CBLOL 2022 Split 1 Week 3 Wrap-up

CBLoL 2022 Split 1 Week 3 Standings

1. KaBuM! e-Sports (5–1)
1. FURIA Esports (5–1)
3. Liberty (4–2)
3. RED Canids (4–2)
5. LOUD (3–3)
5. Netshoes Miners (3–3)
7. INTZ (2–4)
7. paiN Gaming (2–4)
9. Rensga (1–5)
9. Flamengo Esports (1–5)

1. KaBuM! e-Sports (W3: 2–0) Liberty + LOUD

The Ninjas in Orange have looked incredible, especially in the early to mid game. Their stats are interesting though, as the team is 5th in the league for gold difference at 15 minutes, barely above average despite Wiz often running the early game. However, there are currently no 4–0 teams entering Week 3, and KaBuM! just dropped a game against Brazilian representatives RED Canids in Week 2. KaBuM! is strong, but not invulnerable, and if you can survive their early pressure, there are chances to win in the late.

This match was my match of the week as KaBuM! have looked like an unstoppable force, facing off against Liberty who have been an immovable object. In this particular case, the unstoppable force won out, as Hauz cracked the mid-lane right open, setting up for Wiz to act with impunity. This game also featured the brand new Zeri, and Disave looked decent on the pick. We sadly didn’t get to see Zeri pop off, but more because Hauz and Wiz were just too monstrous. Scuro on Yuumi was just the icing on the cake as Wiz was further empowered to wreck havoc in Liberty’s back-line, swiftly snowballing KaBuM! out of control.

Once again, KaBuM! were just given a free Zeri in draft, which still wasn’t the big win condition, but still did really well and seems to be able to match Jinx in team-fights. The true story of the game was Parang’s Jayce which was an absolute beast and showed why everyone keeps banning it. The early game was fairly calm, with Wiz being rather subdued, Disave/Scuro suffering a little in lane, and Parang setting up a CS differential in the top lane. As laning ended, KaBuM! showed once more why they’re the best mid-game team in CBLOL right now, with Wiz starting fights with any champion in sight, while Parang fully utilized both cannon and hammer form to end them.

With these 2 clean wins, KaBuM! secure themselves 1st place in the standings along with in my opinion as well. They’ve shown that even without Wiz taking risky plays to make early leads, they’re a team that can make action happen in the mid-game. With carry threats in every lane (and the jungle), and only a single loss to RED who has been slumping a little, the only team that stands between KaBuM! and utter domination in the first round robin is FURIA.

2. FURIA Esports (W3: 2–0) RED + Rensga

FURIA are starting to click together and have been improving game after game. Aside from their loss in their very first game against LOUD, FURIA have been putting on some of cleanest games in the league. That said, it’s worth noting that all of FURIA’s wins have been against teams in the lower half of the standings, so their match against RED might end up being a bit of a reality check.

OK! FURIA have passed their first test with flying colours! Right away in draft, it was evident that they were coming in with a plan. Giving up Caitlyn/Lux to RED, FURIA had a well-prepared Blitzcrank counter for RedBert (the idea here was good, we’ll ignore the execution for now). With a bot lane with winning potential, FURIA then held counter-pick for fNb, a well-known Brazilian carry, to ensure at least 2 winning lanes. With 2 options to look at, the rift was Ranger’s playground, and FURIA decided to focus on getting fNb incredibly ahead. fNb getting ahead? Sounds like a recipe for success to me, and FURIA evidently loved the smell of fresh baked success.

There were some delays as the match against Rensga got rescheduled, but FURIA did not lose their edge in the meantime. It was business as usual for FURIA, with a solid draft allowing fNB and Netuno to scale up, while giving Envy and Ranger strong early skirmishing with LeBlanc and Lee Sin respectively. This started swimmingly, with Envy and Ranger securing an early advantage over the enemy jungler, but Rensga showed their scrappiness as they matched FURIA blow-for-blow in the mid-game. But FURIA isn’t known as a super-team, and fNb isn’t known as a superstar for no reason, as fNb started popping off in fights as Gwen, picking up multi-kills left and right to cement FURIA at the top.

It’s a good start for FURIA in the harder latter half of the 1st round robin, with the team having a strong grasp on their win conditions. Oddly enough, this week actually felt like one of the easier weeks for FURIA, and considering RED was one of the opponents, that’s a good thing. Next week still has Liberty and KaBuM! waiting for FURIA, which should yield some great games, but will also continue to push FURIA. After their performance this week though, I have faith that FURIA can win those games, and that even if they don’t… FURIA will put up one hell of a fight.

3. Liberty (W3: 1–1) KaBuM! + Netshoes Miners

When watching Liberty, I’m often confused as to whether I’m watching CBLOL. Liberty is probably the least aggressive team pre-10 minutes in CBLOL. Disamis, Krastyel, Matsukaze and Wos are more than happy to just sit in their space and farm up a storm. Despite this herbivorous behaviour, Liberty actually leads the league in gold difference at 15 minutes (~2k gold up) and know how to play with a lead. Their mid-game map movements are decisive and often leave opponents floundering to catch up or respond. Week 3 will see them facing off against 2 of the 3–1 teams looking to thin out the competition at the top of the table.

Liberty are statistically the strongest early game team, and they were facing off against the most aggressive early game Jungler in Wiz of KaBuM!. In a twist of fate though, Liberty’s early game plans were foiled, and it had less to do with Wiz, than with Hauz who overwhelmed Krastyel in lane. Things were manageable for Liberty though, as they still found early leads. Everything began to go wrong at the 2nd dragon, where Liberty bit off a little more than they could chew, securing dragon, but greeding for a fight. Kiari got zoned out early, while Wiz was unleashed into the squishy back-line of Krastyel and Matsukaze. Once the Olaf got a little fed, Liberty just did not have enough damage to cut through the berserk viking enabled by Yuumi support.

Learning from their loss against KaBuM!, Liberty picked up Zeri for themselves, and unlike Disave, Matsukaze had a massive carry performance on the new champion. If Matsukaze didn’t die in the first 5 seconds of the fight, he just got to kite around absolutely EVERYONE and apparently, the hardest counter to a train is a girl with her electric gun? Of course League of Legends is a 5-person game, so let’s not undersell the rest of Liberty, Disamis and Kiari were great at setting up fights as well, while Krastyel and Wos did great keeping people alive and disrupting fights.

A very exciting week for Liberty, with 2 important matches. While the week’s score is 1–1, Liberty continue to cement themselves as a top 3 team despite the loss to KaBuM!. Liberty also continues to display a strong early game and good macro play combined with really solid front-to-back team-fighting. Next week, Liberty has an opportunity to go from a top 3 team, to 2nd place team, as they face off against an equally clinical FURIA.

3. RED Canids (W3: 1–1) Netshoes Miners + FURIA

Is it normal to be worried for a team that has only dropped 1 game against some of the best teams in the league? On the one hand, RED Canids have looked good in their wins, demonstrating star carry power, or incredibly resilient mental. On the other hand, they’ve struggled with early game more than I’ve expected. With the rough schedule RED have, they’re facing all the strong teams up front, and Week 3 will be the last of the currently dominant teams, with both Netshoes Miners and FURIA also competing for 1st place against RED.

A good start to the week as RED Canids played rather standard in their game against Netshoes Miners. TitaN looked really good on the Senna pick which had rather varied performances in CBLOL thus far. Aegis also applied a ton of pressure, with ganks everywhere on the map, making sure all lanes stayed ahead. Even though Grevthar won MVP of the game, the early game had some amusing moments leading to his only death of the game.

The game against FURIA was a lot less amusing. Right from the get-go, this one felt like another draft gap, which has been a recurring issue for RED this split. In fairness, this one was more of an outplay in draft by FURIA, then a mistake from RED. RED managed to secure the singular most winning bot-lane duo of Caitlyn/Lux, but it was all a bait as FURIA had the counter prepared — Blitzcrank. Being on blue side, RED also had to surrender counter-pick on Guigo into a bad lane. Aegis and Grevthar tried to do what they could, but with both side-lanes falling apart rapidly, RED Canids never quite found a way to set up their own win conditions.

A bit of a mixed bag here for the champs, but better it happens early on in the season than in the play-offs. RED Canids mechanical prowess is still there, and even from slightly behind, they can still find ways back in. However, their drafting has placed them into rough positions in-game multiple times now. They have a solid grasp on the meta, and what is considered strong, but seem to struggle with counter-picks. The good news is that is easily fixable, and that it’s easy to tell whether or not their fixes work… though fans will surely be hoping for the former and not the latter.

5. LOUD (W3: 1–1) INTZ + KaBuM!

As we start Week 3 with a 5-way tie for 1st place, LOUD are sitting as gatekeepers in that 6th spot. With veterans and proven talent, LOUD have proven that their strength and experience is real, winning cleanly when they can find weaknesses in their opponents. However, the clutch factor isn’t showing here, as LOUD seem to struggle against more explosive teams that are able to manufacture their own plays. LOUD has gone 1–1 for the first 2 weeks, and looking at their opponents in Week 3, I’m expecting to see that trend continue.

12 kills in a 25:40 game is already shocking enough, but even more uncharacteristically, first blood didn’t happen till 13:01, with tinowns getting a little out of position. With the draft for both teams including global roaming mid-laners, I would have expected a high pace game. Instead, LOUD held all the cards in terms of making plays, and played it very slowly, focusing on accruing minor advantages by stopping backs, denying ganks and claiming objectives. A very quiet early game, but LOUD knew exactly what they needed, and at 20 minutes in (where there was still only the 1 death from tinowns), they turned it up, closing the game in a span of 6 minutes.

I’m not sure teams should be giving over Zeri without having a comprehensive plan to deal with her. LOUD give KaBuM! the aforementioned champion and suffer the same fate as Liberty form yesterday. It certainly wasn’t a lane issue as DudsTheBoy and Ceos managed to win that lane pretty early on, but in team-fights, Zeri was just too slippery and cause Robo and tinowns to overextend at times trying to finish off kills. Draft aside, LOUD just looked that tad bit short in every engage, losing by inches every time. Those inches added up, and when both teams kept on fighting, LOUD soon found themselves sliding down a very slippery slope.

Still not quite seeing the clutch factor even this week. We already knew LOUD could close games out when they have a lead, so the win against INTZ played out pretty much how we expected, if a little more quiet than usual. Against KaBuM!, it was also business as usual as they couldn’t find ways to turn the tides against a team that was just performing better in fights. Not much to say really, maybe LOUD will be able to show something different next week against paiN Gaming or Netshoes Miners, both of whom have proven to be something of a wild card.

5. Netshoes Miners (W3: 0–2) RED + Liberty

Even as Netshoes Miners are competing for the top of the table, and have been showing some strong play, it’s worth remembering that they have had the easiest strength of schedule. The Miners have yet to face off against any of the other top 5 teams currently also sitting at 3–1. It’s time to sink-or-swim as things are only going to get tough from here. If Netshoes Miner can pull out wins this week, they’ll be in a great spot, but if they can’t… the Netshoes hype train might just get derailed here.

Against RED, Netshoes Miners did indeed look a little exposed. Every lane struggled, especially when Croc began to fall behind in terms of jungle pressure. Drop, Hawk and Anyyy looked ok in isolated lanes, but League isn’t a 1v1 (or 2v2) game, and soon found themselves losing out in the skirmishes. DoRun really struggled in lane as he got counter-picked, but I do like the willingness of Netshoes Miners to pick up Ornn, even more so to deny it from Guigo. It didn’t work out this game, but it opens up possibilities, and I would hate to see Netshoes Miners shy away from the pick.

Things went from bad to worse in Week 3 for Netshoes Miners as Liberty unleashed their rage from losing to KaBuM! on the hapless Miners. Liberty came in with exact same game plan as always, and Netshoes Miners should have known that, but even then, Netshoes Miners still couldn’t do anything about it. Drop and Hawk were denied their aggression despite picking a strong early lane duo. Anyyy and Croc were set behind, and in the only “winning” lane, DoRun only had an insignificant CS lead. Falling behind in the early game, Netshoes Miners ran into the mid-game macro machine that was Liberty and found themselves just getting chewed up and spit out. They got 1 dragon all game, and that was the only objective they took (0 heralds, 0 turrets, 0 barons).

The hype train might be over here for the Miners as Week 4 is not going to be much easier. KaBuM! and LOUD are awaiting them, and KaBuM! is currently at the very top of the standings. LOUD might be beatable, but it’s a bit of a benchmark test for Miners — can they arrest their downward spiral. The toughest part is that it isn’t easy to see what went wrong this week. RED and Liberty both just seemed to outclass Netshoes Miners in each position, and for the Miners, they’ve got to bounce back not just mentally, but mechanically as well.

7. INTZ (W3: 1–1) LOUD + paiN

INTZ finally found their first win! …but it was against Flamengo who are still trying to adapt form Academy to CBLOL. The win was immaculate and was a good showing for INTZ’s cooperation, but laning was still a little iffy at times. Week 3 has a chance for INTZ to continue their upward climb, facing off against LOUD and paiN, both of whom have looked middling and therefore beatable.

The match against LOUD had INTZ looking rather lost, and to be fair, I was rather lost watching the game as well. INTZ had early game tools with Tyrin on Renekton, Yampi on Jarvan IV and Kick on Galio. However, LOUD had similar tools as well, and it ended up in a massive stalemate, with INTZ never quite able to find an angle to make things happen. The significant difference was in the overall macro play. While LOUD had a plan and knew what they wanted to do as the game stretched on, INTZ seemed locked into trying to make plays happen with ganks or smaller skirmishes. This inertia played against them as INTZ got caught laning a little too long, and from an almost even game state, INTZ were blown out of the game in the span of about 6 minutes.

Thankfully, paiN did not look anywhere near as coordinated and INTZ managed to execute their game-plan. INTZ managed to get a better scaling composition, and just like he did back on Vorax, Yampi managed to cause chaos to buy the team time to scale. Starting with some incredibly aggressive invades at level 3, Yampi took CarioK out of the early game. From there, Yampi was always just a step ahead, getting leads in every lane, securing every dragon and Baron. That, combined with scaling, have helped INTZ get a critical win and keep some of that upward momentum.

With a win and a loss, INTZ are sitting pretty at 7th place, from 9th last week. Even better, INTZ is starting to develop the synergy that was absent just a few weeks ago. Yampi has also continued to be a menace in the early game, allowing the rest of the team to scale up into their comfort zones. As evidenced by the LOUD game, this strategy only works when INTZ isn’t being pressured early though, and up against Rensga and RED, it might be a bit of a toss-up as to whether they can buy the same type of time.

7. paiN Gaming (W3: 1–1) Flamengo + INTZ

I have refreshed my store of copium and am ready to support paiN Gaming once again. While paiN have struggled in the start of the season, they’ve faced only 3–1 teams so far and even in those matches, usually had decent early games. Week 3 gives paiN a small break facing off against the 9th and 10th place teams. Surely paiN Gaming can find wins against them, right? RIGHT?!

Thank goodness that paiN Gaming managed to close this one out. That said, it wasn’t the fastest or more impressive of wins. Instead, paiN took this one nice and slow, leveraging their theoretical strengths we expected to see. Wizer won lane, CarioK continued to secure objectives, dyNquedo secured lane priority, Trigo and Damage farmed up and team-fought well. About as textbook as you’d like, and that makes me disproportionately happy considering their more recent performances.

Fellow CBLOL English caster Axeman87 has long waxed eloquent on why Graves top is not a great blind-pick. Watching this game, it’s hard to disagree. Wizer is a good play, and managed to keep up his CS, but he simply did not have much impact this game. Combined with CarioK getting invaded and 3-buffed to start the game, paiN were at a disadvantage all game long. Trigo and Damage did their best and despite the loss, I’m glad to see Trigo and Damage getting back toward their old form from last split, where they can be a team-fight force even when the rest of the team is falling apart around them.

While paiN Gaming didn’t find the 2 wins I was expecting at the beginning of the week, they performed to a level that was expected by this point. That level probably isn’t one which paiN fans will be happy about though, as paiN is currently looking like a lower placed team, and a stepping stone for teams like INTZ, LOUD and potentially Rensga to move up towards the middle of the pack.

9. Rensga Esports (W3: 0–2) FURIA + Flamengo

Once again, COVID-19 strikes again, this time, with Rensga as the unfortunate victims. Their games was rescheduled to Thursday. COVID aside, Rensga have been an interesting team and have out-performed my initial expectations of them, quickly shaking off the rust. They’re looking competitive and if they can continue to improve at this rate, I could see them contesting the likes of LOUD and paiN in short order. However, that’s for another week, and this week, Rensga have another top and bottom week where they’re likely to split 1–1.

Against FURIA, it was pretty much as expected. Rensga had a solid draft, fought hard, but eventually fell. That’s the long a short of it. The details are that Minerva was in his own personal hell to start the game, getting invaded multiple times, limiting his early game impact. Ayel did great in lane, but found himself quickly outmatched out of lane as fNb got fed on Ayel’s teammates. Hades and Guard tried, but found themselves getting blown up any time they even got close to the action, causing Hades to have the 2nd lowest damage on his team as the ADC. Goku tried his best and it shows with the best KDA on the team (5/4/6), though ultimately it wasn’t enough. It looked close… till it wasn’t, but that’s the great divide between a good and great team.

Considering Flamengo’s performance coming into this week, this should have been the easy match for Rensga, but if anything, it became a gruelling 40:19 slug-fest as both Rensga and Flamengo threw all 5 members at each other repeatedly. The early game was fairly tame, with both teams laning decently well, but things really started to take a turn at 14 minute mark, when both teams mutually decided laning phase was over, and it was time to fight. Every single dragon, and multiple times per Baron, the teams would just show up and throw down. Neither team able to find a decisive lead. Time waits for no one, and as the game time increased, so did the stakes (Baron and Elder Dragon) and the death timers. A battle for mid-lane control at 37 minutes heralded the beginning of the end, as a pick onto Hades forced Rensga to commit to a fight they did not want. A conclusive loss allowing Flamengo to get Baron, Elder and Rensga’s nexus.

A brutal week for the Cowboys, not just in terms of scoreline, but also for the way the games played out, with kills abounding. So maybe I was a little optimistic coming into the week, and Rensga will take a little longer to start contesting the middle of the pack teams. The early game continued to look solid and even in the team-fights, it didn’t feel like they were falling too far behind. The devil is in the details, and if they can just find a way to eke out a little more damage, a little more survivability, they might be able to write a different ending for themselves.

9. Flamengo Esports (W3: 1–1) paiN + Rensga

Another week, another chance. Flamengo are still looking for their 1st win, and here’s another opportunity. Though for Flamengo, rather than looking at who they’re facing, they need to look inward to figure out a winning strategy. So far, they have yet to really show a cohesive game-plan, and until I see that, Flamengo are unlikely to be able to translate hard-fought leads into anything meaningful.

The game against paiN went just about how you’d expect it to. The only surprise was that paiN didn’t really make any mistakes, so Flamengo weren’t able to try and capitalize on that. Flamengo did manage to try and force some plays of their own, though against the advantages paiN slowly accumulated, most of it backfired. I do want to praise asta this game, as I’ve been saying we need to see more from a jungler, especially in this meta, and asta showed a greater willingness to take risks. The risks didn’t really work out most of the time, but the idea was there, and with more practice, the execution should be as well.

It’s been 3 weeks in the making, but Flamengo finally did it! They picked up their first win, and it was a neck-to-neck the entire way. Both Rensga and Flamengo drafted front-to-back compositions, and given that both teams have been doing decently in lane, it was only to be expected that it all came down to the 5v5s, outside of laning phase, which went back and forth. Huge props to Tutsz’s Orianna, which has been the best one I’ve seen this split so far, forcing flashes or death from the carries of Rensga. With Tutsz terrifying zone control, Flamengo managed to split Rensga into bite size pieces which Flare got to chew up and spit out.

Let’s hear it once again, Flamengo have a win! It was hard-fought and against the 2nd lowest ranked team in the league, but you take those. Not only is this a huge mental win for the young team, but it’s also a viable game plan for this squad to look for wins. If laning isn’t the issue, then just pick compositions which excel after the laning phase. It’s still a work in progress, but big steps were made. Week 4 sees Flamengo facing RED and Liberty, and despite those teams fumbling this week, they’re still monsters. Simple front-to-back compositions might not work against them, but… beggars no choosers.