MoonBear Profile Joined November 2010 Straight outta Johto 6431 Posts Last Edited: 2012-09-07 22:58:23 September 07 2012 22:07 GMT #1 Table of Contents





Introduction







Results and Standings







Shadows of Demons Past: Redux







Battle Report: CLG.na v Curse Gaming, Game 1







Awards and Accolades









Introduction

The audience sit, transfixed at the screen. The bellow roar of the commentators wash over them, but nothing is truly heard. Instead, all that matters is the dance of death that will decide everything. A final explosion. An entire year's worth of blood, sweat and tears has built up to this. And everything is snatched away in an instant. Outside, an orange rolls down the sidewalk and into the gutter. Forlorn and sad, it represents a time when everything was okay. A promise of glory now washed away in tears.



PAX Prime was a whisper of glory. But perhaps it may have just been the song of a siren instead.



Results and Standings

1st - - Team SoloMid (TSM)

2nd - - Team Dignitas (Dig)

3rd - - Counter Logic Gaming (CLG.na)

4th - - Team Curse (Curse.na)



Top three teams qualify for the Season 2 World Championships, qualify for the Season 3 Championship League and earn the right to a salary from Riot Games.

- Team SoloMid (TSM)- Team Dignitas (Dig)- Counter Logic Gaming (CLG.na)- Team Curse (Curse.na)Top three teams qualify for the Season 2 World Championships, qualify for the Season 3 Championship League and earn the right to a salary from Riot Games.

Shadows of Demons Past: Redux By Chiharu Harukaze

The Regional Qualifiers have ended. As expected, the top four seeded teams made it out of their first day matched fine. Overall, the first place seed tore through the Bracket and won the whole event although they dropped a game to the fourth seed in the semifinals. The second place seed managed to knock third place seed CLG with a 2:0 score into the 3rd/4th place match where CLG managed to prevail and qualify for the World Championships by crushing the fourth seed 2:0. At the same time the first place seed thrashed the second place seed mercilessly 2:0 in games that didn't even look close. People started wondering whether the finals would have been better if CLG had made it since it seemed as though the second place seed hadn't actually prepared to make it to finals and face the first place seed. But no matter. Overall, the results were pretty much as expected although perhaps in a different order for the podium finish. So now with the EU Regional Qualifiers over we look towards-



I'm sorry, did I say EU Regional Qualifiers? Because that's the exact same story of the North American Regional Qualifiers.



There remains a sad truth about competitive League of Legends, especially in North America. The scene is still haunted by the demons of its past and they manifest themselves time and time again at some of the biggest LAN events. The



The greatest demon is perhaps the most inconvenient truth of all. Just as MLG Raleigh was a showcase of poor decision making and game plans, PAX Prime showed us why there is a giant gap between the Troika and Icarus.



The Troika play to win games over their opponents. The Icarus teams play for their opponents to lose games.



A contentious statement for sure. But let's look back at some of the games played in the first round.



In the first game of TSM v mMe.Ferus, mMe were able to gain the gold lead early on and picked up First Blood too. At Bot Lane in particular Aphromoo was in complete control of the lane early on, forcing Chaox to back early and constantly harassing Xpecial. By the 7 minute mark Aphromoo had double the cs what Chaox had and continued the laning phase completely unhindered by any ganks. By any definition, he had won the lane and should have snowballed that advantage incredibly hard. You would have thought that Chaox would be a non-factor. Indeed as Chauster says,



Amphromoo was far too aggressive bot lane, almost impatient to try and further his lead. He would constantly push the wave letting Chaox cs under tower and thus making it harder for him to just kill Chaox or Xpecial. But when he pushed to the tower, he wouldn't try to take it down. And he also choose not to freeze the lane and zone Chaox off the minions. He also would try to take potshots at Sona and Corki but never really do enough damage to threaten kills against Sona's sustain. And with the TSM duo under their tower, they were relatively safe from being dived. In other words, Aphromoo himself turned the lane into a farmfest with him pushing the minions into TSM's tower for Chaox to farm, and wasting his time on harass and causing himself to lose out on cs. Out of all the options he could have chosen to go win his lane, he chose the option where he let Chaox decide if he wanted to lose lane or not. And Chaox obviously chose not to lose lane.



A similar situation occurs at the fight for the third Dragon at 32min. mMe were incredibly focused on the Dragon and unwilling to give it up when it was so close to dying. But they tunnelvision incredibly hard on the Dragon. Despite taking it, when TSM immediately engaged on them most of their important spells were all on cooldown. Anivia in particular had used everything on the Dragon meaning that there was no magic damage burst to punish the Corki that had decided to step in front of his team. Furthermore, mMe had all grouped up in a cluster, ripe for the AoE from Sona and Morgana. It should have been little surprise when TSM then proceeded to crush mMe in the following fight. Instead of worrying about TSM, they worried too much about Dragon. Instead of making the plays to win what was the obvious fight with TSM about to break out, they hoped that TSM would spare them. Plays like these don't win games. Plays like these hope your opponent doesn't want to win.



But it's not just mMe who play for their opponents to lose games. Team Dynamic showed the same symptoms in their first game against Dignitas. Sworn enemies, history suggests this should have been a bitterly-fought game. Instead, what we witnessed was Team Dynamic getting completely schooled with the (Chiharu Editor Note: Shout out to Scarra, one of our regular readers. You're welcome for the strategy.)



We see a similar situation here develop. By the 6 minute mark, Team Dynamic have the gold and kill lead. While bot lane is slightly behind, every other lane is well ahead. But Dignitas soon close the gap by punishing Team Dynamic's overaggression with counterganks and using Karthus' Requiem (R). Yet their first real mistake is the first for the first Dragon at 13:50. ParadoXical chooses to initiate with Morgana on Dignitas yet his team is no where near to follow up immediately. As a result, they can't focus down a target fast enough before Kog'maw joins the fight and proceeds to make a mess of Team Dynamic as they tank Karthus' Defile (E) AoE while Skarner uses Impale (R) to pull Corki away, allowing Dignitas to rapidly remove Morgana and then eliminate Team Dynamic in the ensuing 4v5. For making a decision like that, Team Dynamic is punished with a 4-1 trade in Dignitas' favour.



Yet despite this blunder, Team Dynamic is not actually that far behind in gold or items. In particular, ZionSpartan still continues to wreck Crumbzz at top lane and pick up a crucial snipe on Scarra. But they display poor judgement again at the 22:20 Dragon fight where they choose to fight Dignitas head on. The problem however is that Dignitas' comp is designed for fighting head on thanks to Skarner and Double AP. At the same time, Team Dynamic is relying on Morgana for the initiation but ParadoXical has chosen to get an Abyssal first instead of a Zhonyas which means he's suseptible to being killed before he can finish channeling Soul Shackles (R) while Team Dynaimc choose to attack into the AoE from Dignitas. It was a fight that Team Dynamic could not win, and instead were relying on Dignitas to misplay and let Team Dynamic win instead. And if your strategy relies on the other team being bad rather than you being good, you're doing something wrong.



Dignitas misplayed at the 25min mark allowing themselves to get Aced and gave up Baron, but at this point it meant little. Dignitas were far enough ahead that they proceeded to take the remaining outer towers. Due to the itemisation choices on Team Dynamic, there was little they could do about the Kog'maw while the Double AP Skarner provided a threat that had to be answered immediately, allowing Imaqtpie to get his dps on. The rest of the game was essentially a formality. While Team Dynamic were heavily out-picked by Dignitas, they still misplayed the game and lost because of it.



These are admitedly very harsh assessments of these teams. But at PAX, they just looked a complete tier below the Troika and made plays that wouldn't create wins for themselves. If they want to win, they're going to have to have a long hard look at the way they play and evaluate their game plans. Luckily though, for those not qualified for the World Championships they still have opportunities in Season 3 where they can finally redeem their play and make it up to their fans.



But there is perhaps a second spectre that looms over the competitive scene that they will have to face.



With the introduction of Riot salaries, the idea is to help support teams and allow them to focus on the game itself rather than worrying about rent money or food. When you look at stories such as Doublelift being kicked out of his own home, it is reassuring that without financial pressures, teams will be able to focus on their game first and foremost. But perhaps as an unintended consequence, it also raises the barrier to entry for other teams to break the barrier and challenge the Troika. Very few teams have the sponsors that a team like Curse has. And committing to becoming a full-time professional League of Legends player is not a decision to be lightly made.



If teams now already have such a hard time trying to break the Troika, how will they compete in a year's time when the Troika can dedicate themselves full time to non-stop League of Legends training in financial security few other teams enjoy?



But all things considered, perhaps the shadow cast upon competitve League of Legends is not as dark as we fear. In Europe, we've seen teams like Moscow Five and players like Froggen come out of nowhere and suddenly dominate. North America hasn't quite had that level of revolution, but we have seen upstart players who have subbed for teams before and shown amazing performance. As PAX showed, Team Legion was pretty much carried to their victories at IPL Face Off and MLG Prize Fight by WildTurtle.



If there's still undiscovered talent out there, perhaps North America will find its ward against the Shadows of Demons Past. The Regional Qualifiers have ended. As expected, the top four seeded teams made it out of their first day matched fine. Overall, the first place seed tore through the Bracket and won the whole event although they dropped a game to the fourth seed in the semifinals. The second place seed managed to knock third place seed CLG with a 2:0 score into the 3rd/4th place match where CLG managed to prevail and qualify for the World Championships by crushing the fourth seed 2:0. At the same time the first place seed thrashed the second place seed mercilessly 2:0 in games that didn't even look close. People started wondering whether the finals would have been better if CLG had made it since it seemed as though the second place seed hadn't actually prepared to make it to finals and face the first place seed. But no matter. Overall, the results were pretty much as expected although perhaps in a different order for the podium finish. So now with the EU Regional Qualifiers over we look towards-I'm sorry, did I say EU Regional Qualifiers? Because that's the exact same story of the North American Regional Qualifiers.There remains a sad truth about competitive League of Legends, especially in North America. The scene is still haunted by the demons of its past and they manifest themselves time and time again at some of the biggest LAN events. The reign of the Troika continues unabated with their clean sweep of the PAX Podium. Very rarely did their reign even look challenged during the games at PAX. And it has been the story of the entirety of Season 2. The Troika just cannot be stopped.The greatest demon is perhaps the most inconvenient truth of all. Just as MLG Raleigh was a showcase of poor decision making and game plans, PAX Prime showed us why there is a giant gap between the Troika and Icarus.The Troika play to win games over their opponents. The Icarus teams play for their opponents to lose games.A contentious statement for sure. But let's look back at some of the games played in the first round.In the first game of TSM v mMe.Ferus, mMe were able to gain the gold lead early on and picked up First Blood too. At Bot Lane in particular Aphromoo was in complete control of the lane early on, forcing Chaox to back early and constantly harassing Xpecial. By the 7 minute mark Aphromoo had double the cs what Chaox had and continued the laning phase completely unhindered by any ganks. By any definition, he had won the lane and should have snowballed that advantage incredibly hard. You would have thought that Chaox would be a non-factor. Indeed as Chauster says, Graves counters Corki . Yet 8 minutes later, Chaox is now back even in cs and still happily farming away with no kills happening either. In fact, he's starting to surpass Aphromoo in cs! This was a lane that mMe was supposed to have won, especially considering TSM placed most of their effort in invading mMe's jungle. And a few minutes later, they lose two champions for free trying to contest a Dragon. What went wrong?Amphromoo was far too aggressive bot lane, almost impatient to try and further his lead. He would constantly push the wave letting Chaox cs under tower and thus making it harder for him to just kill Chaox or Xpecial. But when he pushed to the tower, he wouldn't try to take it down. And he also choose not to freeze the lane and zone Chaox off the minions. He also would try to take potshots at Sona and Corki but never really do enough damage to threaten kills against Sona's sustain. And with the TSM duo under their tower, they were relatively safe from being dived. In other words, Aphromoo himself turned the lane into a farmfest with him pushing the minions into TSM's tower for Chaox to farm, and wasting his time on harass and causing himself to lose out on cs. Out of all the options he could have chosen to go win his lane, he chose the option where he let Chaox decide if he wanted to lose lane or not. And Chaox obviously chose not to lose lane.A similar situation occurs at the fight for the third Dragon at 32min. mMe were incredibly focused on the Dragon and unwilling to give it up when it was so close to dying. But they tunnelvision incredibly hard on the Dragon. Despite taking it, when TSM immediately engaged on them most of their important spells were all on cooldown. Anivia in particular had used everything on the Dragon meaning that there was no magic damage burst to punish the Corki that had decided to step in front of his team. Furthermore, mMe had all grouped up in a cluster, ripe for the AoE from Sona and Morgana. It should have been little surprise when TSM then proceeded to crush mMe in the following fight. Instead of worrying about TSM, they worried too much about Dragon. Instead of making the plays to win what was the obvious fight with TSM about to break out, they hoped that TSM would spare them. Plays like these don't win games. Plays like these hope your opponent doesn't want to win.But it's not just mMe who play for their opponents to lose games. Team Dynamic showed the same symptoms in their first game against Dignitas. Sworn enemies, history suggests this should have been a bitterly-fought game. Instead, what we witnessed was Team Dynamic getting completely schooled with the Double AP Skarner composition they've fallen in love with.We see a similar situation here develop. By the 6 minute mark, Team Dynamic have the gold and kill lead. While bot lane is slightly behind, every other lane is well ahead. But Dignitas soon close the gap by punishing Team Dynamic's overaggression with counterganks and using Karthus' Requiem (R). Yet their first real mistake is the first for the first Dragon at 13:50. ParadoXical chooses to initiate with Morgana on Dignitas yet his team is no where near to follow up immediately. As a result, they can't focus down a target fast enough before Kog'maw joins the fight and proceeds to make a mess of Team Dynamic as they tank Karthus' Defile (E) AoE while Skarner uses Impale (R) to pull Corki away, allowing Dignitas to rapidly remove Morgana and then eliminate Team Dynamic in the ensuing 4v5. For making a decision like that, Team Dynamic is punished with a 4-1 trade in Dignitas' favour.Yet despite this blunder, Team Dynamic is not actually that far behind in gold or items. In particular, ZionSpartan still continues to wreck Crumbzz at top lane and pick up a crucial snipe on Scarra. But they display poor judgement again at the 22:20 Dragon fight where they choose to fight Dignitas head on. The problem however is that Dignitas' comp is designed for fighting head on thanks to Skarner and Double AP. At the same time, Team Dynamic is relying on Morgana for the initiation but ParadoXical has chosen to get an Abyssal first instead of a Zhonyas which means he's suseptible to being killed before he can finish channeling Soul Shackles (R) while Team Dynaimc choose to attack into the AoE from Dignitas. It was a fight that Team Dynamic could not win, and instead were relying on Dignitas to misplay and let Team Dynamic win instead. And if your strategy relies on the other team being bad rather than you being good, you're doing something wrong.Dignitas misplayed at the 25min mark allowing themselves to get Aced and gave up Baron, but at this point it meant little. Dignitas were far enough ahead that they proceeded to take the remaining outer towers. Due to the itemisation choices on Team Dynamic, there was little they could do about the Kog'maw while the Double AP Skarner provided a threat that had to be answered immediately, allowing Imaqtpie to get his dps on. The rest of the game was essentially a formality. While Team Dynamic were heavily out-picked by Dignitas, they still misplayed the game and lost because of it.These are admitedly very harsh assessments of these teams. But at PAX, they just looked a complete tier below the Troika and made plays that wouldn't create wins for themselves. If they want to win, they're going to have to have a long hard look at the way they play and evaluate their game plans. Luckily though, for those not qualified for the World Championships they still have opportunities in Season 3 where they can finally redeem their play and make it up to their fans.But there is perhaps a second spectre that looms over the competitive scene that they will have to face.With the introduction of Riot salaries, the idea is to help support teams and allow them to focus on the game itself rather than worrying about rent money or food. When you look at stories such as Doublelift being kicked out of his own home, it is reassuring that without financial pressures, teams will be able to focus on their game first and foremost. But perhaps as an unintended consequence, it also raises the barrier to entry for other teams to break the barrier and challenge the Troika. Very few teams have the sponsors that a team like Curse has. And committing to becoming a full-time professional League of Legends player is not a decision to be lightly made. Proplayers don't make lots of money . As spectators we only see the glamour of the big stage and bright lights. But behind it all, is serious dedication, blood, sweat and tears.If teams now already have such a hard time trying to break the Troika, how will they compete in a year's time when the Troika can dedicate themselves full time to non-stop League of Legends training in financial security few other teams enjoy?But all things considered, perhaps the shadow cast upon competitve League of Legends is not as dark as we fear. In Europe, we've seen teams like Moscow Five and players like Froggen come out of nowhere and suddenly dominate. North America hasn't quite had that level of revolution, but we have seen upstart players who have subbed for teams before and shown amazing performance. As PAX showed, Team Legion was pretty much carried to their victories at IPL Face Off and MLG Prize Fight by WildTurtle.If there's still undiscovered talent out there, perhaps North America will find its ward against the Shadows of Demons Past.

Battle Report: CLG.na v Curse, Game 1 By MoonBear

At PAX Prime, we saw CLG.na display one of the more innovative forms of cheese in a long time. Their triple-Teleport Promote strategy is completely unheard of, and a very particular form of cheese that works for them. While we saw in the Semifinals that Dignitas banned out Sivir to try and stop the composition, Sivir is not the core of the composition although she does fit in very nicely (the same way Rumble is great for a Double AP Skarner comp but not absolutely necessary).



The first component is the triple-Teleport choices. It has long been known that Teleport offers superior map control and positional gameplay at the expense of lane control. Let's take top lane matchups for example. By taking Ignite, you open up more aggressive gameplay and have a greater threat presence in lane. Often when watching pro-players stream they will comment on the cooldown of Ignites and how it factors into the way they approach the lane. So how did CLG approach this setback in laning power?



Lane swap of course.



In this strategy, the AD-Support duo is swapped with the AP mid lane. If the opposing team does not place their AD-Support duo in the mid lane as well, it means that one of the solo lanes will be paired against a 2v1 lane. At the same time, because the Teleport team will know of the cheese in advance they are capable of picking a champion who is capable of facing a 1v2 lane or make arrangements for the champion to lane 1v2. For example, in CLG.na v Team Legion Game 1 Voyboy was given Blue Buff at level 1 which greatly helped his ability to face the Corki and Soraka duo lane. In a 1v2 lane, the priority is on trying to keep up in farm and experience which reduces the emphasis on kill Summoners making Teleport less of a disadvantage. This also has the benefit of helping CLG deal with isues such as Bigfatjiji having trouble in certain mid-lane matchups. If Jiji can't lane mid and is great at farming, just push him into a sidelane to free farm and avoid the whole issue in the first place. Problem solved!



So what about the reduced killing potential in the solo lanes? Again, the answer lies in the concentration of Teleports. We see at 10:00 Bigfatjiji suddenly teleports to top lane and sets up a surprise kill top lane. Who needs a silly Summoner that gives a small True Damage DoT and reduced healing when you can have a complete champion with 4 skills there to do damage for you instead? In a coordinated team setting, the ability to call in aid rapidly through teleport completely changes the balance of skimishes in lanes. In many ways, it is similar to the TP Scroll in DotA where players teleport in to reinforce ganks or fights. Just as lack of knowledge of the jungler prevents aggression in lane, the presence of teleport has the ability to quash potential aggression in lane. And just as the jungler can suddenly appear to reverse the result of a fight in lane, the presence of a teleport in also allows teams to rapidly reverse the result of a fight. Something to note is that the 10:00 gank was on a duo lane. If the lane was instead a solo lane, we could have easily seen CLG.na as three continue on to take the tower top lane. It is again similar to situations created in solo queue, where a jungler may come and gank a lane, succeed and then together with the solo laner proceed to take down the tower there and gain an advantage. In this way, Teleport can act as a snowball mechanism.



At the same time, teleport offers a defensive escape mechanism against teams with no vision or CC the same way TP Scrolls in DotA do. At the 15:55 mark we see again a sudden teleport bot lane resulting in a kill where normally one would not exist. However, as CLG tries to retreat the rest of Curse arrives. Doublelift, seeing that there is no avaliable escape route open for him with Morgana and Maokai pincering him in uses his Teleport defensively and guarantees his return back to his base.



Outside of the laning phase, the multiple Teleports give immesne map pressure. We often see in tournament games teams just grouped up around an objective such as Dragon, Baron or mid tower and just dance around pointless at each other in a Mexican standoff. Neither team wants to back off since it would mean losing an objective, yet at the same time it's a complete waste of time on both sides. The Teleport Team however has the advantage where they can have one member splitpush a lane, Shen style without the need to have Shen there. This in itself is not surprising and has been a standard use of Teleport for a long time. However the coutner to this has often been to force an engagement, such as by starting Baron, and bait out the Teleport before disengaging and wasting the Teleport. By having multiple Teleports though, the triple-Teleport team can constantly threaten to pressure the other team's Inhibitors. After all, even if one Teleport is used there's two more. We see that at 28:30, Voyboy's presence top lane force the members of Curse to break away from the standoff in mid lane allowing CLG to pressure Baron for free. This lead to CLG taking a free Baron and a 3-1 exchange easily putting them in the lead.



However, the use of teleport comes at a cost. Throught most of the game, Curse was very close in gold to CLG.na despite being down on kills and towers. When you use teleport to create an overwhelming presence in one lane, it also means you no longer have presense on another lane allowing the other team to either freefarm or push down towers. We saw that the 9:40 mark when Voyboy teleported to bot lane, it allowed Corki and Blitz to nearly push down the top tower while CLG failed to capatilise on the Teleport bot lane. Because Teleport has such a high cooldown compared to TP Scrolls in DotA, you have to be much more sparing in its use and ensure that each one is used for maximum effect.



So where does Promote fit into this strategy? First have a look at what



At the same time, by having the creep wave shoved into the opponent's base, it also creates juicy Teleport targets and opens up backdoor opportunities. A clear case is at 38:43. Curse knows that CLG has just gone back to heal and are going in for the desperation Baron.





CLG's champions are incredibly spread out (highlighted in Teal on the minimap) compared to Curse (highlighted in Red on the minimap).

If this was any other game, CLG would be in no position to contest this Baron. Even with their Teleports, Curse can quickly turn on CLG 4v5 as Sona is lagging behind and force an unfavourable teamfight. There would be no guarantee that CLG would even come out ahead in the messy teamfight as they would be all clustered up and easy targets for the AoE Ultimates on Curse. However, CLG instead chooses not to fight. HotshotGG immediately moves in to distract them with Voyboy Teleporting in to help having just stolen Blue Buff. At the same time, Doublelift and Bigfatjiji Teleport to the pushed in creep wave bot lane and start working on the Inhibitor tower there.





Suddenly, CLG is threatening a Baron steal forcing Curse to deal with them while Curse's Inhibitor is under threat. Notice just how rapidly the minimap has changed and the massive tempo swing it creates as well.

Trusting in each player's individual skill, Voyboy and HotshotGG throw theimselves at Curse forcing them off Baron and leading them on a chase around the surrounding area. Because damage stops recalls, Corki and Maokai are forced to walk the long distance back home in order to try and defend their Inhibitor. Even with Graves and Gragas at lower hp and mana than them they fail to stop CLG thanks to Flash and superior micro. While the two teams trade 3-3 overall, CLG come out the clear victors of the skirmish thanks to the downed Inhibitor. At this point, they can easily return to Baron and force it while Curse must defend against the superminions coming into their base from two lanes. With Hotshot's excellent Smite control, he prevents SaintVicious from stealing the Baron and CLG punish Curse for attempting to stop them from taking Baron in the initial 3v5 resulting in a 4-0 trade for CLG. At this point, it's a simple matter for CLG to smash the Nexus and claim their win. Were it not for the bot lane creepwave being pushed in so far thanks to constant Promote pressure, CLG would not have been able to make those plays and create such a large advantage for themselves. Not bad for some simple minions, eh?



But wait, there's more!



One of the biggest problems with seiging a tower is the easy ability for champions (especially AP Mids) to instaclear the creepwave, making it incredibly difficult for the seiging team to damage the tower. Promote fixes this problem. By Promoting a minion, you essentially create a giant damage soak that both the tower and the oppossing team will have difficulty getting rid of. This creates the precious time the seiging team needs to damage and take down the tower. And you can keep doing this every three waves. Just how potent is this damage soak? At the 10 min mark, a Promoted seige minion has around 84 Armour, 29 MRes and just under 2000 hp. That's basically like having a 6th itemless champion who does nothing but tank damage for you! Absolutely ridonkulous. Admitedly you lose the lane control from the lack of Exhaust on the Support as well as reduced ability to deal with key Exhaust targets in teamfights. But in the push-heavy meta we currently reside in, it works great. While there were no defining examples in the Semifinals games, we saw in the Quaterfinals CLG using this tactic to push down towers while Team Legion tried desperate to clear the minions to force CLG to back off. At the same time, by having all lanes constantly pushed in it means that even if the Promote team loses a teamfight, it becomes much harder for the opposition to capatilise by taking objectives because they are forced to sit in their base and deal with the creep waves assaulting them.



The combination of triple-Teleport and Promote creates an incredibly strong synergy of map presence and localised overwhelming advantage. However, it also relies on several important champion choices. Almost every champion on CLG has the ability to AoE clear minion waves. This allows them to both defend their towers in the 4v5 standoffs as well as seige towers through AoE creep wave instaclear. Notice that when Sivir was banned by Curse, CLG simply defaulted to Graves.



There is one more important thing to note about the interesting Summoner choices by CLG. In the games where CLG displayed the triple-Teleport Promote strategy, their initial Summoners were all the "regular" set that most players would use. For example, Voyboy was using Ghost+Ignite and Chauster was running Flash+Exhaust. It wasn't until the very last second that they suddenly swapped out their Summoners for triple-Teleport and Promote. Part of this is likely because if they selected them early, the casters would mention this and



The triple-Teleport Promote strategy is one of the most innovative compositions created in League of Legends since the Poke Comp (amusingly, also pioneered by CLG). With both CLG.na and CLG.eu qualified for the World Championships, it will be interesting to see what other cheese that will be able to create together to take on the rest of the world in October. At PAX Prime, we saw CLG.na display one of the more innovative forms of cheese in a long time. Their triple-Teleport Promote strategy is completely unheard of, and a very particular form of cheese that works for them. While we saw in the Semifinals that Dignitas banned out Sivir to try and stop the composition, Sivir is not the core of the composition although she does fit in very nicely (the same way Rumble is great for a Double AP Skarner comp but not absolutely necessary).The first component is the triple-Teleport choices. It has long been known that Teleport offers superior map control and positional gameplay at the expense of lane control. Let's take top lane matchups for example. By taking Ignite, you open up more aggressive gameplay and have a greater threat presence in lane. Often when watching pro-players stream they will comment on the cooldown of Ignites and how it factors into the way they approach the lane. So how did CLG approach this setback in laning power?Lane swap of course.In this strategy, the AD-Support duo is swapped with the AP mid lane. If the opposing team does not place their AD-Support duo in the mid lane as well, it means that one of the solo lanes will be paired against a 2v1 lane. At the same time, because the Teleport team will know of the cheese in advance they are capable of picking a champion who is capable of facing a 1v2 lane or make arrangements for the champion to lane 1v2. For example, in CLG.na v Team Legion Game 1 Voyboy was given Blue Buff at level 1 which greatly helped his ability to face the Corki and Soraka duo lane. In a 1v2 lane, the priority is on trying to keep up in farm and experience which reduces the emphasis on kill Summoners making Teleport less of a disadvantage. This also has the benefit of helping CLG deal with isues such as Bigfatjiji having trouble in certain mid-lane matchups. If Jiji can't lane mid and is great at farming, just push him into a sidelane to free farm and avoid the whole issue in the first place. Problem solved!So what about the reduced killing potential in the solo lanes? Again, the answer lies in the concentration of Teleports. We see at 10:00 Bigfatjiji suddenly teleports to top lane and sets up a surprise kill top lane. Who needs a silly Summoner that gives a small True Damage DoT and reduced healing when you can have a complete champion with 4 skills there to do damage for you instead? In a coordinated team setting, the ability to call in aid rapidly through teleport completely changes the balance of skimishes in lanes. In many ways, it is similar to the TP Scroll in DotA where players teleport in to reinforce ganks or fights. Just as lack of knowledge of the jungler prevents aggression in lane, the presence of teleport has the ability to quash potential aggression in lane. And just as the jungler can suddenly appear to reverse the result of a fight in lane, the presence of a teleport in also allows teams to rapidly reverse the result of a fight. Something to note is that the 10:00 gank was on a duo lane. If the lane was instead a solo lane, we could have easily seen CLG.na as three continue on to take the tower top lane. It is again similar to situations created in solo queue, where a jungler may come and gank a lane, succeed and then together with the solo laner proceed to take down the tower there and gain an advantage. In this way, Teleport can act as a snowball mechanism.At the same time, teleport offers a defensive escape mechanism against teams with no vision or CC the same way TP Scrolls in DotA do. At the 15:55 mark we see again a sudden teleport bot lane resulting in a kill where normally one would not exist. However, as CLG tries to retreat the rest of Curse arrives. Doublelift, seeing that there is no avaliable escape route open for him with Morgana and Maokai pincering him in uses his Teleport defensively and guarantees his return back to his base.Outside of the laning phase, the multiple Teleports give immesne map pressure. We often see in tournament games teams just grouped up around an objective such as Dragon, Baron or mid tower and just dance around pointless at each other in a Mexican standoff. Neither team wants to back off since it would mean losing an objective, yet at the same time it's a complete waste of time on both sides. The Teleport Team however has the advantage where they can have one member splitpush a lane, Shen style without the need to have Shen there. This in itself is not surprising and has been a standard use of Teleport for a long time. However the coutner to this has often been to force an engagement, such as by starting Baron, and bait out the Teleport before disengaging and wasting the Teleport. By having multiple Teleports though, the triple-Teleport team can constantly threaten to pressure the other team's Inhibitors. After all, even if one Teleport is used there's two more. We see that at 28:30, Voyboy's presence top lane force the members of Curse to break away from the standoff in mid lane allowing CLG to pressure Baron for free. This lead to CLG taking a free Baron and a 3-1 exchange easily putting them in the lead.However, the use of teleport comes at a cost. Throught most of the game, Curse was very close in gold to CLG.na despite being down on kills and towers. When you use teleport to create an overwhelming presence in one lane, it also means you no longer have presense on another lane allowing the other team to either freefarm or push down towers. We saw that the 9:40 mark when Voyboy teleported to bot lane, it allowed Corki and Blitz to nearly push down the top tower while CLG failed to capatilise on the Teleport bot lane. Because Teleport has such a high cooldown compared to TP Scrolls in DotA, you have to be much more sparing in its use and ensure that each one is used for maximum effect.So where does Promote fit into this strategy? First have a look at what Promote does . Notice something interesting? The cooldown on Promote is the exact same as the spawn timer for the Canon Minion it needs as a target. In other words, you can keep spamming this Summoner Spell all the time and forcibly push in a side lane while you do something else more important. Generally this will be Bot Lane, giving you lots of free Baron pressure as the other team is forced to deal with the minion pressure on bot lane threatening their towers and Inhibitor. We see at 36:30 CLG.na is able to force a favourable fight at Baron again thanks to this. Curse was forced to try and stop CLG before all of their team was ready. Morgana and Maokai walked right into the full damage potential of CLG while their team was still lagging behind and died before Curse could bring their AD Carry into the fight. At this point, it was a simple matter to finish up the 3-1 trade and proceed to take an Inhibitor.At the same time, by having the creep wave shoved into the opponent's base, it also creates juicy Teleport targets and opens up backdoor opportunities. A clear case is at 38:43. Curse knows that CLG has just gone back to heal and are going in for the desperation Baron.If this was any other game, CLG would be in no position to contest this Baron. Even with their Teleports, Curse can quickly turn on CLG 4v5 as Sona is lagging behind and force an unfavourable teamfight. There would be no guarantee that CLG would even come out ahead in the messy teamfight as they would be all clustered up and easy targets for the AoE Ultimates on Curse. However, CLG instead chooses not to fight. HotshotGG immediately moves in to distract them with Voyboy Teleporting in to help having just stolen Blue Buff. At the same time, Doublelift and Bigfatjiji Teleport to the pushed in creep wave bot lane and start working on the Inhibitor tower there.Trusting in each player's individual skill, Voyboy and HotshotGG throw theimselves at Curse forcing them off Baron and leading them on a chase around the surrounding area. Because damage stops recalls, Corki and Maokai are forced to walk the long distance back home in order to try and defend their Inhibitor. Even with Graves and Gragas at lower hp and mana than them they fail to stop CLG thanks to Flash and superior micro. While the two teams trade 3-3 overall, CLG come out the clear victors of the skirmish thanks to the downed Inhibitor. At this point, they can easily return to Baron and force it while Curse must defend against the superminions coming into their base from two lanes. With Hotshot's excellent Smite control, he prevents SaintVicious from stealing the Baron and CLG punish Curse for attempting to stop them from taking Baron in the initial 3v5 resulting in a 4-0 trade for CLG. At this point, it's a simple matter for CLG to smash the Nexus and claim their win. Were it not for the bot lane creepwave being pushed in so far thanks to constant Promote pressure, CLG would not have been able to make those plays and create such a large advantage for themselves. Not bad for some simple minions, eh?But wait, there's more!One of the biggest problems with seiging a tower is the easy ability for champions (especially AP Mids) to instaclear the creepwave, making it incredibly difficult for the seiging team to damage the tower. Promote fixes this problem. By Promoting a minion, you essentially create a giant damage soak that both the tower and the oppossing team will have difficulty getting rid of. This creates the precious time the seiging team needs to damage and take down the tower. And you can keep doing this every three waves. Just how potent is this damage soak? At the 10 min mark, a Promoted seige minion has around 84 Armour, 29 MRes and just under 2000 hp. That's basically like having a 6th itemless champion who does nothing but tank damage for you! Absolutely ridonkulous. Admitedly you lose the lane control from the lack of Exhaust on the Support as well as reduced ability to deal with key Exhaust targets in teamfights. But in the push-heavy meta we currently reside in, it works great. While there were no defining examples in the Semifinals games, we saw in the Quaterfinals CLG using this tactic to push down towers while Team Legion tried desperate to clear the minions to force CLG to back off. At the same time, by having all lanes constantly pushed in it means that even if the Promote team loses a teamfight, it becomes much harder for the opposition to capatilise by taking objectives because they are forced to sit in their base and deal with the creep waves assaulting them.The combination of triple-Teleport and Promote creates an incredibly strong synergy of map presence and localised overwhelming advantage. However, it also relies on several important champion choices. Almost every champion on CLG has the ability to AoE clear minion waves. This allows them to both defend their towers in the 4v5 standoffs as well as seige towers through AoE creep wave instaclear. Notice that when Sivir was banned by Curse, CLG simply defaulted to Graves.There is one more important thing to note about the interesting Summoner choices by CLG. In the games where CLG displayed the triple-Teleport Promote strategy, their initial Summoners were all the "regular" set that most players would use. For example, Voyboy was using Ghost+Ignite and Chauster was running Flash+Exhaust. It wasn't until the very last second that they suddenly swapped out their Summoners for triple-Teleport and Promote. Part of this is likely because if they selected them early, the casters would mention this and the other team would know in advance as the players could hear the casters . However, this helps highlight an important aspect. It is incredibly hard to predict when CLG will use triple-Teleport Promote with 100% accuracy. They can easily choose before the game starts to swap their Summoner Spells back and forth. This is the biggest threat of triple-Teleport Promote. In order to deal with this strategy, you either need to have a Global Ult of your own, or run at least one Teleport on your team. However, having a lone Teleport Summoner exposes you to the original problems of a single Teleport without the benefits that massed Teleports offers you and creates weaker lanes for CLG to exploit. Thus, the cheese is not actually the way the comp plays out. Triple-Teleport Promote is a viable regular strategy and is no less cheesy than Low Econ Push games or Double Skarner AP. The real cheese is simply the fact you have absolutely no advance warning it's coming. The other team can simply choose not to use triple-Teleport Promote with a triple-Teleport Promote team comp and play "standard" instead.The triple-Teleport Promote strategy is one of the most innovative compositions created in League of Legends since the Poke Comp (amusingly, also pioneered by CLG). With both CLG.na and CLG.eu qualified for the World Championships, it will be interesting to see what other cheese that will be able to create together to take on the rest of the world in October.

Awards and Accolades By JBright, NeoIllusions and Chiharu Harukaze

Team to Ward Watch: Curse.na

Team Curse has come a long way since the three-way trade that landed Saintvicious and the addition of Westrice as a replacement to Pobelter. They finished 7-8th place at their first tournament together at MLG Spring Championships and have been slowly risen to a 2nd place finish at IPL Face Off and a 1st place



The 4th place finish at PAX was disappointing for Curse.na and they are now left searching for ways to improve. They will be trying out



* (Chiharu Editor Note: Curse and Dignitas were both disqualified from the grand finals for allegations of collusion and did not officially receive the trophy and circuit points but they did win every series required for a 1st place finish. Back to article)



Honourable Mention: Team Legion

Coming into the North American Regionals as the 7th seed, Legion had to face one of the Trioka, CLG.na, in the first round. It would be unfathomable for an upset to happen but Legion certainly came close by taking the match to the deciding game. What was most impressive was LgN's ability to face CLG.na new strategy, adapt after a loss, and eventually turn it into a win. It was not the cleanest of victories but knowing to group and push as a team when CLG's Teleports were down was a key to their success. Pr0lly proved himself to be as capable of an AP player from the legacy WildTurtle had left him and even pulled out Gragas for all three games. It will be interesting to see if he'll be able to diverisify his champion pool by Season 3 and maintain that success.





Garen in the Bush Surprise Performance: Dignitas.

Dignitas surprised a lot of people by playing several new strategies that they haven't shown before. They delivered CLG a brazen blow by utilizing CLG's patented poke comp against them and gave us the only upset of the tournament. However, they put up a disappointing performance in the finals against TSM. There are greater expectations in terms of consistency from a team that came into the tournament as the third seed and called out TSM by saying that they were stronger in every lane matchup. Which team will we see at the World Championships? The one that took down CLG.na to reach the finals or the one that could barely put up a fight against a team that "



Honourable Mention: TSM.Evo

TSM.Evo was one of the weakest team coming into the tournament and it came as no surprise when they dropped the opening set of the tournament to Curse.na. However, they managed to display excellent early game control beyond what was to be expect and heavily challenged Curse. But it was their poor decision making and leadership in the mid to late game that really hurt their chances at finishing off Curse. Nevertheless, a strong performance given the host of issues that had plagued them in the run-up to PAX Prime.



And now, a team that had so much potential is no more. TSM.Evo has officially disbanded. The team qualified for IPL5 while they were still together but now





Olympic Javelin Track and Field Award: CLG.na (v Legion, Game 2)

CLG played well throughout the game but their impatience gets the better of them near the end and give Legion a nail biting win. First, Hotshot misses the cleaver that would prevent Gragas from backing and defending his Nexus. Ans then, Doublelift heavily mismicros against Rumble and Gragas and doesn't use his Flash at all while mis using his Banshees and Spell Shield allowing himself to get killed while Voyboy is running around the edge. As Chauster says,



Honourable Mention: CLG.na (vs Dignitas, Game 1)

Dignitas starts on baron but poor positioning by HSGG (behind baron pit) and Bigfatjiji (way out in front of the rest of his team) gives Dig the time to split them up and take a 4 for 2 exchange as well as the baron. CLG.na was not in an unwinnable position before this team fight, but victory was out of reach after losing that much ground at the 34 min mark.





“I got the Reset (yes!)” Big Plays Award: TheOddOne, TSM v Curse Game 2

No ward on Baron? Check. Lower level than the enemy jungler? Check. Flash and Smite up? Check. Fancy use of Sapling Toss and



Who is this magical jungler? It can only be General OddOne here to save the day.



Honourable Mention: Chaox, TSM vs Curse.na Game 1

Chaox doing what he does best (killing champions) when he charged in to save Xpecial from Shyvana/Blitzcrank while only having less than 300 HP. Xpecial still dies anyways and Chaox drops to below 100 HP in the extended fight but his Bloodthirster and his ability to dodge skill shots kept him alive and secured both kills for TSM.





"See champion, Kill champion" Award: Chaox

There are players who had good and bad games and then there's Chaox. Oh, TSM needs someone to carry them because Regi is feeding Morgana? No problem, just watch me become Legendary. How about getting off on the wrong foot because Xpecial died early in the enemy jungle and your team decides it's better to focus on winning top and mid lane? Bring it. I will get harassed by the enemy who went straight for a BF Sword but still out cs him by the 14th min and go legendary. No matter the situation, Chaox has been the most consistent player for the tournament. Not only that, he's pretty good at dodging cc and keeping his attack up as much as possible in team fights. Perhaps some



Honourable Mention: Cop and Nyjacky (Curse v TSM, Semifinals Game 2)

Curse Gaming has come a long way since the old days. Nyjacky has really grown since his old days of Veigar only while Cop has shown himself to be amongst the top of the North American AD players when he mans up. And the result when all of this comes together?





"Phreak and Teemo" Crowd Pleaser Award: Riot Games

Three words: Teemo hats OP.



Honourable Mention: Riot Games

Oh, three more words:



Curse.naTeam Curse has come a long way since the three-way trade that landed Saintvicious and the addition of Westrice as a replacement to Pobelter. They finished 7-8th place at their first tournament together at MLG Spring Championships and have been slowly risen to a 2nd place finish at IPL Face Off and a 1st place * finish at MLG Summer Championships. Is this the power of the gaming house? Some teams handle living together better than others and things have been looking up for Curse.na. Just like at MLG Summer Arena, Crs.na became the only team that took a game off of the eventual champions. That's no easy feat considering how easy TSM crushed Dignitas in the Grand Finals. If the bracket had been slightly different, Curse.na definitely had a chance at creating an upset and earning a spot at the World Championships.The 4th place finish at PAX was disappointing for Curse.na and they are now left searching for ways to improve. They will be trying out Salce for 2 week while Westrice takes his hand at supporting Cop. Salce is one of the most talented AP players in North America but his problem has always been dedication, something that can be solved since he is living at the Curse mansion with the rest of the team. That being said, what does this spell for Elementz who already had issues getting along with Saintvicious? Will Salce be able to adapt to a new position and synergize with Curse.na or not? Depending on the answers to these questinos Curse Gaming has the potential to evolve, and transform the Trioka to the Four Horsemen.Team LegionComing into the North American Regionals as the 7th seed, Legion had to face one of the Trioka, CLG.na, in the first round. It would be unfathomable for an upset to happen but Legion certainly came close by taking the match to the deciding game. What was most impressive was LgN's ability to face CLG.na new strategy, adapt after a loss, and eventually turn it into a win. It was not the cleanest of victories but knowing to group and push as a team when CLG's Teleports were down was a key to their success. Pr0lly proved himself to be as capable of an AP player from the legacy WildTurtle had left him and even pulled out Gragas for all three games. It will be interesting to see if he'll be able to diverisify his champion pool by Season 3 and maintain that success.Dignitas.Dignitas surprised a lot of people by playing several new strategies that they haven't shown before. They delivered CLG a brazen blow by utilizing CLG's patented poke comp against them and gave us the only upset of the tournament. However, they put up a disappointing performance in the finals against TSM. There are greater expectations in terms of consistency from a team that came into the tournament as the third seed and called out TSM by saying that they were stronger in every lane matchup. Which team will we see at the World Championships? The one that took down CLG.na to reach the finals or the one that could barely put up a fight against a team that " didn't do anything special "?TSM.EvoTSM.Evo was one of the weakest team coming into the tournament and it came as no surprise when they dropped the opening set of the tournament to Curse.na. However, they managed to display excellent early game control beyond what was to be expect and heavily challenged Curse. But it was their poor decision making and leadership in the mid to late game that really hurt their chances at finishing off Curse. Nevertheless, a strong performance given the host of issues that had plagued them in the run-up to PAX Prime.And now, a team that had so much potential is no more. TSM.Evo has officially disbanded. The team qualified for IPL5 while they were still together but now their spot at IPL5 will be replaced at IPL5 . With Salce trying out for Curse, it remains to be seen where fate will lead its remaining player such as Nhat Nyugen.CLG.na (v Legion, Game 2) (VOD) CLG played well throughout the game but their impatience gets the better of them near the end and give Legion a nail biting win. First, Hotshot misses the cleaver that would prevent Gragas from backing and defending his Nexus. Ans then, Doublelift heavily mismicros against Rumble and Gragas and doesn't use his Flash at all while mis using his Banshees and Spell Shield allowing himself to get killed while Voyboy is running around the edge. As Chauster says, Voyboy probably wasn't even necessary to win that fight . Hindsight is 20/20, but CLG threw a game they should not have lost.CLG.na (vs Dignitas, Game 1) (VOD) Dignitas starts on baron but poor positioning by HSGG (behind baron pit) and Bigfatjiji (way out in front of the rest of his team) gives Dig the time to split them up and take a 4 for 2 exchange as well as the baron. CLG.na was not in an unwinnable position before this team fight, but victory was out of reach after losing that much ground at the 34 min mark.TheOddOne, TSM v Curse Game 2 (VOD) No ward on Baron? Check. Lower level than the enemy jungler? Check. Flash and Smite up? Check. Fancy use of Sapling Toss and Twisted Advance before Smite to secure Baron? Check.Who is this magical jungler? It can only be General OddOne here to save the day.Chaox, TSM vs Curse.na Game 1 (VOD) Chaox doing what he does best (killing champions) when he charged in to save Xpecial from Shyvana/Blitzcrank while only having less than 300 HP. Xpecial still dies anyways and Chaox drops to below 100 HP in the extended fight but his Bloodthirster and his ability to dodge skill shots kept him alive and secured both kills for TSM.ChaoxThere are players who had good and bad games and then there's Chaox. Oh, TSM needs someone to carry them because Regi is feeding Morgana? No problem, just watch me become Legendary. How about getting off on the wrong foot because Xpecial died early in the enemy jungle and your team decides it's better to focus on winning top and mid lane? Bring it. I will get harassed by the enemy who went straight for a BF Sword but still out cs him by the 14th min and go legendary. No matter the situation, Chaox has been the most consistent player for the tournament. Not only that, he's pretty good at dodging cc and keeping his attack up as much as possible in team fights. Perhaps some voodoo magic is involved?Cop and Nyjacky (Curse v TSM, Semifinals Game 2)Curse Gaming has come a long way since the old days. Nyjacky has really grown since his old days of Veigar only while Cop has shown himself to be amongst the top of the North American AD players when he mans up. And the result when all of this comes together? Pure carnage. Riot GamesThree words: Teemo hats OP.Riot GamesOh, three more words: Kog'maw T-Shirt Cannon Moderator A dream. Do you have one that has cursed you like that? Or maybe... a wish?