Deep in the Rift: Undeterred Split Push and Equalizing Assassination

Team Coast has looked nearly unstoppable in the North American amateur scene. They've gone undefeated in the North American Challenger League, and they only lost one game to Curse Academy in the National ESL Pro Series. While these results may seem impressive, they did end up placing seventh in the North American LCS Summer Split. This is likely the result of the fact that Team Coast favors high risk-high reward compositions and strategies, which can either lead to impressive conclusions or devastating failures.

Team Coast has taken the split push strategy and made it their own by adding in single target pick off and assassination to defend and always keep the playing field level, preventing the split pusher from having to recall until he takes a Nexus turret. In today's feature, we examine what has become Coast's signature style, and how they successfully execute it when Team Complexity takes careful measures to counter it.

Every week, we will showcase one team with either an interesting or well-executed lineup, and analyze how they work. From the champions to the matchups, as well as its pros and cons, this article aims to help readers understand the pro scene better, and possibly even incorporate these strategies into their own games.

Picks and Bans

Most of the bans for this game were offered up out of respect. Team Coast did not want to give Ninjaken, who subbed for Complexity that game, his favored Nocturne. Megazero still holds a reputation as a strong Renekton player from the Season Three LCS Spring Split, when he played for MRN. Meanwhile, Complexity banned out ZionSpartan's Lee Sin, which gave them trouble in the previous match they played against Coast, and Shiphtur's Ahri, widely considered one of his most successful champions.

These bans are still fairly strategic, however. Coast's strategy relies on shoving out waves, holding turret, and locking down a single target to burst. As a result, if Ninjaken or Megazero got their hands on Nocturne or Renekton, their dive potential and survivability could prove devastating. In addition, while Kassadin is a squishy target, he brings a lot of damage, and his high mobility makes him difficult to catch and burst.

Meanwhile, on the side of Complexity, they knew ZionSpartan relies on getting ahead of his opponent in lane to split push effectively, and they could not stop his Lee Sin from snowballing in the previous game. Since Coast also relies upon Shiphtur to get ahead on a high mobility assassin, removing his favored pick takes out options for their composition. Finally, Complexity planned to bring a hard engage composition to force 4v5s, and Zyra's disengage potential would throw a spanner into the works.

With bans out of the way, Coast showed their hand by first-picking Jax, a devastating duelist who scales well with items. The last time these two teams faced, Complexity planned to pit Megazero against ZionSpartan in the top lane and rely on his skill to shut down Lee Sin. This proved difficult with heavy ganking by Nintendudex, so this time, they planned to force a 2v1, and Megazero chose Rumble for his potential to clear waves. The pick also complemented Complexity's AoE team fight lineup with Annie, Jarvan IV, Oriana, and Corki.

Coast favors a jungler that can isolate and pick out a single target for the mid lane assassin to destroy. In this instance, Nintendudex picked up Elise, and Shiphtur took Leblanc. Coast put their wave clear in the bottom lane with Fiddlesticks on Daydreamin and Caitlyn on Chaox, who was trying out for the team this game.

Execution

Early wards in Coast's red buff area give Complexity the knowledge that Coast's duo lane will be heading to the bottom of the map, so they send Megazero bottom to farm under turret. Chuuper on Corki and MEyeA on Annie head top to attempt to starve ZionSpartan's Jax of farm. Nintendudex follows ZionSpartan top to support him in lane. Ninjaken is also drawn top at first, but eventually he ventures bottom to help Megazero farm in lane. On his departure, Nintendudex ganks and gets himself first blood, as well as an assist for ZionSpartan.

After Chuuper and MEyeA successfully shove top and take the first turret, they rotate down bottom for the first dragon, and Megazero is sent top to face ZionSpartan at around the ten minute mark. Unfortunately, by ten minutes, Nintendudex's babysitting has gotten ZionSpartan a full 30 minion lead over Megazero, and Rumble has difficulty staying in lane against Jax when he picks up two Doran's Blades and a Phage.

Meanwhile, Shiphtur, key to the second component of Coast's strategy, does not fair as well as ZionSpartan in the early game. Oriana's ability to shield a significant portion of assassin burst damage prevents him from snowballing. Knowing this, Pr0lly also picks up two Doran's Rings and a Chalice of Harmony to increase his survivability against Leblanc's onslaught. A gank fron Ninjaken secures Pr0lly a kill over Shiphtur, putting him further behind.

After Complexity takes first tier turret in mid lane, Shiphtur knows that he doesn't have the required amount of damage to assassinate someone when he needs it, so he grabs a Kage's Lucky Pick to supplement his income.

At this point, Coast begins to stall, trading turrets in mid lane and bottom as ZionSpartan split pushes and Nintendudex steals dragons to increase his team's global gold. Shiphtur needs a Deathfire's Grasp to be able to one shot a member of Complexit'y team, and until he secures it, the pressure from Complexity's AoE engage potential is difficult to sustain. Still, ZionSpartan forces objectives in the top lane and doesn't base, even when members of his team begin to drop, trusting the wave clear from Fiddlesticks and Caitlyn to hold base turrets.

The game turns around when Complexity gambles that they can take the bottom inhibitor of Coast's base in exchage for Zion snagging their top inhibitor. At this point, however, Shiphtur completes his Deathfire's Grasp, and he is able, with the help of Nintendudex's Elise, to get the shutdown bonus on Chuuper's Corki. Off that fight, ZionSpartan takes a Nexus turret, and the game evolves into Coast distracting and assassinating members of Complexity while minions wreack havoc on their base.

Undeterred Split Push and Equalizing Assassination: How and Why

While many teams like Fnatic or CLG like to run split push compositions, Team Coast's brand is unique in that, instead of running AoE and wave clear on their mid laner, or a heavy amount of disengage on their support, they rely on Shiphtur's ability to discourage unfavorable engagements by eliminating any single member of the opposing team. Instead of giving the enemy team the option of either hard engaging a 4v5 or sending someone top to try to deal with ZionSpartan, eliminating a member of the enemy team actively forces them to answer the split push, which turns the numbers advantage.

This composition is risky to execute. It relies on three key things. The first and simplest is to bring heavy wave clear on bottom lane champions. Fiddlesticks' Dark Wind works well here, as does Caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker and long range, but one can also bring other popular supports and marksmen like Zyra or Lulu and Lucian, Corki, or Varus. Keep in mind that having an escape on your marksman so he can avoid hard engage is also desirable.

The next, and the most central, component is to have good duelist for the top lane. It's absolutley crucial for this strategy that the top laner gets ahead so that he has the potential to duel nearly anyone on the enemy team. The champion must scale well off damage items and have high mobility to escape tough situations and ganks. Team Coast has used Jax, Lee Sin, Riven, Rengar, and even AD Nidalee in this position. Other solid picks include Tryndamere, Olaf, Master Yi, and Fiora.

The third component is to bring assassination potential on the mid laner. Assassin mid laners are popular in the current meta at the moment, but it's hard for them to come out ahead against Oriana. Coast favors Leblanc and Ahri, but Zed, Fizz, and Kassadin can also be played here. It is necessary for the assassin to be able to one hundred to zero the enemy team's sqishiest target by the time the top laner is ready to split push, so a jungler that brings pick potential and can also help snowball the top laner will complement your mid well. Nintendudex frequently runs Jarvan IV or Elise for this purpose. Nocturne and Lee Sin would also work well.

Strengths and Weaknesses

By eliminating a member of the enemy team, you remove their option to engage a fight in which they have the numbers advantage. Instead of reacting to their engagement or their decision to send someone top to deal with your split pusher, you actively cripple them and make taking objectives easier for your team.

The reason I chose to highlight this match where Shiphtur falls behind in lane instead of one in which Coast's execution seems closer to flawless was to illustrate some clear weaknesses. Neither your top lane nor your mid lane can fall behind for this to work. Complexity's plan to bring wave clear and team fight presence on top lane instead of trying to shut down ZionSpartan in a 1v1 was commendable, and their plan to shut down Shiphtur almost worked, but his Kage's allowed him to pick up some extra gold income and get back into the game just when the situation was becoming unsustainable. Nintendudex's Elise did a lot of work this game to prop his solo laners up, but if Zion or Shiphtur had gotten shut down, Complexity likely would have pulled out a win. The fragility of this strategy is one of the main reasons why Coast has less success in the LCS Summer Split, but as their execution improves, this style of play looks more and more compelling.

Recommendations and Final Words

While it might seem to the untrained eye that Coast's games revolve around ZionSpartan and Shiphtur getting fed to put the entire team on their backs, this composition requires a great deal of trust and coordination that is difficult to come across in solo queue. ZionSpartan has to trust that his team can keep their base intact while he split pushes freely, and Shiphtur and Nintendudex have to pull off a nice level of synergy to continuously get picks and keep the rest of the team in the game. The duo lane also has to time important cooldowns and stay safe while putting out damage, as they act as the primary defense for the base while mid and jungle get picks and Zion split pushes.

If you choose to run this composition with your team, it's important that each member trusts the other to do their job. Top lane isn't going to solo carry the entire game. With that in mind, this style of play may create success with practice.