“They killed him!” Doa shouted from his seat. “It’s a 4v5 now! Dragon up in 15 and this is serious…”On the rift stood the Jin Air Green Wings and CJ Entus. The ingame clock read 78:42; CJ had just survived a grueling triple-inhibitor siege from Jin Air and Dragon was spawning soon. Both sides held 4 stacks of the beast’s buffs: whoever claimed this upcoming dragon would ascend to the fifth. It would’ve been Jin Air’s first fifth stack and CJ’s third. The map was reset: this was the deciding fight.
Then Madlife’s Nami died: picked off by Chaser’s Lee Sin and GBM’s Xerath.
Missing their support but backed against the wall, CJ were forced to fight 4v5: without this dragon they stood no chance—they had lost fights with the Aspect of the Dragon, so if Jin Air had it it was surely game. The teams funneled into the river. Jin Air, having the smite advantage with Captain Jack’s Kalista, started the Dragon. CJ tried to angle their way in, but Jin Air’s poke staved them off. The last straw for CJ broke when Shy’s near immortal Maokai was killed without a full-scale teamfight. Coco, Space, and Ambition retreated, trying to lose Jin Air in their jungle, but to no avail. Coco and Ambition fell, but Space was able to escape. With CJ’s lineup dead, Jin Air destroyed their bottom inhibitor and then their nexus.
Doa called the time of death. “79 minutes and 49 seconds, that’s the end of the game, Jin Air takes it! What a game one! What a contest of wills; and of poke! But in the end, the Jin Air Greenwings coast into the victory with those picks. Wow.”
If there was a single word to describe this game in the 5th week of LCK, it would be “wow.” This game is the best game of League of Legends in Season 5 played so far. Every aspect of this game was played to near perfection: From picks and bans, objective control, side lane control, and team fights, both sides played to their utmost limits with Jin Air only marginally coming ahead enough to take the game. This is not a recap of the game itself in chronological order, but a guide to observe what factors and strategies were used by both sides so that a viewer can truly appreciate the spectacle of this exciting game.
Picks and Bans
The image you see is the completed picks and bans in the order they were conducted. Let’s discuss the bans first: both sides maximized their banning phase by integrating target bans with flex bans. Jin Air used two target bans: Leblanc for Coco and Mundo for Shy, two of their best champions. Their final ban was the flex pick Kassadin, who was a strong competitive pick at the time and can be played top or mid. Meanwhile, CJ’s first two bans were Lissandra and Lulu: two champions who are also flex picks and strong utility mages. Banning these two champions effectively took four pick opportunities away from Jin Air. Their final ban was Rek’Sai; a vanilla op ban for the time.
Now for the picks: Jin Air immediately grabs Gnar for Trace who is one of the best Gnar’s in Korea. With Rek’Sai banned and Gnar picked, CJ is forced to take J4 here to deny Jin Air the Gnarvin combo. They also grab Corki for Space to give him a strong blind-pick ADC who can stay safe in team fights.
Jin Air’s next two picks are Janna and Xerath. The Janna is standard for competitive play, especially in Korea, but the infamous blind pick Xerath shows itself. However, the pick in this context is smart; with Rek’Sai banned and J4 picked, the other two jungle options left for Jin Air are Rengar and Lee Sin (at the time Koreans were ignoring Vi jungle). With Lulu banned against them, they can’t play the Rengar engage comp we’ve seen before, so Lee Sin would be the pick up here. Now, because CJ locked in Corki, they have strong poke potential, and Jin Air will have to deal with the siege and poke. Xerath is the answer to that; with Kassadin and Leblanc banned, who were Coco’s main assassin picks, it is safer for GBM to play Xerath in this game,
CJ’s next two picks further cement their composition while also mitigating Jin Air’s by grabbing Maokai and Nami. Maokai supplements Jarvan’s engage and can get on to Xerath easily with his Twisted Advance. With all of this dive and Janna taken, the next strongest disengage support is Nami, who also helps her team deal with Xerath’s poke with her heals. The synergy of the compositions and how the teams are designing their comps against each other so far is incredible.
Jin Air’s last two picks are Lee Sin, who will be used to peel for Xerath, and Kalista. Kalista was picked here to further deny CJ’s siege power with Corki. Her ability to build Runaan’s gives her strong wave clear to not only take the pressure off of Xerath to clear, but to kill off the minion waves coming in from CJ too quickly for them to capitalize on towers.
CJ’s last pick is Coco’s staple Jayce: a strong laner who gives his team engage or disengage with his acceleration gate, this pick cements the poke war between the two teams. It also makes it harder for Jin Air to itemize against the poke damage because Corki’s poke is primarily magic damage while Jayce does physical damage. CJ’s plan is to brute force their way through Jin Air, chunking them down with poke before engaging on the immobile Xerath, or forcing them off of objectives. Jin Air’s comp is all about keeping Xerath alive while Kalista cares for herself and Trace zones the back line.
With the picks and comps set, let’s get into game.
Now for the picks: Jin Air immediately grabs Gnar for Trace who is one of the best Gnar’s in Korea. With Rek’Sai banned and Gnar picked, CJ is forced to take J4 here to deny Jin Air the Gnarvin combo. They also grab Corki for Space to give him a strong blind-pick ADC who can stay safe in team fights.
Jin Air’s next two picks are Janna and Xerath. The Janna is standard for competitive play, especially in Korea, but the infamous blind pick Xerath shows itself. However, the pick in this context is smart; with Rek’Sai banned and J4 picked, the other two jungle options left for Jin Air are Rengar and Lee Sin (at the time Koreans were ignoring Vi jungle). With Lulu banned against them, they can’t play the Rengar engage comp we’ve seen before, so Lee Sin would be the pick up here. Now, because CJ locked in Corki, they have strong poke potential, and Jin Air will have to deal with the siege and poke. Xerath is the answer to that; with Kassadin and Leblanc banned, who were Coco’s main assassin picks, it is safer for GBM to play Xerath in this game,
CJ’s next two picks further cement their composition while also mitigating Jin Air’s by grabbing Maokai and Nami. Maokai supplements Jarvan’s engage and can get on to Xerath easily with his Twisted Advance. With all of this dive and Janna taken, the next strongest disengage support is Nami, who also helps her team deal with Xerath’s poke with her heals. The synergy of the compositions and how the teams are designing their comps against each other so far is incredible.
Jin Air’s last two picks are Lee Sin, who will be used to peel for Xerath, and Kalista. Kalista was picked here to further deny CJ’s siege power with Corki. Her ability to build Runaan’s gives her strong wave clear to not only take the pressure off of Xerath to clear, but to kill off the minion waves coming in from CJ too quickly for them to capitalize on towers.
CJ’s last pick is Coco’s staple Jayce: a strong laner who gives his team engage or disengage with his acceleration gate, this pick cements the poke war between the two teams. It also makes it harder for Jin Air to itemize against the poke damage because Corki’s poke is primarily magic damage while Jayce does physical damage. CJ’s plan is to brute force their way through Jin Air, chunking them down with poke before engaging on the immobile Xerath, or forcing them off of objectives. Jin Air’s comp is all about keeping Xerath alive while Kalista cares for herself and Trace zones the back line.
With the picks and comps set, let’s get into game.
Objective Control
The key to objective control is vision, and if you ever wanted to see what a true vision war looks like, look no further. With two sight stones on both sides, the amount of vision generated by both sides, especially in the early game, is insane both in the quantity of vision and the quality of the placements. A screen cap at roughly 10 minutes into the game illustrates the war in its purest form.
Through the entire river on top and bot, there is almost an unbroken chain of vision for both sides. The support and jungle combos for both teams were impressive in this game, and this level of vision control exists throughout the game and is intelligently played—both junglers, recognizing the fact they would both build Sightstone, defaulted onto the Ranger’s Trailblazer to aid in their farming as they knew they would have very few ganks coming out of the jungle. Furthermore, every fight over Dragon and Baron started off with a vision war a few minutes prior to the spawning of the objective. This is vision played correctly.
Now for the taking of objectives – I don’t think there’s been a game in season 5 with better objective trading than this. Every tower outside of Jin Air’s base was taken, and CJ lost every structure they had by the end of the game. Twice in this game, we see a climatic showdown between a 5 Dragon CJ and a Baroned Jin Air. The first trade happened almost simultaneously at 59:03 game time, where after a teamfight, both teams backed off and elected to take the neutral objectives. We get this standoff twice in the same game, and to top it all off, the game ends with a fight where both sides contest a Dragon where either side will get 5 stacks if they secure it. The neutral objective control in this game is evenly matched down to the final minutes of the game.
The tower pressure from both sides was also noteworthy. CJ’s use of their first Baron to take Jin Air’s bottom inhibitor while both sides played the siege perfectly shows a champions focusing towers, but the true slayers of towers this game were the minions. Playing as a 6th member for both sides, minions pressured towers throughout the game, but Jin Air’s side wave manipulation outclassed CJ’s. In the early game, Jin Air set up the top and bot lane to push into the inner towers of CJ. With CJ’s top laner and ADC farming those waves, Jin Air grouped in the mid lane and forced down the outer mid tower.
The late game is where Jin Air really showed their strength with this tactic. As CJ claims their second 5th dragon, Jin Air keeps them occupied by claiming Baron for themselves. The first clash of the Baron buff and 5 Dragons showed that the buffed minions were able to negate the advantages of the Dragon Stacks by preventing CJ from engaging onto Jin Air, and with Jin Air having defended their inhibitor towers from CJ when they had Baron, it is clear that CJ would need both 5 dragons and the Baron to win the game.
Jin Air forces CJ into the impossible decision: CJ can recall to their base and save their structures, but forfeit the Baron and waste their stacks, or contest the Baron but lose their base. In a drawn out skirmish, Jin Air wins the objective war—they take Baron and the minions take the top inhibitor and the bottom inhibitor tower, and CJ has wasted half of their time with the Dragon’s Ascension.
right click to play
Through the entire river on top and bot, there is almost an unbroken chain of vision for both sides. The support and jungle combos for both teams were impressive in this game, and this level of vision control exists throughout the game and is intelligently played—both junglers, recognizing the fact they would both build Sightstone, defaulted onto the Ranger’s Trailblazer to aid in their farming as they knew they would have very few ganks coming out of the jungle. Furthermore, every fight over Dragon and Baron started off with a vision war a few minutes prior to the spawning of the objective. This is vision played correctly.
Now for the taking of objectives – I don’t think there’s been a game in season 5 with better objective trading than this. Every tower outside of Jin Air’s base was taken, and CJ lost every structure they had by the end of the game. Twice in this game, we see a climatic showdown between a 5 Dragon CJ and a Baroned Jin Air. The first trade happened almost simultaneously at 59:03 game time, where after a teamfight, both teams backed off and elected to take the neutral objectives. We get this standoff twice in the same game, and to top it all off, the game ends with a fight where both sides contest a Dragon where either side will get 5 stacks if they secure it. The neutral objective control in this game is evenly matched down to the final minutes of the game.
The tower pressure from both sides was also noteworthy. CJ’s use of their first Baron to take Jin Air’s bottom inhibitor while both sides played the siege perfectly shows a champions focusing towers, but the true slayers of towers this game were the minions. Playing as a 6th member for both sides, minions pressured towers throughout the game, but Jin Air’s side wave manipulation outclassed CJ’s. In the early game, Jin Air set up the top and bot lane to push into the inner towers of CJ. With CJ’s top laner and ADC farming those waves, Jin Air grouped in the mid lane and forced down the outer mid tower.
The late game is where Jin Air really showed their strength with this tactic. As CJ claims their second 5th dragon, Jin Air keeps them occupied by claiming Baron for themselves. The first clash of the Baron buff and 5 Dragons showed that the buffed minions were able to negate the advantages of the Dragon Stacks by preventing CJ from engaging onto Jin Air, and with Jin Air having defended their inhibitor towers from CJ when they had Baron, it is clear that CJ would need both 5 dragons and the Baron to win the game.
Jin Air forces CJ into the impossible decision: CJ can recall to their base and save their structures, but forfeit the Baron and waste their stacks, or contest the Baron but lose their base. In a drawn out skirmish, Jin Air wins the objective war—they take Baron and the minions take the top inhibitor and the bottom inhibitor tower, and CJ has wasted half of their time with the Dragon’s Ascension.
right click to play
Jin Air Greenwings: Masters of the Late Game
All this talk of Jin Air’s side wave manipulation leads into a tangent relating to Jin Air’s shot calling in the late game. Any team who is struggling with their decisions in the late game can study Jin Air’s shot calling because it is impeccable. The patience of Jin Air and their methodical closing of the game is another dimension of their play in this game which not only secured a victory for them, but that other teams should strive to match. Jin Air does not brute force the end or get too hyphy: they let super minions create the pressure, take the objectives they can, and force CJ to make lose-lose decisions, such as that Baron contest we mentioned earlier.
The final ten minutes of the game is the grand setup for Jin Air to close out the game. At 70 minutes CJ had all three inhibitors down and at 72:40 they had lost all of their towers. However, the game goes on for 7 minutes. Jin Air try to harass CJ as the minions flood the base, but a mistake leads to Chaser dying in a skirmish, so they retreat. They don’t try to all in CJ and end the game there; they will slowly strangle them.
After claiming their fourth dragon, thus ensuring CJ’s next 5th dragon gets delayed by six minutes, Jin Air grab Baron again: so far they’ve turned a triple inhibitor situation into a dragon, a baron, and the Nexus Towers. With the inhibitors back up, Jin Air looks to complete the cycle by claiming them again. A fight breaks out, and no one on either side dies due to Shy and Trace’s Guardian Angels popping off. They back off again: this is not where their comp will win.
The lanes have now reset to the center of the map, and the Dragon will spawn in a minute. This is when Madlife gets caught out, but CJ must contest Dragon still or they will surely lose. The fight doesn't go their way, and finally Jin Air closes it. Where most teams would have tried to end the game at 70 minutes with three inhibitors down, Jin Air did not get antsy to end the game. They played their game and triumphed. CJ’s play was also excellent, and it was both teams matching their plays together that created the most viewer-enticing spectacle of the series:
The final ten minutes of the game is the grand setup for Jin Air to close out the game. At 70 minutes CJ had all three inhibitors down and at 72:40 they had lost all of their towers. However, the game goes on for 7 minutes. Jin Air try to harass CJ as the minions flood the base, but a mistake leads to Chaser dying in a skirmish, so they retreat. They don’t try to all in CJ and end the game there; they will slowly strangle them.
After claiming their fourth dragon, thus ensuring CJ’s next 5th dragon gets delayed by six minutes, Jin Air grab Baron again: so far they’ve turned a triple inhibitor situation into a dragon, a baron, and the Nexus Towers. With the inhibitors back up, Jin Air looks to complete the cycle by claiming them again. A fight breaks out, and no one on either side dies due to Shy and Trace’s Guardian Angels popping off. They back off again: this is not where their comp will win.
The lanes have now reset to the center of the map, and the Dragon will spawn in a minute. This is when Madlife gets caught out, but CJ must contest Dragon still or they will surely lose. The fight doesn't go their way, and finally Jin Air closes it. Where most teams would have tried to end the game at 70 minutes with three inhibitors down, Jin Air did not get antsy to end the game. They played their game and triumphed. CJ’s play was also excellent, and it was both teams matching their plays together that created the most viewer-enticing spectacle of the series:
Team Fights
Spectacular, coordinated, epic – these are but a few words which barely describe these team fights with adequacy—nearly every person in the fights plays their role to perfection, and when there is a misstep by a carry, they are killed. Come the late game, when the fights break out, the tanks are the first to die and the carries are able to disengage from the fight—the job of the tank is fulfilled as he zones the enemies’ back line and trades his life for his back line. But discussing these fights is hardly as fulfilling as observing and analyzing them, so let’s jump right into it.
20 minutes in and we find the teams posturing around the “Dragon Dome.” The two sides trade poke, with CJ’s coming out ahead, given how behind GBM is at this point. Trace teleports into the pit, which causes CJ to back off from the Dragon. With his rage bar low, Trace begins stacking it by attacking Dragon, both preventing the beast from resetting and preparing Gnar’s transformation for the fight.
Capitalizing on that brief moment, Chaser safeguards onto Trace, strikes the Dragon with his Q, and then smites it, stealing it right in front of CJ. With the monster slain, CJ try to take the next best thing: revenge. They collapse into the pit, going in on Chaser and Trace while the rest of Jin Air fire upon them from the high ground. Chaser gets off his ultimate onto Ambition just before he dies, kicking the Demacian Prince J4 over the wall and forcing his flash. At this point, Gnar has transformed and the whole of CJ is around him. He throws J4 into the wall, and before Ambition has time to recover, GBM fires his ultimate at the stunned jungler and kills him. With jungler for jungler traded, Trace hops out of the pit, and Jin Air gets to walk home with a dragon after an impressive two man operation.
right click to play
The next dragon fight comes around 6 minutes later, but this time CJ adapts. Ambition stays on the dragon and intercepts the Lee Sin Q, crippling Chaser’s ability to steal Dragon. Just as Dragon is killed, Chaser takes the Lee Sin Q into CJ and his death. Furthermore, CJ timed their aggression around Gnar’s transformation: During the Dragon take, Shy tanks Kalista’s subpar damage (she lacks a Last Whisper to deal with Shy’s Frozen Heart), and just when Gnar is ready to transform, CJ disengage. They adapted against the two things which cost them the last dragon, which was the Lee Sin steal and Gnar’s transformation. With their team at nearly full health, they immediately turn to Baron and take it, which gives them the map for the next couple of minutes.
right click to play
Trace and Shy come up as big heroes in these fights, perfectly transitioning between diving and peeling as necessary. In this fight at the dragon river side, Ambition prematurely engages and gets chunked for it. Trace, just transforming into Mega Gnar, shows Ambition how to engage—flashing to CJ’s back line, he throws three members of CJ back into the fray. At this point, Shy is diving onto GBM, zoning him down and away from his team. Seeing the play from Trace, he cuts on his dive and immediately returns to peel for his team. The two sides separate, and Coco's and Space’s poke blasts onto Captain Jack while GBM tries to retaliate. GMB does get a kill onto Madlife, but Coco returns the favor by blasting Chei. CJ are able to chase onto Jack and kill him, then trace while Chaser and GBM retreat through their jungle. Trace’s playmaking is almost counterbalanced by Shy’s zoning at this stage, and the fights are won or lost based on whose poke is stronger between Coco and GBM.
right click to play
There are other fights in this game to observe as well, and they are all as impressive as these bouts if not more so because of how long they go—recall the fight earlier when the teams made the first Baron for 5 Dragon trade where it took 14 seconds for the first person to die? The late game fights are amazing, but as we’ve already discussed those fights, we’ll avoid repeating ourselves.
20 minutes in and we find the teams posturing around the “Dragon Dome.” The two sides trade poke, with CJ’s coming out ahead, given how behind GBM is at this point. Trace teleports into the pit, which causes CJ to back off from the Dragon. With his rage bar low, Trace begins stacking it by attacking Dragon, both preventing the beast from resetting and preparing Gnar’s transformation for the fight.
Capitalizing on that brief moment, Chaser safeguards onto Trace, strikes the Dragon with his Q, and then smites it, stealing it right in front of CJ. With the monster slain, CJ try to take the next best thing: revenge. They collapse into the pit, going in on Chaser and Trace while the rest of Jin Air fire upon them from the high ground. Chaser gets off his ultimate onto Ambition just before he dies, kicking the Demacian Prince J4 over the wall and forcing his flash. At this point, Gnar has transformed and the whole of CJ is around him. He throws J4 into the wall, and before Ambition has time to recover, GBM fires his ultimate at the stunned jungler and kills him. With jungler for jungler traded, Trace hops out of the pit, and Jin Air gets to walk home with a dragon after an impressive two man operation.
right click to play
The next dragon fight comes around 6 minutes later, but this time CJ adapts. Ambition stays on the dragon and intercepts the Lee Sin Q, crippling Chaser’s ability to steal Dragon. Just as Dragon is killed, Chaser takes the Lee Sin Q into CJ and his death. Furthermore, CJ timed their aggression around Gnar’s transformation: During the Dragon take, Shy tanks Kalista’s subpar damage (she lacks a Last Whisper to deal with Shy’s Frozen Heart), and just when Gnar is ready to transform, CJ disengage. They adapted against the two things which cost them the last dragon, which was the Lee Sin steal and Gnar’s transformation. With their team at nearly full health, they immediately turn to Baron and take it, which gives them the map for the next couple of minutes.
right click to play
Trace and Shy come up as big heroes in these fights, perfectly transitioning between diving and peeling as necessary. In this fight at the dragon river side, Ambition prematurely engages and gets chunked for it. Trace, just transforming into Mega Gnar, shows Ambition how to engage—flashing to CJ’s back line, he throws three members of CJ back into the fray. At this point, Shy is diving onto GBM, zoning him down and away from his team. Seeing the play from Trace, he cuts on his dive and immediately returns to peel for his team. The two sides separate, and Coco's and Space’s poke blasts onto Captain Jack while GBM tries to retaliate. GMB does get a kill onto Madlife, but Coco returns the favor by blasting Chei. CJ are able to chase onto Jack and kill him, then trace while Chaser and GBM retreat through their jungle. Trace’s playmaking is almost counterbalanced by Shy’s zoning at this stage, and the fights are won or lost based on whose poke is stronger between Coco and GBM.
right click to play
There are other fights in this game to observe as well, and they are all as impressive as these bouts if not more so because of how long they go—recall the fight earlier when the teams made the first Baron for 5 Dragon trade where it took 14 seconds for the first person to die? The late game fights are amazing, but as we’ve already discussed those fights, we’ll avoid repeating ourselves.
Closing
At the time of this writing, this game is the best game of League of Legend’s 5th season. The objective control is equally strong for both sides, the team fights are immaculate, and the ability of Jin Air to turtle to the late game which allowed us to observe the first clash of Aspect of the Dragon and the Hand of Baron in high level competitive play. It is a guide to late-game shotcalling and patience, a demonstration of the devastation of slow pushes, and a delicate ballet of poke.
Good game, well played Jin Air Greenwings and CJ Entus.
Good game, well played Jin Air Greenwings and CJ Entus.