage by their academy team as they subbed in Kumo in the top lane, Tomo in ADC and Diamond in support. Did it fix anything? Not even close. FlyQuest were handed losses by Golden Guardians and Dignitas, earning them the “ok, my team could be worse” title when fans look at them. I can only imagine FlyQuest will continue to take risks and try new things, but the team’s lack of direction really showed this week.
Off the Rift:
Considering the tumultuous landscape off the rift last week, this week proved to be a little bit more tame unless you’re an Evil Geniuses or FlyQuest fan.
Evil Geniuses subbed in academy jungler Contractz for their matchup against TSM, with Svenskeren holding his starting spot Friday and Sunday. On the surface, it was a great call, with the team delivering an impressive win over TSM with Contractz a kill off of perfect kill participation on Diana. Despite being an academy substitute, Contractz is no slouch and he reminded the league of that during Saturday’s game.
But the implications of that mean big things for the league, and the move follows a Team Liquid precedent in a way. During their most recent press conference, Team Liquid announced that when Alphari returns, they’d like to keep Jenkins on the roster to run a six-man team, providing them with more flexibility through the season. Evil Geniuses may very well do the same here, as coach Peter Dun noted. I’d like to see the two junglers differentiate their champion pools and playstyles a bit more, but having another piece of utility in the toolbox will make Evil Geniuses a more difficult team to prepare for. I trust Dun’s coaching here in that I believe the team can leverage the benefits of a six-man roster.
But will this be a league-wide trend as we move forward? I can perhaps see it. For it to happen, though, we need to see stronger academy development, which is always a good thing. Seeing teams in the LCS get rewarded by having strong academy talent does great things for the league, so if this does start to become a trend, I’m looking forward to teams developing all of their rosters.
The other roster-related news is a nearly-brand-new FlyQuest who subbed in three academy players for the week. However, I’m conflicted about the move. Yes, it’s always nice to take risks and change your plan when your wheels are spinning in the mud. On paper, FlyQuest took Johnsun, Licorice and Dreams (who all respectively gloat some of the worst statistics this split in their positions) and tried to slot in different talent. We didn’t see a day-and-night difference with the academy players in, but I hope to see them stick around for a bit. FlyQuest’s play has been uninspired, and while the bottom half of the league has somewhat upped their game across the board, I want to see FlyQuest continue to search for a winning gameplan. It’s not going to be easy, but I don’t have a good solution. If I did, I’d be subbed in myself.
Pocket Pick: Patch 11.13’s Impact on Pro Play
At this point, non-LCS summoners should have had their hands on patch 11.13 for a little bit, but pro players make the leap to the new patch for the first time. Let’s go over some of the key points of the patch — which is slated to be one of the largest for a hot minute — and their implications on the LCS when it reaches pro play in week five.
Tahm Kench received a mini-rework that pretty significantly changed his champion identity. Starting with stats, TK is going to be squishier with armor and health nerfs (sad, but he had some to spare), but traded them off for increased mana regen (which is very welcome in this new kit). We’re also seeing a 1.5% drop off in percent health damage on his passive, dropping it to 2.5%. TK’s Q (Tongue Lash) got an overhaul, giving him percent missing health healing, applying passive stacks and a declining mana cost. The cost of this is a huge hit to the slow strength and duration, as well as a hit to early cooldowns. TK’s E (Thick Skin) takes a little longer to kick in healing, but got buffs to shield duration and percentage health converted from gray health. Overall, both of these abilities are effectively the same, but certainly readjusted in a way that will change TK’s playstyle.
The big changes are in TK’s W (Devour) and R (Abyssal Dive), which just swapped keys from old TK on the surface. TK’s new W (now Abyssal Dive) channels a dive that moves him to a target location, knocking up enemies and delivering pretty generous damage with the opportunity to refund mana and cooldowns. Paired with his new R (which is now Devour), he can bring an ally with him. TK’s ult is now his bread-and-butter Devour, which was reworked. Like before, three passive stacks allows you to eat an enemy for three seconds, while you can eat an ally for free. The slow was trimmed down to give TK more zoom, especially late-game when allies are consumed. Allies also get more love with a shield they earn upon popping out of TK. Oh, and now you can slop up marked enemies with your Q and R like you would a minion or a loose noodle of spaghetti.
Considering TK’s gameplay in pro play is so heavily rooted in his ability to land the slow on his Q and his 10-second-cooldown Cleanse on his old Devour, these changes are going to be huge despite the “mini rework” tag. I’m not convinced his new W (Abyssal Dive) is going to be nearly as good, so I’d expect TK to fall off in LCS play. Plus, 100 Thieves’ Lee Sin and Senna combo proves replacements exist. While I’m not sure if Lee Sin in lane will survive, TK’s role in the bottom lane may be replaced this patch.
Lee Sin is taking a nerf to his E (Tempest), which is one of his more tried-and-true laning tools, in an effort to steer him back toward the jungle. Much of the damage hit here is present as the ability is ranked up, meaning that the E first max we see out of top and mid Lee Sin is going to be worse. It’s tough to say if this is enough of a hit to shake him from his prominent flex position, but I would guess his popularity will suffer.
Rumble is getting the reverse Lee Sin treatment in nerfs to his W (Scrap Shield) through a movement speed nerf as well as a now declining cooldown from 7 seconds to 6 seconds, where it was prior. This means Rumble doesn’t overheat as easily early during his clears, and paired with the movement speed hit on the W, we’ll see him slow down. Similar to Lee Sin, I can see him still being a flexed threat, but far less popular.
Viego got simple nerfs that will push him toward the jungle and lower his flex potential. Less minion healing from his Q (Blade of the Ruined King) and more movement speed from his E (Harrowed Path). This may be a substantial enough change to make any Viego lock-in a surefire jungle pick.
Anathema’s Chains is a new Zekes-esque item that binds to an enemy and provides a few stat changes between the mark and the item owner. The marked enemy deals less damage to the item holder, as well as suffers from reduced tenacity when the item holder is near. In my eyes, build this on engage supports or even peel picks like Braum to have a really good time. I could even see it being a pick on splitpush top lakers, but supports benefit most from its incredible gold value. This has the potential to be a solid LCS item option for a lot of meta supports right now.
Hullbreaker is in the game and it gives top laners the ability to deal more damage to towers. It’s pretty inexpensive and incredibly niche, but given what we’ve seen from the few teams that leveraged strong splitpush champions like Jayce, it could have its merits. Especially valuable for teams who have dominant top laners that play weak side well into their splitpush roles.
Mobility items in general had their effectiveness reduced, so your item-based dashes, movement speed and more are all getting weaker. This is a huge change across the board because a lack of access to these items accentuates champions’ inherent access to mobility, or lack thereof. Given the items we’re seeing in pro play, maybe we’ll see some different options, but I think there will be an adjustment period for pros to work out the kinks in reworked items like Stridebreaker and Dead Man’s Plate.
Other Changes to note are a buff to Moonstone Renewer, a buff to mana-based control mage items (which will increase their stock surely), and a nerf to Ezreal and Senna via Divine Sunderer’s ranged healing. For the Sunderer nerf, you’ll still probably see these champions succeed because they have access to strong alternatives.
Closing Thoughts from the River
Like I said before, week five has some incredible matchups that will really set the tone for a little bit. I want to see who will hold the top spot after the TSM vs 100 Thieves game. I want to see if Immortals and Evil Geniuses can hold momentum and bust out some wildcard picks. I want to see Cloud9 return to form.
Anyway, enough about the LCS -- let’s talk ScuttleStack for a second.
Thanks for bearing with me as I settle in here. Expect a more consistent schedule (either Thursday afternoon or Friday) and some beautification of the newsletter. I’m a firm believer that a wall is meant to hold art, and so I’m using that as my reasoning to get a fancy logo and some headers in here. Maybe I’ll make that all contingent on seeing FlyQuest in a game to buy me some more time…
Inting in style,
Nick Mo.