I know that this is better than a 3-0, but it doesn't feel better.

 

from reddit:
nemesis right now

 

I have DAM over TOP in my pickems finals but that's more wishful thinking than rational prediction. FNC caster cursed.

 

I'll be honest, I went to bed during game three. As soon as bwipo just completely screwed up topside no flash, faced a sion head on and dies under his own turret 1v1 for zero reason. I was like, it has begun. The choke. So I went to bed hoping I was wrong and would wake up to good news, unfortunately not

 

Sjokz just jinxed FNC to hell and back with that 2-0 speech. But yeah, the moment things started to unravel I immediately got a kind of weird feeling in my stomach, along the lines of well, that's it.

Still a pretty sad end. I would have loved for FNC to take the series.

 

G2's understanding of the game is an absolute masterpiece in game one. Whatever the results of the series, it makes me insanely and unreasonably angry that on the other side of the coin we have five solo q players playing under the TSM banner.

 

Thank goodness G2 didn't get reverse swept. That game 3 was bad for my heart.

 

I mean you say that, but that's not what it looked like to me. To me it seemed like G2 got outplayed in the macro but managed to overcome it by being individually better and winning skirmishes. Which is usually a solid strategy, but I don't see that working against Damwon or TES.

 

Huh? G2's macro is arguably what won them the game. They had losing lanes across all three lanes (Voli beats Camille until Camille can get items, Azir has permanent prio over TF until TF wild cards can one shot casters, Kalista Taric is strong and also Gen G were playing botside). They understood that their win condition was to play around the strength of their pick-oriented champions (TF, Nidalee and Pantheon are built to kill one champion quickly), and NOT team fight Gen G who had the superior team fighting comp by a mile (Taric Azir). They saw on the third dragon that if they contested it it would go really really poorly for them, and so they instead took two towers and extended their gold lead.

It might look like G2 got outmacroed because they lost every single objective, but you'll notice that they managed to develop a 2k gold lead before that baron fight DESPITE them having arguably the most disastrous early game possible short of actually running it down.

G2 understood that their strengths wouldn't lie in teamfighting until they reached their item spikes and willingly gave up three(!) dragons and two rift heralds in order to gain the gold necessary to get those items on the other side of the map. That shows a deep understanding of the game and what your champions are meant to do at any given point.

Also, I'm pretty sure that none of the players on Gen G got skill diffed.

 

I get that, but my point is that they won't be able to do this against the other two top teams in the tournament. They'll just have a disastrous early game and lose.

At least, that's the fear.

 

I don't know about that. It might well be that DWG and TES/SNG are steps above everyone and could dumpster G2, but honestly so far we have only seen one of them stack up against cross-continental competition in a Bo5 and that one turned out pretty close. Given how G2 massacred GenG, it becomes quite difficult for me to accurately judge DWG. So I'm keeping an open mind about semis. If it happens, it happens, but I won't write off G2 until they're actually out and have lost that Bo5.

I had a similar discussion with someone on reddit during the summer split, when G2 was at comperatively rock bottom. The guy was so sure they wouldn't make it to playoffs, say nothing of finals and worlds. My satisfaction was immense and quite petty when I replied weeks later to his last doomsday prophecy after G2 won finals.

Also, G2 is living rent free in DWG's head, and now besides being termed tournament favorites they're also shouldering the entire hopes of the LCK - it might not translate to anything, but I can see a world where that pressure makes them more error-prone ingame. Wunder's trashtalk is just the icing on the cake. (If you haven't yet seen his answer regarding during the press conference, it's great!).

 

Having watched the games I'm pretty sure that it's going to be another classic case of G2 losing in the finals. I've been right with my semis and finals picks two years running and I'd like to keep that streak.

I think people tend to forget just how good G2 was last year. If not for Doinb and Tian's playstyle completely neutering G2, I think they win worlds last year. It's just unfortunate for them that their finals opponent was either going to be FPX or IG. FPX with their roaming style that completely changed the way League was played, and IG with their solo laners + Jackeylove meant there wasn't someone exploitable by G2's insane lanes.

This year, the only change DWG has made is Ghost for Nuclear, and while Nuclear definitely was more of an inter, it doesn't put them over the top.

Meanwhile, the LPL showdown is probably going TES's way. Unless Bin pops the fuck off and dumpsters 359's tanks, SN really don't have a win condition. I fully expect knight to take advantage of Angel, and Karsa to diff SoFM. I think SoFM is very talented, but Karsa has so much experience and is so good at supporting his carries (the man played with Uzi for two years and Uzi achieved arguably his greatest successes with Karsa on his team) that he's ideal for players like Jackeylove and knight.

G2's gonna lose to TES. If there's one ADC in the world that can take advantage of Perkz being autofilled, it is absolutely Jackeylove, who plays League much like Uzi did back in S3/S4; that is, he isn't afraid to make the risky play to gain a big advantage.

What made Uzi so great was that his play almost always worked out. Sometimes Jackeylove just looks like he's inting. Or in other words, when Uzi E's forward on Ezreal, his team wins the ensuing fight. When Jackeylove E's forward on Ezreal, he walks straight into a Senna root, flashes, and dies to Rakan W.

But against Perkz, it might not matter.

 

Well, Uzi for all his greatness got neutralized by Hjarnan a few years prior, and there's no telling what happens when/if Uma Jan decides to show up in a series. Also, Jackylove had a shit BO5 vs FNC, so I'm not too sold on him just yet. And if his support ints like in that series, MikyX will wreck him. Also, comparing regular split to groups, Perkz already seemed to have improved; and from groups to quarters, there was imo another leap.

But anyway, first comes DWG, and I'm damn hyped.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, TES got hard exposed by FNC. It's not beyond the realm of posibility that because FNC exposed some glaring weaknesses but couldn't capitalize on them, TES will patch them up by the time G2 gets to play them.

 

Jesus, I'm fucking nervous and excited. Go G2, keep EU alive!

 

G2 is the Miky coinflip.

 

What the fuck was that.

 

19 minutes of pain

 

... Okay, not gonna lie, that one hurts like a truck. What a way to go out...

 

Sadge