This 2017 Worlds story is brought to you by Predator.
Game-breaking outplays. Oppressive lanes. Objective fights.
Most casual fans remember these exciting moments from the League of Legends World Championships. It often seems like the game comes down to one of these events, where one action changes everything.
However, those who understand the game know that these big plays rarely happen in isolation. At the highest levels of League, teams plan their gameplay meticulously to create these scenarios. Team play is more important than individual mechanics at Worlds.
In the quarterfinals of Worlds, some teams made macro misplays that cost them the game. Let’s take a look at the five biggest misplays:
5) RNG pased up a free Baron
The first misplay comes from Royal Never Give Up (RNG) in their game against Fnatic. After a teamfight victory, they had a chance to take the Baron. However, they decided to take down a tier two turret instead and Fnatic ended up taking the Baron and winning the game. They overlooked the importance of Baron and made the wrong decision.
Tier two turrets are not as important as other objectives in the game. They don’t give you map control like outer turrets, and they don’t protect critical areas like inhibitor and nexus turrets. They are simply there to delay the enemy. For a team with the Baron, they are easy to take down because the defending team usually concedes after delaying as much as possible.
RNG could have easily taken the Baron and gotten more objectives and advantages. This misplay cannot be blamed on any individual player; the whole team made the wrong call.
4) Longzhu didn’t respect missing enemies
Longzhu Gaming’s loss to Samsung Galaxy can be attributed to their macro mistakes. In the first game, they didn’t play to their win condition, and in the second game, they didn’t pay attention to missing enemies on the map.
3) Misfits failed to finish Baron
Royal managed to avoid the consequences of their Baron mistake, but Misfits Gaming was not so lucky. They had a chance to secure the Baron in their last game against SK Telecom T1, but they hesitated and failed to finish it. This hesitation and indecision affected their ability to use their lead effectively throughout the series.
Misfits had multiple opportunities to take the Baron, but they couldn’t commit to it. SKT’s presence around the Baron made it difficult, but Misfits needed to make aggressive macro decisions against a team like SKT. In the end, their fear and hesitation cost them the game.
2) Longzhu fail to control Ambition
Samsung Galaxy’s Jungler, Ambition, is often criticized for his passive playstyle. However, in the series against Longzhu, he changed his approach and did a great job supporting his laners. Longzhu made a small but consequential mistake by giving up a camp to Ambition, which allowed him to gain control over the game.
This mistake allowed Ambition to gain more information about Longzhu’s jungle path and he took advantage of it. He set up camp in Longzhu’s jungle and exerted control over the game.
1) Team WE chase a Singed
Chasing a Singed is one of the most basic mistakes in League of Legends, but Team WE fell into this trap. Instead of dealing with Singed using their teleport spell and a champion with range advantage, they sent four champions to chase him into the bot lane. This allowed Cloud9 to take Baron and win the game easily.
This misplay could have been easily avoided if Team WE had followed the basic advice of not chasing Singed. Cloud9 took advantage of their mistake and secured the victory.
By the end of the series, Singed became a must-ban for Team WE. It’s a shame that they didn’t listen to their grandmas and made such a foolish mistake.
2017 Worlds, League of Legends, esports, macro misplays, RNG, Longzhu, Misfits, Team WE, Singed, Baron, Jungler