I have always been a big fan of NaJin so this series was really disappointing to me. They had been looking like they were on the up and up recently and JinAir had been struggling even against lower tier Korean teams. The 3 - 0 in JinAir’s favor was surprising on several levels. I wanted to talk a bit about NaJin’s failures in the pick and ban phase during this series.
GAME 1
Blue - JinAir (JAG) ----- Red - NaJin (NJF)
JAG bans: Azir, Shen, Braum
NJF bans: Lulu, TF, Viktor
So already we have huge problems in store for NaJin.
For starters, Kalista makes it through bans and sure enogh JAG first picks it. Kalista definitely should have been banned over any one of the 3 champions that NJF ended up banning. So let’s get into the wasted bans.
As red side, you have a guaranteed counter pick for either Top or Mid. Considering Ggoong has a smaller champion pool and TrAce is so good at playing from behind, it only makes sense for NJF to use their last pick for mid. This pretty much stops any Blue side TF picks on JAG’s part because Ggoong is a great assassin player and can always counter pick with the TP Diana Mid that everyone has been bringing out recently as a hard counter to TF. Can Ggoong actually play Diana? Theoretically it is in his archetype and is a very powerful pick to threaten the TF out with. He should be able to play it and if not he should have been practicing it. TF vs Diana would be a dream come true for NJF because it allows Ggoong to play a strong assassin in the midst of the control mage meta in the Mid lane and have it not be a bad thing. Lulu and Viktor aren’t necessarily bad bans but they are certainly not as high of a priority as Kalista.
So JAG first picks the Kalista and NJF responds with a blind pick Fiora. Now I’m all for Duke playing Fiora as he’s a great carry Top laner and Fiora is busted OP right now. However, NJF just struggled against KOO Tigers in the playoffs due to the return of Malphite Top. So the Fiora pick is great in theory but when NJF blind picked it they set up TrAce to play a utility tank that pretty much neutralizes a carry Top. JAG couldn’t have asked for a better scenario here. I wouldn’t have expected NJF to ban Malphite in the first game because I don’t think that would be fair expectations. But they should have at least considered the possibility of TrAce playing Malphite and be ready to have a plan to deal with it. Now to be fair, they could have blind picked Fiora, let JAG pick Malphite, send Fiora Mid, and play something else Top to deal with it. Fiora vs GP mid would certainly have been interesting.
The Elise, Alistar, and Ashe picks are all fine here. But then we get to the last pick. NJF’s answer to GBM’s Gangplank was to have Ggoong play LeBlanc... yeahhh.... It was pretty underwhelming. LB has been previously considered a counter pick to Kalista since as long as you time your combo during Kalista’s hop, it is really hard for her to dodge LB’s damage. However AD Carries typically get a lot more protection in the current meta than they did back when that mentality was popularized. Not to mention that the rest of JAG’s lineup is durable and not very susceptible to a bursty assassin like LB.
GAME 2
Blue - NaJin (NJF) ----- Red - JinAir (JAG)
NJF bans: Lulu, TF, GP
JAG bans: Azir, Elise, Shen
Now I said that I wouldn’t fault NJF for not banning Malphite in Game 1, but I certainly hold them responsible for not banning Malphite in Game 2 and 3. The TF ban is more justified on the blue side since you don’t want GBM last picking it. They drop the Viktor ban for a GP ban, and keep the Lulu ban. I’m guessing NJF was scared of JAG running a Jugger’Maw variation with TrAce on Lulu and Pilot on Vayne. Lulu ban seems fine for this reason in Game 1 but it’s hard to justify banning it over Malphite in Game 2 when NJF have lost 3 games in a row to Malphite.
On the plus side, NJF gets the blue side first pick Kalista. NJF also gets the Rek’Sai into JAG’s Eve which is always a good thing. However, JAG picks extremely hard engage with Malphite and Ashe. This is problematic for Kalista. Kalista likes a beefy front line to hide behind so that she has time to pump out AoE damage with Hurricane and abuse Rend damage. However, NJF’s front line in this game can do nothing to keep JAG off of Kalista due to the Malphite and Ashe hard engage. JAG’s Viktor and Eve picks also help provide burst damage to follow up this engage with.
So by the end of the draft NJF has Maokai, Rek’Sai, Ryze, Kalista, Thresh. Now if this comp can get to late game then Ryze and Kalista can pump out some serious damage but Ryze mid will inevitably struggle to get to late game especially against GBM’s Viktor. Viktor has earlier power spikes, better pushing power, and more burst damage for mid game skirmishes. Maokai, Rek’Sai, and Thresh do not provide much supplementary wave clear so the option to stall the game until Ryze gets big isn’t really on the table. NJF is risking Kalista being the only source of damage mid game while having no way to ensure she has the freedom to pump out that damage versus the Malphite, Eve, etc.
Again, JAG picks up the victory.
GAME 3
Blue - JinAir (JAG) ----- Red - NaJin (NJF)
JAG bans: Azir, Shen, TF
NJF bans: Lulu, GP, Kalista
NaJin lets Malphite go through AGAIN. JAG also combos Malphite with the Ashe pick again. NJF gets the Kennen support that has had much success recently. However, instead of pairing it with Lucian as per usual, they decide to go with Sivir instead for spell shields versus the engage. Sivir is okay here in theory but putting Ohq on the scuttlebug ADC seems counter-intuitive. It also means that NaJin doesn’t get to abuse the Kennen Lucian combination that had proven so volatile in the past.
The other problem here is that NaJin subs Ggoong and Watch out for TANK and Peanut... I think it was a terrible decision to remove the veterans when it mattered the most. Ggoong is very mechanically talented but just needs to be put on the right champions. The LB and Ryze picks in the first two games were terrible ideas. Ggoong has shown competency on Azir and Viktor recently, he has always been one of the best Ahri players in the world and she had begun to resurface competitively, and he should have been picking up Diana. Fiora and GP mid could also fit pretty well into Ggoong’s hands. Ggoong didn’t need to be subbed out, he just needed to pick better champions. I blame the NaJin coaches here more so than Ggoong. Peanut didn’t perform any better than Watch and his lack of experience showed when NJF’s poorly coordinated invade backfired early game.
JinAir ends up picking up Game 3 for a clean 3 - 0 sweep.
Credit where credit is due though, JinAir has been practicing really hard and had some phenomenal drafts in this series. If they continue playing with this level of macro strategy, I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up beating CJ Entus tomorrow.
