FLY vs DIG LCS 2021 Summer W8D3 Analysis
Gordy’s NA Review
I wanted to start doing these reviews to help NA improve as a region. LCS teams are missing certain fundamentals of the game, and the fundamentals that they do have could use a lot of work. In this review, I will discuss how FLY could have improved their micro in order to not fall behind in the early game, and how they could have done a better job trading objectives to keep the game close.
Let’s start with how FLY could have improved their micro. At 1:50 game time, DIG’s bot lane has bush control so Leona gets an engage on the enemy bot laner. This results in wave control for DIG, a slight health advantage, and Tahm Kench’s flash. FLY see Leona walk into the bush. They should have warded it so they could avoid being engaged on, and since Leona is so far up, this would allow them to trade with her. At 4:20, FLY’s bot lane gets ganked. They should have walked together to ward tribush to create a numbers advantage to get vision with in case the enemy jungler was there. Also, if while walking to the bush, the enemy bot lane starts walking up aggressively, FLY should infer that the enemy jungler is there. In that case, since they would be at a numbers disadvantage, they should back off. FLY should not have walked up aggressively since they knew the enemy jungler was around, they did not have flashes, and the wave was pushing into them.
Finally, at 6:36, Gragas gets invaded at his red. He should be aware of the possibility that he is being invaded here since the enemy mid laner just got priority and went mia. He should either wait to start his camp until he sees the enemy mid laner mid again, or he should pull the camp back to put him in a safer position if he does get invaded. In this case, he can also call for his bot lane to collapse since they would win the fight, because they collapsed first, if the enemy team is invading.
Next, let’s discuss how FLY could have done a better job trading objectives. At 9:23, DIG have just made a tempo play to get rift herald. They then go top to threaten a dive so that they can drop rift herald for first turret. FLY do trade bot by denying minions and getting turret plating, but they do not go far enough. They should look to dive bot if DIG’s bot lane walks back up to tower, and if they don’t, just threatening the dive allows FLY to deny more minions, get more turret plating, and possibly get the tower since they still have time before DIG reset and can defend their bot tower.
Then, at 12:31, FLY look to contest dragon but DIG get the dragon and pick Lucian. FLY then think they can win the fight if they collapse but DIG’s bot lane follows and FLY are at a numbers disadvantage. Since FLY are behind in this game; they should know this in game by looking at towers, kills, farm, and itemization, a minute before dragon spawns, they should be setting up to trade on the top side of the map. Lucian getting picked is a perfect example of why FLY shouldn’t be contesting dragon. He gets picked because he takes an unsafe path, but this path is unsafe because DIG have vision denial in river and deep vision in FLY’s jungle to see Lucian.
Here are my biggest takeaways for FLY from this game. They should work on their micro decision-making by focusing on their micro fundamentals in VOD review, and they should improve their objective trading by focusing on getting the maximum out of a trade and thinking about trading objectives when behind in a game. One last thing I wanted to note; I thought FLY’s draft was pretty solid with strong priority picks in Viego and Lucian, and the Gragas flex pick, but I thought Caitlyn Morgana would have been a really good bot lane here. Caitlyn does well into Draven and Morgana is a counter-pick to Leona. Also, Caitlyn Morgana is a really strong duo.
