Invictus Gaming
Vici Gaming vs Invictus Gaming preview incl regular season player stats
Vici Gaming vs Invictus Gaming recap
Edward Gaming vs Invictus Gaming preview
Edward Gaming vs Invictus Gaming recap
Snake
Snake vs King incl regular season player stats
Snake vs King recap
Snake vs LGD Gaming preview
Snake vs LGD Gaming recap
The top 5 plays/teamfights for these teams can be found on my other Liquid legends thread --> Click Me
Preview Snake vs Invictus Gaming
This match is for third / fourth place in the LPL Spring Split, but what is that really worth? Honor, respect and money. The winner of this match will obtain 250,000 CYB (approx. €37.4k ) and the loser will get 200,000 CYB (approx. €30k). That’s a lot of money but what can we expect from these two teams who have been wanting to reach the final? Will Snake be able to recuperate after the demolishing sweep brought to them by LGD? What about Invictus Gaming, was their loss justified or as much of a beating as Snake took?
Teams:
There are a lot of questions that will be answered next Saturday. Snake's overall Spring Split performance was outstanding; pushing OMG to their worst seeding in the history of the team and taking second place as a newcomer. Unfortunately, their performance lately has not been up their own standards. Have they been figured out? Do teams finally understand how to play against Snake and is Krystal overrated?
Snake will have to rise up and play above their standards to be able to take down a team like IG. Don’t get me wrong, they are not at all without a chance here. Snake getting that second spot this split is because they were consistent in forcing teams into fighting them. That’s all they know and all they do. This exactly will be either Snake’s chance to win this series or lose this series.
Invictus Gaming is a team that wins games by adapting. They are the chameleon team in the LPL. If you play a split push comp, we will play a split push comp, if you play a team fight comp, we will play a team fight comp, etc.etc. IG managed to outplay Vici in the first round, taking them out with their own game but failed to do so against EDG. There is no shame in getting dunked by EDG, their players are far superior than any of the teams that they have faced so far and so is their team play overall.
Now the first question you could ask is, how is a team like IG going to compete with a team fighting machine like Snake? They don’t have too. IG's chameleon tactics are not always 100% focused on that; they've shown themselves to be able to rotate perfectly, create picks with Kakao and Rookie and forge their own advantages.
Players/match-ups:
The most interesting match-ups will be in the top lane and the jungle in terms of skill.
Compared to the amount of toplane talent that is present in the LPL right now, Zzitai is somewhat mediocre, and he has to face Flandre. Flandre is a very talented young player, but so was Carry, who got completely dumpstered by Zzitai in the final match while playing Irelia.
Results in the past do not give you a guaranteed result in the future, but it does give you the guarantee that you have improved as a player. This milestone for Zzitai, who is working very hard to make his toplane role work, is incredibly important for a player who has always played in the midlane. He doesn't only give the critics something to think about but also gives himself a boost in confidence.
Flandre has been playing a very strong split but is not known for playing too well from behind. This might be the key for IG to give their top laner an advantage and possibly even the win. Flandre has been one of the main carries along with Beast and Ella. If one of those three players are not able to peel properly for their carries, they lose a tremendous amount of power.
Let’s take a look at the jungle match-up. IG’s Kakao is a Lee Sin main but unlike some other junglers, he has not had any trouble with the meta shifting towards the tanky junglers. His Gragas is superb and the way he can fill in any style of jungling is going to be a huge problem for Snake.
The biggest difference between Kakao and Beast is that Beast is playing for the team while Kakao is playing for himself, trying to hard carry the game together with Rookie. It will be interesting to see which of these two junglers gets Gragas or if it will just be banned permanently from the red side. Beast has played Gragas in five of his eight playoff matches this split, with minor success. So, which of these two junglers will get their comfort pick champions and can make it work for their team? It will be tough for Snake to face the current OGN/LCK champions, Kakao and Rookie - one of the strongest jungle/mid combo’s in the world right now.
Player statistics Spring Split Playoffs 2015
IG Zzitai (Top, 4 different champion picks)
1. Gnar – 2 picks, 0% winrate, 0.8 KDA
2. Irelia – 2 picks, 50% winrate, 1.4 KDA
3. Lulu – 2 picks, 100% winrate, 4.5 KDA
4. Maokai – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 0.0 KDA
SN Flandre (Top, 3 different champion picks)
1. Gnar – 4 picks, 50% winrate, 2.5 KDA
2. Maokai – 3 picks, 33,3% winrate, 1.6 KDA
3. Lulu – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.3 KDA
IG Kakao (Jungle, 5 different champion picks)
1. Gragas – 2 picks, 100% winrate, 16.0 KDA
2. Nunu – 2 picks, 50% winrate, 1.3 KDA
3. Nidalee – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 2.0 KDA
4. Sejuani – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 2.0 KDA
5. Rek’sai – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.0 KDA
SN Beast (Jungle, 3 different champion picks)
1. Gragas – 5 picks, 40% winrate, 2.3 KDA
2. Trundle – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 2.0 KDA
3. Rek’Sai – 1 pick, 100% winrate, 5.3 KDA
4. Nunu – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.5 KDA
IG Rookie (Mid, 5 different champion picks)
1. Cassiopeia – 2 picks, 50% winrate, 2.3 KDA
2. Azir – 2 picks, 50% winrate, 1.0 KDA
3. Orianna – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 0.3 KDA
4. Twisted Fate – 1 pick, 100% winrate, 2.5 KDA
5. Yasuo – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 0,5 KDA
SN Baka (Mid, 3 different champion picks)
1. Azir – 3 picks, 66,7% winrate, 5.2 KDA
2. Vladimir – 3 picks, 33,3% winrate, 3.6 KDA
3. Ryze – 2 picks, 0% winrate, 1.4 KDA
IG Kid (ADC, 3 different champion picks)
1. Kalista – 5 picks, 40% winrate, 4.0 KDA
2. Kog’maw – 1 pick, 100% winrate, 2.5 KDA
3. Sivir – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 0.5 KDA
SN Krystal (ADC, 4 different champion picks)
1. Kalista – 4 picks, 50% winrate, 2.2 KDA
2. Draven – 2 picks, 50% winrate, 3.3 KDA
3. Kog’maw – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.0 KDA
4. Sivir – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 2.7 KDA
IG Kitties (Support, 4 different champion picks)
1. Janna – 3 picks, 66,7% winrate, 5.3 KDA
2. Kennen – 2 picks, 0% winrate, 1.5 KDA
3. Thresh – 1 pick, 100% winrate, 2.0 KDA
4. Nautilus – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 0.3 KDA
SN Ella (Support, 3 different champion picks)
1. Thresh – 6 picks, 50% winrate, 2.8 KDA
2. Janna – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.7 KDA
3. Morgana – 1 pick, 0% winrate, 1.4 KDA
Prediction:
Overall I rate Invictus Gaming a bit higher in skill level and teamwork than Snake. The reason why is because of their recent progress, the way they played against EDG in both the Demacia Cup and the semis. Despite the sweeps, they showed a lot of potential.
My prediction for this series is a 3-1 for Invictus Gaming, but if Snake is able to recuperate and get back into their game, it could go either way.