Reign of Gaming

m5 still best in europe over clg.eu imo. we've seen m5 lose to crs.eu and tpa; two teams that are very very good. on the other hand, clg.eu has lost to sword, frost, blaze, dignitas, and fnatic. 

New items will bring needed diversity across the board for all types of characters. I'm excited. :D

Hashinshin is biased, all he plays is solo top bruisers. Imo the hardest hit will be ADC, with jungler and support getting a huge power increase. We will see.

Do people really not go harass builds as support? I'm thinking of Sona, and GoSuPepper's Sona is aggressive as fuck...so much harass.

Actually, Cait is surprisingly good at dominion. The traps are great for zoning around points, her long range auto attack and net is great for kiting bruisers (that typically show up a lot in dominion), and her q does a pretty decent job of getting rid of cappers and delaying them for a bit. I'd argue that while she's not the tier 1 AD carry, she's definitely not low end either.

Thank you for responding in a respectful manner. I will now proceed to nitpick on a few minor details.

Nunu: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/who-is-your-jungler-and-what-does-he-do-114118#chapter6 -- slowest clearer in the game according to this

Pushing and team comp.: Plenty of team comps. push a lot better than the one Azubu Blaze had...Pushing is what they did, yes, but to say the team comp. helped it? Go check out CLG.NA's team comps.

Late game AD: In your post you said he was a top 3 late game AD carry. I say he's not. I give three champions followed by assertion than he's shit late game (or at least outclassed by too many to count late game). I'm not arguing whether he's a strong pick, as he's very very strong early/mid and brings magic damage to lane, I'm arguing your point saying he's good late.

Bursty AD: We can go in a custom. 3 seconds, I shoot you with Ezreal/Corki burst and you shoot me with Graves burst. We see how much it is in comparison. If you're saying in teamfight, first off, your original post said that Graves had highest burst. He really doesn't at all in lane phase and it's situational if he has highest in teamfight. And for highest safety -- other champions have similar/better escape mechanisms and have much better range. If your post was to say that Graves is best AD, do it without using extreme words (i.e. most, best, outclasses, always). And no. I think Graves is solid but definitely not the best. If he was the best he'd get even more nerfs (Riot loves nerfing things that are even slightly out of line). I do see that you made sure to mention that it's your opinion though so I think it's fine.

Trueshot Barrage: It scales off AD (as well as AP).

Cass: You don't have to play aggressively, look at Ocelote's Cass. It's not always agressive. Against Alex Ich he used q to farm on stream and told teammates he was going to push and then gank (not aggressively try to get kill at mid).

Outclassed: Alex Ich's Gragas/SK Ocelote's Gragas/SK Ocelote's Cassiopeia would like to have a word with you. Cass was feared enough that M5 permabanned her a few tourneys ago at Kiev. She brings lots of pressure early, and 3rd? most sustained DPS late (after Malz and Morde I think). In Game 2, Blaze was concerned enough about Cass to CC her for 5 seconds straight and instagib her. I think that itself shows you how strong Cass is.

Gragas: Is it better? Watch Alex Ich's Gragas last EU LAN tourney vs. Froggen's Anivia and Karthus. It did a lot more in terms of impact. E doesn't put you in harms way, you e the guy that gets flung closest to you. You like the aoe damage dealers that bring sustained DPS, but Assassin mages like TF/Gragas/whatever bring a lot to the team too. Insanely strong ganks, lots of burst DPS (better if the enemy team has fed AD), lots of poke (great to have sieging a tower), and lots of utility. EDIT: If you're going to play the "outplayed" argument watch the games and tell me what differently Froggen could've done. Not much. He pushed down towers , attempted to countergank, played brilliantly late game...but that Gragas outshined Froggen a lot by instabursting a champion every few seconds. 

TF argument: Would you rather have an AD with 4 extra kills and an enemy AD with 4 extra deaths and an extra ~7k ahead, or would you rather have the Karthus with same negatives? That's what TF brings. Late game, would you rather get an instagib on the enemy AD or would you rather have sustained DPS across the mainly tanky champs (with ~700 guaranteed damage on the carries)? Also late game, would you rather have a 5v4 or a 5v5? That's what TF properly handled can bring to a team. He is nowhere outclassed by other mages. If you're going to talk about outclass talk about champs with similar skillsets. For instance, I agree that Karma is outclassed COMPLETELY by Sona, and probably by Soraka. This is because the MS buff is roughly the same as Sona's, the damage is higher for Sona, and the sustain is higher for Sona. This is truly being "outclassed" (let's be honest, that shitty shield can't compare AT ALL to aoe ult/AS debuff/everything else sona does). Why I cannot say the same thing for Soraka is because Soraka's sustain/heal is better, but she doesn't have an MS buff like Karma does or brings the same harass. She's probably stronger, but you can't say something like that straight up without getting argued on like crazy (what you're probably feeling right now).

Final Thoughts: You may not want to risk success, and you share the opinion of SV. He said once that the press r to win meta was OP and that that's what every team should do. But M5 has shown this to be utter bullshit, and I think teams like TSM realize this too. Honestly, I estimate that roughly 75% of the champs are perfectly viable and fit certain team comps.

Btw where are you getting the stats on Cass/Gragas having lower win loss? Looking across stats they seem to be fairly within the "acceptable" range. 

I have no idea how to do the fancy quote thing but here we go!

Then you finish it off by saying that my content is not of high enough quality and that things I write are akin to random ramblings. I choose my words very deliberately and put a lot of time into organizing my thoughts.

In other words, this guy suffers from a lack of game knowledge. 

I am aware you are my "customer" but just as the manager of any establishment I have the right to refuse you service.

...This is the most arrogant post I've ever seen. 

This is hardly a shining example of how to provide constructive criticism in a polite way.

This is hardly a shining example of recognize one's mistake.

Honestly, here's what I really am mad about. You cheapen the Koreans' win. According to your article, Koreans won because : 

-ReginaId was an idiot for picking two worthless mids (you can argue that with Regi who decided to pick them)

-Koreans' team comp. was ridiculously overpowered and did everything, whereas TSM's team comp. made no sense (entire TSM can talk to you on that one)

-Korean team comp. was amazing. Here's the complete bullshit. Let me give you an example.

Azubu Picks: Graves, Maokai, Shen, Janna, Karthus

Curse Picks: Alistar, Nocturne, Ezreal, Morgana, Olaf

Above are the picks from Blaze and  Curse with no color added. I feel the bans are pretty standard (and in game 1 are usually based around what is op) so I won't bother going into them. If you look at both teams you won't notice any unorthodox champions or new strategies being revealed. Looking at Blaze we can see pretty standard picks, their favorite AD Graves, the ganker Maokai, and Shen/Karthus for their globals.  Then if you look at Curse they have strong champions but no real inherent synergy. They picked up Nocturne and aren't even running a scary initiation with him. "So why on Earth does this guy think this is artistic?" Because their team is blatantly overpowered and allows them to flawlessly dominate the early game and no one can even detect it. Let me explain, lets examine all the champions.

...after a bunch of bullshit...

Overview: If you haven't already noticed the "team" synergy, as opposed to "champion" synergy (like Morg and Kennen or Kayle and Karthus), is vastly superior on team Crs than on Blaze. I don't know if this perfect team was intentional or not but it is absolutely astounding if your main strategy is to shake off CC and stick onto targets. Once Crs hit level 6 their team shakes off all potential forms of CC with Ragnarok and Unbreakable Will, dealing damage with those two tanks in the frontline and having the kite master Ezreal fire from behind. Morgana offers a ton of protection for the team with Blaze shield, shaking off even more CC, and has an aoe ult that ensnares the entire enemy team. And finally, Nocturne causes a ton of confusion with his ultimate and offers stellar ganks for Team Curse the entire game. Have you ever theoretically though of a more perfect team a team that grows this exponentially strong as soon as they hit level 6? I didn't think something like this could be possible! (I didn't think such well written bullshit analysis was possible until I read this too!) To top it all off you run it on a team whose favorite strategy is to shake off CC and dominate by providing damage. (Notice it's exactly the same as the previous sentences...) That is why I think Team Curse is artistic and not scientific. (What does this even mean??) Whoever came up with this composition is someone truly passionate about this game and not someone with a chalkboard and a calculator. (And whoever came up with this analysis clearly is misguided and not someone who wishes to impose random theorycraft on others)

Well played sir.

Some of the article is ok. However, the rest of the article suffers from heavy bias and downright lackluster knowledge of the game. (why is TSM considered the best NA team???)

First point: Nunu is definitely not a fast clearer. I don't know where you're getting that info, because he's probably actually one of the slowest clearers in the game. (no aoe clear = slow clear)

Second point: What is up with the Vlad and Taric analysis? Taric is actually one of the weaker supports later. Would you rather have a 100 armor buff, global heal, and 3 second silence or a stun and a 15 armor/mres buff? Or an aoe stun, sustained healing, 40% damage reduction, 40% single target slow, group ms buff? Or even a 3 different ways to protect the carry? Taric doesn't scale well at all past lvl 6. Vlad's 12% damage increase is nice, yes, but other solo tops bring just as much. What use is 12% damage increase and sustained damage if other solo tops can 100 - 0 the carry in a few seconds? Other solo tops have ridiculous ultimates as well and cause disruption everywhere. Vlad is merely a solid pick, but not the "amazing synergy team comp. pick" you were mentioning. You are merely stating the benefits of the team comp. and acting like it's the greatest thing in the world. 

Third point: Corki is not a top 3 late game carry. I agree he's solid early/mid, but late game off the top of my head Vayne, Tristana, and Kog'maw are far superior. Where are Corki's steroids? And his only reposition is a w, far less convenient than Vayne's constant reposition or Ezreal's. 10% true damage does not make a top 3 AD carry. Add that to his mediocre range and he is NOWHERE a top AD carry late game, much less a top 3.

Fourth point: How the hell is Graves burstier than Ezreal or Corki?? SAFER?? Are you kidding me? I'm not even going to argue on this one.

Fifth point: Completely fail to mention the counterganking that won Azubu Blaze all three games and talk about synergy that isn't there, yay!

Sixth point: Cassio is not a worthless champion. She has one of the highest sustained DPS in the game, as well as one of the best ults in the game. She takes skill to use, but ReginaId has proven himself to have this skill. Cassio has no lane counters as well. The only reason why she was ganked and killed early is because ReginaId has an aggressive playstyle and was overextended.

Seventh Point: You wanna know why TSM lost this game? Look at the last major teamfight at baron. Regi's Cass was CC'ed for 6 seconds straight. Instantly bursted, then the ghost was suppressed by Skarner, then the ghost was silenced by Soraka. In other words, the main DPS, Cassio, was out of the fight completely. Not because of a bad pick from TSM. To say that TSM lost because they picked Cassio is cheapening the Korean team out of their hard earned win. They won because they outplayed them throughout the game, from counterganking, ganking, and excellent teamfighting. In particular, the solo top player for Blaze was on Chaox the entire game. It was a nightmare for Chaox and he even said so. When the two main DPS are effectively being taken out of the fight over and over again, it's no wonder that Azubu Blaze won. TSM only won one "fair" teamfight the entire game -- the rest were all won by Blaze.

Eighth Point: Gragas is not a bad champion. He is definitely not unreliable. He brings some of the highest poke of any champion, a great laning phase, an incredible ultimate that can really bring people out of position, and some massive burst. He has 3 damage skills -- where do you get the 2 from?? Twisted Fate, in addition, is a great AP carry late game. Constant stun and heavy burst on the enemy AD, as well as Destiny, makes him good. All of the best AP carries: Alex Ich, Froggen, Ocelote : consider Gragas to be a very strong mid. Why so much bias?

RoG, I don't understand how someone with such limited game knowledge has managed to gain front page post access. This article is severely plagued with bias and misinformation, and I think most of the comments reflect this. ...