So Picks and Bans did Win the Game. Mostly.

               For those of you that did not partake in the spectacle of the League of Legends world finals than you missed out on well… A bit of a stomp to be frank.  SK Telecom T1 ran right through China’s Royal Club in a convincing 3-0 fashion. While I had previously predicted a 3-1 victory by SKT I was quite surprised with the total sweep. One of the funny things about SKT is that they almost always lose the first 1-2 games in a best of X series. For whatever reason something happened on Friday night though, that allowed them to overcome that and crush on through. I will contribute a huge part of SKT victory to their Picks/Bans phase of the game, or maybe to Royal’s mistakes in the same phase.  There was a \ key error and a smart decision in champ select that I want to talk about myself.

               The first of these was ignoring Jax completely by Royal Club. I wouldn't criticize if they let it through in game one and then banned it out because of what a problem it caused.  If they had let it through twice and tried to counter it in game 2 I wouldn’t be upset. However, they let it through in all three games and Impact made himself known on the Grand master of Arms. (Jax) Malphite in game one would've had to get way in front of the Jax in order to stop the split pushing threat it created, although I applaud them for trying at least. The rumble pick in game two was only marginally better. Royal Club known with a Rumble in lane that Jax wouldn't immediately become a monster,  but like the rest of the picks in game 2 it resigned itself  to losing lane overall. Game 3 fell somewhat into the same boat as the first, a curious choice to lane a Kennan against the Jax, but smart rotations from SKT saw that game end by 20 minutes, which is about as fast as you can win a game of League.

               The smart decision from SKT was the consistent bans on Renekton and Annie. Not only are both these champions comfort picks for Royal Club, but both of them also fit into Royal Club’s fighting and dive oriented style of play. Removing the nigh invincible tank Renekton forced royal away from having a consistent tank that could really initiate a dive under the tower, while keeping Annie away from shot caller Tabe forced him to pick Sona in every single game, which allowed SKT to anticipate the pick and counter it in lane, thus making it very difficult for Sona to be effective.

               So yes, the finals were a stomp, guess what? It happens sometimes. Some teams just show up much more prepared and hungrier for a championship than others. It happens. Stop complaining to Riot about it, it’s not like they wanted a stomp either. Close series bring in more viewers, fact. Congrats to SK Telecom Team One regardless. 

Look at them in their nerdy glory!