Next Level League: Analyzing Team Comps

Map control and lane pressure is something that is underestimated and underused in League. Many players don't understand how important towers and map control is, and thus, may sacrifice turrets and wards to go for risky kills that don't always pay off. Revolutionizing the strategy of pushing, Counter Logic Gaming scored a third place at PAX prime with a very interesting strategy they picked up in Korea. Let's take a look at some of the essentials of this team and what made it so effective.

 

Let's examine game 1 first, picks, summoner spells, and champion choice.

The Team:

Chauster - Sona 

  

Doublelift - Sivir

   

HotShotGG - Dr. Mundo

   

Voyboy  - Olaf

   

BigFatLP - Gragas

    

Champions: 

There is large evidence that this pool of champions has been practiced several times and indeed, the synergy between them is pretty intense. There are TWO main aspects about this pushing team - Relative tankiness and disengage. These are two aspects that are not necessary to create a pushing team, but were additional aspects that were gamebreaking.

First, the Doublelift/Chauster bot lane. Sona and Sivir represents one of the most defensive bot lanes. Sivir's spell shield means that many attempts by Jungler Lautemortis to gank with Maokai were failures because CC spells could be temporarily negated. Sona also provides a huge package - early damage and poke, heals, and a speed boost. This combination was largely unmovable in game and allowed Doublelift to continually push and whittle the enemy down with Ricochet and Boomerang Blade - two spells which can clear a creep wave in an instance.

Sivir was also the obvious choice here because On the Hunt provides a massive steroid and bonus attack and movement speed to minions/allies in the vicinity which is just what a pushing team needs. Hotshot and BigFat also used intelligent picking - providing tankiness and disengage for their team. Gragas, of course, is not the best pusher, but has excellent engage and disengage with his exploding casket and has huge mobility with Body Slam. His damage reduction and base stats makes him one of the, if not the most, tankiest AP mids. In this game, BigFat's Gragas was selected to maintain presence late game and to compensate for any accidental mistakes the team could have made.

Hotshot's Mundo is also an excellent pick. He has great jungle clear time, great lane pushing potential, and has great base AD. His ult allows him to shrug off CC and fire continuous slows with his cleaver so that he is at a very low risk of dying. All in all, a solid tank line so far that has an extensive grasp of mobility and tankiness.

Of course, we musn't forget Voyboy's Olaf, the cherry on top. Olaf was another great choice. The instant refresh on Olaf's undertow at later levels means that he can clear an entire wave of creeps with 1-2 well aimed axes. His bonus AD provided to him with Vicious Strikes allows him to hack down on turrets and of course, Ragnarok makes him immune to CC so that he may easily run away from ganks.

The most unique part of this CLG team, however, is that while they can choose to ignore team fights and push multiple lanes, they are just as adept at turning around and surprising the enemy team. As we saw in the game, Chauster hit some key Sona Crescendos which allowed BigFat to corner enemies with his explosive casket. Doublelift provided a team-wide steroid and Voyboy could instantly ghost into battle and turn on Ragnarok to put maximum damage on the squishier members of the enemy team to instantly gun them down.

 

Build: 

The builds for these champions were rather standard. Just in case you missed them, let's take a look at the stereotypical and unique items that were picked up by some of these players.

Doublelift's AD Sivir went with a typical Bloodthirster + Phantom Dancer build. Bloodthirster is chosen here as Sivir's excellent attack speed synergizes the best with flat AD as she can chain extra auto-attacks with Ricochet anyways. Phantom Dancer is a typical AD choice and gives her a bit extra movement speed, attack speed, and of course the chance to crit for some bonus damage.

   

Chauster's Sona also went with a rather typical GP5 route but instead of keeping Philo Stone and Heart of Gold at their tier 1 items, built his Philosopher's Stone into a Shurelia's Reverie right away. He would pick up an Aegis of the Legion later.

Hotshot's Dr. Mundo also went with a standard build, typical HP stacking and healing benefits with Spirit Visage, Heart of Gold, and Warmog's armor. While Dr. Mundo did not have the best Armor/Mres stats, his massive healing and mobility allowed him to move around as an excellent meatshield.

  

Voyboy's Olaf is where things get interesting. Instead of building traditionally offensive items such as Hexdrinker, Phage (into Mallet), or getting lifesteal, Voyboy went straight defensive. His build featured a quick Shurelia's Reverie into a Giant's Belt and Mres in the form of a Force of Nature. This is unique but effective building because Olaf simply does not need to build offensive items to bully around enemies in fights. His base stats and bonuses gained from Vicious Strikes and Ragnarok are enough to crush most of the his squishier opponents. The Reverie was used as another layer of safety by providing his team with even more disengage than they already had. In later games, CLG would have a total of THREE Shurelia's Reveries to provide speed boost after speed boost after speed boost.

    

Lastly, BigFat's Gragas opted for a Deathfire's Grasp as opposed to straight AP as many other players might prefer. This is because Gragas at times can be a situational champion that may accidently throw away his skills or misuse them. The Deathfire's Grasp is used as guaranteed damage because it is point and click and gives his team the extra damage and burst to ensure a kill should they catch an enemy lurking somewhere.

  

 

Summoner Spells:

Now of course, the summoner spell usage by this team is interesting. The lack of ignites for this entire team would probably lead most people to assume that laning kill potential is lowered. However, this is false. Because Voyboy and BigFat are both carrying teleport now, there is a lot more opportunity for them to teleport to bot lane wards when the enemy pushes and set up a play with Hotshot, creating a quick 4v2 opportunity. Teleport not only helps them set up plays and assist allies who are getting dived or engaged on, it also allows them to choose to ignore these fights as well and jump to another lane to push waves and deal damage to turrets as per their strategy. This forces the enemy to either make a risky engagement or back up to deal with the advancing minion waves.

The last key to this team is the usage of Promote on Chauster. Promote is the key player for this strategy because used at level 1, it allows CLG to take a free wave and deal some free damage to the enemy bot lane without risk of retaliation thanks to minion aggro. Also, should Doublelift or Chauster decide to both go to another lane or leave to recall, promoting a minion will stop the enemy bot lane from leaving as well in order to assist because Promoted minions often have the pushing power of a champion.

 

Conclusion: 

As we can see, CLG clearly outthinked Legion in this game. The picks were flawless as these champions all have relatively strong pushing power and mobility as well as the ability to disengage and retreat. Should they decide to fight, CLG's team also has strong synergy and the displacement and focus fire from BigFat and Voyboy respectively can tear down enemy carries. With their summoner spells, they are able to push multiple lanes, assist each other during fights, and even make a quick getaway as Doublelift would show us. A build that relies on Shurelia's Reverie only complements these picks and cements CLG's pushing strategy as hard to beat.