Analysing pro games can be a tricky thing since usually you can only really see what is shown on the broadcast, but I plan on going as in depth as I can into the part of the game that can be perfectly seen, the pick and ban phase. This is the part of the game that can give one team a sizeable advantage before the game even starts. This is especially important since the the games past group stage will be best of five format meaning that teams will need to come very well prepared for multiple draft phases.

For the first example I'm going to talk about is the very first game of the tournament between Samsung White and Edward Gaming.

EDG BANS: Yasuo, Kassadin, Alistar
SSW BANS: Twitch, Ryze, Janna

All of these bans are either standard (Alistar) or very targeted (Yasuo against PawN). So there is not much to say.

FIRST PICK
EDG: Maokai
SSW: Zilean Kha’Zix

This is a great example of how to pick on red side, SSW took a strong jungler (not much can be done to counterpick junglers as directly as you can with laners) as well as a flex pick. What I mean by a flex pick is in this case Zilean can either be a mid laner or a support, so by picking him first round SSW doesn’t give anything away about where he could be going so if in the next round of picks EDG picks a mid laner that does well against Zilean they could just change their minds about where they want him to go.

Maokai is not a mind-blowing pick, he is just a good top laner but it does allow for some counterpicking by grabbing him this early in the draft.

SECOND PICK
EDG: Thresh, Lucian
SSW: Rumble, Tristana

The most interesting thing about these picks is Rumble. Keep in mind this was the first game played on the first day of worlds so nobody new for sure what other regions had been practicing. But right out of the gates SSW pulls out the crowd favorite Rumble! This is an amazing pick as Rumble just crushes Maokai in terms of damage and teamfighting power, while Maokai has tons of crowd control he just doesn’t bring nearly as much damage as Rumble. Like I said before Maokai was a bit of a risk because it opens him up to countering, but luckily for him Maokai has near infinite sustain against Cooldown based champions with his passive so he won’t be dying very much one on one (even though lane swapping in competitive can possibly negate this anyway).

As for the ADC picks and the Thresh pick there is not a whole lot to say, I would assume that the Lucian pick was more of a comfort pick for Namei since Tristana wasn’t picked nearly as much in other regions (compared to NA and EU at least). The Thresh pick is pretty good for the situation because he can easily Flay Kha’Zix around to stop him from abusing his long range resettable leap.

THIRD PICK
EDG: Jarvan, Orianna
SSW: Nami

This is actually very smart by EDG to hide their compositions purpose until the last pick phase but unfortunately they picked a wombo combo comp into a team with Zilean and is just generally for team fighting. This makes it very hard for EDG to do anything unless all the stars align and they get the perfect engage (which I presume is a very Chinese way of building a team comp due to the high amount of team fights that happen from constantly contesting every objective, though EDG is notorious for not being quite as blood thirsty).

On the other hand the Nami pick from SSW is amazing for their composition and a great counter to EDG's. Nami is one of the best supports in the game (especially when played at the level Mata has been known to play her) and allows for SSW to break any attempt at a wombo that EDG throws at them using tidal wave or even a well-placed Aqua Prison.

SO WHO WINS?

Well both team comps have their strengths but I would definitely give the edge to SSW because their comp has a flexibility that EDG just doesn’t have. If EDG want their comp to work they need at least one or two consecutive fights where they are able to land their combo in order to secure enough of a lead to win fights where they don’t land their combo (they would need to secure a lead to buffer the raw power differences in the comps). Additionally SSW have amazing late game because of Tristana which EDG just can’t match due to most of their picks having more of a mid-game focus.

SO HOW DO I USE THIS KNOWLEDGE?

In my opinion watching the draft phase is one the coolest parts of competitive league of legends simply because it is like its own game of chess before the real game even starts. Watching the two teams have a battle of wits to decide who gets the edge is not only awesome to see (especially when there are big outplays which are sadly missed in the broadcast sometimes). I hope that after reading this you can appreciate the pick and ban phase in competitive play a little more and will be able to more thoroughly enjoy the rest of this year’s World Championships.