2019 MSI has been a rough tournament for Xmithie in regards to fan criticism. After an easy 2–0 start TL had to play against the major regions. TL found themselves having trouble dealing with these teams. Issues bloomed from the games resulting in a rough two days (losing to FW even). Fans constantly asked for Xmithie’s head even requesting he be replaced. However, the defeat of iG signaled a turnaround for the team and renewed faith in his play. At least until TL got destroyed 3–0 by G2. The question is how much was this Xmithie’s fault and is the critique warranted? I will go over each game discussing the pros and cons of Xmithie’s choices along with any extra information I find important to understand the game state.

Game 1

Let’s start with the level 1 by TL. G2 have three spells with good range that can catch TL out (Rakan W, Swain E, Morgana Q). TL have nothing to impose threat so they play safe. TL look fine at first until they move towards defending their red ramp seen here.

The problem here is since TL’s duo is playing safe. They can’t see G2’s duo rotating over and with Jensen not covering mid or placing Orianna ball in left line TL end up having multiple blind spots. Jensen is forced to use all three corrupting pots negating his ability to fight Morgana before she can permanently push mid. Meanwhile on bottom side TL’s duo tries to secure one of the Skarner pillars only for Corejj, who is scouting, to stay too long losing flash making their bot matchup even worse.

As you can see Xmithie already has to change his game plan with worries on bot dying to ganks and not having mid priority. His adaptation is taking two camps into denying top scuttle from Jankos. He can’t gank top nor is it worth to walk to his bot camps. No problems here.

Where people start the criticism is why didn’t he cover bot lane at 4:15. There are multiple things to consider here for how communication is broken down between TL’s duo and Xmithie.

Let’s start with what each player wants here. TL’s duo is scared of getting ganked with a big wave building. They also don’t want the wave to freeze keeping themselves in a constant state of fear resulting in creep loss. Xmithie is showing he wants to get the Skarner pillar before moving bot. Corejj’s first action is using dematerializer on cannon making the wave push faster. Xmithie is not here yet. It appears to be a miscommunication thinking Xmithie would come directly to help finish the push. The result is TL’s duo has to wait longer and now the wave can be trimmed making it more difficult to finish the push (a big wave has damage threat which TL can use in a 3v3). However, DL also doesn’t give respect to the possibility of Jankos being in the side brush which forces Corejj to walk up further incase DL is attacked.

TL’s duo have two wards and 3 abilities to face check with Tahm Kench’s Q being the worst. While it’s not optimal to let G2 trim the wave you have to respect the situation. DL did not. The wave still can be frozen by G2 forcing him to stick around. TL are successful breaking the freeze, but this is where Xmithie’s first big mistake occurs where he tries to kill a pink ward.

Xmithie gets Corejj killed. Impact has always been good on reacting quickly with TP. Unfortunately, he TPs in a lost fight and he ends up dying. Xmithie’s mistake now leaves top lane as a possible focus point for G2 while giving G2’s bot more gold. The only lane of use at this point is mid, but Caps is playing Morgana who can hold onto black shield for when Skarner comes while sitting far back to clear waves. Not looking good here.

Next mistake fans blame Xmithie on is not covering top lane. The initial reasoning on why he did nothing was because his health was very low making his ability to properly cover not doable. Why was he unhealthy though? He opted to ward blue side’s dragon blast cone and even hit a vision plant to spot Jankos.

This was not necessary. G2’s duo was already pushing out bot. You can say warding dragon area is fine, but he should still be backing right away. Now look at Impact’s situation with a big top wave building up while Impact having no flash.

The communication between the two should be Xmithie saying he can’t cover or if he does, he will be rather useless. Impact either has to accept his situation with his safest play being GP ultimate on the next wave. The chance of breaking the freeze is high since Wunder would have to eat the GP ultimate and whatever minions are left to keep a freeze. Either way it buys Impact time without endangering himself. The other option is simply waiting. It sucks, but again like the bot lane situation the player has to pay respects to their current situation, not what usually should be done. Impact ends up dying and losing more CS. Top lane is pretty much over.

How does Xmithie get TL back in the game? In the picture below Xmithie takes bot scuttle off Jankos’s gank top. What he doesn’t realize from the gank though is Jankos is very low on mana and half hp. Caps shows mid with blue buff. G2 handed it off and the chance of Jankos staying on the map is slim.

If Xmithie makes the connection there is an opportunity bot while Mikyx has no flash and no ultimate. DL is level 6 so even he can start the fight seeing as G2’s bot is playing forward. Now if TL doesn’t wish to make this play then Xmithie can at least farm his bot camps making himself ready to respond to Jankos afterwards. Instead he moves all the way to TL’s red banana brush to pink on the chance G2 looks for top dives. Jensen has a trinket ward. He is more than capable of covering this spot while Xmithie farms.

Also, right after warding Xmithie is looking mid for either a counter on Jensen’s push or to possibly kill Caps. It’s hard enough to kill Morgana making the time spent here wasteful. Meanwhile the bot wave is building for TL forcing Xmithie to cover bot. While no punishment occurs due to Xmithie’s wasted time it does give Jankos free time to look on the map. DL messes up and is quickly punished by G2’s bot (Jankos helped, but did not hold an important role in this play working).

At this point Xmithie’s main choice should be heading straight top since he still has ultimate and Wunder has no flash. What he opts to do instead is attempting a surprise voyage gank. It can work if they know Jankos won’t respond. The two main issues here are one, the scuttle crab is spawning soon on bot where Jankos may feel taking it and two, TL showed on a ward in which Xmithie knew was there.

The early game is officially over for TL after the voyage play. While Xmithie is not solely to blame for issues that pop up his attempt to kill the pink bot, wasting time after 3rd base, and opting for a suboptimal voyage bot play did not help TL advance their early game.

Game 2

Level 1 TL have superiority with Olaf, Ashe, and Braum. They are able to plant a ward to show if Jankos moves to/from wolves and take away G2’s bot river vision. Opens up for a good start for Xmithie. The top scuttle is a takeaway from Jankos after he shows on the wolf entrance ward. Xmithie sweeping Caps ward puts pressure on Caps forcing Jankos to move through the area shown here.

Jankos is heading towards bot scuttle (at least that is what you would expect) making the raptors camp the next objective for Xmithie. He is successful, but bot lane dies thanks to DL opting to auto attack Thresh exposing himself to a hook. Enough time is bought for Jankos leading to G2 killing Corejj who saved DL.

The first issue that can be brought up is Xmithie not helping Jensen finish his push mid soon enough. While shown below is Xmithie assisting what ends up happening is Caps TPs back most likely on the cannon creating a freeze. Jensen now requires help. This part is not Xmithie’s fault. It is on both players not realizing Caps will do this. What is Xmithie’s fault is failing to move sooner before G2 has numbers mid.

Twenty-five seconds have passed. Xmithie is heading towards his krugs after raptors. He only turns around when hawk shot spots Mikyx mid. G2 initiates first with Perkz eventually joining creating a man advantage for G2. The one for one is not terrible, but it should never have to result in a kill trade. It’s important to note Jensen technically can base when he sees Caps freezing, TP back, and get help when having items. Jensen also has both trinket wards up which can be used to help spot Jankos (Jankos was sitting in left line).

For the next couple minutes Xmithie does a good job securing bot scuttle with bot priority. Wastes no time while taking his camps. Once again Jensen still has trinket charges up (7:00). He is capable of giving coverage on left side for Impact who is pushing constantly. Helps Xmithie feel safer leaving Impact alone.

Once Xmithie finishes his camps, he is drawn mid due to the trade initiated by Caps. He has the option to move left or right afterwards with the most optimal choice being left where he has two camps coming up plus can give assistance to Impact. Instead he opts to check for wards on right side of mid. Xmithie still has to move towards top side afterwards. Was the pink he took worth his time? In the short term, no. Long term maybe worth it if they are aiming for an early dragon or movement with jungle/support through that area after Xmithie takes his top camps.

When Xmithie finally crosses to top side scuttle crab is close to spawning. Mikyx is here though resulting in losing scuttle. Xmithie gets pulled briefly mid and top delaying the camps he should have taken 30 seconds ago.

Xmithie has three choices from here. Take raptors, take krugs, or move for vision. He found success moving through bot. Jensen also has shown Caps beating him. Olaf does not completely turn the fight mid. TL’s 3v3 bot is very good still (Caps does have TP, but TL don’t need to over force). Either taking krugs or moving for vision through bot seems like the best options. Jensen again needs to be in charge of covering TL’s red ramp with his ward. Since he did not Xmithie feels forced to do raptors into warding the ramp area.

His response to G2 taking mountain drake is looking for camps, vision, and maybe herald on top side. The following problems rise up from this though: Caps has priority mid enabling him to collapse on Xmithie, Wunder has not shown top lane yet, and Jankos has the option to contest Xmithie while Caps buys time. All these possibilities add risk to Xmithie looking for plays top. The only vision play he has is using sweeper, but clearing G2’s vision here doesn’t really matter.

While not related to his movement top TL’s duo also moves just a tad too far up resulting in their flashes being burned shown below.

Xmithie now is faced to either address what happened bot or use them to keep Jankos bot so he can take herald. TL chooses to address what is happening bot vs giving up gold bot for herald. If Impact moves for bot then Xmithie cannot do herald (Pyke will mess with Xmithie). It ends up paying off moving to bot with Impact securing two kills. Note if Jankos doesn’t get baited back in TL only net one kill. Not much gained from that.

The last point to look at from game 2 is whether Xmithie should continue towards raptors or base after wolves to directly head top shown in picture below. Impact just got a big spike with double pen items. DL also has arrow vs a no flash Varus. The TP threat should be enough to push forward with the duo lane assuming Jensen can keep Caps entertained mid.

On the other hand, if Xmithie takes the extra camp TL can wait on Jensen’s TP to be up allowing TL to have five members top if G2 fights making Caps priority less threatening. DL also gets to buy BORK to match Perkz’s 1st item. If this was TL’s plan then Impact simply has to play further back waiting on an opportunity top. What Xmithie does was fine.

Overall, Xmithie had three errors with really only one having an impact on the game. Not a game to get mad at for Xmithie.

Game 3

Level 1 TL spread out ensuring they don’t get caught out. No grouping by their red ramp or losing coverage of mid. There is one change to this level 1 though. Xmithie doesn’t check his red banana brush like game 1.

We see Xmithie doing a loop at 0:40. If he did this game 3, he would have run into Mikyx and prevented losing his flash most likely. G2 must have expected Xmithie to not do this twice. In the end Xmithie trades flash for flash which isn’t awful so level 1 was okay for TL.

The very first issue is whether or not Xmithie should do raptors or krugs after red. Xmithie does not want to go to the scuttle where Jankos is at (Jankos is stronger dueling wise and he most likely has priority in top/bot). Jankos has also shown priority in securing both scuttle crabs in this series.

If Xmithie opts to do raptors then he gives Jankos time to show on one of the two wards TL placed on bottom side. Jankos showing means Xmithie can look for top scuttle and have a similar path to game 1. Off chance Jankos looks for Xmithie’s blue Xmithie will be ready to take G2’s blue.

Similarly, krugs gives time for Jankos to show while also letting Xmithie cycle krugs camp for higher experience gain. Losing both scuttle crabs is not as big of a deal while leaving Xmithie the chance to still either look for top scuttle or move towards raptors for a full clear (scuttle more difficult with krugs taking longer to take). Top and bot most likely cannot be dived.

In either case if Jankos opts to cross the dragon pit TL will not have it scouted. This Xmithie’s first choice to do neither these camps to make up for that. It puts him in a worse spot not cycling camps as fast while giving double scuttle to Jankos. Jankos can even look for Xmithie’s raptors assuming he spots Xmithie leading to either TL defending raptors or attempting to trade raptors. Early fights TL wants to avoid.

What actually ends up happening is Jankos shows at 1:52 looking to gank bot. Xmithie has already chosen to move towards bot. He can still turn around if he wants, but he continues forth possibly worried Jankos may try to contest his blue. DL loses most of his health for free vs flashing making a blue defense harder.

Xmithie now has to decide to either give up both scuttles to do his bot camps, prepare for a possible blue defense, or look to sneak top scuttle while Jankos does bot scuttle (harder to do now with top wave building allowing Wunder to move down). Xmithie does his wolves camp waiting to see what Jankos will do while more importantly assuming Jankos will take TL’s blue while DL is dead. If Jankos opts to contest more camps he will find wolves are gone. Not a bad idea by Xmithie except Jankos opts for double scuttle and Wunder would be poised to walk down river. In other words, Xmithie wasted his next move vs taking his blue after wolves (been too long for Jankos not contesting it plus TL can see if G2’s duo is moving with a ward in river brush).

Thanks to Xmithie showing Jankos he is level 2 top side with no blue this leads to G2’s blue contest. TL now are stuck in an awkward situation where defending blue is important, but keeping DL safe who so happens to have no sums thanks to Jankos’s gank is also important. The blue becomes bait for G2 leading to the smart audible to kill DL.

While DL is certainly to blame for losing both sums level 1 the situation becomes worse due to Xmithie moving for top scuttle after wolves.

Following this Xmithie opts to defend mid seeing there is a cannon still up for Jensen allowing Caps to pull the wave. Jankos is shown on the bot pixel ward. Becomes a good counter gank by Xmithie netting TL their first kill.

The gank top is fine by Xmithie since Wunder is overextending with the chance of Jankos being here very low. The problem comes up when Impact and Xmithie try to push the wave. They don’t consider Jankos showing up. Jankos revived at 4:50. His blue is still up making the chance of him going top side high. Jankos’s gank makes Impact lose flash, creeps, and wastes Xmithie’s time. The important part here is what Impact lost since Jarvan can use cataclysm to prevent Vlad from running. Once again G2 have multiple gank options. The better idea for both Impact and Xmithie is to base. While Impact may still lose creeps he at least can’t be dived. Xmithie returns on the map heading towards his 2nd raptors.

The gank mid where Caps 1v2’s was a good idea by Xmithie. He was playing off Jankos doing red since they saw him moving towards G2’s bot jungle. The error is a mechanical one. Xmithie never uses his Q to either knock-up Caps for an easy stun follow up by Jensen or force Caps to use Q on Jensen which completely prevents Caps from 1v2ing (no Q reset for E or R). Jensen uses stun seeing Xmithie not jumping on Caps. Missing the stun leads to a lack of CC layering. Caps turns it around.

The aftermath is Caps roaming top to kill Impact (not including DL burning both sums since Jankos had no role in it). Xmithie simply clears top to bot with a blue handoff into covering bot push. No issues with that.

The last play TL can really make before the game gets out of control is punishing Mikyx walking up to Corejj. Corejj can easily combo here followed up by Sejuani’s ultimate. Good chance they will blow Mikyx’s ultimate or flash.

There isn’t much to discuss after the cover bot since Jankos is able to take herald giving G2 control on what tower they wish to attack. Additionally, all of G2’s lanes are performing well making any play Xmithie executes result in the other two TL lanes getting punished.

From game 3 the main mistakes by Xmithie were his action post wolves and the execution on mid. The rest were joint decision errors by his team with the choice to attempt pushing top reducing lane focus on top like game 1.

Conclusion

The first two games Jensen had chances to ward for the team and himself in game 2 to allow Xmithie more freedom from mid. This wasn’t the case so Xmithie felt he had to do it himself.

Most lane cover situations are not purely on Xmithie. In the first game where he opts to not base affecting his ability to help Impact does reflect on himself, but each TL member needs to recognize the current situation vs the expected. It may lead to creep loss. However, despite the creep loss they will not die.

The most pivotal errors came from time wasted by Xmithie. He had these types of errors in each game with game 2 being the least impactful. Game 1 was post 3rd base, game 2 was clearing vision right of mid and moving top side after G2’s dragon, and finally game 3 being his post wolves take. I would not say this was a lack of aggression by Xmithie. He was playing Skarner and Sejuani with several team decisions leading to early deficits. TL as a team has to be focused on getting past the initial levels while giving little to G2. That just wasn’t the case in this series. So, when you look over Xmithie’s early game performance in finals don’t put it all on him. Don’t say TL’s lanes were incapable of doing anything because Jankos was everywhere. Remember you win or lose as a team.