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nexttimeisnotthesame · 4 months

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HOW WE GOT 2ND IN THE ALGS CHALLENGER CIRCUIT

This is the Split 2 Challenger Circuit #4 - NA (17-19 June, 2023) that Timmy participated in with his new teammates (Enemy & Dezignful) after various teammate changes during the CC #1-3. This was the final game in the Finals and it was a banger! With the points from CC #4 together (1440), Timmy's accumulated points from CC #1-3 (620) and Enemy and Dezign's PL points (1000/each), which totals to 4060 p, got them 10th place in the overall standing and qualified for the 2023 LCQ - NA (21-23 July, 2023).

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THE ROAD TO THE $600,000 APEX LEGENDS JACKPOT…

Last Chance Qualifiers - NA | Day 1, 8 Games The Dojo were in Winners Bracket Round 1, Group B and advanced to Winner's Bracket Round 2 by placing 2nd with 78 p (tied with 1st but lost the tiebreaker).

MY MOST INSANE DAY OF APEX LEGENDS YET…

Last Chance Qualifiers - NA | Day 2, 8 Games The Dojo went nuclear on day 2, especially Timmy, and they placed 1st with 137 p (with 82 kills) while the 2nd place (FURIA) had 66 p (30 kills). Timmy alone had 36 kills (!!), which was more than what the 2nd place had combined. Absolute dominance and that's what I liked to see! Heart was racing when I watched the whole stream 👐 The Dojo advance to the Finals with 10 seeding points. The video is age restricted so just click on the link.

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THE MOST IMPORTANT APEX WIN OF MY LIFE…

Last Chance Qualifiers - NA | Day 3, Match Point Finals THE DOJO IS THE CHAMPION!! They won the LCQ in Game 6 and it was also the game they were on match point. This was so amazing to watch because I followed Timmy's journey back to Pro right from the beginning; his first twitter announcement, all the trial streams to find the right teammates, all the scrims streams and all the ups and downs during the CC #1-3 until he finally found Enemy and Dezign 😭 The work these three put in, in the amount of time they had (this version of the team was formed on the 9th June, so they had like 10 days before CC #4 and 1½ month before LCQ), and to reach this success is just unbelievable. So so proud of the team! With a total of 73 p and 1st place, The Dojo earned a spot at the ALGS Year 3 Championship 2023, taking place in Birmingham, UK in September!

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THE APEX COMMUNITY REACTS TO DOJO MAKING LAN…

Ending the post with a reaction video!

#the dojo #iitztimmy #dezignful #enemy #apex legends #apex competitive #video #youtube #ramblings #apex comp #gaming #esports #this is also the reason why I have not been so active on tumblr during those months! The timmy pro journey have taken up the time xD #for my archive for the dojo journey :D #g: dojo

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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The PRO Act and worker misclassification

One of the Biden admin's most important pieces of legislation is the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which reverses decades of union-busting policies and laws that have led to widening inequality, wage stagnation, and working poverty across America.

It's the first pro-worker law since 1935's NLRA, and it restores many of the rights to organize unions and create serious penalties for employers who break the law to prevent their workers from unionizing (today, employers break labor laws with impunity).

For a great, plain-language breakdown of its contours, check out this breakdown by Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue's labor reporter. Note that the law bans many of the dirtiest tricks used by Amazon to defeat the union drive in its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-the-pro-act

The PRO Act doesn't just restore the labor rights that have been stripped away from American workers - it also creates new protections to address the epidemic of worker misclassification where "gig economy" employees are falsely characterized as "independent contractors."

The gig companies - who use worker misclassification to pay sub-minimum-wage salaries and deny basic workplace protections - spent $200m to pass California's Proposition 22. Immediately, bosses fired their union workers and replaced them with gig workers.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/05/manorialism-feudalism-cycle/#prop22

Companies like Uber and Lyft have already showered $1.2m in a matter of weeks on DC politicians, lobbying against the PRO Act. That's not surprising, but what is interesting is their SEC-mandated disclosures about what they expect from the PRO Act:

https://theintercept.com/2021/05/06/pro-act-uber-lyft-doordash-instacart-lobbying/

“If a significant number of Drivers were to become unionized and collective bargaining agreement terms were to deviate significantly from our business model, our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. In addition, a labor dispute involving Drivers may harm our reputation, disrupt our operations and reduce our net revenues, and the resolution of labor disputes may increase our costs." -Uber.

This is a very frank admission of what's at stake here. Corporations understand that the market allows companies to claim an ever-larger share of the proceeds of workers' labor, and that the only way to reverse that lopsided distribution is for workers to organize.

They acknowledge that when workers speak directly to customers about their labor conditions and withhold their labor in the face of unfair practices, corporations suffer - that is, the corporations win when workers are powerless and customers are ignorant.

Passing the PRO Act will not be easy. Establishment Dems like Mark Warner have signalled that they will side with bosses over workers on this bill.

https://discourseblog.com/mark-warner-pro-act-labor-democrats/

Warner falsely claims that the bill will take away the right of gig workers *not* to be unionized. This is just not true, as More Perfect Union reminds us: "This lets independent contractors join a union. It doesn’t force them to."

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1389587206298341382

The entire gig economy runs on idiotic lies like this one. Take the premise that workers are independent, organized into "two-sided markets" by apps that match workers and work, and that manage the process with cool, machine-like objectivity.

As is always the case with disciplinary technology, the gig work app isn't actually in charge - it's just a convenient way for human beings to hide their sadistic behavior behind a scrim of technology theater.

Think of Amazon Delivery Service Partner (DSP) drivers. Amazon maintains the pretense that these workers aren't employees OR contractors - they say that they're SUBcontractors, working for "entrepreneurs" who contract with Amazon to make deliveries.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/19/the-shakedown/#weird-flex

DSP drivers wear Amazon uniforms and drive vans with the Amazon logo. They are surveilled by multiple interior and exterior cameras that track their location, their driving, and (checks notes) their facial expressions?!

https://www.wired.com/story/some-amazon-drivers-have-had-enough-can-they-unionize/

Amazon gives its 2,500 DSP owners impossible delivery goals, and the DSP owners pass those on to their 158,000 drivers. This is why drivers have to piss and shit in bags in their trucks, a fact that Amazon denied even though they knew it was true:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/25/amazon-delivery-workers-bathrooms-memo

But for all the electronic monitoring and micromanaging that DSP drivers endure, the exploitation they face is anything but automated. When DSP drivers are forced to work in dangerous and inhumane conditions, it's because human beings are imposing that on them.

Remember all those apps that monitor drivers? The DSP owners instruct their drivers to turn them off whenever there's a delivery crunch, and then order drivers to proceed at unsafe speeds on residential streets to make Amazon's quotas:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgxx54/amazon-drivers-are-instructed-to-drive-recklessly-to-meet-delivery-quotas

Workers who refuse to drive unsafely are disciplined and fired (those automated systems ensure that there's always some excuse for firing a worker, and the worker's misclassification as an independent contractor means they have no recourse in the face of unjust dismissals).

Amazon says this is all the work of rogue contractors, and not the result of its impossible quota system.

Worker misclassification lets Amazon have its cake and eat it too - force workers to shit in bags and risk their lives driving too fast, and then claim innocence.

Worker protections start with being recognized as a worker. Ending worker misclassification isn't incidental to the PRO Act, it's at its heart: without it, every worker who stands up for their rights will be reclassified as a contractor and crushed.

Image: Kheel Center https://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/5278801929/

CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic

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losangelesvalorant · 3 years

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gonna ramble about flag’s counterstrat to cc on map 1 of that series cuz its [chefs kiss] magnifique and also makes me wonder if cc straight up didnt scrim the mirror vs good teams lmao

first off, this comp plays differently than i thought it would. tracer/sombra roam the map together looking to assassinate the zen, ball causes general disruption, zen/brig stick to each other like glue and sigma is the axis it all revolves around. he generally doesn’t do a lot of damage (i think both sigmas got ~1.5 fluxes a round) but provides protection for the backline and takes space. surprisingly (to me) flux and EMP are rarely used as fightwinners or engages: this comp is very mobile, so they’re usually used on one target to gain an advantage midfight or to clean up a fight. also I don’t think I once saw a sombra get a hack on a ball.

CC’s strat with this comp is straightforward; take good positions, use gaga (and diya after first fight) to force flag’s backline into dangerous places, then profit. during first fight, flag knows that gaga will play aggro and disrupt and will send innovation and diya in to get picks. As soon as they see gaga, flag immediately dives him with apr1ta, seawave, and 800 to force him back. in the meantime, the rest of their team rotates and plays safe, but does not concede space. once gaga is down or forced away, flag is able to take health pack control by sheer force of numbers and dps, since diya and innovation aren’t in the right place to be able to help. flag easily takes the point first in both rounds.

From here, flag takes advantage of the fact that this comp wins fights very, very, very slowly. they occasionally gamble and send apr1ta and seawave to try and assassinate 1987 before the fight starts, but that’s not what they’re depending on. whenever CC engages (always with gaga), apr1ta and seawave immediately target him and force him far, far away from the point (since flag hacked the health packs). with him out of the fight, diya is forced to try and herd flag into undesirable positions. diya is very, very good, and this is a solid strategy against most teams, but apr1ta is CONSTANTLY nipping at his heels before he gets there so he can’t engage. diya is the better tracer and always manages to force recall/force apr1ta to retreat, but apr1ta does his job perfectly and stays alive while keeping diya occupied (this gets so bad that in the second round, cc ends up sending innovation to help him, which proves fatal for them). Apr1ta is also in a position to quickly help his team while diya is very much not. with their superior ult economy from first fight (and with 800 free from innovation bc spam), flag’s backline can collapse on cc’s as apr1ta quickly repositions and win the fight easily. it’s a lot less clean than that description, but thats the bare bones of it.

also mmonk clears almost every minefield gaga put down with trance which i thought was really funny. basically telling innovation to his face that mmonk does not respect him

#armchair analysis hour

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pixeloli · 3 years

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Participated on Vinnzy’s 5v5 tournament with PKE against TNP and we lost lmao. Despite all the scrimmage with them and Team DGS, they haven’t really learned from it. My teammates weren’t really playing competitively and they’re mostly playing for fun during practice. It’s alright though! I still enjoyed hehe

There were a lot of mistakes made during the first game. Our composition’s perfect already we just don’t have enough synergy for it. The shotcalls were bad as well. Our jungler prioritized top lane when they should’ve let Lucian scale hard. They haven’t learned that the enemy jungler always priotize top lane (from all the scrims we’ve had). They even 5-man target ban our solo top’s champions.

Our mid-laner’s always responding on top lane as well since Ryze would also go on top to help. From all of those ganks, Irelia got fed early. We couldn’t do much either on bottom lane since my adc wanted to play passively. Despite knowing the fact that everyone’s all on top lane. He wanted me to reserve my passive for heals when Seraphine’s W doesn’t really do much early without Staff of Flowing Water or Ardent Censer.

I couldn’t macro for him ‘cause he doesn’t want me to take the second brush especially the third one in bot. When we have the better match-up. ‘Twas a free lane but he doesn’t want me to pressure them. I couldn’t even poke for my Spellthief’s Edge for vision. Ezreal’s weak early game and Lucian’s been taking all the Qs and AA of the enemy. ‘Twas all over mid-game, I had no pressure so Ezreal just kept on E’ing in against us. Nunu’s ganking bot lane already now that Irelia can 1v2 on top lane.

For the second game, our jungler was right to prioritize bot lane. However, the enemy team have the better composition. They’ve been taking Morgana’s Qs too. Ekko couldn’t pressure Caitlyn and Morgana. Aurelion Sol had a few faults on his rotation but no one follows-up Vayne when she tries to punish that. I’ve also made mistakes with who to E and R.

I’m not complaining haha I just shared my analysis on the custom games we’ve had. I was a little positive on the second game ‘cause Vayne was scaling but we lost anyway because of the chain cc. My teammates are also not used to working under pressure as they’re inexperienced. There’s also a skill gap since we were playing against high elo players.

All is good! Congratulations to Team Transpinay~ Good job to Team Pakistan E-sports too! Y’all played well.

For business inquiries, contact me at [email protected]. You may also leave a message and/or submissions here or here on my blog. And you may contact me as well via Discord at Pixeloli #3352.

#personal #pixeloli #riot games #league of legends #gameplay #facebook gaming #twitch #livestream #new streamer #small channel #lolph #garena

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valeriannnn · 4 years

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if youve ever wanted to think about what almost every major RWBY character would main in professional overwatch, then today is your lucky day! brought to you by hiatus, return of owl, and 3am delirium

RUBY - Star DPS. Extremely flashy, always on the highlight reel. Will play whatever is needed to pound the enemies into dirt, but also the type to say "fuck it ok guys trust me im gonna pop off" and swap to her signature widow/tracer to Pop Off. Works unfailingly. Team captain and emotional core. Prefers mobile heroes and an unpredictable playstyle.

WhiteSnow - Flex Support/Flex DPS. Put her on any sniper (including and especially Ana) and watch all hell rain down. Methodical playstyle, favors high-utility heroes. Aside from snipers, can often be found on Baptiste/Mei/Symmetra. Enables teammates to make big plays, but often sacrifices her own presence in the killfeed for the benefit of the team as a whole. Loves to maker opponents' lives a living hell with CC. Line em up, knock em down.

Belladonna - Offtank. Extremely attentive to her backline, constantly running interference and peeling for allies. Impossible to catch off-guard. Delights in thwarting the enemy team's plans and preventing them from making the plays they want to. Excellent map awareness and always the one to touch point to preserve overtime. Shotcaller. Struggled with committing to risky/aggressive plays, but being on a reliable team has made her more comfortable performing her role and trusting her teammates to have her back. Prefers mobile heroes but will adapt to any situation to work in perfect tandem with...

YangXiaoLong - Main Tank. Could have been a DPS main but early on committed to tank role to enable her duo parter (and little sister) to pop off (and have shorter queue times). Developed a real knack for controlling space and being a brick goddamn wall between her squishies and the enemy team. Extremely aggressive playstyle, but has cooled down in recent years to be more of a team player. Still loves to thrash about when given the opportunity. Known for bold plays and phatty shatties.

Arc - Main Support. Tried for years to be a DPS hotshot but was determinedly mediocre and got hard stuck in plat. Persuaded by Pyrrha to pocket her for a few games, and discovered the depth and fulfillment of playing support to a well-coordinated team. Nurtured his aptitude for assisting from the backline and quickly rose through the ranks. Will play whatever is meta but will always be a Mercy main at heart. Played Brig during GOATS. Shotcaller.

Valkyrie - Doomfist.

Nikos - Main Tank. Extremely methodical player, reknowned for big brain cerebral plays and unflappability. Can be slow to push advantages, but never makes mistakes. Loves the mind games in a Rein v Rein matchup, and unfailingly blocks the enemy shatter (delights in cucking the enemy Rein). Will play Orisa For The Good Of The Team but takes no joy in it. Terrifying on defense; takes a strong position and allows time pressure to force enemies into missteps. When you make a mistake, she will be there. Strategic backbone of the team.

RenLie - Flex Support. Bloodthirsty support. Likes the balance of damage potential and support capacity in Zenyatta, but puts forth strong showings on Moira and Ana as well. First priority is of course keeping his team alive, but flankers trying to dive him in the back line tend to get sent home in tears. Big Jjonak energies. :uwuknife: Can be susceptible to tunnel vision/desperation, and occasionally needs teammates to re-ground him. Always nanos Nora.

PPolen - Offtank. D.Va one-trick. Absolutely notorious for eating ults; absolutely infuriating to play hitscan into. Flawless mechanical skill. Occasionally struggles with communication, but honestly so on-the-ball that it doesn't usually come back to bite her. Always has gold objective time.

Qrow - True flex. Exclusively solo-queues on ladder, just plays the leaderboards. Played just about every role at some point (except main tank, fuck that), but currently on a flex support kick. Holds world records for gravs/blizzards/immortality feels clipping through the geometry and falling out of the map. The sort of Ana who will singlehandedly take out both enemy DPS when beset by flankers only to immediately die to an errant Moira orb. Gamers can we get an F in chat. Accustomed to playing on 200+ ping and is deeply unsettled when he moves somewhere with good internet and has to re-learn all his timings.

RWBY+JNPR+P All form a single 9-man roster. Sub out roles with redundant players for map set strategies and for flexible plays. Probably called the Beacon Huntsmen or something generic like that, who cares

Winter - Main Tank and Offtank. Excellent mechanical skill. Unparalleled when allowed to execute her set strategy, but struggles with adaptability. Extremely self-sacrificial, and knows exactly how to leverage her health pool to buy time and/or space for her allies to make the plays they need to. Will unflinchingly act upon callouts, good or bad, because the worst outcome is a split decision. Especially fond of a quick reset.

Whitley - Doesn't play Overwatch, but holds several championship trophies in international Pokemon tournaments. Minecraft youtuber.

Adam - Widow one-trick. Highly overrated, inexplicably popular streamer. Mechanically talented but poison in a team environment. Picked up and quickly dropped from several professional teams. Teabags. Looks impressive on stream but crumbles against opponents with any semblance of coordination. Eventually blacklisted from professional environments after one too many scandals in his personal life.

Ozpin -Franchise owner. Has never actually touched Overwatch, but used to be a respected Starcraft player back in the day. Took on a coaching role for a time, but now largely manages from afar. Has a sparse and cryptic social media presence. Makes business decisions largely at random, unbeknownst to all his subordinates.

Salem - Hates videogames. Will unplug the router if you piss her off.

Ace Ops - High profile roster hand-picked for perfectly complementary hero pools. Hyped to fuck in the preseason. Unparalleled individual play but poor communication, incompatible playstyles, and truly abysmal coaching staff keep them from being a top-tier team. Widely considered a disappointment considering the talent and money backing them.

Harriet - DPS. Exclusively plays flankers and extremely mobile DPS. Tries to solo-carry; in her defense, it often works. Unironically brags/complains about having gold medals. Quick to tilt but often uses the negative energy to pop off even harder. Overtime clutch god.

Marrow - Flex DPS. Cautious player, often hesitant to commit to risky strats. Flawless positioning, both personally and for thrown abilities. Talent for projectile DPS; probably contributed not-insignificantly to scatter arrow being removed from the game. Prefers to understand the enemy's strategy before acting. Shotcaller. Nobody listens.

Elm - Main Tanks (Except Reinhardt), Zarya. Aggressive tank player, frequently found with gold damage. Generally good natured but vulnerable to tilt if on a losing streak. Highly momentum-based. Makes tutorial videos on strategy and positioning for her youtube channel. Wants to see the competitive scene develop and flourish, but sensitive to feeling threatened by new talent. Helps them anyway.

Vine - Flex Tanks (except Zarya), Reinhardt. Unflappable, regardless of quality of games or recent performance. Good at reading enemy team and tracking ults. Generally calls enemy plays before they happen. Always sticks with Elm, largely out of obligation to bail her out when her aggression puts her in a dicey position. Understated player, rarely in highlight compilations, but extremely consistent performance. Plays off-meta in scrims so as not to reveal strats.

Clover - Main Healer. Can play any support, but Lucio main through and through. Suffers from Reddit Lucio syndrome, but usually good enough (or lucky enough) to get away with it. Loves to deny enemy followup. Peel master, boop god. PMA to a borderline-irritating degree. Gives great pep talks at half time. Tends to overcommit to strategies that are dead in the water; sometimes it's better to call it and switch comps while you still have time on the clock. Despite this, is opportunistic in the moment-to-moment sense and quick to capitalize on enemy vulnerabilities.

Flynt Coal - Lucio one-trick. I mean, come on.

Wukong - ??? Exclusively plays off-meta heroes and weird shit. Talented but remains on ladder because he doesn’t like the rigid structure of tournament play. Refuses to be confined to a single role. Hates role lock cause he can’t swap mid game anymore. Despite all this, somehow tends to be more of an asset than a detriment. Definitely a team player. PMA king. Occasionally finds legitimately competitive strata for underutilized heroes. Nutty with hammond movement, godawful with mines. Has the Winston skin equipped, of course.

Ilia - DPS. Popular streamer. Tried going pro for a bit, but didn’t like the schedule and retired shortly. Frequently plays with the community and does weird custom game modes for a laugh. Loves Daddy Rein Chases Tiny Torblets. Refuses to open loot boxes, much to the dismay of her stream. Plays Golfing Over It during long queues. Draws all her own custom emotes.

Watts - DPS. Mains Widow, Sombra; plays anything that lets him avoid ever actually engaging the enemy at close range. Thinks the game stopped being good when Sombra GOATS stopped being a thing. Spends all day on twitter heckling pro players and declaring Overwatch a dead game. Suspected of cheating. Considers himself a shotcaller but isn't very good at it.

Tyrian - Plays Junkrat and Roadhog exclusively. Thinks it's bullshit that the game doesn't have friendly fire. Thinks it's bullshit that Junkrat doesn't deal self-inflicted damage anymore. Master of the bounce shot. Tends to treat the game like a TDM and forget the objective in favor fragging out. Targets a single enemy player and tries to get them to tilt. Uses voice chat but only laughs. Never makes callouts. Trash talks in all-chat. Considers it a personal victory if he gets someone to rage quit.

Hazel - No Role. Doesn't really get the idea of the metagame; knows it's generally good to have a balanced team but thats about as deep as he chooses to go. Was one of the old guards of PC gaming but now that it's a mainstream hobby has to refuses to confront that he's hot garbage at them. Can't really parse everything that's happening onscreen in a fast-paced game like overwatch, so he just picks Torb (regardless of map or attacking/defending status) and uses the turret as a security blanket. Godawful turret placement. Still has a good time somehow.

Cinder - Main Tank. Likes the importance of the role, and especially the way her team has to follow her calls for any chance of success. A nice balance of aggression and craftiness, she makes a fearsome opponent. Callouts could be more frequent/detailed, but her directions are always good when given. Very susceptible to emotional ups and downs, and often takes out frustration on teammates. Takes losses very hard, gloats about wins. Happiest with an Ana pocket.

Emerald - Offtank. Would be much happier on DPS or Support, but desperate to show off and live up to Cinder's expectations. Sticks with her main tank except when it's absolutely necessary to peel for the back line. Tends to be overcautious with ults; she's good enough mechanically to earn them relatively quickly, but fear of whiffing one makes her reticent to spend them. Flawless bubble timing on Zarya.

Mercury - Support. Still considers Symmetra a support. Quick to whip out the blaster and try to fight off flankers instead of calling for assistance. Knows all the angles for a narsty biotic grenade. Plays as though he's got better positioning and backup than he does; frequently gets opponents to back off just by winning the mental game. Will let allies die on ladder if they piss him off.

#rwby #rwby meta #kind of?????????#yall have my SINCEREST apologies if the readmore dont work and youre on mobile #long post #anyway heres Content #feel free to add your fave that i couldnt think of anything for #eventually i fell asleep

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spop-zine · 5 years

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The much-awaited contributor list is finally here! We were amazingly able to include more than 40 people total, so please take some time to look through all their amazing accounts under the cut!

Cover Artist:

Niccillustates

Artists:

Blueskittles

Lemonsqueazie

Hillopurkki

Earthprincewu

Kamilliem

Humminginker

Floweroflaurelin

Theartofgg

Suzannebousquet

Chickpeamcb

Staary-Eyes

Micaela Sol Hansen

Cath Gomes

Rio Burton

V. Gagnon

Comic Artists:

Gabapple

Fionaostby

Cherrychisoup

Schpog

Merch Artists:

Scrims

Kiwichips

Katalean

Hawko-Taco

Demonboy

Valdrickvile

Galaxiuu

Chocolate-Thunderstorms

Qatoqueen

Ladvy

Kyaratora

Nettaina

Edadoodle

Writers:

Dark-Strange-Night

Rizahawkaye

Heyyyyadora

Skywalkertvvins

Hijaabis

Invisible-Light789

Artsycatflame

Spacesquidlings

Circeancity

CC Eyre

Every single contributor does amazing work, and stood out among a pool of over 250 applicants total! They’re contributing so much to this project, and we could not be more grateful that so many awesome people want to be a part of this. Look for the finished product this spring!

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glaedrlol-blog1 · 7 years

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SKT vs LZ Season 7 LCK Finals

So we got a crazy playoffs run from SKT after what seemed to be one of the worst slumps SKT has ever had in the regular season, including a great reverse sweep against their telecom rivals, but what if it wasn’t really a slump?

This seems to be the same SKT that lost those four matches in a row after seeing their performance against Longzhu. When SKT can take a finger, they go for the whole arm, but when presented with a Goliath sized beast that is Longzhu, those games don’t work anymore. SKT went with the same strategies of attempting to make ridiculously aggressive proactive plays against an unsuspecting team with the help of massive frontline tanks, but it simply wasn’t coming to fruition against an opponent whose top laner understood his role and how to shut down the weak links of the team along with a supporting cast who played intelligently around presented information.

SKT appears to have stagnated while their opponents have gotten better over the past split. They may have demolished SSG in two games forcing three players to get substituted for inferior players in a high pressure situation and punished an overly confident KT Rolster after banning away their Kalista, but the puzzle that was Longzhu was not solved in this series.

Game One

In game one SKT went with a pick comp with a first draft of Ashe and Gragas which lead into Faker’s Leblanc being supported by Wolf on Tahm Kench and Untara on Shen. This style of draft would normally dominate any lower tier teams across other regions, but Longzhu has been preparing Khan to rise to a superstar position and gave him Jax which Longzhu knew SKT would not be able to match with this teamcomp.

Twelve minutes into the game a fight breaks out which results in a 2 for 2 with Untara even getting a kill on Khan to even out the bad matchup into a Jax, but a series of misplays on SKT completely destroy any lead they had hoped to gain this game. After having no vision on Cuzz’s Zac for over an entire minute, Bang felt safe enough to engage on Pray for what he thought was an easy kill. If only he remembered he’s fighting the bottom lane who were his biggest rivals just last year. It was incredibly obvious that this was a bait when playing against a team of this caliber, but Bang latched his mouth onto that hook instantly only to have an instantaneous reaction from the enemy Zac and Jax.

SKT had backup prepared for the contingency of Zac appearing thanks to Untara’s Stand United, but they clearly did not prepare for Khan to react faster, resulting in two immediate kills onto Wolf and Untara. Bang was able to retreat to his tower after the sacrifice of his team mates, but Peanut feeling he had to make a hero play and equalize the situation used the Explosive Cast which knocked LZ’s two tanks right next to Bang and himself. This mistake cost the game.

Faker was able to arrive to get one kill as a participation prize, but it simply was not enough to turn this game around. Throughout the next several minutes SKT makes plays to catch members of LZ, but they go after the members which have flash and cannot confirm any kills, which furthers Longzhu’s lead in this horrendous game one performance. In a desperate attempt to match Khan’s now 4 kill Jax at 23 minutes, SKT assigns Faker to challenge him in bottom lane and halt his splitpushing rampage which Untara has no chance of staying in lane with. This results in the demise of SKT as Faker gets solo killed and LZ takes Baron.

Longzhu then proceeds to knock down the gates to SKT’s base with no contest from SKT as Bang made the decision to go with a crit build against two tanks and an incredibly beefy fighter. SKT without a consistent damage threat falls in 31 minutes.

Game Two

With Peanut’s play in the bottom lane that resulted in two completely unnecessary deaths and a tower given to Longzhu, he was swiftly subbed out for Blank. Not wanting to deal with the overwhelming Jax again, SKT bans it out immediately only to be met with an even worse matchup for Untara of Shen into Jayce. The draft doesn’t matter at this point because Untara is not strong enough to handle the pressure of these types of matchups.

The game begins with SKT going with an extremely slow and predictable dive onto Khan which gives Longzhu an abhorrent amount of time to respond immediately resulting in Blank’s death and Untara’s flash.

One of SKT’s few chances to make a successful play and give Bang a dominant lane this series is blown ten minutes in when Blank’s Sejuani and Wolf’s Rakan successfully lock down Pray with chain cc, but Bang has poor target selection opting to go for Gorilla instead which results in Pray escaping with his Featherstorm. SKT manages to confirm the kill with another play on Pray two minutes later, but this game could have gone much differently had Bang had that additional kill to snowball his lane on Twitch.

Immediately after killing Pray SKT decides to push aggressively into Longzhu’s jungle for a blue buff and potentially a dragon afterwards, but they did not respect BDD’s Weaver’s Wall and got three-man body slammed into a clean up with the Threaded Volley. Faker escaped, but this is again another overly aggressive play with lack of information from the side of SKT which is the whole story of this series.

It’s still anybody’s game despite those mistakes, but Khan is still a ticking timebomb as he builds up a 40 CS lead against Untara in 20 minutes. The game moves to domination by Longzhu with another mistake of Bang and Wolf as they decide to push for a 2v2 all-in. This is swiftly countered by Gorilla hooking Wolf before he can even use The Quickness while Khan completes his teleport cast before Untara even reacts to cast Stand United on Bang.

Fast forward to 30 minutes and Khan outclasses Untara again while in a superior lane matchup resulting in a solo kill. This leads to baron and Longzhu close out the game five minutes later with no threat from SKT outside of Faker attempting to save the game on his Ekko.

Game Three

SKT has a dominant performance in their only victory against LZ with a sub-in for Huni along with a good matchup for him with his Gnar against Khan’s Camille. SKT won the game off Cuzz’s inexperience which lead to him crumbling under the pressure of Blank and Faker’s early harass in his jungle.

The third game of the series quickly ran out of control once Cuzz died twice in the jungle along with BDD and Khan sacrificing their lanes in a desperate attempt to keep him relevant. With SKT’s bottom lane winning off a single gank, Cuzz seemed lost not knowing what to do to negate the losses after all three lanes fell behind.

Nearly thirteen minutes into the game Cuzz seems prepared to commit to his first gank against Bang and Wolf, but his laners die before he can even channel his Elastic Slingshot putting SKT up six kills to nothing.

There’s really not much else to say about this game, it was lost from the very start once Huni could hold lane in a good matchup leaving Cuzz clueless on where to focus his attention throughout the game. SKT cleans house in 29 minutes.

Game Four

After the third game and SKT seemingly finding an effective strategy for a reverse sweep, there are only question marks with how they drafted this game. As a spectator it’s easy to look at a draft and think “What the hell are they doing?” when not given the context of scrims or what has been played in solo queue practice, but I was truly at a loss as to how to explain why SKT would choose a massively losing lane of Cho’Gath into Jayce after opting to wait until LZ’s top lane pick before that decision.

Bang and Wolf have not been performing well at all this series with the only game they won lane being the result of a successful gank from Blank, so I could only hope that SKT opted for a triple damage threat that would also equally match Khan in the top lane, but they went back to their old draft in the previous games to just leave it to Faker and Bang, one of which who has not been pulling his weight.

As expected looking at the previous games, top lane was a lost cause in under five minutes. Khan chunks out Huni to 300 HP while Cuzz rotates up to SKT’s krugs to harass Blank resulting in a kill and Faker’s TP being drawn out. Once Longzhu tasted weakness in toplane, it was party time up there and Huni was promptly slain just one minute after Blank’s death. Just one minute again later, guess what happens. Time for Huni to die again!

There was nothing SKT could do with a nonexistent top laner and a bottom lane that simply failed to at least hold lane for more than 10 minutes. SKT has much work to do if they don’t want to lose again in 25 minutes at Worlds.

#league of legends #esports #lck 2017 #SKT #longzhu

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