Another day, another showcase of great League of Legends gameplay. The play-ins might have been a showcase of unrefined play in the past, but the 2020 edition has featured games of a higher quality than usual – with some even looking clean.
On Days 2 and 3, the following five picks stood out for their cleaner than usual execution. Although UoL Nomanz’s Kassadin against V3 Esports make the list, it is still worthy of a special mention before we get into the spotlighted picks.
SUP Armut’s Shen: 10/0/6 vs. INTZ Esports, 100% kill participation ratio
Day 2 of the 2020 World Championship play-ins was a SuperMassive type, with victories over CBLoL’s INTZ Esports and the LEC’s MAD Lions. Armut shined in both victories, but he was particularly devastating on Shen against INTZ – partly due to their misplays, and partly due to KaKAO’s interventionism on Hercarim.
The significantly underrated Shen pick, one of the LEC’s trademarks during the playoffs, shut the lights out early on, with INTZ Tay falling flat on Renekton early at the 3:15 mark. With that lead, Shen ran circles around him, then around INTZ with timely taunts and R – Stand United use around Rift Herald at the 9-minute mark. Not enough? Leave it to him to turn the game into his showcase after single-handedly thwarting a 4v1 towerdive at the 11:20 mark, turning it into a 2-0 to his advantage and begging the question: why hasn’t the champion seen more play when left open during the play-ins?
R7 Aloned’s Orianna: 7/2/11 vs. LGD Gaming
Rainbow7 faced oblivion in their second game of Day 2, as a loss against LGD Gaming would have eliminated them from the competition. Instead of cowering against LGD’s skirmish-favoring composition, they responded with a scaling teamfight juggernaut and the ultimate teamfight controller: Orianna.
The champion’s waveclearing abilities serve to hold the Twisted Fate matchup in check during the laning phase most of the time, and her R – Command: Shockwave can reverse a teamfight, taking as many targets as possible to the fountain. In Aloned’s case, he willingly used it on a single target when it meant eliminating a key target. With the game hanging in the balance, twice did he deliver Rainbow7 to victory: in the 30th minute, his Shockwave turned an unfavorable 4v5 into a momentum swinger, as R7 took control. In the 36th minute, another shockwave secured the victory – and eventually landed them in an uncontested third place.
LGD Langx’s Ornn: 2/1/12 vs. V3 Esports
LGD Gaming’s chances of group stage qualification hung precariously close to an abyss as the team struggled in its first two games. However, their first game against V3 Esports allowed them to keep their hopes alive, with Langx’s Ornn powering their initiative. As it turned out, that victory was needed, as they faced V3 again and secured their ticket to the play-in knockout round.
Langx first dominated Paz’s Renekton in lane as Ornn’s deceptive early-game damage caught his opponent off-guard. From there, he snowballed and became nearly unkillable, which helped LGD set up one-sided teamfights – if they did not split up for some unknown reason. Between his crowd control and his near immortality, LGD’s backline safely dealt damage, taking a rather one-sided victory.
R7 Josedeodo’s Evelynn: 8/2/9 vs. Unicorns of Love
There are two types of Evelynn players on Summoners’ Rift: those that try to play the champion, forcing a specific approach only to confuse the grey screen of death for a regular feature; and those who follow her flow, elusively dashing where they are least expected. On Josedeodo’s case, he was easily the latter. Just ask UoL’s Gadget how he felt when he became acquainted with the grey screen feature, leading to a bafflingly early purchase of a party hat called Rabadon’s Deathcap.
Picked into static damage options, Evelynn was free to annihilate UoL’s damage threats before they could breathe. Merely by their existence, Nomanz’s Cassiopeia (2/4/1) and Gadget’s Senna (0/5/4) had committed a sin. And so it was that, from the 25-tonne-heavy tome of Mejai’s Soulstealer, that Josedeodo’s Evelynn read Ezekiel 25:17 and laid down her vengeance upon them, towards securing a 2-0 on Day 3 and a play-in bracket stage qualification.
UoL Gadget’s Twitch: 8/2/9 vs. LGD Gaming
The Unicorns of Love faced the possibility of being involved in tiebreakers for second place in Group B or to force a tiebreaker for first place, and they had to win their game against LGD Gaming to decide that. Although the game started on a sour note, they held the keys to victory with a solid skirmish comp and a hyperscaling Twitch.
Gadget’s deeds on Twitch qualify as unspeakable horror in LGD fans’ eyes, as all that could be seen was bodies hitting the floor after performing clutch high-damage flanks. Twitch’s activation started incredibly early as he skilled his Q – Ambush ahead of other skills, providing him with great flanking opportunities and faster attack speed on his R – Spray and Pray. That much was in display in the game-deciding flank following an Infernal Drake Soul claim at the 27:45 mark, with a brilliantly executed 3v1 play.
