SKT and KT have played out an awesome series that goes to show how valuable picking the right champion at the right time can influence later picks during a draft. A must watch series  for any League of Legends fan.

Coming into this game, there are 2 big things we must keep in mind:

There are 3 very contested junglers right now in professional play: Kindred, Graves and Nidalee (to a slightly lesser degree, Elise). The advantage of these three tier 1 junglers is simply how much damage they can provide from the jungle. With a tanky melee support as well as a bruiser/tank in the top lane, junglers can get away with building almost entirely damage and not be too incredibly punished for it.

Another important note is Ekko. Over the past weeks, Ekko has had a resurgence in popularity, specifically in the top lane and played mostly as an ap bruiser. By rushing an Iceborn Gauntlet and Sunfire Cape as well as having the Grasp of the Undying mastery, Ekko can afford to sacrifice a bit of his ap damage early in favor of being incredibly hard to deal with later on as the game progresses. The bonus movement speed he gains with his passive allows him to stick onto targets and his ultimate is almost a “get out of jail free" card in case situations get messy. Last but by no means least is his W stun. While it is true that ever since the changes to his shield’s base numbers we’ve seen a decrease in tank Ekko, let's not forget the shield is still a giant AoE stun if executed correctly. This single piece of crowd control can change the entire flow of a teamfight.

SKT Bans: Varus, Graves, Zilean

KT Rolster Bans: Azir, Ryze, Lulu 

There's nothing much to say about the Varus ban; he's in a good place right now as a mid lane poke champion. Items such as Essence Reaver and Death’s Dance allow Varus to invest in cooldown reduction without ever sacrificing damage at any point. The Varus/Nidalee combo has proven to be a devastating sieging duo that can force any opposing team off a turret, although you can play Lissandra into Varus which would most certainly force the Varus player to pick Cleanse as a summoner spell. Even if you play assassins into Varus and kill him early, you can’t stop him from farming some minions every wave thanks to the long range on his Piercing Arrow.

You might be curious as to why the Zilean ban happens. Well, it's pretty simple actually. The use of a melee tank support as well as a tanky top laner facilitates teams to dive turrets in search for kills which could later allow them to destroy said turret without resistance. Zilean is a direct counter to this strategy, not just because of his ultimate (which can revived an ally player when killed), but also because of the AoE stun he has on his Q. Its range is quite wide for the duration and can stop any turret diving shenanigans in its tracks. It would work to maybe play Morgana into Zilean, but the downside is that her black shield can only affect one individual target whereas Zilean’s stun is a well sized area of effect. You can however pick Alistar into Zilean and aim to dive him post level 6, where Alistar would be able to tank the turrets for significantly longer as well as break the stun should it land on his team.

Lulu has always been a good ban in general, even more so against SKT, as stated in many previous articles as well as by the casters in every region. Lulu is simply a good supportive midlaner who early/mid game doesn’t necessarily lack damage and late game can buff AD Carries to almost Super Saiyan status. This is improved even further when we consider the 2 AD carries coming from the jungle building shielding items already. Also, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is quite possibly the only person who plays Lulu so ridiculously aggressively.  

These bans pretty much set up SKT to either pick Sivir on the first rotation (which is what KT Rolster did in game 1, which they ended up winning) or Ekko who Lee “Duke” Ho-Seong played really well in game 1 but just didn't quite do enough to carry his team. It’s worth noting that Faker played mid Karma in game 1. It functions similarly to Lulu in the sense of her shield and movespeed bonuses, but also she has very hard poke with her Mantra + Q.

SKT First Rotation: Sivir

And who would’ve guessed? Sivir first pick. It makes sense to have Sivir as your safety pick seeing as she never really has issues farming and serves as just enough wave clear for your team should you require it later on. The problem lies in the fact that Graves was already banned. This means that KT could easily pick up Kindred in their first rotation and still not reveal what their composition is going to be focused around. That basically leaves Blank to either pick Nidalee and play a very aggressive early game to try get himself ahead, or pick one of the 2nd tier junglers (Lee Sin, Gragas or Elise) who, while providing more utility, wouldn’t provide enough damage for the team. SKT were in a slightly awkward position: decide to give up the Kindred, and take Sivir away from No “Arrow” Dong-Hyeon who played well on her last game? Or take the Kindred to ensure a top tier jungle pick for themselves and give up the Sivir.

KT Rolster First Rotation: Ekko and Kindred

Again, we see the Ekko pick for Kim “ssumday” Chan-ho instead of for Duke this time. Nothing to truly add that hasn't been mentioned before. 

As Monte mentions during champ select of game 1, the optimal way to play around Kindred/Graves is having a tanky support with a tank top lane, which allows Kindred and Graves to build damage. Lee Sin, Gragas, and Elise are in a very distant 2nd tier from the previously mentioned champions. While you can go either of these three, they don’t provide nearly as much damage as Kindred or Graves and if you still lock in a tanky top laner, you run the risk of allowing the enemy team to pick a support Trundle to ruin your day. Naturally, with Graves banned, KT secure the Kindred. Either way, at least one priority pick will be taken from KT Rolster. In this particular case, KT secured Kindred for Go “Score” Dong-bin, who’s having a great spring split when playing either one of the tier 1 junglers.

SKT Second Rotation: Alistar and Poppy

Safe picks come from SKT in the next rotation to follow up on Sivir. Both Poppy and Alistar work well with Sivir’s ultimate and can perpetually peel for Bae “Bang” Jun-sik if he would require assistance. Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan has always been a phenomenal Alistar player and has been one of his most comfortable champions ever since his SKT S days. Since ssumday has already revealed Ekko for top lane, going Poppy is an ok option since Ekko can’t realistically aspire to kill Poppy in lane without a gank coming in from his jungler. SKT could have perhaps chosen to go with a heavier tank in say, Maokai, who would also synergize well with Sivir and can single out targets in teamfights. 

KT Rolster Second Rotation: Trundle and Corki

The disadvantage of going a really tanky top laner such as Poppy early in the draft is that you give the opponent a chance to pick Trundle. Whether it be in the top lane, in the jungle, or even as a support, Trundle’s ultimate is a devastating ability to use on any tank. Healing immediately and stealing defensive stats on cast is one thing, but the ability also gradually leeches health and steals more over the course of 4 seconds. That is a lot of armor/magic resistance reduction done on a tank which leaves them a lot squishier than intended. There is no real answer for the Trundle as a tank top laner, other than building a Quicksilver Sash to break off from Trundle’s ultimate. This was an excellent choice from KT Rolster to give to Ha “Hachani” Seung-chan in the bottom lane. 

Throughout all of 2016 spring, Corki has been played a total of 86 times in Champions (data from 8th april 2016 which includes all LCK games to this date) and has a positive win rate in both AD Carry and the Mid lane. Considering that at this point in the draft, KT Rolster doesn’t know what Faker will be playing in the mid lane. Arrow and Song “Fly” Young-jun have both won with Corki during the LCK so it feels like a safe flexible pick.

SKT Third Rotation: Lissandra and Elise

Looking at the game and what the next pick for KT will end up being, you could argue that blind picking Lissandra isn't the best. However, you need to realize that  Azir, Lulu, and Corki have either been banned or picked, limiting SKT’s ability to blind pick their mid laner without running the risk of getting severely counterpicked.  Aside from that, we are currently in a meta where winning teamfights relies on your team getting the best possible engage. Lissandra does just that and then some. Her teamfight potential is crazy, as demonstrated by Fly earlier in game 1. All in all, nothing much to say. It’s a good meta for Lissandra. 

Finally, we see Kang “Blank” Sun-gu decide to pick up the Elise. This has to be a concerning pick considering Nidalee was available, but was ignored by SKT. You see, between Poppy in top, Sivir in ADC, and Lissandra mid, SKT doesn’t really have that much damage in the late game. Sure, they have enough crowd control and follow up potential to run down opponents, but on the other side you have Ekko who is extremely slippery, you have Kindred who can make her team unkillable for a few seconds, and Corki who can deal damage from a considerably safe distance while being able to reposition with his Valkerie. The only real advantage to the Elise is her ganking potential is through the roof with the team composition SKT has. Every lane has at least 1 form of hard lock down which allows blank to chain stun with his cocoon.  

The casters had also mentioned the possibility of going Gragas into the jungle and having a top laner that goes damage, but that poses the same problem, albeit to a lesser degree. Since SKT was probably going for a tanky melee support (in this case Alistar), the next tank would suffer from being on the receiving end of Trundle’s ultimate. If that wasn’t enough, Graves was already banned, who would have actually fixed some of SKT’s composition issue as well as allow SKT to pick Gragas. Giving blank a displacement ultimate such as Explosive Cask could shove the entire KT rolster team out of the Lamb’s Respite from Kindred. Simply put, there isn’t a reliable enough damage dealing top laner available to SKT at the time--Ekko was picked away and Graves was banned. Nidalee would have been the most logical answer, but SKT went ahead with the Elise.

KT Rolster Third Rotation: Gangplank

Gangplank is almost too good of a pick into the team composition SKT was aiming to run for several reasons. First of all, as mentioned previously, picking Lissandra in mid lane almost forces the enemy mid laner to go for cleanse to avoid getting destroyed by Lissandra’s point and click CC. Gangplank has a counter built straight into his kit with “remove scurvy” which removes all crowd control and debuffs on Gangplank as well as healing him. This frees up a summoner spell, which in turn allows Fly to pick up Teleport, allowing him to answer Lissandra’s possible cross map plays.  If that wasn't enough, Gangplank’s ultimate has to be taken into consideration once the level 6s start rolling in. If a towerdive is being executed in any of the side lanes, KT can simply call on Fly to use his cannon barrage in said lane to further complicate SKT’s diving intentions. 

The only real downside to Gangplank in the mid lane is really how long it might take him to get to a relevant place in terms of damage as well as being very vulnerable to ganks. Sure, he does have an ability to remove CC on him, but if chained correctly, SKT can still lock Fly down for a significant amount of time. He is melee after all, early game he needs to auto attack some minions to kill them because parrley isn't up often enough and his barrels won't do wave clear levels of damage.  

Overview:

KT played this draft out beautifully. By banning Lulu and Azir as well as picking up the Corki for themselves, Faker was almost forced into playing Lissandra (which is his 4th most played champion this split). Seeing the Lissandra pick coming, Fly brings out the Gangplank for himself (up until this game, every time Gangplank was chosen it went to the top lane for ssumday instead). Thanks to GP’s Remove Scurvy, Lissandra has very little kill threat in mid lane unless you intend to pick Ignite. Yet the very reason you’d pick Lissandra in this meta is for being one of the best teleport -> Flank -> Initiation champions.

This wasn’t a lost cause for SKT though -- don’t think about it like that. SKT still had a lot of power in their composition and they spike earlier than KT rolster. Blank has the ability to snowball multiple lanes since every lane can set up for Elise to follow up. SKT just needed to get a big enough lead early and use the Lissandra roams early enough to dive turrets with before the QSS comes in on Corki and leaves Faker without a proper target to use his ultimate on.

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Screenshots courtesy of loleventvods' youtube channel. Additional data on champions and players were taken from oracleselixir.com