Finals: TPA vs AZF (4/5)

S2WC Finals Round

TPA vs. AZF: Game 1

The Players:

AzubuFrost: Shy(Top), CloudTemplar(JG), RapidStar(Mid), Woong(ADC), MadLife(Sup)

Taipei Assassins: Stanley(Top), Lil_ballz(JG), Toyz(Mid), Bebe(ADC), Mistake(Sup)

TPA Bans	AZF Bans
Blitzcrank	Jayce
Skarner	Orianna
Jax	Kog’Maw

TPA Picks	M5 Picks
Anivia	Ezreal
Maokai	Sona
Lulu	Karthus
Vayne	Amumu
Olaf	Irelia

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Lulu Faerie Charm, Sight Ward x4. 4-1, everyone except lulu in ML2. Pretty even Lvl 1.	Set-up	Sona Faerie Charm, Sight Ward x4. 1-2-1-1, Irelia top tri, Sona, Amumu wraith entrance. Karthus mid. EZ Blue entrance.
0:32	Lulu wards own Red bush. Maokai saps ML1.	0:42	Sona Wards ML2. Spots TPA.
0:58	TPA seeing Karthus mid, 5 man wards enemy Wraiths. AZF sees the ward go down.	1:09	Sona and EZ counter ward TPA’s Wraiths. (TPA pings it out, no vision.) Standard EU.
1:40	Bot lane takes Golems. Standard EU.

Game Winner: Azubu Frost

Opening Winner: Inconclusive

Conclusions:

A very passive start from TPA, albeit with good warding. If you don’t see the enemy team at your red or their red, it just means they’re starting blue. Azubu Frost seems to have anticipated the 5 man wraith ward and put a ward down at ML2. I’m not a huge fan of this ward since it doesn’t spot jungle movement very well, Maokai is not going to counter jungle you. I guess it does give Karthus a side to lean on in lane though. In this scenario, where Blue side is allowed to take Golems in peace, I would usually say that Blue had an advantage, but it had no bearing on the game so I listed it as Inconclusive. TPA was ahead early but lost the game at a dragon fight which gave RapidStar a quadra kill. The AOE comp from Azubu kicked in and they were never able to take a teamfight, despite winning the lanning phase.

Two things to note here; It seems that TPA expects the enemy to counter ward their own Wraiths if they don’t see the support present in their 5 man Wraith warding, this is evident in Game 1 vs NJS, as well as this game, where blind pings happen on spot. Unless Stanley wasn’t really adjusting his monitor I think it is a logical guess. Second, this is the same set-up that happened in Game 4 of this series. TPA was able to net an early double kill off this.

TPA vs. AZF: Game 2

AZF Bans	TPA Bans
Nidalee	Blitzcrank
Kog’Maw	Skarner
Orianna	Jayce

AZF Picks	TPA Picks
Ezreal	Sona
Maokai	Mundo
Anivia	Karthus
Jax	Caitlyn
Zyra	Shen

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Zyra Faerie Charm, Sight Ward x4, Health pot. Lvl 1 goes to AZF, with a root and a stun.	Set-up	Sona Faerie Charm, Sight Ward x 4, Health pot. Karthus with teleport. 2-1-1-1. Caitlyn and Shen at Wraiths, Cait drops a trap on entrance, Karthus holds mid, Mundo heads straight into MR1. Sona at their own blue.
0:30	AZF opens with a 5 man rush towards TPA’s blue.	0:31	Mundo spots multiple AZFs incoming. Sona drops ward at Blue.
0:53	AZF wards TPA’s Blue. Maokai stays at Wraith entrance and saps MR1.	0:53	TPA 5 man squatting in MR1, gets spotted by a sapling. Sees AZF split and wards the Wraiths.
1:04	AZF sees the ambush and retreats through bot tri. Maokai pings the Wraith ward.
1:16	Maokai Bs to replenish mana.	1:16	Mundo waits around in MR1, then goes to join the rest of team at own Wraiths, Karthus replaces his position.
1:40	Ezreal and Maokai take Golems. Zyra, Jax and Anivia wait mid. Zyra, EZ help Maokai with red. Smite saved.	1:40	Karthus steals the big Wraith over the wall, then heads bot through river. 4man Red start for Mundo, smites.
2:08	Anivia immediately heads bottom while Ezreal and Zyra head mid. TPA sees all of this through Wraith ward.	2:08	Caitlyn shows mid. Sona wards ML2.
2:22	Bot duo makes it to mid.	2:22	Now mid duo heads immediately to bot. Sona pulls blue for Mundo on the way out.
2:44	Bot duo shoves mid, Anivia senses danger and hugs the tower.	2:44	Sona wards bot tri.
2:51	Ez and Zyra move bot. Zyra drops ward on MR3. AZF sees Mundo moving bot and pings fervently.	2:51	Karthus teleports mid. Karthus sees the duo leave and shoves hard. TPA sees Zyra drop the ward through the Wraith brush, Mundo  goes to wait at the blind spot at dragon entrance.
3:03	Anivia moves mid, EZ starts farming. Zyra fires her snare to check the river bush and drops a ward down outside the tri bush at the Dragon curb, to find Mundo.	3:03	TPA bot lane and Mundo jump on Zyra, first blood goes to Caitlyn. Meanwhile Karthus takes his own Wraiths while Anivia is under tower.

Game Winner: Taipei Assassins

Opening Winner: Taipei Assassins

This game opener showcases the mind games between two high level teams, and why getting purple side is hardly a disadvantage at the pinnacle of competitive play. There are so many intelligent things both teams did that it makes describing them all rather difficult.

First of all, Cloudtemplar actually did the Golems first to avoid the Wraith ward and took Red without TPA knowing. There was no tangible advantage gained in this game, but it is the first time I’ve seen it done against TPA. M5 took wraiths regardless of the Ward and nearly gave up first blood in game 3. Second, AZF clearly suspected a lane swap coming in from TPA, since they did not commit their bot lane until Bebe showed up mid. What they didn’t expect was Toyz burning teleport immediately, as a result Karthus lost nothing from Woong shoving the lane. Toyz shoved the lane back and then took Wraiths, putting him ahead 10 cs at 3 minutes. This lead would snowball to nearly 50 ten minutes later. Essentially TPA lane swapped once while making AZF lane swap twice.   

TPA managed to get first blood because they predicted how Zyra would ward. AZF saw Lil_ballz heading towards river through their Blue ward, so Madlife correctly dropped a ward at MR3 because Mundo may head mid. TPA however saw her ward somewhere in the river through the Wraith ward, and knew that the next logical position for Madlife to ward would be at the Dragon curb (warding at the tri brush is for prevention of the enemy jungler coming through your jungle, since Madlife had already warded their own Wraith entrance hence eliminating that possibility, it was only logical to ward in the river), so Lil_Ballz hid in a blind spot waiting for her. You can actually see Mistake snickering as Madlife walks through the tri brush to ward. This sequence of plays really shows how important information is in the game, both the information you have, and the information the enemy has. For me, this is undoubtedly the best opening play in the Tournament.   

AZF lost the game when they initiated a 3 man tower dive at top lane after seeing Toyz back in mid, Karthus called down an ultimate at base and then teleported to reverse killed all three AZF members, Bebe in bot lane scored an Ace at 14 minutes. Opening play definitely factored in here as RapidStar was eager to make a play after being screwed by the lane swap.

TPA vs. AZF: Game 3

TPA Bans	AZF Bans
Skarner	Jayce
Blitzcrank	Nidalee
Sona	Karthus

TPA Picks	AZF Picks
Orianna	Shen
Mundo	Anivia
Nunu	Leona
Vayne	Ezreal
Jax	Vladimir

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Nunu Faerie Charm, Sight Wards x 4, Health potion. 5 man Wraith entrance. Lvl 1 goes to AZF.	Set-up	Leona Faerie Charm, Sight Wards x 4, Health potion.5 man bot tri.
0:49	Wraith bush warded.	1:05	5 man wraith brush warded.
1:45	5 man helps mundo with wolves. Jax 4th pots and heads bot. Reverse EU.	1:45	Vlad Bs for 4th pot and heads top. 4 man help Shen with wolves and Blue. Standard EU.
2:22	Vayne, Mundo and Nunu invade Red, takes it with smite.	2:22	Shen V-pinged away from Red by Vlad. Takes his own Wraiths
2:44	3 man gank up top, Vlad pools away.	3:11	Leona and Shen invade Red, Shen leaves two lizards, ganks mid unsuccessfully.

Game Winner: Taipei Assassins

Opening Winner: Inconclusive

Conclusions:

Quietest opening of the night, with both teams mirroring each other and 5 manning the Wraith Ward. The real difference in openings and what eventually led to TPA’s advantage was the difference strategies used by their 2v1 lanes. On AZFs side Woong and Madlife pushed aggressively against tower, denying him farm but letting him gain exp. On TPA’s side, Bebe and Mistake attempted to zone Shy. When the lanes swapped back Stanley had a 2 lvl advantage on Shy, which later led into a kill. Woong, in my opinion, is simply a tier below Bebe in terms of skill, and it showed. Vayne got fed off questionable engages and AZF typed out surrender at 20, being behind 10K and a Baron.

Two notes on this game. First, by now you may have realized that TPA ALWAYS GOES FOR THE WRAITH WARD, 100% the time. There are a lot of things this ward accomplishes which I will discuss in the final part of this post. Second, thoughts on the invade from Azubu. I just wanted to note that the timings on this invade is very different from the Najin version, this was aimed at catching people with a strong lvl 1 comp, not buff stealing. Azubu Frost has shown that they will go balls deep for good warding and a possible catch when they have a stronger lvl1. TPA read this correctly however, and avoid any possible contact, while also predicting the Wraith ward (again blind pinged.)

TPA vs. AZF: Game 4

AZF Bans	TPA Bans
Nidalee	Blitzcrank
Karthus	Skarner
Maokai	Sona

AZF Picks	TPA Picks
Jayce	Orianna
Shyvana	Mundo
Lux	Shen
Graves	Nunu
Lulu	Ezreal

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Lulu Boots, Sight Wards x2. Even lvl 1 fight.	Set-up	Nunu Faerie Charm, Sight Wards x4.
0:36	5 man rushes in to invade into the top tri. Everyone makes it in by 0:36.	0:27	Nunu drops a ward at own red.
0:48	All 5 of them pass TPAs Red ward, they camp the Wraith brush.	0:52	Nunu drops a ward at enemy Wraiths. TPA heads to groups at their own mid.
1:35	Jacye pings bot and leaves at 1:35. AZF split up with Shyvana, Graves heading top and Lux, Lulu trying to retreat from Wraith entrance.	1:38	TPA says ambushes them, Lux lands a cluth Q to avoid the Shen taunt and Flashes for distance. Lulu is forced north and eventually killed. She manages to drop a Ward in Wraith bush. FB to Ori.
1:58	Graves and Shyv take away the Big Golem.	2:00	Mundo starts Wraiths.
2:10	Graves tries to steal away Red with Q, but doesn’t realize he is standing on a ward. Mundo smites Red, and they chase for Graves.
	Mean time Jayce farms away bot, Shen returns to bot lane at 3 minutes. Reverse EU from both sides.	2:18	Shen Flash taunts and Ezreal kills Graves.
		2:43	4 TPA members steal Blue for Mundo.

Game Winner: Taipei Assassins

Opening Winner: Taipei Assassins

Those who watched the games progress on live stream and at the venue itself all agree; the match was mentally over at game three. With Azubu taking out the NA favorites in TSM amid a cheating scandal, and good outturn from the Taiwanese/Chinese community, TPA was treat as the home town favorites. The mood of the crowd, as well as 20 minutes surrender, got into Azubu’s head. This showed in their choice of opening strategies, as well as their play. First off, the five man into Red was a risky play by nature, which I will elaborate more on. Second Woong’s play for Red was a desperation play, and this happened once more in an attempt to stop Baron. TPA took the game with considerable leverage from a passive opening.

Thing to note about AZFs rush to top tri. Shy used two gates on the way and they managed to all arrive at 0:36. This is the only opening where Madlife takes boots, and it was clearly a cheese strat. With 370 movespeed it still takes 28-30 seconds to arrive there from the middle of the purple fountain. Pros get there by 0:34. I could see some easy cheese kills being picked up if your rank 5 team is down with it. Second thing is I wanted to discuss the ‘safeness’ of this play. By the 1:35 mark it was quite clear that either TPA was starting Blue, invading Red or in the worst case scenario warded the Red. Since the only time Mundo starts Blue for TPA is if he is about to steal Red, it really came down to a 50% call. In the third game AZF left as a 5 man group, with much less risk.

>>Continue Reading: The Science Behind Lvl 1 and Opening Strats