Quarter Finals: TPA vs NJS (2/5)

S2WC Quarter Finals Round

TPA vs. NJS: Game 1

The Players:

Najin Sword: Maknoon(Top), Watch(JG), Ssong(Mid), PraY(ADC), Cain(Sup)

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

TPA Bans	NJS Bans
Evelynn	Vladimir
Maokai	Morgana
Sona	Karthus

TPA Picks	NJS Picks
Jayce	Ezreal
Nunu	Skarner
Oriana	Irelia
Kog’Maw	Taric
Mundo	Ryze

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Nunu Wards x 4, Mana potion x1. 3-1-1 Mundo, Jayce and Nunu top tri; Oriana at ML3, Kog at bot tri. Standard EU opening.	Set-up	Taric Faerie Charm, Sight Wards x4. 1-1-1-1-2; Irelia top tri, Skarner at Wraiths, Ryze mid, bot duo at MR2. Standard EU opening.
0:40	3man ward top-tri.	0:40	Irelia spots the incoming Jayce Q and retreats does not see ward go down. Bot duo sees this and proceeds to ward enemy Wraith Brush. Which is pinged by TPA (no vision).
0:57	4-mans wards enemy Wraiths.	0:57	Ryze sees the Ward go down. NJS proceeds to 5 man swing towards TPA’s wraiths. And eventually makes it to Red back brush undetected.
1:20	Jayce comes down to help Mundo with Wraiths. They suspect something, 4 people in hide in Wraith Bush, standing on a NJS ward.
1:40	Mundo takes wraiths hugging the wall, Ori, Jayce and Mundo then swing to Blue buff. Nunu and Kog take the Golems.
1:55	Nunu drops a ward in Red bush spotting NJS going out.	1:50	Irelia backs for 4th pot. Skarner smites and takes red. Goes on to take his own Blue.
2:47	Mundo steals Wraiths. Then steals red without smite, gets to see Skarner on his way out. Standard EU from both teams.

Game Winner: Taipei Assassins

Opening Winner: Inconclusive

Conclusions:

A very slight gold lead for TPA, real nail bitter at Lil_ballz wraiths, and again when he was stealing Skarner’s red. Three seconds off and he would have been dead. The game was a gradual loss for NJS due to every position being outperformed except for Maknoon’s beautiful play on Irealia. Bebe beat Pray’s Ezreal on Kog’Maw, with a large part of it being the ineffectiveness of Cain’s Taric. You could tell they were uncomfortable with Taric in the picking phase, by the amount of switching and deliberation. Most Asian teams agree that at the time Nunu, Sona and Blitz were the OP supports, Blitz was still on the table, but pros feel like Nunu actually counters Blitz, hence the Taric pick.

There has been quite some speculation as to why TPA knew that NJS was camping in their Red brush, some Korean websites have even suggested cheating. Lil_Ballz himself has only been known to say that “well, of course they were there.” (source: GPL game #114, Taiwanese casters discuss this issue.) Originally I believed TPA deduced NJS position by spotting their support with one less ward, however this is not the case. I think part of it can be attributed to an educated guess, because they obviously were not around their own Red, and TPA pinged their own Wraiths as soon as they knew they were spotted at top tri. Another possibility is that TPA studied how NJS likes to play. After viewing about 10+ of their games, something both Najins really enjoys doing on purple side is 4 man hiding in the bot river bushes, and then invading Red at 1:40. Top goes back at around 1:40 for the 4^th pot and they take red. This is somewhat similar to what happens here. I will be doing a more in-depth discussion on NJS’s opening strat later in to the article.

I believe both sides played their hands very well, it was the most tension filled of any opening in TPA’s nine games. The Bebe positioning at bot tri rather than wraiths suggested they probably knew how NJS plays. I don’t think they needed Toyz when warding NJS’s Wraiths, leaving an opening for them to sneak in.

TPA vs. NJS: Game 2

NJS Bans	TPA Bans
Vladimir	Jayce
Kog’Maw	Evelynn
Karthus	Orianna

NJS Picks	TPA Picks
Sona	Shen
Maokai	Ezreal
Corki	Skarner
Morgana	Blitz
Jax	Anivia

Play by Play:

Time	Plays	Time	Plays
Set-up	Sona Faerie Charm, Sight Wards x 4, Health pot x1. 2-1-2; Jax at top tri, Sona wards top river bush. Morg mid. Corki, Maokai wraith brush. Standard EU.	Set-up	Blitzcrank Sight Ward x 4, Vision Ward x 1, Health pot x1. 1-1-3; Anivia holds wraith entrance, Ezreal mid, rest rush towards enemy Wraiths. Reverse EU opening.
0:44	Sona Wards top river bush.
0:56	Maokai saps ML2. Spots the	0:50	3 man deep ward enemy Wraiths. They swing around back to their won Wraith entrance. They 5 man roam to ML2, gets seen by sapping. Blitz drops a vision ward. Everyone retreats to own Wraiths.
1:40	Sona, Corki take bot Golems.	1:40	Shen moves to bot lane. 4 man takes own Wraiths.
		1:55	4man pulls Blue with Blitzcrank, fails.
2:20	Maokai eventually gives up after being outnumbered. Starts Red with Morg leash. Has to back upon finishing due to no mana.	2:30	Skarner finally takes blue after a scuffle with NJS, uses smite. TPA opens with a reverse EU.

Game Winner: Taipei Assassins

Opening Winner: Taipei Assassins

Conclusion:

Very small gold lead for Najin Sword for getting bot golems, and reaching lanes faster. I still gave the lead to TPA due to how Watch is screwed heavily from having no mana from saplings and having to do Red start, not to mention losing a Blue buff. He plays it out very intelligently by camping top and siphoning off exp from Maknoon and preventing any damage being done to their tower in a 2v1 lane. Watch manages to top Lil_ballz in levels soon after. Najin lost because they were outsmarted and played the Korean meta to the T, while TPA recognized this and let them take an early bot tower. What this meant was that Maknoon had to roam around a lot while Stanley tried to freeze the lane and build straight GP10s. This worked due to the Shen pick, they only lost 1 kill to a wild Jax, but had a 2 thousand gold lead on Stanley over Maknoon.

Notes on this game. Mistake actually failed the Blitz blue pull, twice. If you want to do this remember to stand at the edge of the ML2 bush, or you will be resetting the Blue, and you will be chasing it into a bush, rather than having the enemy team chasing it into your team.

I don’t think Najin realized that TPA would not be outmanned when they started losing towers, Shen could always make sure that they were on even footing, hence stalling out the fast push Korean strategy. Najin had a very good chance to snowball the game after a won 3-0 teamfight and a free tower. But they misjudged the Shen ult cooldown and engaged on a 4v4 on a TPA that didn’t back from the last fight(it looked like a good engage), Shen ported in and TPA leapfrogged the gold lead with a 3-1 and free tower. Morgana ult was 2 seconds from being off cool down.

>>Continue Reading: S2WC:Semi-Final Round. TPA vs. M5