BOL Plat Breakdown Week 7
Hey everyone, sorry that I missed last week. This is CTRL ULT ELITE for the final week of the regular split bringing you some platinum content. If you did not see last week I had food poisoning(I am never letting a first date cook food for me ever again) and was miserable. I have recovered as of Sunday and have started this article. I am happy to see my favorite LCS team the Golden Guardians make it all the way to finals! I hope everyone else’s playoff runs get just as close. The Maple Leafs have secured home against Tampa and I can't wait to watch them lose in the 1st round yet again. Hearthstone has just launched a new expansion and I have started a new job. Life is good and busy.
This week I will cover what every team needs to do in order to make the playoffs. I made a really simple spreadsheet covering this that you can find here that would have all the point totals laid out. BOP Last Week Playoff Chances. Here are the playoff point rules/tiebreakers for those unfamiliar with the process. I am assuming that every team is going to show up and play today.
TE Abyss vs TA Capybara
If TE Abyss are able to win a game(not even the full series 1-2 works) they lock a playoff spot. If they do not win a game they can still make the playoffs if both MMN and SHZ do not win 2-0. TAC cannot make the playoffs.
I think that TEA are almost guaranteed to win a game in this series if not take it overall. TEA is on a tear right now having won 4 series in a row and 3 of those being 2-0s. TEA after starting off 0-2 made some roster changes bringing in Hi Im Jerkie at ADC who is currently sitting at 6-0 in game score. TAC are a team that have struggled to get many series wins. They are however keeping every match up close and have gone to game 3 almost every series this season. TAC plays most of their games through Masoof in the top lane. As far as the team stats go both these teams have good stats overall and are very close to one another. Both teams get 2.1 dragons a game over 1 Rift Herald a game and average just over 1 inhibitor a game. The biggest difference between these 2 teams is that TEA has a much better KDA as a team thanks to dying 5 deaths less a game on average and TEA has a much shorter average game time.
So I am going to look over drafts for TEA for the past 2 weeks just because I have not done this for a while. Overall I give TEA an A for draft for the past several weeks. I like how TEA is drafting. It follows a pattern every game. TEA starts by taking a strong bot lane. They almost always also take either a blind top lane tank or go for a safe blind mid. Round 2 they focus their bans towards whatever solo lane is left up and they take their jungle trying to save counter pick for mid. They are taking strong bot lanes early and their bot lanes almost always make sense together. It’s not always the same thing either they have plenty of options from push and poke lanes like Karma Cait to all in dive threats of Naut Trist to double enchanter setups of Sona Serpahine. It is interesting to see you save jungle for 2nd part of the draft almost always but I guess it makes sense for your team as Yuppi is one of the team's primary carries and has a deep champion pool. I feel for sure that teams should ban K’Sante away from K7 Showoff to deny that particular pick he's more or less 1 tricking the champ in comp.
For TAC drafts I give them a B. They also follow a pattern most of the time taking an ADC almost always as a 1st pick and grab their jungle and either a support or a flex pick in the rest of the 1st round. They then take solo lanes in round 2. As far as I’m concerned this is the “correct” way to draft. TAC almost always takes things that make sense together but the teams draft issues come into play as they do not draft enough winning lanes. TAC likes to play a lot of picks that scale really well and are not that proactive early.
NWE Orion vs Oblivion Esports Ruby
NWEO are locked already for playoffs. If NWEO wins a game they probably take 1st seed overall as well. If OER are able to win a game(not even the full series 1-2 works) they lock a playoff spot. If they do not win a game they can still make the playoffs if both MMN and SHZ do not win 2-0.
NWEO is coming into this match as the clear favorites in my head. I am expecting them to 2-0 Ruby. OER are a team that plays almost exclusively through their bot lane of Ravensman and KneoStorm. I have touched on this several times but it still remains true that if Ravensman is not carrying this team is not winning. They have still yet to play a game where someone else on this team steps up and is the primary carry. If I look at every post game of this team it's easy to see if they lost or won. Ravensman is up over 3k gold over the other ADC win(this is every win). Ravensman is not up over 3k they lose. An example of this is last week vs MMN in game 1. OER have the kill lead, a 6 item Camille and soul easy win right? Nope they lost this game when Ravensman died for the 2nd time and they instantly lost. And the problem for OER is they are going up against the only bot duo in this division with better stats. Getting a gigantic lead bot is not going to work vs Boggie and Mental Boom3r for NWEO because they are the only bot lane in Shurmia better than Ravensman and KneoStorm. Boggie has the best ADC stats in the entire league and Ravensman is 4th. Boggie makes more gold, dies less gets more kills and more multi kills. It's not just the ADC differences as well, bot lane is a duo and MentalBoom3r has better stats then KneoStorm as well. Mentalboom3r has higher vision totals, dies less, has higher KP% and makes more money than KneoStorm. There are games for NWEO where Boggie does not need to solo carry. Eazy in mid has had pop off games on Vlad when Boggie was struggling.
Drafts for NWEO get a B for me. NWEO has stopped taking jungle in the 2nd round as much as they used to which I think is a little disappointing. It's better that they are taking it 1st round now buts it's much less exciting. NWEO always follow the same basic idea match top laners(tanks into tanks fighters into fighters) have a bot lane with lots of CC, take a good matchup mid and make sure that Denali can out jungle his opposition. I think the games where Ziyk in top is playing tanks have looked much better for NWEO and it frees up Denali to play more carry originated junglers.
Drafts for OER get a C for their past several drafts. So the best thing that OER does is they take flex picks and like you know actually flex them. OER also takes strong bot lane dupes normally. But back to my point about flexes. 1st pick Annie and Maokai OER waited until the last part of the draft to flush out their flex. It's awesome to see but uh you guys never actually flex this stuff. Like Annie has gone mid every time you picked it, Maokai is exclusively jungle, Lux is always support. So it's almost like you guys are drafting your mid lane super early. I think the biggest issue for your team is that OER kinda fails to draft real counters? Like the SHZ series in game you take Viktor into Jayce(not good for Viktor) and Morde into Gwen(bad for Morde). Another Example is vs FC you draft Pantheon into Camille. It's not losing like that other example but there are lots of winning things you could take instead(shen, jax morde etc). Or taking Morde into Darius. All of these are just 50/50 matchups. None of these make a lane unplayable and you certainly can do that with counterpicks.
GE Emerald vs Shadowz Plat
GEE cannot make the playoffs. If SHZ wins more games then MMN does they make it into the playoffs. If both teams have the same wins MMN has the playoff tiebreaker due to 2-0 over SHZ in week 5. If both SHZ and MMN win their series SHZ locks the playoffs due to having the head to head over FC.
So SHZ as a team are in a major slump but I think they can save the season and take a 2-0 tonight. SHZ started the season at 3-0 and did not drop a game, I thought they were for sure guaranteed a playoff spot. Well SHZ has lost their last 3 matches in a row without picking up a single win. Roster issues suck to work though but I would think that being in an Org you guys would be able to figure out your roster. Well SHZ it is do or die time. Due to the incredible start that your team was able to muster with your roster together you still have a chance to sneak into the 4/5th seed. This week you guys play GEE a team with just 1 game win across the 6 weeks. If you guys cannot get a 2-0 to save your season I can honestly say you do not deserve a playoff berth. GEE has not been competitive in BOL plat to put it nicely. They have the worst stats in the league almost across the board.
Master McNasty VS First Class Stream of the Week
If MMN wins more games then SHZ does they make it into the playoffs. If both teams have the same wins MMN has the playoff tiebreaker due to 2-0 over SHZ in week 5. FC must win just 1 game this series to make the playoffs or have SHZ lose a game to GEE. If FC and SHZ tie in points, SHZ does have the tiebreaker over them.
FC is my choice to win this series 2-0 for the simple reason that MMN has not impressed me. MMN has 3 series wins and only 1 of those series wins was VS a team with their full roster together(GEE). MMN has by far the weakest team stats out of the top 6 in Shurmia having a sub 3.0 KDA only getting 17 kills on average and having really bad gold totals despite their longer than average game time. FC has higher stats almost across the board and has players within the top 25(highest rated player for MMN is 40th). First Class are not the most stable team but come into this series with 1 more series win and are on a 3 game winning streak.
Draft wise MMN gets a B. I think for the most part you are drafting correctly. You guys take strong bot lane duos as an answer to whatever is 1st picked or the best jungle on the patch if blue. My coach drafts this way and so do I. The reason I am not giving you guys an A is every draft I look at from your team there's almost always a piece that does not fit whatsoever. Last week I hate the Ryze in game 2(why is this not a mid with real wave clear Ryze wants to sit in the side lane), the Ivern Jungle(your team has 1 carry and they have enough CC to kill your Zeri 6 times over), Or Rek'sai when the enemy team is pure poke.
Draft Wise FC gets a C. So the thing that FC does in the draft that I really hate and don't understand why they are doing it is they tend to 1st pick their mid laner. Orianna is not a priority pick FC. No one is stealing the clockwork lady from you. Chill out. I get that it is by far FC solemn best and most comfortable mid laner but they do play other stuff in mid. Saving support to round 5 is also a little odd. I like that you guys are actually picking some things that are not normal like ZIlean and Xerath with these late support picks but I am just not a fan. I think the bans leveled at FC every week are very odd. If you look at their draftlol they like quite a few picks a lot more than everything else that they play. If a team figures out how they draft I could see some big problems for them. But you guys take good combo pieces together and generally make sure your top laner is in a position to carry. Just chill on Ori 1st pick and you guys get a much higher score from me.
Degenerates Exiles vs Elysium Blaze
If DEG are able to win a game(not even the full series 1-2 works) they lock a playoff spot. If they do not win a game they can still make the playoffs if CBR are not able to 2-0 Sigma. ELY are locked for playoffs.They can get as high as 3rd(win and XGL loses to NU) and can go all the way down to 5th(losing 0-2).
ELY Blaze is my pick to win this series 2-1. DEG has had some major up and down swings and last week they got 0-2 by the CATS(1st series win for them). But DEG has had some major highs; they were able to beat XGL in a series. It comes down to what version of DEG shows up today. I think personally that Blaze is just as good as XGL and they form a firm top 4 being much more consistent than DEG. Stat wise DEG are a team with incredible wins. They dominated GPO and CBR but have had rough losses as well. DEG has a top 5 KDA in the entire league but they have really bad neutral objective stats. They get the lowest towers a game out of any team in playoff contention and the lowest amount of inhibs taken. ELY has better stats when it comes to the macro front. They make more gold a minute, CS more and have players with higher highs. 2 players on ELY are in the top 5 in the league and Coalbox the highest rated player for DEG is just in the top 25.
When we look at Drafts for DEG I give them a B for this season. First please label your drafts. But DEG does well in the draft for the most part. They take a strong bot combo early in the draft every game with the 1st round. For the most part they go with jungle in the 1st round as well, Hecarim is the main pick as its Shado’s favorite jungle champ. Top lane is normally some sort of tank and they go with a mid mage or a 2nd ADC. The biggest problem for DEG is a lot of the time they are playing things that do not mesh overall as a team. DEG is always playing a hyper carry ADC almost every game. They almost never have a jungle focused on protecting them; it's not how Shado plays. There is a disconnect between the jungle picks and the rest of the map picks. Like Hec does not fit with Bruam, Jinx, Anivia. Zeri Lulu does not mesh with a Rek’sai. Shado wants to go forward and fight and the rest of DEG are almost never playing stuff that wants to run in as well. I would think this team would naturally gravitate towards Sivir and Kai’Sa more and dive with the player they all feel is one of their team's strongest points.
I would give ELY an A for draft. ELY are one of the few teams in the league that have different priorities than a lot of other teams. First off, ELY are the only team in the league playing Kog'maw. They are also one of the few teams in the league still playing for pushing bot lanes playing supports like Ashe & Heimerdinger. OPKillswtich in mid has a really odd champion pool and is playing some weird stuff like full AP Nautilus mid. So it's rather hard to judge their drafts. But what ELY does make sure to do in draft is have split damage types, winning isolated 1v1s and draft clean engage tools. Sure the picks are weird but the fundamentals are all here. I have not seen only 1 draft by ELY that I go ok you lose that game so they are doing great.
CB Rangers vs Dorado Gaming Sigma
For CBR to make the playoffs it's the miracle run. They need to 2-0 the best team in the league Dorado Gaming Sigma and they need Degenerate Exiles to lose 0-2 to Elysium Blaze. For Sigma they have locked 1st they can drop as low as second overall(lose 0-2 and Nu wins 2-0 over XGL).
Listen we are all curious about seeing the Miracle run happen and underdogs stories are great but unless Sigma decides to play ultimate bravery or something they are winning 2-0 tonight. Sigma blows every team in the league out of the water when it comes to stats other than their sister team who they beat 2-0. They have only lost 2 games all season both last week to XGL and they still crushed them in game 1. Sigma has the highest KDA in the league, make the most gold a minute of every team in the league, farm the most CS a minute of every team in the league. On the other hand CBR have a sub 3.0 team KDA(2.58) they die 6 more times a game on average and get 10 less kills. Sigma makes 2080 gold a minute and CBR makes 1710. So by 15 minutes we should expect sigma to have a 5.5k gold lead. That's a game over scenario. IDK maybe CBR has the spice ready in the draft. Player wise Sigma are on another level as well. The best player for CBR is 6 spots lower than the worst rated player on Sigma.
So Drafts for Sigma get a B-. So I'm going to be real despite how good this team is, I hate a lot of their drafts. It is a difference of philosophy. Sigma knows that they are better players than most people in BOL plat and it kinda reflects in the drafts. There are a lot of what I would classify as ego picks for Sigma and I am a weak side tank player(I do not go Jax wins the game here I say give me Ornn). Some examples of the ego picks are talking about: Ksante mid is a pro play pick right now that is everywhere after Chovy showed if you are a genius at league Ksante lets you flex your skill. It's all about out sustaining your opposing mid and leveraging your incredible mobility and innate tankiness to win the war of attrition. It's mostly taken as a flex. I have 0 idea why you would ever 5 pick it into an Ahri(a mage who is mobile and has sustain). You guys take Kindred a lot and respect to you, Kindred is crazy strong and changes the dynamic of the game. But you pick it without winning lanes or lanes with push. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of what Sigma does is correct. If things are looking bad they pivot in draft exceptionally well, play enough CC and have clear initiation tools for every game as the aggressor. Sigma plays winning lanes for the most part and makes sure they almost never take too much scaling.
Draft for CBR gets a C from me. CBR drafts picks at the correct time they take ADCs and jungle early and leave their solo lanes to be given counter picks. The thing that CBR does well is draft wombo combo teams. I think some of their issues are coming off playing these wombo combo teams is that your early game is generally not as impactful CBR is drafting too many losing lanes and are unable to skirmish in the early game and get set behind early. The games that CBR are not drafting Wombo it is generally more of a pick style. The pick comps they take are not it. Lots of losing lanes still and no real synergy between lanes. The cool thing is that CBR are certainly willing to play things no one else is. They are the only team I have seen pick Br