Written by: Ryan “Phaetox” Walker

Many NaJin fans were disappointed this week as NaJin e-mFire failed to qualify for Worlds for the first time since Korea was given a spot at the championships. NaJin (NJF) had been looking like they were on the up and up recently and the Jin Air Green Wings (JAG) had been struggling even against lower tier Korean teams. The 3 - 0 clean sweep in Jin Air’s favor was surprising on several levels. How could this have happened? Well, NaJin’s draft phases were less than stellar. Their preparation for the match seemed lacking and they failed to adapt as the series developed. A closer inspection of each game’s draft phase highlights NaJin’s strategic weaknesses.

Game 1

Already we have huge problems in store for NaJin. For starters, Kalista makes it through bans, and sure enough, JAG first picks it. Kalista definitely should have been banned over any one of the three champions that NJF ended up banning. Let’s get into the wasted bans.

The team playing on the Red side have the choice to reserve a guaranteed counter pick for either Top or Mid. Considering Ggoong has a rather small champion pool and TrAce is so good at playing from behind, it only makes sense for NJF to use their last pick for Mid. This pretty much stops any Blue side Twisted Fate picks on JAG’s part because Ggoong is a great assassin player and can always counter-pick with the Teleport Diana Mid that everyone has been bringing out recently as a hard counter to TF. Can Ggoong actually play Diana? Theoretically, it is in his archetype and is a very powerful pick to threaten the TF out with. He should be able to play it and if not he should have been practicing it so that he could play it. TF vs Diana would be a dream come true for NaJin because it allows Ggoong to play a strong assassin in the midst of the control mage meta in the Mid lane and have it not be a bad thing. Lulu and Viktor aren’t necessarily bad bans but they are certainly not as high of a priority as Kalista is.

Jin Air first picks the Kalista and NaJin responds with a blind pick Fiora. I’m all for Duke playing Fiora. He’s a great carry Top laner and Fiora is busted OP right now. However, NaJin just struggled against the KOO Tigers in the playoffs due to the return of Malphite Top. This should be fresh on the minds of the NaJin players and they should have seen it coming. So the Fiora pick is great in theory but when Duke blind picked it they set up TrAce to play a utility tank that pretty much neutralizes a carry Top. Jin Air could not have asked for a better scenario here.

I don’t think it is fair to realistically expect NaJin to ban Malphite in the first game. It may seem like the better decision in hindsight but they probably were uncertain whether TrAce would be a threat on Malphite. Yet, even if we dismiss the lack of a Malphite ban, NaJin should have at least considered the possibility of TrAce playing Malphite. NaJin clearly struggled against Malphite in their series versus the KOO Tigers and they should have had a plan to deal with it if it came up. Now to be fair, NaJin could have blind picked Fiora, let Jin Air pick Malphite, send Fiora Mid on Ggoong, and play something else Top to deal with it. Fiora vs Gangplank in the Mid lane would certainly have been interesting to watch and it would have been nice to see NaJin show the ability to adapt during a draft phase.

The Elise, Alistar, and Ashe picks are all fine here. But then we get to the last pick. NaJin’s answer to GBM’s Gangplank was to have Ggoong play LeBlanc... Needless to say, it was pretty underwhelming. LeBlanc has been previously considered a counter pick to Kalista since as long as she times her combo during Kalista’s hop, it is really hard for Kalista to dodge LeBlanc’s burst damage. However, marksmen typically get a lot more protection in the current meta than they did back when that mentality was popularized. Not to mention that the rest of Jin Air’s lineup in this game is fairly durable and not very susceptible to a bursty assassin like LeBlanc.

    GBM and Pilot show off their proficiency on GP and Kalista respectively while Jin Air picks up the win in Game 1.

Game 2

I said that I wouldn’t fault NaJin for not banning Malphite in Game 1, but I certainly hold them responsible for not banning Malphite in Games 2 and 3. The TF ban is more justified on the blue side since you don’t want GBM last picking it. They drop the Viktor ban for a GP ban and keep the Lulu ban. I’m guessing NaJin was scared of Jin Air running a Jugger’Maw variation with TrAce on Lulu and Pilot on Vayne. The Lulu ban seems fine for this reason in Game 1, but it’s hard to justify banning it over Malphite in Game 2 when NaJin have lost three games in a row (soon to be five) to Malphite at this point.

On the plus side, NaJin gets the Blue side first pick Kalista and the Rek’Sai into Eve which is always a good thing. However, Jin Air then proceeds to pick extremely hard engage with Malphite and Ashe. This is problematic for Kalista. Kalista likes a beefy front line to hide behind so that she has time to pump out AoE damage with Runaan’s Hurricane and abuse Rend damage. However, NaJin’s front line in this game can do nothing to keep Jin Air off of Kalista due to the hard engage from Malphite and Ashe followed up by AoE zone control and burst damage from Braum, Eve, and Viktor.

In theory, if NaJin’s team comp can get to late game then Ryze and Kalista can pump out some serious damage. Unfortunately, Ggoong’s Ryze Mid will inevitably struggle to get to late game against GBM’s Viktor. Viktor has earlier power spikes, better pushing power, and more burst damage for mid game skirmishes. Maokai, Rek’Sai, and Thresh do not provide much supplementary wave clear so the option to stall the game until Ryze gets big isn’t really on the table. NaJin is risking Kalista being the only source of damage mid game while having no way to ensure she has the freedom to pump out that damage versus the Malphite, Eve, etc.

Again, Jin Air picks up the win in Game 2.

Game 3

NaJin lets Malphite go through again. Jin Air also combines Malphite with Ashe again. NaJin gets the Kennen support that has had much success recently. However, instead of pairing it with Lucian as per usual, they decide to go with Sivir instead for spell shields versus the engage. Sivir is okay here in theory but putting Ohq on the scuttlebug ADC seems counter-intuitive. It also means that NaJin doesn’t get to abuse the Kennen-Lucian combination that had proven so volatile in the past.

The other problem here is that NaJin subs out Ggoong and Watch for TANK and Peanut. Usually when it matters most, teams rely on their veterans. Instead, NaJin decided to give the upstart talents a chance. Unfortunately, all NaJin did was throw fresh blood into a shark tank. Jin Air had been practicing diligently for this series and was clearly hungry for the win.

Ggoong is very mechanically talented, he just needs to be put on the right champions. The LeBlanc and Ryze picks in the first two games were simply awful ideas. Ggoong has shown competency on Azir and Viktor recently. He has always been one of the better Ahri players in the world and she had begun to resurface competitively. He could have even been picking up Diana in preparation for this match. Fiora and Gangplank Mid would also fit pretty well into Ggoong’s hands. Ggoong didn’t need to be subbed out, he just needed to pick better champions. To be honest, a huge part of the blame here rests on the shoulders of the NaJin coaches. Let Ggoong focus on mechanics and just tell him when to play what.

Peanut didn’t perform any better mechanically than Watch did and his lack of experience showed itself when NaJin’s poorly coordinated invade backfired early on to give Jin Air the First Blood. So right from the start NaJin is put at a disadvantage due to their lesser experienced players being subbed in. The remainder of Game 3 plays out accordingly and Jin Air gets the clean sweep with three straight wins in the best of five series.

Credit where credit is due though, JinAir has been practicing really hard and had some phenomenal drafts in this series. If they can continue this practice regiment and strategic maneuvering, then Jin Air fans will have a lot to look forward to in the future.

Enjoyed the article?  Follow the author for more at @Phaetox. All images courtesy of Ongamenet.