Hey friends and fellow eSports enthusiasts,

I hope you had a happy and relaxing holidays, and what better way to cap it off than by watching China’s best teams duke it out in the Season 1 Demacia Cup. However, there are a few things to note here!

• For full tournament results, click here!
• If you wish to watch all the matches of the Finals, check it out here! 
• If you simply don’t have the time to watch full matches, highlights are here!
• If you are here for 3.15 patch analysis, or tips for solo queue, turn around! China typically are a patch behind most tournaments, so in this case they are behind two patches from solo queue and are on 3.13 (No Trinkets, No New Masteries, No New Icons).
• Have fun! Chinese League of Legends matches are the fastest paced and most fun to watch games you can find! 🙂

As you may or may not already know, Misaya has retired and Troll and Fzzf have moved to substitute roles on the team. This has lead to World Elite picking up two new permanent players. Meet their new Mid Laner “sukiM” and Jungler “Ruo”:

WE vs iG game 1: Pick and Ban (iG has First pick)

CaoMei’s Riven gets first blood after Annie gets caught out, she burns Flash to no avail as Riven CaoMei still gets first blood without. Caomei’s Riven gets dove by PDD’s Renekton and illuSioN’s J4, which results in his death, but he still manages to get a kill on PDD, who tanks one too many tower shots. World Elite starts a dragon with all 5 members present, and iG attempts to contest with PDD’s Renekton flanking the side despite the fight being a 4v5 to begin with.

“I’m Jarvan, and I’m Helping!”

 Jarvan’s ult ends up trapping PDD and himself into some massive Culling damage, however PDD manages to escape and it ends up becoming a 2 for 2 in favor of WE, because they secured the dragon.world elite takes the team fight 3-2 at but iG are happy to take that trade as they secured the dragon. Due to the incredibly aggressive Chinese Meta and the fact that this tournament is still on patch 3.13, the game snowballs out of control very quickly.  The gold lead has escalated to 10 k by 30 minutes by World Elite, as they secure a dragon. They get a 5-1 ace to end the game at 33:30.

My Two Cents: Ziggs really provided much more throughout the game than first pick Syndra. Ziggs’s massive AoE damage, along with the ability to shove and bully out the opposing mid laner, has made him a very strong pick in almost all regions. (Don’t forget that this is patch 3.13, the patch in which Ziggs was buffed.) Annie continuously got caught and had little to no impact throughout the entire game.

WE vs iG Game 2: Pick and Ban (WE has First Pick)

CaoMei dies, giving up first blood after a good gank by illuSioN’s Nunu, and WE’s bottom lane gives up a kill shortly after. Ruo gets a solo kill on Nunu in his own jungle, taking away his double buffs. Olaf comes down bot for a gank at 16:25; however, as he does so, Mundo teleports in for a nice 3-1 counter gank for iG. 22 minutes in, WE makes the mistake of overextending just as Mundo’s teleport comes off cooldown. World Elite is caught off guard and loses the teamfight 4-0 due to the enemy tanks being much stronger and essentially Zerg rushing down their double AD comp. iG quickly snatches up Baron, but WE make the smart decision of taking dragon after they spawn, staunching the bleeding.

Annie gets a 4 man Tibbers stun under the turret during their Baron siege, which results in a 3-0 team fight in favor of iG. They force a surrender at 25:40.

My Two Cents: PDD is clearly on a different level than Caomei. His Teleport Mundo really won the game for iG. Something to note:  his performance in both this tournament and IEM Singapore have both been absolutely dominant. Kittie’s Annie play was vastly improved from the previous game.

WE vs iG Game 3: Pick and Ban (iG has First Pick)

SukiM’s Syndra gets first blood on Thresh using only Ignite at around 40 seconds, enabling him to get a second Doran’s Ring for lane. At 13 minutes in, it’s 3-9 in favor of World Elite. They continue to snowball, seizing chaotic kills at point skirmishes as Illusion buys Mobility Boots on Vi just to run around and die more. PDD appears to be playing well, but at the cost of heavy roam from CaoMei’s Riven.

Zz1tai snipes WeiXiao with a well aimed Javelin Toss

IG tries to sneak a Baron with two champions, but it is unsuccessful and Thresh dies as a result, giving WE a free Baron and mid tower. Zz1tai manages to snipe WeiXiao in the process with a handy spear. 30 minutes in, and WE takes another baron. Illusion suicides mid taking his score to an abysmal 0-5-1. At the 34-minute mark, WE has jumped to an 8k gold lead after taking a dominating 3-for-1 team fight at bottom, which allows them to follow up with the bottom inhibitor turret. PDD forces them off the inhibitor as he is almost 100 cs over Caomei and an unkillable Shyvana. At 37:30, a battle for Baron buff ensues. Nunu Smite-Consumes it for World Elite, but they lose the fight 4-2 as Zz1tai and Kid embarrass WE with some stellar plays. iG stalls out the game a little longer, but in the last team fight (around 43:30), Kid overplays his hand and gets melted by Syndra, allowing WeiXiao to clean up with Lucian, ending the game at 44:19.

My Two Cents: Zz1tai and PDD played incredibly well despite illuSioN providing absolutely nothing of value to his team. Kid also plays too aggressively throughout the entire game, and was hurt for his recklessness. iG shows why they are confident with Zz1tai’s Nidalee  play and the decisive victory provides a good reasoning for picking her in the next two games.

WE vs iG Game 4: Pick and Ban (WE has First pick)

Caomei’s Renekton gets 3-man dived on even before he can get a single creep, and gives up first blood. A little more into the game, iG capitalize on a Lee Sin recall and WE’s bot lane’s shift to top by handily securing an early dragon at 5:17. WE responds ferociously by taking the top turret and knocking the tier two turret down to half health. iG is up 5-0 at 10:20 and their lead soon balloons to 4k gold. The game nonetheless remains relatively passive for a Chinese match of League of Legends match. The caution is almost certainly due to the fact that if iG throws the game and loses, the series is over. At 15:40, WE has managed to shrink iG’s lead, thinning the gold gap to 3k. The kills are now 5-6, still in iG’s favor. iG slowly begins to choke out WE as CaoMei on Renekton is 70 cs behind PDD, who has become an unstoppable split pushing Tryndamere. WE can neither split push (as iG has Vayne and Tryndamere) nor siege against Zz1tai’s Nidalee, so they are mostly powerless to act at this point. Since the game takes place on patch 3.13, prior the the vision rework and ward limit, there is nothing WE can do against iG’s snowballing vision control. The gold lead is eventually 10k at 24:40, and WE eventually gives up and surrenders at 26 minutes.

My Two Cents: Besides CaoMei, World Elite didn’t play particularly poorly. It just so happened that iG rolled the dice on a very risky composition that snowballs incredibly hard, and they made all the right plays early on in the game to execute their bold decision.

WE vs iG Game 5: Blind Pick

Before the game even starts the first thing that catches my eye is that both teams have the same 3 champions. In the top lane its Shyvana,  and in the bottom lane we have a pair of Lucian-Annie bottom lanes. While this is only patch 3.13 these champion picks still remain preferred among professional teams in patch 3.15.

First blood happens at 2:56 with Kid and Kitties diving CaoMei underneath the turret, only using Barrier and Ignite. At 9:00, iG rotates four champions to the mid lane to siege the tower. Annie gets a brilliant Tibbers stun, which is chained into an Elise cocoon, and they kill sukiM’s Syndra before he even has the chance to flash out. However, he comes right back at 10:30 and uses the summoner spells he was prevented from using before to solo kill Zz1tai’s Nidalee. At 14:20, WE secures a dragon with the help of a well timed Culling by WeiXiao. iG secures the next dragon, bringing the gold to dead even. Kills are still 2-1 in iG’s favor. A fight breaks out at mid lane beginning with excellent initiation by Syndra and Annie bursting down Kittie’s Annie. WE takes the fight 4-2. They brawl once again near dragon, but Zz1tai is on fire this series, as he snipes WeiXiao out of the back line, and iG get a free dragon. At 18:40 WE catches out Kittie’s Annie once again, which enables them to kill the tier 2 mid lane turret and PDD’s Shyvana. iG attempts to siege down WE’s mid inhibitor turret, but a fight breaks out that iG wins 3-2. The gold is still nearly identical at this point, as the two teams continue to fight in small skirmishes in which sukiM’s Syndra is cleans up incredibly well, to the point where he picks up a Mejai’s Soulstealer, sending his ability power through the roof.

Zz1tai With The Snipes!

While Baron is constantly checked and used as a pressure point, it remains untaken due to how close the game is. During the last two deciding team fights, Zz1tai and illuSioN step it up big time, hitting every one of their skill shots, all on key targets Lucian and Syndra. The common theme among these fights are that the team whose support gets caught out loses, and in this case, it happens to be WE’s substitute support Ahrl, putting WE on the run. This prevents CaoMei or Ruo from getting off any damage and World Elite is thrown to the dogs. It is practically a feeding frenzy, during which Zz1tai and friends to throw everything at their retreating opponents. After managing to kill three members on the run, iG closes it out at 42:20 to take the series.

My Two Cents: While sukiM’s Syndra was the best I have seen in competitive play since Cool played her at Worlds, there is still a reason why she is not often picked in the competitive scene. This is due to her inconsistent damage in team fights and rather lane-oriented kit. While Kittie’s Annie sealed the deal the last two fights, I still feel that sukiM could have carried hard on a champion such as Ziggs or Orianna.