Tournament Format vs. Season Format and what MSI actually tells us

Tournaments vs. Seasons

Going into the Mid-Season Invitational, most analysts had Team SoloMid at third place with Fnatic close on their heels. If the Mid-Season Invitational were to happen again I would still have TSM as third as would many other analysts despite their poor performance at MSI. What about MSI made TSM look like a team worse than AHQ and Fnatic despite most people pinning them a lot higher?

The Season Format

The NA LCS Spring Split lasted 9 weeks for the double round robin and another 3 weeks for playoffs. The round robin was played on patches 5.1-5.5 with the playoffs being played on 5.6. The game changed significantly from the beginning of the season to the end. As such, teams are forced to adapt as the season goes on. Players have time to develop new picks and adjust their champion pool as the meta changes. No two weeks of the season are the same or see the exact same picks. The players are forced to keep their champion pools up to date with the relevant champions as the season goes on. The season tests the ability of a team as a whole to stay consistent for weeks at a time.

Who has the responsibility?

Ultimately, the players have the responsibility. They are the ones who are responsible for making sure their champion pool is up to date and can handle the flavor of the month picks. This doesn’t mean learning 3 entirely new champions every time a new patch roles out. No player can do that and stay at the top level of play for an extended period of time. At the same time, no player can play only the same three champions throughout an entire nine week season and be successful. The meta is going to shift or they are going to get targeted in the draft phase by opponents. A player can become a major weakness for their team if they don’t keep their champion pool up to date.

The Tournament Format

The Mid-Season Invitational lasted 4 days with teams playing every day. A similar format was used for the IEM events, each of which also lasted 4 days. The shorter overall time frame created by this format means teams get no significant breaks, and little time to practice new strategies once the tournament starts. This also means that a player has a set champion pool going into the event because they don’t have time to learn any new champions once it starts. This can be a huge factor in the outcome of the tournament as a team might be at a significant disadvantage because of one player’s champion pool.

The format of the event has a large effect on the drafts for each of the games. A team can’t bring out all of their strategies on the first day of competition and they also need to be wary of other strategies a team may be holding for a specific scenario. A prime example of this was the strategy EDG used in game 5 of MSI against SKT. They baited out the Leblanc pick from Faker and pulled out a Morgana in response. Pawn had not played Morgana at all up to that point, nor had Faker played Leblanc. SKT chose a strategy that they had played before, risking the chance that EDG would have a counter prepared.

The Power Picks of a tournament are also a huge factor in who does well. The accuracy with which a team identifies and prepares for the champions which the tournament centers around can determine how well a team does. MSI was focused on the Cassiopeia and Azir picks, mostly in the mid lane. If you didn’t play these champions, then you had to ban them or have a very specific way to deal with them. Otherwise, your team was at a significant disadvantage.

Where is the responsibility?

The responsibility lies in the analysis of power picks and the scouting of the opponents, whether it is done by coaches, analysts, or players in game. The number of the power picks you practice or prepare for can determine how many strategies you can play and your ability to adapt throughout the tournament. The better you can adapt in a tournament, the better your chances are in the later stages of the tournament.

If you know what champions the other teams are going to be focusing on then you can prepare them as well, or have a strategy to deal with them.  Your strategies and champions have to be appropriate for the tournament or you hinder yourself before it even starts. If you don’t have a significant number of strategies planned, the number varying on the length of the tournament, then you can become predictable and, as a result, vulnerable to counterpicks.

What does this mean for Worlds?

Worlds is an interesting situation because the entire event last 4 weeks. There is a decent chunk of time between phases of the event, enough to develop a new pick or strategy. All of worlds will be played on the same patch making the most important factors how many strategies and when you show them in the tournament. If you show everything you have in the group stage, you need to come up with something new between then and the bracket stages. You do have the ability to develop and practice one or two compositions during the small breaks and these can be key going into a weekend where you only play one opponent but you don’t have time to change the core of your team.

Even with the slightly longer format of worlds, the game is going to change very little, if at all, during the time course of the event. A team will not need to adapt to the changes in the meta over the event, but to what their opponents are playing. They won’t have time to adapt during the group stage and will need to identify proper picks and pick priority before the event starts or very early during groups. After the group stage a team will be able to adapt a little bit to their opponents play but they can’t rely on this one week for a miracle to happen.