I will be looking at 3 things from Samsung in this brief overview.

Gank Priority Pick Priority Level 1 Observations

Gank Location and Position Priority

The first thing I want to discuss is who Ambition focuses on with his ganks. In the playoffs Ambition was putting more focus on CuVee in the beginning of the game. The issue is CuVee isn’t the player dictating the flow of the game for Samsung, it’s their bot lane. This led to Score helping his bot lane more and securing bot priority with the additional help of Fly. It wasn’t until regionals where Ambition started putting more focus on mid first and then focus on his duo next. CuVee was left on his own to survive. This turned out well for Samsung. Even though they could have better utilized their bot priority it was still enough to help them secure leads early on.

When you look at the data listed above the mix of top priority in playoffs and bot priority in regionals gives a more even spread for the first two ganks. However, since there were four more regional games this influenced the priority in mid and bot more. Before I mixed in playoffs data for instance Ambition had a 50% priority on bot lane for gank #2 while for gank #1 he had 56% priority for mid. The first gank mid priority difference was 20% while the second gank’s bot lane priority difference was 14%. For those that don’t know the first three ganks by a jungler contain the most consistent data. After the third gank the lower sample size can greatly skew the data since most junglers don’t find that many opportunities consistently. So this data helps support the transition of Samsung’s priority from top to bot over their course of playoffs to regionals.

The other data I have acquired on Ambitions ganks don’t offer much to derive from. The only thing I can add is he typically ganks on his own. He does not utilize the pressure from his lanes to assist in attacking points on the map, which TSM so happens to do far more often. This difference in style is not good for Samsung. AFS doesn’t do this often and it gave Samsung breathing room in the early game with their more reactionary style. KT was a harder opponent because KT does try to incorporate more members to assist around the map. The main question to me here is will Samsung be able to better utilize their bot priority against their opponents in groups or will they ride on their opponents mistakes alone to create advantages.

Highest Priority Picks for Samsung

1st Pick Priority for Both Sides

Ban Priority for Both Sides

1st Pick + Ban Combined Priority for Both Sides

What you see above is an indication towards Samsung’s highest priorities in draft. Tahm Kench sits at the top of their priority when it comes to picks. This shouldn’t be a surprise, Tahm Kench is essentially the best support in the Meta and Samsung have switched to bot priority. Tahm allows several different ADC’s to be picked thanks to the safety he brings while his ultimate opens up new found opportunities to exploit the map.

Ekko is the second highest first pick priority. I believe Ekko is a tier 1 pick right now and he so happens to be one of the best independent top laners. Samsung are a reactionary team. They don’t always put themselves in the best positions, but having a safe top laner who can have wave priority is a big deal to them.

Samsung did not care for Jhin first pick as much as other teams, but with more teams showing his power in the duo lane it may become a priority for Samsung. Varus has also been getting more play since he has a similar kit to Jhin. The Ashe priority most likely will drop down in replace for something else, but what ADC pick they will prefer I am not sure.

If we look at bans some of those will drop down like the Vladimir and Taliyah bans thanks to the recent nerfs. Their Shen ban may continue to rise since Shen will be highly contested pick and also a counter to Ekko.

The last table showing the combination of both shows Karma and Rek’sai higher up than they were in the previous two. Rek’sai priority may drop for Samsung depending on the opinions of the teams attending worlds on Rek’sai’s recent changes, but the Karma priority shall continue to exist. She is still fine in the mid lane and can give bot priority if played as support.

Level 1 Actions

When it comes to level 1 starts for Samsung you will typically see their fan start. They have a few variations of it like most teams do, nothing special. However, the main thing teams will have to consider when facing Samsung is their stacking. It’s not a common thing to do in games, usually done just as an adaptation in a series. Samsung performed this multiple times in different locations in playoffs and regionals. Both Afreecas and KT were doing simple invades on Samsung to get a camp ward down. Instead of doing what Cloud 9 does which is just counter invading to trade camp wards Samsung actually prefers to look for a high pay out play by stacking in a brush. It leaves them exposed on the other side of the map, but if it works then you are either up a kill or burn the enemy’s summoners.

This can make teams hesitant to look for camp wards in best of ones. No team wants to start out a game down a kill. Even if the chances of Samsung doing it on stage are low sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.