[Translation] MC’s analysis of KT and EDG ban/pick phase
MinChul “MC” Jang is a former Starcraft and Starcraft 2 player who at one point was the highest grossing esports gamer in the world. After his retirement, he worked as a coach for Kongdoo Monsters. After their demotion from the LCK, he has stepped down as a coach and is a commentator for SPOTV LCK.
Original: https://pgr21.com/pb/pb.php?id=free2&no=64339
Hello, MC here. While watching KT vs EDG today, I felt that this was a prime case of the ban/pick planning and in game play working out well, so I’m writing in an attempt to organize everything that went on during it.
Starting with the banpicks, KT bans Kaisa-Lucian-Gragas. Unlike the LCK Summer meta, Worlds’ requires that the ADC have a survival kit. Therefore, if Kaisa and Luciana are banned, Xayah and Tristana rise in tier dramatically. When EDG realized what KT were trying to do, they decided to let KT continue — if they picked Xayah, they could take Tristana, then counter with Alistar when KT completes the notorious Xayah-Rakan duo. Instead of banning Xayah or Tristana, they decided to use the cards on Aatrox-Taliyah-Tahm Kench.
And this is the first big brain play of the KT coaches. They pick Xayah — which is according to plan for EDG: They wait for KT to complete the Xayah Rakan and take Akali and Tristana instead. But KT surprises them by taking the Alistar instead of completing the Xayah Rakan duo.
Now, EDG is forced to take Rakan as a supporter — but Rakan is countered by Alistar. Supports that can stand up against Alistar are Morgana and Braum, but both of them don’t have much synergy with Tristana.
Next, KT seals the deal by taking Urgot — a tanky frontline that will give Xayah plenty of time to dish out damagae during team fights as well as make fights under towers a lot more advantageous. Another scary thought I have here is that the KT coaches probably planned out the scenario where EDG took Urgot instead of Akali. There has to be a reason why they let Urgot free — maybe a possibility of taking Urgot first if EDG decides to complete Tristana-Alistar instead, or maybe creating a teamfight composition with Ornn if EDG takes Urgot first, while countering their botlane with the prepared Xayah-Alistar. Maybe even a surprise pick that we haven’t seen yet. In any case, EDG is forced to complete a weaker botlane with Tristana and Rakan.
During phase 2, EDG bans Kindred, which Score has been consistently good on, and Skarner, removing another possibility of initiation for KT.
KT bans Shen and Ornn, forcing EDG to make Akali a toplaner. Of course, we have seen other champions go against Urgot in Worlds, but the staple champions have been Akali, Aatrox, and Ornn. I believe KTs banpicks were chosen with this scenario in mind as well.
EDG responds with selecting Nocturne first, their confident jungle pick, and KT finishes their mid/jg pick in two seconds. In a professional game, instapicking means only one thing: the opponent picked right into calculations and there is no need to think about it.
With KT locking in Galio and Xin Zhao so quickly, EDG is shook. They picked Akali to flex top and mid, but to put her mid means that there isn’t a champion on the table that can take on Urgot, and it’s not like Akali is good against Galio either. Xin Zhao is a dangerous variable as well. There is no choice but to play her top and pick a new mid… but who?
Azir — Azir can 1v1 Galio, doesn’t lose on waveclear, and KT has champions with short range + initiation that can be deflected with Azir’s ultimate. Just looking at that, Azir isn’t a bad pick. But the problem is, EDG have already picked Nocturne and Tristana. What do you see?
- No main tanks
- Every champion (except Azir) is good played offensively.
Azir is a good pick by itself, but there is no synergy with him. Also, when teams pick Azir, they tend to take champions that can snowball the side lanes, since Azir is difficult to snowball early game. But EDG were forced to lock in Tristana first, and Akali, a snowballing laner, cannot really create one up against Urgot.
Isn’t KT’s banpick scary? Even before the game, they created a scenario where it is impossible to lose as long as they macro with their win conditions in mind, but they have exceeded my expectations in the actual game. Assuming you have already seen the game, here are the main narratives.
Score’s Xin Zhao was the variable for KT as he had never shown it before, but is able to create an early game snowball perfectly, even better than LPL’s Xin Zhao. Mata’s Alistar is there to initiate every fight starting level 1. Vision? Guaranteed. Deft’s Xayah just does damage from behind and spaces herself well from Nocturne and Akali. And that is more than enough for the Galio to launch himself with Alistar and get taunts straight from a highlight reel. And while Smeb’s Urgot never showed any flashy plays, he was Xayah’s chief of security every teamfight when things got hectic with Galio and Alistar deep in enemy lines. His shield would give Xayah room to comfortably destroy towers.
And the Xin Zhao at team fights? He doesn’t have to initiate. The initiation for KT here is Mata and Ucal. Score just has to protect Deft with Smeb. Considering EDG’s composition, it’s impossible to get through Xin Zhao and Urgot defending Xayah.
This was a perfect understanding of the players understanding their banpick reasons and composition. There was nothing to do but clap. The coaching staffs’ calculated bans coupled with the players’ forms that look even better than summer is why I am excited for their game 4.
I think many fans already were happy to see their performance already but I wanted to show how scary it was even behind the scenes. I hope you enjoyed it!
