The Case of Ssumday: How Flanks Can Win Games In NA LCS

In Week 1 of the Summer Split, Team Dignitas faced Team EnVyUs to kick it off for our team's 2nd half of the season. Having finished 6th in the Spring Split, we are currently aiming to seek our former days of glory again. With that in mind, we have already begun this season in the 1st place tied with Immortals and CLG, yet we are constantly improving.

In our match against Team EnVyUs however, the series was sent into a Game 3. And when it most mattered, Ssumday showed us the reason why he is called the Teleport Master back in Korea by creating two flank opportunities, one in the early game and one in the late game, which gave us a huge advantage and helped us close out the series respectively.

The term flank in League of Legends is used when a champion, split from his team and usually hidden from enemies, gets to the backline without anyone knowing that he is there. In other words, when a team secretly surrounds the other team, they perform a maneuver referred to as a flank. Without further ado let's take a look over the early game flank.

Flank #1

So we are eleven minutes into the game, and no team has made the first move yet. Everything is going down smoothly and no Jungler has attempted anything successfully. It all starts when Chaser's Rengar wards a little outside the Red Side Bot Lane tri-bush. This is everything in this highlight, as without it no flank opportunity could occur.

Both teams are currently grouping to contest the first Ocean Dragon of the game. Both Toplaners are in Top with their global spells up. The rest of Team Dignitas are clearing out the enemy vision in the river, when Pirean and Apollo decide to engage onto them with their Ultimates, after realizing that their enemies were grouped up so their Ultimates would find at least 3 enemy targets. Seeing that, all of Team Dignitas' members attempt to take down Pirean's Cassiopeia quickly, as she was a bit out of position but Seraph saves his Mid Laner with his R (Stand United).

While the rest of his team is fighting, Ssumday sees what's happening, and immediately realizes that there is a flank opportunity. Without any delay, he Teleports "behind enemy lines" to the ward which Chaser had previously put down. Four seconds later, and while no one has died, he activates his R (Equalizer) just so it manages to hit 4 enemies, and in addition, he surrounds Team EnVyUs, leaving them with no other choice than to fight.

Unable to fight while standing on top of the Equalizer, they try to reposition. Team Dignitas, not needing much more time to make the most out of it, chunked all enemies down simultaneously, making them waste their Summoner Spells as well. In the end, Team Dignitas took 4 kills from this fight, as well as the First Turret of the game, increasing their lead up to a 2.5K gold difference only 12 minutes into the game. Little did EnVyUs know that another successful flank would be the reason why they would lose this series.

Flank #2

At this point, Team Dignitas has already killed the Elder Dragon uncontested and, with that buff on for the next 2 and a half minutes, they surely want to fight during this time period. Indeed, they engage immediately, with LOD's Ashe stunning LirA's Lee Sin.

While Team Dignitas tries to reposition and regain some HP in Big's Redemption, Apollo casts his R (Chain of Corruption) which will snare all his enemies in just a couple of seconds. However, in this short time window, they chunk Pirean down to half HP. As soon as Shen casts his R (Stand United) on him, Team Dignitas' members seem to back off.

The fight restarts only 3 seconds later, this time in the Mid Lane. No one from either side has died yet and this is when it all goes down. Ssumday, as soon as his teammates start fighting, sees that a deep ward has been placed down behind the enemy (again by his Jungler Chaser) and instantly casts his TP on it. This way, he will get to the backline without having to face LirA's Lee Sin and Seraph's Shen first, and create a huge opportunity for winning this team fight.

It seems like EnVyUs didn't realize he was TP'ing there when they were fighting, as they didn't seem to react. What follows is Ssumday taking down Pirean's Cassiopeia and forcing his enemies retreat back to their base. Despite Ssumday's Rumble taking an enemy down and dealing a huge amount of damage to the rest of Team EnVyUs, he decided to activate his Zhonya's Hourglass as soon as the enemies started attacking him, since he saw that his mates were only a couple of seconds away from being able to back him up. Indeed, his misposition was not a mistake, as he made the enemies stay in place just to fight him when he comes off the effect. So when things get rough, he activates his Zhonya's to gain a little more extra time for his team to reply.

This was maybe the turning point of the fight as despite all enemies were sitting on less than half of their HP percentage, had he didn't activate his Zhonya's, this fight would still be a 4 versus 4, and none would be able to guess its outcome.

Nevertheless, when Ssumday's Zhonya effect ends, he instantly Flashes to dodge the hook by Hakuho's Thresh to buy some extra moments for his team to position themselves and to make sure the enemies don't get away in the meantime. As a matter of fact, after sacrificing himself for the team's good, Team Dignitas cleared out the enemies, leaving only the Support and the Top Laner alive to defend their base. 

Unable to do so, Team Dignitas finished both the game and the series only moments later, grabbing the victory over Team EnVyUs in this nerve-wracking series. Player of the Game award was of course given to Ssumday for his exceptional performance throughout this series, with the highlights being these two flanks of course.

Next week, we are facing Immortals and Cloud9 and we are readier than ever to do so. Currently sitting in the 1st place, we certainly need these 2 victories to maintain our spot on the NA LCS ladder. Please root for us this next week, our guys will definitely need it.