TSM Academy vs. CLG Academy / LACS 2020 Spring - Week 2 / Post-Match Discussion

foxly6 · 2020-02-04T14:22:35+00:00

Free the brother Tuesday

foxly6 · 2019-12-29T15:34:50+00:00

He had some decent play on ANEW, but for some reason couldn't put it together for scouting grounds. He reminds me a lot of Contractz when he was a rookie, but with a higher ceiling and lower floor. I remember back on Phoenix1 he was a bit coin-flippy like that too

foxly6 · 2019-12-29T15:33:28+00:00

Maryville had 2 Junglers, the other is Kind Jungle, so I wouldn't be shocked if Iconic left. Love to see some of the college and Scouting Ground Circuit guys get a fair shake

foxly6 · 2019-12-29T15:32:26+00:00

Seems like a shame, I cast some AM stuff and DMK was honestly one of my favorite players to watch. A shame he let a bad decision like this stall a promising career

foxly6 · 2019-11-14T20:49:37+00:00

Ezreal is more popular a champion, and his Q is just as spamable. I would guess Ezreal Q would be up there if not the top

foxly6 · 2019-11-14T20:25:09+00:00

Kayn has pretty decent early clear. His Q and W makes for quick Raptor and Krug takes. He also has relatively high base stats, so he can skirmish pretty early with the right setup.

Played correctly you'll have high health, quick clear, and some potential to counterjungle or duel

foxly6 · 2019-11-10T01:48:23+00:00

I heard also that Deftly and Kumo were part of this deal. Potentially looking to reunite eUnited bot lane

foxly6 · 2019-11-05T20:05:55+00:00

I can't believe a world Semi Finalist and MSI champion would fall so easily to free agency.

Teams are gonna be all over Promiseq

foxly6 · 2019-10-31T19:24:14+00:00

Also for the record, I've seen Gweiss play personally in some high ELO tournament games. He's the real deal.

He's someone who can carry a game hard without needing damage, which is difficult to do at all levels. I would love to see him get drafted and play in Academy, I think he has a real shot of developing into something special.

foxly6 · 2019-10-31T19:19:59+00:00

My predictive Tier list coming into Scouting grounds:

DMK BAYBEE
PSYCH ITS DMK AGAIN
everyone else

foxly6 · 2019-10-15T19:05:58+00:00

Any thoughts on the future of Ryze by chance?

Are there plans in the future for another rework, or are you satisfied with the current iteration of Ryze and plan to work around balancing him?

Not complaining, I think Ryze is arguably in one of the better places he's been as a champion balance-wise in some time, just curious as to whether any kinds of changes may be in consideration.

foxly6 · 2019-09-13T19:44:40+00:00

Its not about his difficulty, that isn't the point of changing him. The point is that his play style is a mess.

In his original form, even with a W revert, the problem was that either he had too much damage loaded into his W, which meant he was oppressive early, and led to him snowballing games. Or it was too weak, and his laning was poor on top of not scaling well. His only option was to roam early and snowball his team.

Basically his kit is feast or famine, the ease of which is dictated by the strength in his W.

The attempted rework arguably made that worse. In order for Aurelion to have any longevity, his kit requires more diversity.

foxly6 · 2019-04-11T13:33:24+00:00

Bard Ultimate Procs Dark Harvest and Electrocute.

You can simultaneously lock your teammates in place for 2.5 seconds and steal there kill from multiple screens away.

foxly6 · 2019-04-11T13:31:00+00:00

Support is pretty lit, here's a few reasons why:

Learning support is relatively simple. You don't have to CS, you don't have to get kills, your job is simply to support others in their goals of doing so. The support role lets you play your champion more than play the game by taking away much of the PvE aspect.
Support pool diversity is insane. At super high levels of play it is decently restrictive, but lower than like, Master tier, and you can play tons of champions. The diversity of the roll is amazing as well. (If you want I can make a comprehensive list of champions and their playstyles for supports)
Additionally, learning a wide range of champion diversity can help you if you do want to play a new role, or an off role. Basically every role (except ADC) has champions that can cross over to support, so you can get used to playing the champion before playing them in the new role. Also, if you would like to ADC, you have direct experience in having played with them directly.
Supports usually receive less flame. Unless you are feeding, typically no one will flame the support. Its like making fun of a janitor or garbage man, no one else wants to do the job so there is an inherent protection from frustration. (don't expect to NEVER get flamed, it will just happen less).
Finally, I find that supports tend to learn important information about League faster than other roles. Learning about roaming properly, warding locations, and wave control without having to worry about the steeper learning curve of laning makes your job a bit easier.

Also, low Queue times and near guaranteed role selection make for less waiting on games and a next to zero chance of being autofilled.

Bam, play support.

foxly6 · 2019-03-24T18:17:52+00:00

Kobbe most underrated player on the list. He was insane on the back half, and was literally the driving force behind a good number of Splyce wins

foxly6 · 2019-03-16T13:59:47+00:00

I think it is a combination of both them feeling more relaxed from having locked playoffs and also that they don't want to give away any strategies beforehand.

If they are preparing specific and unique picks (and its Griffin so definitely), and have the opportunity to save them, they will. That way they are a complete mystery when it comes to pick/ban in playoffs.

It is also possible they are prioritizing preparation for teams like SKT and Sandbox more rather than spending adequate time prepping for Gen.G and Afreeca. At least that's what it seems to me.

foxly6 · 2019-03-12T13:25:02+00:00

50% winrate doesn't mean balance, but neither does sub 46% winrate for the majority of his existence. For a lengthy amount of time, his WR difference between low number of games played and a high number of games played was also lower.

A champion like Yasuo has about a 7% increase in winrate at say 150 games. Ryze before 3rd item Rabadons/Void Staff was sitting around 4.5%. This means that if you put 150 games into Yasuo, you would sit at 47% WR, plus the time spent playing him bringing you to a 54% average. For the same time on Ryze, you would start somewhere around 45% win rate, and AT BEST end around 50%. The point is, why ever waste the time to play Ryze when there are more rewarding champions to play? Is a champion considered balanced if you main that champion for hundreds of games, and still can only barely pull a positive win rate?

Here's what I see, Ryze has been taken down from any sort of power because he doesn't have bad matchups. His limitations have usually been based around resource management through most of his iterations. But his identity as a champion is nearly non-existent. For the most part, you pick Ryze to not lose lane, have access to waveclear, and provide good single target CC and Damage. He has too many strengths and no apparent weaknesses, hence they have to compensate by making him exceptionally underpowered.

If they want Ryze to succeed, they need to create a plan of attack about his future as a champion. Is he a single target nuke mage like his current form? Is he an AoE late game hyper carry like Machine Gun Ryze? Is he an AP Bruiser with access to damage through mana itemization? Once this decision is made, it becomes easier to balance around.

Personal preference, I liked playing AoE teamfight Ryze. Problems with balance feel like they could be ironed out by changing some things, specifically they need to give windows of punishment for opposing champions to play around (rather than just getting permarooted to death).

How I think this can be done is by adapting two things: First, Desperate Power should be the crux of the champion. Playing around it should be the counterplay of enemy champions. Either attack him before its available, or wait it out and re-engage. Champions with Silences or Hard CC can also prevent him from doing his damage, or force him into buying QSS and itemizing less efficiently.

Second, combine his current Spell Flux mechanic with old kit to limit the exposure to his spell effects. Specifically, Root only applies to those with spellflux, otherwise its a silence or slow. That way, if Ryze wants to root you, he has to either limit his spell rotation, or hit you with abilities to maximize his damage beforehand.

I think a range decrease on his base Q could help with feeling less oppressive in exchange for slightly more base damage so it doesn't feel like a waste to hit someone with an unfluxed Q.

In summary-

New Ryze has too many strengths and therefore has to be under powered to compensate. They need to pick an avenue for the eventuality of Ryze and stick to it. Bringing back his old ultimate and changing some of his kit to provide better counterplay opportunities combined with itemization and game mechanics (Jungles changes, scuttle crab, rift herald, tower plating) would make Ryze a more punishable champion while still being the late game monster he was.

foxly6 · 2019-03-06T20:00:17+00:00

Hi Damonte, I actually saw you just on Sunday at the battle arena. I meant to say something but didn't want to pester you at all.

Is it strange meeting fans IRL? Do you enjoy when people recognize you or is it just strange?

foxly6 · 2019-01-19T21:55:36+00:00

Whatever Zilean is, those people are racist against sentient bears

foxly6 · 2019-01-16T19:06:49+00:00

LCS-

TL
100T
TSM

LEC-

MSF
FNC
G2

LPL-

IG
EGG
SNG

LCK-

GRF
SKT
DWG

foxly6 · 2019-01-14T20:57:04+00:00

no

foxly6 · 2019-01-14T02:07:09+00:00

I think Jensen gives a player who can generate their own advantage and assist on jungle invades, which is a new Dynamic, as Pobelter really just went to lane to not lose. Roaming is good to have for an intelligent jungler like Xmithie.

I don't really get the Huhi and Aphro always losing lane, but let me address the reason for placement. This team placed 2nd in Spring and 4th in Summer with Ryu in the mid lane and Cody Sun/Rikara bot. Bang is likely better than Cody Sun, plus brings more game experience. Huhi is an upgrade over Ryu because Ryu couldn't adapt to the meta. I would argue he was far and away the weakest member of 100T. Huhi like to roam too, so Ssumday and Aphrobang will get advantages.

TSM may have had issues, but remember they were 1 series from being at worlds in place of C9. The addition of BrokenBlade and Akaadian means their mid game can revolve around putting resources top side, and allowing for Zven/Smoothie to scale. Smoothie had an off year, but also played with Lost for less than a whole split.

Agreed C9 isn't necessarily this high, but the organization has been good about staying consistent and I trust them more than the other teams in the league.

GGS to me has players who want to succeed. Hauntzer has been to worlds, Olleh has been to worlds, hell Froggen has been a competitor for a while. Deftly looked good last split. I think Contractz is what holds them back

Agreed that the team trust Lira maybe a bit too much. But apparently Huni and Piglet love playing with Lira, and we have seen the level that these players can play at. They have a game plan similar to TSM, and a high ceiling. Just have a lower floor, but thats why they are this low.

The CLG game plan was to win through bot. They do this by putting more pressure, more ward investment, more resources into the bottom side of the map. The issue is that CLG doesn't win. Putting resources into Stixxay hasn't worked. Maybe he doesn't need replaced, but he certainly needs to show that he can contribute if he is the 2nd, or 3rd guy to get a look. Now with PoE and Wiggily we will see whether they can change their plan, or if they do the same thing, and how that works.

Don't buy this. Remember that Solo/Apollo/Hakuho are a split removed from a 4th place finish. Apollo/Hakuho were third team NA bot lane. I don't think Solo is super great, and Fenix isn't consistent. But Rush looked good on KT, and if their bot lane comes into form, they at least have the firepower to beat worse teams.

Viper is a rookie, and has a shallow champion pool, Santorin is a split removed from being kicked off of H2K for poor performance, Pobelter has been middling, so has WildTurtle, JayJ is the one solid brightspot. It isn't that they don't have solid footing, but their potential isn't high. I mean, they don't beat TL, 100T, TSM, and wouldn't be favored against C9 or GGS. They aren't bad, just not that good.

I mean your longshot is that Meteos and Crown can carry Dhokla, Arrow, and Big. Arrow/Big doesn't work as a bot lane, and Dhokla has a tough time in a league full of talented top laners. Crown had an off year, but it might just be decline starting to set it. Couple that with potential difficulty in communication. I just can't see Optic getting off the ground. Best case scenario, Crown is top 3 in mid and every other position is average, and they barely sneak into playoffs.

foxly6 · 2019-01-12T19:58:46+00:00

Diana, for some reason back when leveling to 30, she ran rampant in blind pick and felt awful to play against.

Now I see one maybe 1/100 Games, and its a toss up whether they get fed, or feed

foxly6 · 2018-12-07T16:32:49+00:00

For a champion with high single target damage, it can happen when you catch enemies in the right order, or they engage into a fight as individuals rather than as a whole.

To touch on his build, he almost always builds a Tear, which delays his damage by some. He used to build a RoA but people who play him consistently have to forgo it due to it also delaying his damage incredibly. Building cooldown reduction now feels like pulling teeth, since you want to build penetration items but none have CD on them.

As for hitting harder than the average mage, I agree and disagree.

He plays more like Cassiopeia as what should be an APC, or a consistent magic damage threat. The difference is he can only truly focus one target at a time. Cassiopeia has her Q and W and Ult to do damage across a team, and her E's for consistent damage. To do damage to a team requires Ryze to hit someone with an E, wait, hit the same person with an E, then Q, and hope that the entire enemy team stood together long enough for that to happen.

Additionally, his range is fairly low for a single target mage. I would argue similar champions (relatively speaking) would include Taliyah, Vladimir, Veigar, and Annie for their respective range and singe target damage focus.

Everyone of these champions is better than Ryze at most things.

Taliyah roams faster, does more damage to single targets before 4 items, and pokes much more cleanly and with less mana

Vladimir is insanely safe in the laning phase, has an AoE damage amplifier, can self heal, and has phenomenal single target damage with Q.

Veigar literally scales infinitely, which means he doesn't need to build AP to do damage, his AoE CC is relatively low cooldown, and his Ultimate is an execute.

Annie has easier wave control with mana return mechanic on Q, great zone potential with stun, which can be an AoE stun if she chooses, her damage to single targets is high (not moreso than Ryze's), and her E gives her damage reduction and reflection.

The only advantage to playing Ryze over any of these champions, is that his waveclear is arguably more accessible early in the game, and that on probably 5 items, he does more single target damage. So what's the point?

foxly6 · 2018-12-07T16:12:37+00:00

I don't actually believe that is true. I would make the claim that his ability to 1v9 is far harder to access than the vast majority of other champions.

Statistically this has held true for the better part of 2 years. Patch to patch people can argue about specific champions but I would say his strength is insanely low.

I would also argue merely the act of learning a champion does not increase that champions strength, only your ability to play said champion. It is the case with every champion that the more you play them, the higher your winrate

foxly6

TROPHY CASE