Hello summoners! Welcome to our International Wildcard Finals coverage! Today we will be discussing in-depth the games played between PaiN Gaming and GamingGear.EU for the spot at Season 3 World Championships.

The Event! Gamescom 2013!

First of all, we’d like to congratulate the event and production crew for such an amazing show! Also, the casters did a really great job entertaining everyone, and even though the schedule didn’t cater well to American audiences, we all enjoyed it just the same.

The Finals!

Coming into the finals GamingGear.EU had a smooth 2-0 on Immunity showing strong and consistent play. PaiN Gaming came to the finals from an intense 2-1 match against Dark Passage, but did show bouts of insecurities and hesitant play. With a spot at Worlds on the line, both teams were motivated to fight to the death for their chance at world recognition as the best.

Let’s get to the games!

Game 1:

GamingGear.EU (Blue Side)

Bans:

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Twisted Fate: GG’s ban on Twisted fate may seem like a regular global ban, but it functioned more as a targeted ban than anything else. They lost a close game in the group stages in which Kami’s Twisted Fate was a real menace and whose persistent map pressure allowed PaiN to snowball the game to victory.

Elise: With both SirT and Venon being proficient on Elise, this ban was beneficial for both teams as they would like to see her not get any play rather than let another sneak her in.

Shen: As one of Venon’s go-to champions in this tournament, PaiN likes to build dive comps with a lot of map pressure by split pushing. With this ban out of the picture, PaiN’s ability to create global map pressure was hindered greatly.

Picks:

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With this team composition GG was able to play aggressive in the early stages of the game, taking advantage of Renekton’s and Twitch’s early game dueling potential. With the tankiness that Renekton and J4 provide, they comprise a frontline that allows Twitch to create distance for Spray and Pray and either can act as a ball delivery system for Orianna Shockwaves. Even if they are a little behind, the team can pull great teamfights if they hit their ultimates; one good flash Crescendo and the whole teamfight is won. Considering that Orianna is one of the lowest DPS mages, Twitch was the only reliable source of damage that GG composition had and in turn that meant that GG relied on crisp initiations for teamfights to sway in their favor.

PaiN Gaming (Purple Side)

Bans:

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Gragas: Kami’s a great Gragas player, aswell as Mazzerin. Similar to the case with Elise, neither team would like to deal with his ability to create picks out of thin air or his burst damage that obliterates enemies from the map who don’t build MR.

Thresh: As both supports being fairly proficient in Thresh play, this was more of a global ban than anything else. With a kit that contains nearly anything a team would have: a hook stun, disengage with a slow, a get-out-of-jail card, and an AOE slow, both teams felt that they didn’t want to deal with any problems he might create.

Zac: With Zac’s current state on the live servers, this serves more as a global ban considering just how powerful he is. With such high base damages and his incredible synergy with Spirit Visage, once that item is completed on Zac he’s able to split push on his own while sustaining himself through bloblets. Coupled along with one of the best initiations in the game and great waveclear, he’s at god-tier status similar to how Jayce was earlier in the year.

Picks:

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In this composition, PaiN was playing a double AD comp with an AoE top laner, Generally, you run a heavy CC bruiser with a double AD, and instead they ran a heavy CC bot lane (Ashe/Zyra). Teamfight initiations could be literally made out of thin air with an Ashe Enchanted Crystal Arrow or a Zyra Grasping Roots followed with a Nocturne’s Paranoia. And for sieging turrets, Rumble’s Equalizer made it impossible for them to hold.

Level 1

The level 1 in this game had no invades as GG warded all the river entrances, looking for any invades from PaiN. Their defensive wards spotted SirT in the mid side bush near the blue buff and Zyra in the bottom lane river bush. PaiN warded both mid jungle entrances and the top river bush. No invades were made but PaiN’s bot lane tried to force a level 1 trade attempting to abuse Ashe’s Focus passive but it didn’t result in any immediate kills.

Early Game

With GGs picks, they wanted to thrash early and often compared to PaiN’s composition who excelled well in picking off champions once Nocturne hit level 6 so that Paranoia could be abused.

Despite this, PaiN’s early game seemed a little stronger with SirT and Venon getting first blood on a pushed up Renekton and their bot lane was putting a lot of pressure on GG’s turret. J4 responded with a gank on the bot lane, forcing them to back. The game went cool for a while, with all PaiN’s lanes getting pushed except for bot lane. As GG’s bot lane seemed to get some pressure on Pain’s, the Ashe/Zyra + Nocturne combo managed to get a kill on Sona. As the game went on, GG’s pressure was turned to top lane as they pulled off a 3 man dive on Venon’s turret, which denied him tons of experience and resulted in a laning phase failure for him. PaiN tried to respond with a mid turret push, but did not have success. As Venon was getting back into his lane, Alunir ganked him and Nbs secured the kill to shut down Rumble completely.

Mid Game

As the laning phase started to end, more skirmishes started to take place that shaped the outcome of the game. GG managed to get the first dragon after trading 1 for 1 in the mid lane. PaiN responded with a Trueshot Barrage snipe on Sona and trading SirT for Mazzerin and the mid turret. brTT got the bottom turret at the cost of his Crystal Arrow and attempted to duel Twitch. At this point, Twitch had a BotRK and was able to out trade him pretty easily. As the game progressed GG dove more frequently on PaiN’s team, securing a kill on Kami using J4 as a ball delivery system for Orianna. SirT tried to protect the middle turret but was killed by Mazzerin in the process, snowballing a lategame Orianna pick further. Eventually, with their massive gold lead GG started to group up for objectives, and rotated around the map collecting turrets like candy and stealing buff camps. GG was able to create a monopoly of vision around the dragon pit and the next time PaiN came to contest its spawn, they were promptly obliterated in the next teamfight.

End Game

As the game transitioned into the end, Mazzerin was a god, able to kill any of PaiN’s champions. GG were still pressuring as a group, taking turret after turret and jungle camp after jungle camp. When PaiN gaming saw an opportunity, they initiated with a good arrow onto Twitch, but once again were out of position and unable to stack their ultimates on their target, making it really easy for GG to counter-engage. Mazzerin took that opportunity to land an amazing 3 man Shockwave, completely destroying brTT and Espeon. The teamfight resulted in destroying 2 turrets, including an inhibitor turret and a kill on Kami. After securing Baron, GG all recalled for a last buy and after another attempt of initiation from PaiN failing, GG secured the win.

Conclusion:

What went wrong for PaiN:

Venon’s Rumble seemed like an odd pick and Venon wasn’t able to perform well on him. Also, while being pressured by 3-man dives and jungle ganks, he was behind Renekton the whole game and was rendered useless throughout the rest of the game. Also, brTT was not on his most comfortable ADC and as much as Kami likes Ezreal, the champion might have not been the perfect choice for the team. If PaiN wanted to run a pick composition, an Ahri pick for mid would have worked exponentially better than Ezreal since she can create plays on her own. Or if PaiN wanted to run double AD composition, a Nunu jungle pick would have provided the necessary utility for disengages and offensive boosts for taking down turrets.

What went right for GG:

Even though Renekton got killed for first blood, he did not lose his lane. He was always pressuring Venon’s Rumble and after Spirit Visage was completed on him, he became an immovable object in the top lane. After GG’s bruisers got tankier, their double ADs weren’t able to make provide much damage in any team engagements due to armor stacking.

Key points of the game:

– Early game pressure by Alunir utilizing Jarvan’s excellent mobility and ability to bypass wards

So, even though PaiN was being able to pressure bot lane with the Ashe/Zyra combo and had great ward coverage in the river and in Alunir’s jungle exits, he managed to go around the wards through PaiN’s jungle, and getting a perfect spot to gank PaiN’s bot lane taking the pressure off of Twitch and Sona. Another important gank was the second on Venon after the 3-man dive, completely shutting him down in the lane.

– Extreme lane and map pressure by Mazzerin and Nbs

After Orianna and Jarvan got a dive on Venon, Mazzerin started to put a lot of pressure on Kami. As the game went on they were able to pressure Kami even further, diving him and trying to deny his gold as much as possible. After Renekton got a little ahead and got some MR items, he became a constant threat for Venon, pushing him all the way and pressuring him at his turret to deny his farm.

Match MVP:

GG Mazzerin, (7/2/6) for his great Orianna play throughout the game and all of his brilliant Shockwaves.

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Game 2:

Coming into game 2 PaiN had to show their best play to get to game 3, and GG could secure a clean 2-0 qualification for Worlds. Everyone must have been nervous.

PaiN Gaming (Blue Side)

Bans:

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Gragas: Same reason as game 1.

Thresh: Same reason as game 1.

Orianna: Now, instead of Zac, they went for the Orianna ban because she was one of PaiN’s major problems last game. She was putting a lot of pressure on Kami in the mid lane and was able to get great Shockwaves on PaiN. It was a target ban because PaiN would have to play reactively if they wanted to get this win.

Picks:

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After game 1 failed attempt at a double AD composition, PaiN went back to their old playstyle, getting Venon one of his go-to champions, Kami back on Ahri and brTT back on Caitlyn. With these picks, PaiN seemed to be in their comfort zone.

With this composition, their main goal is to dive into GG’s team with Vi and land follow up CC via Shen or Ahri to create easy kills. Caitlyn should be able to live on her own after PaiN’s dive composition opens some space for her, and Sona can use crescendo as a defensive/offensive tool as well.

GamingGear.EU (Purple side)

Bans: | |

Twisted Fate: Same reason as game 1.

Elise: Same reason as game 1.

Zac: Knowing that PaiN likes to run dive comps, the GG ban on Zac took away 1 more tool that could be abused by their composition.

Picks:

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Repeating 3 picks from game 1, GG seemed really confident with their play. Now playing with the roaming capability of Fizz and taking Zyra out of Espeon’s hands, if a Grasping Roots landed, that target would probably be instagibbed. Renekton and Jarvan can create enough distractions for Fizz to jump around the fight and cause chaos over PaiN. GG’s team will look for skirmishes often, with great field control and mobility. Twitch may have a little bit of a hard time, but that means Fizz would be as free as a bird.

PaiN used a similar composition in group stages and had great sucess; they will look to dive Twitch or Fizz and deal with the 4v5 after it, but Fizz will be able to avoid those engages for most of the game. It seems that the first team to get their key ultimates and skills properly will take the teamfight. If either mid laner were to snowball, it would mean instant death for the opposing team carry considering their high burst potential. PaiN’s composition can’t lose afford to skirmish as Fizz will just have a walk in the park. However, that could backfire if Fizz was caught out by PaiN’s heavy CC team.

The level 1

This time GG only put 2 wards, both in the river, one near the entrance of their red side, and one in the entranc of PaiN’s red side. PaiN warded the top lane tribush and attempted to disrupt Jarvan IV at his blue was unsuccessful in doing anything other than burning his Smite.

Early Game

The game started well for PaiN’s bot lane as brTT and Espeon were in control of DeadlyBrother and Inspirro, creating a significant lead by burning Twitch’s Barrier early in a trade. Renekton was pushed up again in the top lane, and SirT looked for a gank but this time Jarvan was there for the countergank. Nbs got quickly bursted down and had to run to his turret and in pursuit, SirT and Venon both used their flashes and overextended a little bit. Alunir capitalized on their mistake landind a perfect E-Q, picking up first blood on SirT and getting Nbs a kill on Venon. Jarvan had a double buff reset and proceeded to pressure mid lane and helping Fizz to get a kill on Ahri. In response to their hard time in bottom lane, GG decided to laneswap top and bottom, and reactively, PaiN swapped their bottom lane with their mid lane, afraid of fizz’s snowball potential. As they got into lane, Mazzerin forced brTT’s Flash and they rotated top. PaiN Gaming attempted to place more pressure on Zyra and Twitch, but Alunir was there again to counter-gank and secure a kill for DeadlyBrother on brTT. PaiN had no response for that and Nbs felt free enough to proxy Venon’s minions with great sucess. With zero vision control in the bottom half of the map from PaiN, GG was able to sneak a Dragon at 9 minutes to extend their gold lead even further.

Mid Game

In this phase of the game, GG already had around 3k gold over PaiN and all their lanes were dominating their opposing matchups. Nbs was so strong he went for a 1v2 on brTT and Espeon and forced a Flash Crescendo from Espeon in the exchange. On the other side, Venon was being pressured in the bot lane and DeadlyBrother was catching up to brTT as they managed to get a turret on both top and bot lanes. With Fizz collecting more kills around the map, GG began their snowball. They were all over PaiN’s jungle and got a free second dragon after putting pressure in the mid lane. PaiN tried to engage on Mazzerin in the mid lane after his Playful/Trickster was used, but did not manage to get a kill and disengaged immediately. At this point, PaiN was really afraid of overextending up to a point where they would not hit towers without full vision. GG tried to invade PaiN’s blue, but had no vision and had to disengage, losing Aluri in the process. However, an invade attempt from GG ended up going bad as DeadlyBrother was caught out and as a reward, PaiN got GG’s middle turret and their first dragon. While PaiN’s team was retreating, Mazzerin caught brTT with a shark, and with his team follow up, they were able to get a 3-2 fight in favor of GG, and getting a second turret in the bot lane. The game started to cool down for a bit.

End Game

Working towards the end Game, PaiN tried to make a move to break away from farming, but some miscommunication resulted sirT going alone and initiating a really strange teamfight, which went 1-0 in favor of GG. GG tried to sneak a baron after the fight and PaiN was trying to prevent it as Espeon got caught by Mazzerin, but the Baron fight did not work out so well as PaiN was able to kill both Mazzerin and DeadlyBrother, interrupting GG’s the Baron attempt and getting a tower off of it. GG tried to bait PaiN at Baron after clearing all of PaiN’s wards, and SirT still went for the facecheck, resulting in a 5-4 teamfight in favor of GG. After catching SirT out of position, GG secured the Baron. Once again, GG tried to invade PaiN’s jungle, and SirT tried to initiate on Fizz, but things went wrong again for PaiN and they lost the fight 2-1. After a chaotic transition to end game, the game slowed down for a little bit, when a teamfight broke down in the midlane and went disastrous for PaiN, going 4-0 in favor of GG and securing yet another Baron for them. With the Baron buff, and 11k ahead in gold, GG engaged on PaiN and won the teamfight in a clean ace that clenched the final game.

Conclusion:

What went wrong for PaiN:

PaiN’s engage was completely shut down by GG as Twitch built a Banshee’s veil and Fizz could Playful/Trickster out of any lockdown. And after some weird engages by sirT, PaiN was really behind in the game.

What went right for GG:

GG was able to play their game, and control Kami so that he was unable to make any significant contributions during teamfights. Renekton became too big (again) and Fizz snowballed hard enough to be a terror for PaiN.

Key points of the game

– First blood plus a kill on Aluri’s countergank

This was the decisive point for Nbs’s laning phase, turning him into a big threat really early in the game.

– Aluri’s early game map pressure

Aluri was able to secure 4 kills that snowballed GG’s early game.

Match MVP:

GG Alurin on Jarvan IV (2/4/19)

With his mobility and sense to countergank around the map, Jarvan played the role of a junlger perfectly and was able to snowball all of his lanes to crush their opposition.

I hope you guys enjoyed my recap and can take advantage of the information disposed. And as always, I welcome any suggestions/criticism. Leave me a comment. Thanks!

Byebye,

GIO