TSM vs. Dignitas

I don’t think there was ever any real chance of me picking any other game. We have two 1-1 teams who both only lost to Cloud 9 week one, the hands down best team in North America. This will likely tell us a lot about where both teams are. In terms of a tier order, Cloud 9 is the only S tier team in North America, while TSM, Dignitas, and Flyquest all find themselves somewhere in that A tier. Considering Flyquest isn’t really playing anyone good this weekend we won’t get a good reading on them, but this TSM-Dignitas matchup should tell us which, or if both of these teams is deserving of that A tier ranking.

This matchup has some interesting matchups, especially in the solo lanes. During Worlds last year they had an alternate stream (Not alternative facts) where they would focus on a matchup in the game at hand. I would love to see a stream that focused on either the mid or top matchup.

Keane over performed last week and looked amazing. I have been a Keane fan since his Gravity days, but this is the best form he has ever been in. On the other hand you have the Danish King of the mid lane. Bjergsen will need to control mid so that Sven can help out the other lanes. TSM can no longer be about 4 man ganking mid, they need to allow Bjergsen to win on an island, and let Sven help the other lanes along.

The top matchup will be a crucial one for Hauntzer. I have always been skeptical of Hauntzer, and I don’t believe he is as good as TSM Jatt likes to say that he is, and this matchup might show us how far the gap is between the NA born top laners and the Korean born top laners. Ssumday, if he has AD Kennen mastery, which after a week of it popping up in Korea I’m sure he has, will have several strong conterpicks to whatever Hauntzer wants to throw at him. But here is actually what I predict will happen. TSM will try to force Ssumday onto a tank top laner by banning out champs like Fora and Kennen and taking Maokai. Ssumday either picks Trundle and crushes him, or a standard tank top laner and proceeds to beat Hauntzer in an unfavorable matchup.

I think the highest contested pick in this matchup is going to be Ashe, both teams will look to secure it because of how Wildturtle played when he was relegated to playing Kalista, and with the trio of good adcs it wouldn’t surprise me if both teams attempt to first pick Ashe and force the other team to pick Varus, or risk losing both Jhin and Varus.

Prediction: 2-0 Dignitas. I think Dig will blow out TSM one game and I think the other will be rather close. I just don’t think TSM has an answer for Ssumday, and I think that the rest of the map needs too much attention for Sven to get the lead for Bjergsen that he would need to carry the game.

The Meta:

Though the normal client has switched to 7.2 the professionals will still be playing on 7.1 this weekend, and I expect very few changes going into this week.

Red Side Bans: Camille, Rengar, Leblanc. This standard first three bans remained true last week, and I think it will stay that way, some teams are only banning one, and then allowing each team to get 1 op champion.

Blue Side Bans: General target bans, probably a decent amount of Maokai and or Fiora bans. If I am blue side, I hate the way top lane is set up, even with all of the bans you get, it’s incredibly hard to put your top laner in a favorable or even neutral position.

Here are the likely champions you will see at every position this weekend:

Top: Maokai, Jayce, Kennen, Poppy, Nautilus, Rumble, Singed

Jungle: Rengar, Kha’zix, Lee Sin, Elise, Rek’sai, Olaf, Hecarim

Mid Lane: Ryze, Jayce, Syndra, Cassiopeia, Orianna, Corki, Viktor, Katarina,

ADC: Ashe, Jhin, Varus, Ziggs, Caitlyn, Kalista,

Support: Malzahar, Zyra, Miss Fortune, Karma, Taric, Tahm Kench, Nami, Bard, Syndra (Hoepfully)

Tuesday morning saw the ROX Tigers pick Syndra support and that’s absolutely insane, the support meta right now is so much more about mages than it is about standard supports. The changes to Rylai’s and Liandry’s have made support mages very strong and there were no changes to either item in the 7.2 patch. Looks like we will have this crazy meta at least for a few more weeks.

Another interesting development is the rise of Corki mid. This pick has always been just outside relevancy for competitive play but it’s seeing more time in the spotlight with the rise of Varus. The two create a rather potent poking combination and they are both great at sieging turrets.

Jhin has seen a fall in priority, leaving only Ashe and Varus as top tier adc picks, it will be interesting to see the fallout of this change this upcoming week as teams continue to play around with pick/ban.

Again here is a partial tier list.

 

S tier                                                                                        A tier:

Top: Camille, Fiora, Maokai                                                   Top: Nautilus, Poppy, Rumble,

Jungle: Rengar, Kha’zix,                                                         Jungle: Lee Sin, Rek’sai

Mid: Leblanc, Ryze                                                                Mid: Orianna, Cassiepeia, Corki

ADC: Ashe, Varus                                                                  ADC: Jhin

Support: Malzahar, Miss Fortune                                            Support: Zyra, Taric