It’s day two of the EU LCS and the match between Vitality and Unicorns of Love showed the importance of playing to the strengths of your team composition. These two teams fought it out for the first place spot, picking two different styles of composition.
Unicorns of Love picked a traditional team fight composition. They had Malphite, Gragas, and Thresh which can all combo their crowd control together, with Viktor and Lucian to back them up with damage. Their win condition involved fighting five versus five, and landing important abilities on Vitality’s squishy damage dealers.
Vitality went in the opposite direction, creating a composition birthed from Patch 6.3. Their win condition was to keep Kogmaw alive using Tahm Kench, Lulu and Lee Sin. These champions have shields or ways to protect the squishy Kogmaw, who can deal out massive damage if kept alive. A Kogmaw auto attacking with no interference for a few seconds can kill an entire enemy team. Comps like this were popular in late Season 4 and early Season 5, before Kogmaw was nerfed into the ground.
The game started out fairly standard, with both teams trading top and bottom turrets. Around 20 minutes in the game picked up, as Unicorns of Love engaged in what they thought would be a good team fight. Vizicsasci, UOL’s top laner on Malphite, used Unstoppable Force on Tahm Kench with Lulu inside, essentially wasting it. Every engage tool UOL has was then wasted on Vitality’s few tanks, which ultimately lost them the fight. Nukeduck’s Quinn and Hjarnan’s Kogmaw chased after UOL, shredding them as they tried to escape. In the end, Vitality nets three kills and a Baron.
From there, the game snowballed out of control. Vizicsasci kept wasting his ultimates on Tahm Kench, leaving Kogmaw free to do what Kogmaw does. There was no reason for Kogmaw to be alive at the end of these fights when UOL had that much crowd control. UOL played extremely sloppily, and Vitality proceeded to win the game in 30 minutes.
Each player on Vitality worked together, knowing what their roles were on the team. In contrast, UOL played carelessly and passively, not something they normally do. Rudy, UOL’s jungler, is still new to the team, and it shows. His Gragas was unfocused, and kept missing important Body Slams. If Rudy doesn't step his game up, his team could end up falling in the brackets.
Kasing, on Tahm Kench, was the MVP of the game. He protected his carries in his belly whenever trouble arose and used his tongue to peel enemies away. After today, Vitality and H2K will be tied for first place. If Vitality keeps playing as a united front, there’s no doubt that they can win the whole thing.
Winner: Team Vitality
