Intel Extreme Masters Hannover #1

MUST WATCH!

Holy shit.  Excuse my language, but this tournament has been crazy!  If you missed the first two days, they play reruns during the day, but if you want to catch it live you're going to have to stay up. (Unless you're from the East, where you luckily don't have to stay up till 5AM to watch all the matches)  The tournament definitely has taken a few swings that I didn't expect and a few things that regretfully I saw coming.

I'll start with some SPOILER FREE stuff, and then I'll put a big wall before I go over some spoilers. I HIGHLY recommend watching some of the games, there were some definitely great games and a few really sad game throws. What did I notice in this tournament?

Shyvanna is still M5's favorite champion it seems.  They just play her so well and it works so well in their gameplay strategies.  Basically a must ban against them!  Its cool to see that Shyvanna wasn't just a one shot wonder surprise pick, but instead becoming one of those top tier picks along with Udyr, Lee Sin, and Skarner.  Surprisingly not a lot of Skarner seen, which I predict is because he gives away what position he is taking.  You show your cards if you pick Skarner, if you pick Lee Sin, Udyr, or Shyvanna they can go either top lane or jungle.  Yes, Skarner can go top: its just not that pretty.

Corki got a lot of love from some teams, which is something I always like to see. I think Corki takes a unique amount of skill.  He has the best escape of the ranged ADs, has a good mix of armor shred/magic damage to mix it up.  He has amazing poke, and can get kills pretty easily in lane. 

Kog'Maw has dominated this tournament.  Its so great to see Kog'maw making a return as I felt that he was never really taken down.  His slight nerf to his bio-arcane barrage wasn't enough to kill him, then with nerfs to Graves, Vayne, and Sivir it's given him his highlight again.  Also, the Nunu Bloodboil + Kog'Maw is just GROSS.  

Graves didn't do all that well. I believe its because his range just makes him not as viable in comeptitive play.  He needs to get way to dangerous to really put out some damage. He has the problem that Vayne does without an almost continuous stealth, because of this all his damage is hard to actually put out.  He does fantastic in the laning phase, but unless you can really force that advantage, someone like Kog'maw will scale way better.

Tristana wasn't seen as much as I would have hoped. I'm thinking its because Kog'maw is essentially a higher damage version of her WITH a long range poke (ultimate).  Tristana unfortunately becomes a purely auto attack champion late game, which Kog'maw makes good use of 2-3 of his skills late game.  

Okay, those were just some things I noticed (sorry they were mostly ranged ADs) but here are some slight spoilers, so WARNING!

SPOILERS! 

SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

Okay

Team Solomid choked hard.  Regi wasn't playing well at all I felt.  So many wasted flashes, mistimed flashes, bad ultimates, etc.  Chaox was constantly caught out of position as the ranged AD, something that I feel is due to a little bit of "Solo Queue" syndrome. (You get a lot more squeezing room for positioning in solo queue) TheRainMan I felt played okay, except he just got bullied in so many games, with 3 man gank tops, etc. Xspecial seemed to do well most of the games.  TheOddOne played a lot of junglers he doesn't main, which to secure a pick is good, but it left him at 90%.

CURSE COP oh my goodness.  I remember watching an event a while back, where Westrice just domianted with Vayne.  That was Cop with Kog'maw.  He had a game where he went 14-0, where SCUMBAG Elementz stole the Penta, haha. His positioning was just excellent and definitely was a flagship for ranged AD players. 

Dignitas with the biggest game throw I've seen in a long time, Scarra was pretty upset.  Its rare to see Scarra get so upset. But whatever, they made to the next day, where they will have their chance again hopefully.  I'm a big Voyboy fan, but to be honest if it comes down to Curse vs. Dignitas I want to see Curse win.  Why?  I think it'd be fun.  It used to be OH MAN SOLOMID VS COUNTER LOGIC GAMING! No, I want more top teams. I want OH MAN CURSE AND DIGNITAS! Which they've already proved they are great teams, I just want more big name wins.  

M5.  Ugh, cocky bastards who just seem so fake.  I know I may get a lot of hate for just disliking them, but I'm sorry.  They are immature and unprofessional, they're like a classic heel for Pro Wrestling. I feel like they want you to dislike them, because it keeps you on their mind.  M5 is the villain of League of Legends, haha.  However, I do applaud them for being great players and having strategies that continue to shake up games. BUT JEESH. BAN SHYVANNA, TAKE JANNA.

So how do I sum up the first two days of the event?

Oh OddOne haha!

That's all for this post, I'll try and keep up to date with the tournaments, however staying up that late really messes with you when you have school!  If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to be part of my upcoming RP GIVEAWAY AT 500 SUBSCRIBERS, click here to subscribe to my channel on youtube!

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Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
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