With much of the hype of this series taking place in the very exciting game 4, there isn't anything in that game that we haven't seen analysed before. Game 1, however, shows us a new take on how to control wide areas and nullify the ability for a smite teleport Hecarim to flank engage onto your team. The ability to use a team composition of this style can help many teams deal with the teamfighting potential of the late game tanks, since it allows you to isolate targets effectively and kill a member of the enemy team before a full teamfight erupts. In essence, it is a good way to counter the current meta.

Cj bans: Cassiopeia, Lulu, Kalista

SKT bans: Leblanc, Thresh, Rek'Sai

First we have to mention that Easyhoon and Tom are playing instead of Faker and Bengi for game 1. This changes the bans for SKT considering Tom hasn't played Rek'Sai and Easyhoon isn't known for playing Leblanc. CoCo has always been a very good Leblanc player so the ban is reasonable.

Everything else is a standard ban in this meta. Cassiopeia is a late game monster and has a teamfight changing ultimate that can easily sway late game teamfights in her team's favor. 

Kalista is banned across regions. Her ultimate in conjunction with a crowd control heavy support can be the difference maker, especially the Kennen/Kalista combo. It's basically a dream come true for many Kennen players, being tossed right into the middle of the enemy team without the need of a flash. If you're not planning to first pick her, or have a really hard counter in mind, don't let her through.

With the bans in place, CJ locks in Urgot as their first pick. Urgot is a very contested pick in the meta for several reasons. He becomes very hard to kill in the late game, has very good mid game poke potential with his acid hunter, his ultimate is a good tool to catch isolated targets, he doesn't envy most ad carries' dps at most stages of the game and he is a flexible pick since he can be played both in the mid lane or the ad carry role (more like an anti carry rather than a carry himself). The drawbacks to using Urgot is that you don't have a respectable auto attack range and late game if you misuse your ultimate, you can accidentally shift yourself into the middle of the enemy team. 

Locking in Urgot already sends signals to SKT that CJ are looking to build strength towards the later stages of the game, which would Allow Urgot to excel.  SKT lock in Gragas and Sivir. Both of these champions work well when the composition relies on disengage. Gragas' explosive cask is a good separation tool and Sivir can keep herself safe with On the Hunt. This also takes away Sivir from Space who has shown impressive performances on that champion. There could be a case made for Sejuani being the jungle pick up instead of Gragas, but without a good grasp on what composition CJ would go for, picking hard engage into it is a huge risk. Also, taking the Gragas away from CJ is a good idea, since Gragas works well with Urgot. You can pick a target with Urgot's Hyper Kinetic Position Reverser, to put the target in a bad spot and later use Gragas's explosive cask to throw back any enemies close to Urgot.

Without Gragas available, Ambition defaults to his undefeated Nunu and Madlife opts to take Nautilus as his support of choice. Both of these champions are strong at zone control. With hard AoE slow coming from both Madlife and Ambition, running through the tanks to get to the back line becomes no easy task. Picking Nunu also increases the threat of an autoattack hypercarry marksman or an Azir pick in the mid lane for CoCo. Ambition has been invading enemy jungles often whenever he's had the chance to pick Nunu.

SKT's response is Hecarim and Janna. While I agree with the support pick up in Janna which works wonders with the multiple disengage and kiting tools that SKT has with Gragas and Sivir, Teleport/Smite Hecarim works opposite of disengage. Sure he works well with Sivir when it comes to following up on a teleport flank, but CJ already locked in Nautilus and Nunu. Both of these champions have very hefty AoE slow and Nautilus specifically can apply multiple stages of CC to multiple opponents. If ontop of the Snares, slows and knockup of Nautilus we add Nunu's Absolute Zero, CJ can cover the entire river width with slows, which would completely stop an On the Hunt boosted team in their tracks, thus isolating Hecarim from the rest of his team. On the flip side, SKT picked Gragas, who could help disperse both Nautilus and Nunu to create a path way towards the back line of CJ. Without being able to use his ultimate as a zoning tool, Nunu is essentially relegated to try and ice blast the opposing team's AD carry in an attempt to slow them down. This wouldn't be a poorly assigned task had SKT's AD Carry not been the only marksman with a spell shield.

To further develop their zone control strategy, Shy picks Shyvana and CoCo picks Azir. Shyvana has essentially been the catalyst of the teleport/smite top lane meta and Shy has always been known as a very good tank player. With the Cindurhulk skirmisher's saber, Shy can throw himself into the enemy team and create havoc while his team deals with the flanking Hecarim. Finally, CoCo on Azir. If you thought Nunu was the best at zone control, you've seen nothing yet. Azir's kit is unique and poses huge threat in choke points especially. So along side Nautilus' CC and Nunu's ultimate, Azir can put the final nail on SKT's engage potential's coffin.

If CoCo places down his ultimate, it's physically impossible to pass through the zone barrier without committing your flash(or blinking ability) for it. Gragas's body slam becomes irrelevant as a gap closer meaning that SKT has to wait out the duration of Azir and Nunu's ultimates before they get a clear chance to engage a fight. Icing on the cake is that with the last pick Azir, Nunu has a valid target to maximize his use of bloodboil as an attack speed buff. I keep insisting on the fact that SKT needs to engage fights, simply because CJ has a team composition that scales and sieges a lot better than SKT's does. Sivir has low range as an AD carry and her main priority is to use her ultimate as a followup/disengage ability. Gragas gets really tanky and Hecarim has to go deep into the backline to maximize his effectiveness.

Finally, SKT locks in Vladimir for Easyhoon. For those who wonder if this was a good choice by SKT, we have to look at CJ's team composition. There is no burst from the side of CJ but there is a lot of sustained damage from Azir and Urgot. Fights will be drawn out and that is an atmosphere in which Vladimir thrives. The longer the fights go, the better Vladimir becomes as a pick. Ziggs was left open for Easyhoon to pick, but if he ever got grabbed by Nautilus, slowed by Nunu or ulted by Urgot, he would've blown up immediately, where as Vladimir gets tanky enough to not be obliterated and can use Sanguine Pool to delay the enemy team as much as possible.   Conclusion:

SKT's team composition couldn't have been any more meta even if they tried. They had double cinderhulk smite tank champions in the top lane and the jungle, a self sustaining AD carry with wave clear in Sivir, a great peeling support and a mid lane mage that gets relatively tanky and thrives in a long drawn out fight. In addition to having a meta composition, SKT has always been a great team at skirmishing with Sivir as part of their line up. They take advantage of the speed her ultimate gives to the team better than most teams around the world. For all intents and purposes, SKT's team composition is the perfect set of champions for the meta... However, CJ picked Azir into SKT's comp. As previously mentioned, you can use Gragas' ultimate to cancel Nunu's ultimate and to shove Nautilus away from your team to stop him for disrupting you, but you can't walk through Azir's wall. Without proper hard AoE engage other than a Hecarim, CJ can easily fall back every time SKT seeks to fight and eventually proceed to outscale and out damage Bang and company.

This part of this game shows exactly the power of the zone control of CJ. Even without the Azir wall, Nautilus and Nunu do a great job at zoning out SKT right as they are attempting to follow up. Using the Urgot's Hyper Kinetic Position Reverse on the flanking Hecarim, Space is able to get into a safe position and still in range to keep doing damage to MaRin's Hecarim. Shy Jumps onto Easyhoon, forcing a skirmisher saber smited Vladimir's attention onto a full tank Shyvana. Hecarim is getting decimated by Azir and Urgot while SKT stands amongst 3 hard tanks unable to do any significant amount of damage.

Screenshots courtesy of ongamenet, lolesports and riot games.

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