NaJin Sword vs. Team OP
In the third match of the Interleague week of the OGN winter season, NaJin Sword faces of against Team OP. This series we saw a completely revitalized NaJin Sword, adopting a completely different strategy yet still keeping their core aggressive play style. This new strategy overpowered Team OP and lead NaJin to a 2-0 victory.
Game1
Team OP
Bans: Evelynn, Diana, Lee Sin
Picks
- Lulu - ManyReason (support)
- Olaf - May (top)
- Graves - sBs (adc)
- Shaco - nolja (jungle)
- Ryze - CornSalad (mid)
NaJin Sword
Bans: Rengar, Twisted Fate, Anivia
Picks
- Rumble - MaKNooN (top)
- Cho'Gath - Watch (jungle)
- Jayce - SSONG (mid)
- Caitlyn - PraY (adc)
- Nunu - Cain (support)
Game one opened with a surprisingly slow start from NaJin Sword. Instead of the usual early aggressiveness, Sword seemed content to sit back, farm, and harass whenever possible. A few well placed ganks allowed each team to pick up a couple kills, but otherwise this game was completely even up to this point. Finally, in the 15th minute, we see the first tower dive from Sword, picking up a kill, and take the first tower of the game. From here on, NaJin aggressively pressured towers with the Nunu - Caitlyn combo, decimating towers, bringing the gold count slightly in NaJin's favor. NaJin continued to pressure towers, and repelling any aggression from Team OP, bringing Sword further and further ahead. Eventually, Sword was strong enough to win fights out right, putting OP in a desperate situation as Sword pushed into OP's base. Out of desperation, Team OP baited baron, but due to the Shaco split push, the ensuing team fight ended horribly for Team OP, losing four members, and giving up the first game of the series.
Game2
Team OP
Bans: Evelynn, Diana, Rengar
Picks
- Lulu - ManyReason (support)
- Mundo - nolja (jungle)
- Viktor - CornSalad (mid)
- Corki - sBs (adc)
- Elise - May (top)
NaJin Sword
Bans: Anivia, Twisted Fate, Master Yi
Picks
- Cho'Gath - Watch (jungle)
- Jayce - SSONG (mid)
- Caitlyn - PraY (adc)
- Rumble - MaKNooN (top)
- Nunu - Cain (support)
In game two, NaJin Sword seemed to pick up where they left off. Surprisingly, Team OP allowed Sword the exact same team composition from game one, and in an attempt to respond to it, Team OP initiated a lane swap. Unfortunately, this lane swap played into Sword's hands as they continued to relentlessly focus towers. By 8 minutes, Sword had already taken two outer towers. NaJin continued to accelerate the game, pushing towers and ignoring kills. The poke from Caitlyn, Nunu, and Jayce was more than enough to zone Team OP away from their own turrets. Occasionally, some well coordinated poke paired with a well placed Rumble ultimate was enough to pick someone off, forcing Team OP to retreat, allowing Sword to take more towers. This pattern continued and by the 18th minute, Sword had taken two inhibitors, placing Team OP in a desperate situation. With so much map control, Sword took a free baron and moved to end the game. Sword continued with their usual pattern of the series, poking and zoning Team OP off their last inhibitor turret. A nice pick off initiated the final fight as Sword walked all over Team OP, taking the final inhibitor, and then the nexus.
Match Breakdown
Team OP was completely taken off guard by this completely reformed NaJin Sword. Historically, Sword had much trouble closing out the late game, despite leading early, this entire season. Thus, instead of working on their late game, Sword's answer was to remove the late game from the equation and play an aggressive push strategy which worked extremely efficiently. I look forward to seeing if they can run this strategy against the top contenders of the tournament so far.
MVP
The MVP I think, was PraY and Cain. To me, the core of their strategy seemed to be the Caitlyn and Nunu combo. With blood boil and Caitlyn's range, they were easily able to focus towers from a safe distance, and once they took a tower, they would swap lanes with MaKNooN, and repeat the procedure. After that, they relied on their poking abilities to zone Team OP as Caitlyn continued to whittle down towers. It was a extremely methodical strategy which worked extremely well with their playstyle.
Source : ign[dot]com
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