After a break from LCS matches last weekend due to IEM, we are back to competitive play this weekend. Before getting to the game strategy, let’s talk about what we’ve been doing over the last two weeks.
After a day of de-compressing, the team got back to the grind. Because we had only three full days before Super Week to work on the new 4.3 patch, it was important to learn more about the changes and adapt. When evaluating a new patch, here are some of the things we do:
- Play Solo/Duo Q with our current Champion pool to see how they have been affected. Are they still viable? Even if they have been nerfed, can we adjust our play style to keep them relevant?
- Try new Heroes that could be OP. This seems like an easy thing to do, but it’s not. When you have Champs in your pool that you play at a professional level, adding new characters takes a lot of work. It can be frustrating to build up your skills on something where your comfort level is low. Sometimes you get lucky when an old comfort Champ gets buffed. But it is absolutely imperative to learn the OP Champs in the meta as soon as possible – and hopefully faster than other teams.
- Work with the team to see how new and old Champions fit into the overall team composition. A new OP Champion is only useful if it helps improve the overall ability of the team to win games.
- Watch matches from other regions for new ideas, then try them out to see if they work for us.
IEM has given us two full weeks to prepare for this weekend’s matches. This was helpful. The only challenge to overcome was a lagging issue this week. There was some problem between certain ISP’s and the Riot Server. Riot worked very hard with the LCS teams to get this resolved. We ran some utility programs Riot provided while we were playing, and sent the results back to them to analyze. On Wednesday, the issue was resolved. So we lost a couple of days this week where we could not practice. We can’t say enough about how helpful Riot is to our team. Whenever there is a problem – about anything – they do their absolute best to resolve it. They have a genuine concern for us, and do everything possible to help.
So, on to our matches. This is going to be a tough weekend as we go up against two very good teams. In our first game on Saturday we face Cloud 9, who we’ve never beaten on LAN. Without a doubt, C9 is a formidable team, but we know we can compete with them – in scrims we take games on a regular basis. However, taking this success into the studio has not been quite so easy for us, and that’s the only thing that really matters. We have worked hard to analyze what has worked successfully against them in the past, including what other teams have done to win games, and as a result we have some special strategies planned for this weekend. C9 is relentless in the mid/late game, and if we want to win, we will need to match their team fighting skill. Look for an exciting game because we plan to go aggressive from the start.
Our game on Sunday is against CLG. In contrast to our results with C9, Team Coast has historically played well vs. CLG. We were 3-1 last split, but are 0-2 so far in the current season. There is no doubt that CLG has stepped up their game since adding Dexter to the team. We will need to find an answer to his pressure at the beginning of the game to make sure our laners get ahead. Our bot lane of Daydreamin and WizFujiiN may be the key in this game. If they can have a strong game, allowing us to keep pressure on other parts of the map, we like our chances here. Look for an exciting match-up between Shiphtur and Link in mid, and we’re hoping ZionSpartan can get an early advantage over Nien that can help snowball the team to a win.
We truly appreciate the support of CyberPowerPC as our Title Sponsor, and all the support from our fans. Watch next week for a video featuring the un-boxing of our new Zeus Mini computers at the Team Coast Gaming House. Holy cow! These little powerhouses are boss.
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