CBLOL 2022 Split 1 Week 6 Wrap-up
CBLoL 2022 Split 1 Week 6 Standings
1. FURIA Esports (9–3)
1. RED Canids (9–3)
3. KaBuM! e-Sports (8–4)
4. Liberty (7–5)
4. LOUD (7–5)
6. Netshoes Miners (6–6)
7. paiN Gaming (5–7)
8. Flamengo Esports (3–9)
8. INTZ (3–9)
8. Rensga (3–9)
1. FURIA Esports (W6: 2–0) Flamengo + INTZ
After a bit of a cursed Week 5, FURIA are looking to re-establish themselves as the sole best team in the league, and this is the best chance for it. The team still looked individually strong, and in their losses, they just looked a little too passive. Against Flamengo, they’ll likely get away with this, but INTZ is a completely different beast who has been winning games through better macro play.
The first time these teams matched up, it was Flamengo 2021 vs Flamengo Academy. This time, it’s Flamengo 2021 (with curse included) vs Flamengo 2022 (wins not included). FURIA had a bit of an off-week, and Flamengo was the perfect way for them to get back into the swing of things. They completely disregarded the change in jungler for Flamengo, and FURIA played back to their usual standard. A slightly slower early game, but as soon as power-spikes came through, FURIA just floored the accelerator, with fNb and Ranger willing to initiate at the drop of a hat… or at the catch of a Sleepy Trouble Bubble from Envy.
A 2nd win makes sure that curse is broken, but if you’re a FURIA fan, you were sweating through this one. It felt like Flamengo could not catch a break in the early game, with any attempts at ganks by Ranger or RedBert getting scouted out in advance and being turned on their heads. With their early lead, INTZ turned on their trademark macro and started pushing their advantages. Fortunately for FURIA, come the moment, come the man, and Envy stepped up massively for FURIA. Going 10/1/4, Envy managed to salvage lost fights and start winning fights for Flamengo with some beautiful charms on priority targets. It’s rare to see a single player carry an entire team, but Envy managed to do just that.
Week 6 was not supposed to be a hard week for a top team in the standings. I don’t think FURIA underestimated their opponents either, they just seemed to struggle with uncharacteristic mistakes and unexpected caution from multiple players. I’m starting to develop a working hypothesis that FURIA tends to play up to the level of their opponents, but won’t be able to confirm that as Week 7 has FURIA going up against 2 teams playing well above their expected levels in paiN and Rensga.
1. RED Canids (W6: 2–0) LOUD + Liberty
2 weeks ago, RED Canids had the biggest upset loss of the season against Flamengo, and it looks like that was enough to get them to stop fooling around. Since then, RED Canids have popped off in some of the most one-sided games we’ve seen this split. However, just like their first opponents LOUD, most of these wins come from lower ranked opponents, and this week will see RED Canids fighting 2 other top contenders. LOUD and Liberty are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, with momentum and immovable inertia respectively, this is a test if RED’s style of play will hold up against extremes.
This was my expected Match of the Week, with 2 top contenders battling it out for 1st place, and it did indeed deliver. While the post-game makes it look rather one-sided for RED Canids, that wasn’t the case in reality, as Guigo’s experiments with Trundle to counter Hullbreaker Graves did not quite work out. Avenger struggled as well in the early game, not quite able to find the early charms against the monster that is tinowns. Thankfully for RED Canids, they still had Aegis and captain TitaN to bail them out, with Aegis finding some amazing picks, and TitaN going in 1v4 to find equalizing kills or just buy time for the team to respawn. The big pick of the game came right at the end though, where Avenger landed the critical charm on tinowns, finally cutting down the juggernaut. As soon as the raid boss was down, RED quickly steamrolled the rest of LOUD and secured a decisive and critical win.
If the LOUD game was exciting for experimental picks and clutch plays, the game against Liberty tested patience and decision-making for RED. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it exciting, but it did showcase why both RED and Liberty are such strong teams. Liberty opted to go on the offensive with an early game composition, while RED were happy to accept the gauntlet and went for a scaling composition instead. While Liberty turned the pressure on for the first 20 minutes, RED were cool as cucumbers, patiently rationing out towers to buy time and space for TitaN and Avenger to come online. It was a gruelling test of patience, but RED aced it as they began to turn the tides around the 20 minute mark, just as Liberty started knocking on their inhibitor turrets. Once TitaN came online, he just would not die, going 7/1/5 and leading the counter-charge into Liberty. Dodging every skill shot thrown his way, and with Jojo to speed him up, Liberty simply ran out of time.
After a week of upsets and surprises, only 2 teams survived the 5-way tie at the start of the week to sit at 1st place: FURIA and RED. If FURIA have looked shaky at times this week, RED are looking calm and composed, ready to take on all challengers. Their defensive play-style continues to look intimidating, and especially next week against KaBuM! and Netshoes Miners, both teams who have looked their best when playing aggressively, RED should be favoured to maintain their supremacy.
3. KaBuM! e-Sports (W6: 0–2) paiN + Rensga
Coming off a dominant early half of the season, only dropping games to FURIA and RED, KaBuM! had a bit of a shocker against INTZ. As the season has been coming along, teams seemed to have started figuring out how to deal with Wiz’s early game aggression, and without that pressure, KaBuM! has looked more vulnerable, starting off the latter half of the season with a loss to INTZ. There’s still a lot of strength here, but this is a critical week for them, and I’m not sure they’ve quite figured out how to compensate for Wiz’s reduction in pressure.
Well, this game wasn’t it. With multiple jungle bans, Wiz was pushed onto Viego, a scaling jungler who doesn’t quite have the early ganking pressure we’ve come to associate with Wiz. Problems were swiftly compounded as Disave and Scuro opted for some questionable trades which gave paiN’s bot lane an early lead. From behind, KaBuM! struggled to find a proactive play as paiN never gave them the room to collect themselves and recover. Anyone who tried to find a pick found themselves getting out-ranged and getting picked in return. In KaBuM!’s defence, paiN did amazingly well and it’s a best-of-one. But if you want to be the best in the league, you’ve got to be able to beat any other team even when they’re having a good day.
Perhaps learning from the day before, KaBuM! continued to fall behind in early pressure, even though Wiz was on his 2nd most played champion — Jarvan IV. Unlike yesterday, KaBuM! managed to compensate through Hauz and Disave scaling up on Ryze and Ezreal respectively. This summary fails to do this match justice though, as Rensga and KaBuM! had an epic slug-fest, trading blow for blow with neither side flinching. KaBuM! was actually losing out in kills, but perhaps it was their experience, but every fight they won, they took an objective or turret, edging just barely ahead in efficiency. Maximizing content value, KaBuM! actually ended the game with a clutch backdoor (which was completely unnecessary, but oh so fun to watch). Far from their cleanest game, but still a decent win to keep KaBuM! at 3rd place.
One of the messier weeks for KaBuM!, but then again, KaBuM! was never particularly clean or disciplined. It is a little worrying to see KaBuM! struggle in the early game, which used to be their best strength, but perhaps they’re just limit-testing with the lead that they have since this week was supposed to be an easier week on paper (it wasn’t). Week 7 has them up against Liberty and RED, which are 2 higher stakes games, with all 3 teams still fighting to maintain top 4 positions to avoid the Lower Bracket in Playoffs. If this week was limit-testing, next week is the real deal.
4. Liberty (W6: 0–2) Rensga + RED
Even while Liberty is part of the 5-way tie for 1st, my gut feel is that they aren’t quite top 3 just yet. That’s probably unfair to Liberty as they have been the most disciplined team in CBLOL, with some of the most solid games. A large part of that gut feel stems from the fact that Liberty don’t make flashy plays, and while they’re great from ahead (which they usually are), they seem to flounder a little from behind. Against Rensga who’ve made major roster changes this week, I don’t know if Liberty can properly prepare for them. Their 2nd game of the week against RED is also a bit of a question mark as RED have been slowly shaping up to play-off form.
Ok, no one could have prepared for Rensga’s new roster in their debut game. Goku over-performed beyond any reasonable expectation, and Trap played like an absolute madman. That said, Liberty was probably the one of the worst team to try and adapt to rapidly changing battle conditions. Put positively, Liberty is disciplined, to put it negatively, they’re a little inflexible and struggle from behind. A solid front to back composition, with an additional flank/split-push threat for Kiari on Camille. None of that came through. Kiari got gapped in lane with early enemy ganks, while the rest of Liberty was unable to ever set up a front line, with Krastyel and Matsukaze constantly getting picked out by Ahri Charms from odd angles. Through all of this, Liberty just repeatedly set up without sufficient flank vision, leading to the same result of Rensga winning fights and taking turrets.
In this big clash of giants, Liberty opted to take their fate into their own hands, with a game draft that needed to win the game early, and certainly had all the tools needed to achieve that. As befits one of the best early game teams in the league, Liberty executed well, getting a 2k gold lead by 14 minutes fair easily, and continuing to apply the pressure. Against any other team, this would have likely been enough to secure the win, but RED are no mean team. The reigning CBLOL champions made their names on surviving incredible odds to scale up to late game, where TitaN can 1v5 fights, and this game was no different. As Liberty took turrets and opened up the map, the split-push started to lose effectiveness and RED were able to punish any over-extensions. Matsukaze’s Caitlyn began to fall off as well, and it showed in team-fights that RED were able to force repeatedly. A valiant attempt at a time-attack from Liberty, but trying it against RED turned out to be a fatal mistake.
The 0–2 week for Liberty was unexpected, but I don’t think it means that Liberty have fallen off and it’s time to panic. Liberty continues to show their strength and ability to execute on game plans in both their games. Their biggest problem appears to be their inability to respond to unexpected situations, and Rensga took full advantage of that. Unless another team is willing to take the risk of making major roster changes this late in the season, Liberty should continue to be a top 4 team. They’ll have the chance to prove this next week as well, against KaBuM! and LOUD who are all fellow competitors for the top 4 spots.
4. LOUD (W6: 0–2) RED + Flamengo
If you’re a LOUD fan, LOUD are exactly where they should be. If you’re not, this might be a little bit of a surprise after some of the rocky performances LOUD put on earlier in the season. Either way, LOUD are currently on a 4 game win streak and been looking like super-team they were rumoured to be in the off-season. A lot of this is coming off the back of tinowns, who has been awarded MVP in all 4 of their recent win-streak. It’s worth noting that with the exception of an ailing FURIA last week, the other 3 wins came from lower ranked teams, and with RED on the docket this week, LOUD might need a 2nd big carry to step up beyond just tinowns.
Even in their losses, tinowns remains my MVP pick for this team. The post-game score does not accurately reflect this game. Tay had an extremely rough early game, but managed to get some solid picks happening throughout the mid-game. Robo’s KDA was 1/6/5, but he dominated the top lane, Flame horizoning Guigo. tinowns crushed the 1v1 match-up, and single-handedly zoned out multiple members of RED Canids in every fight. Unfortunately, if you live by tinowns, you have to make sure tinowns doesn’t die… or you die along with tinowns. In a critical Baron dance, tinowns got slightly distracted keeping out Avenger, and while he was chasing, the rest of LOUD got engaged upon without their big carry. As soon as LOUD got routed, tinowns was left up a creek with no paddle, and while he could 1v3, 1v5 was a little beyond him.
What on earth is going on here? A loss to RED was understandable, but I’m struggling to wrap my head around what happened against Flamengo. This wasn’t a draft gap, this loss was all about the execution (or lack thereof) from the LOUD players. Things went fairly well for the crowd favourites LOUD in the early game, with strong laning and good rotations getting small advantages across the map. However, Flamengo was never far behind and answered kills with objectives (specifically dragons) and more importantly, managed to stack the bulk of their kills on Flare, their late-game carry. As the dragons stacked, LOUD suddenly found themselves found between a rock and a Soul Dragon. Perhaps feeling the pressure, LOUD pulled the trigger on 2 questionable fight in quick succession which backfired spectacularly, resulting in a huge upset.
A 0–2 week to put a stop to the momentum that LOUD had been building up, and LOUD find themselves back in the middle of the pack. It’s more than a little puzzling to see the sudden dip in performance, but credit to both RED and Flamengo for having huge stand out weeks. If there’s one thing consistent in CBLOL, it’s to expect the unexpected. While I’d love to see LOUD bounce back next week and start another winning streak, I’d hesitate to put any money on it.
6. Netshoes Miners (W6: 1–1) INTZ + paiN
Netshoes Miners are in the most stressful position currently, sitting right outside the 5-way tie, and just inside the playoff cut-off. They’ve got the biggest target on their back, and facing their 2 biggest competitors of INTZ and paiN this week as well. The good news for Netshoes Miners is that while paiN and INTZ have been looking re-energized, the roster change of Celo coming in for Drop looked good last week and even netted them a win over FURIA. I’m not quite sure how confident I am with Netshoes Miners, but what I can say for sure, is that their games this week will be bangers.
Can Netshoes Miners fans catch a break? Even when they win, things are incredibly close. DoRun was the bright shining spot for this team, outplaying ganks and getting a significant side-lane lead which bought space and time for Netshoes Miners to scale up after a rough early game. Croc, Celo and Hawk did not have a good time of things, falling behind and struggling to survive in the 5v5 mess. Anyyy won MVP of the game, partially by scaling up on Ryze, eventually becoming an un-killable damage machine. The hero play of the game for Anyyy came at the very end of the game, as Netshoes Miners set up for Baron, and sent Anyyy on a sneak mission to pull off the slowest back-door in CBLOL history. It worked, but it wasn’t pretty.
I don’t know if there is anything to say for Netshoes Miners this game. The draft was good, a lot of picks I liked to see, but once we got into game… it was paiN’s world and Netshoes Miners were just extras in it. Netshoes Miners did attempt to make things happen, but the key word here is “attempt”. Nothing seemed to work out, and paiN just felt like they were always ahead. Rough game, and it’s one of those were you just have to say: GG, go next.
The Miners manage to retain their precarious 6th place for now, but things are getting ever dicier with paiN 1 game away from knocking them out. To make things worse, Flamengo and Rensga have both been picking up surprise wins to keep them mathematically in the running. In the standing above them, FURIA, LOUD, KaBuM! And Liberty have all shown some vulnerability which make upsets more likely, though Netshoes Miners haven’t been able to capitalize on that yet. Can Netshoes Miners survive the last 3 mad weeks of CBLOL as 6th place? The magic 8-ball says “Cannot predict now”.
7. paiN Gaming (W6: 2–0) KaBuM! + Netshoes Miners
dyNquedo said it on Tropas Liberadas (CBLOL official podcast), paiN Gaming need to start getting wins. We’re in the 2nd half of the regular season and if paiN don’t start getting critical wins, most importantly against 6th place Netshoes Miners, they’re unlikely to make playoffs. As critical as I have been of paiN’s performance in previous weeks, it’s clutch time, and paiN Gaming has always been a team to deliver when it matters. With the experience on this roster, it’s time for Wizer, CarioK and dyNquedo to step up, and make doubter shut up.
Let’s go, paiN Gaming! They’re manifesting their desire to victory in an upset win against KaBuM!. While my expectations were towards Wizer, CarioK and dyNquedo to step up as veterans, it was Trigo and Damage popping off which won this game. Damage ran the bot lane on Alistar, denying Scuro’s engage, and snowballing by aggressively punishing Zeri’s short range. Trigo followed up perfectly and soon snowballed into an unholy terror which just blew up the entirety of KaBuM!’s squishy composition. The cherry on the cake was CarioK’s willingness to force any fight where Trigo was even vaguely close to, never giving KaBuM! any space or time to catch their breath. This is the paiN Gaming I was hoping for, and if they can keep this up, they might be able to sneak their way into the murky soup that is the top of the standings.
While I’ve criticized paiN in the past for their drafting, it’s hard to argue with results. paiN didn’t make egregious mistakes in draft, but it did feel like they drafted in isolation, ignoring Netshoes Miners picks. It worked out though, as paiN showed they had a game plan prepared, and were perfectly ready to execute it (and anyone else they saw). CarioK was the catalyst for most of the action, flawless ganks and invades to set Netshoes Miners behind in multiple roles. Credit to Netshoes Miners, they didn’t just give up and die, but if anything, it just hastened paiN’s absolute slaughter in the fastest game of the day.
Well, paiN is called the Traditionals for a reason, and you can never count them out. It doesn’t matter that paiN was 3–6 for the 1st Round Robin, because when they’re hot, paiN can play with the best of them. Now only 1 game behind Netshoes Miners for that all important 6th spot, paiN will need to keep the magic flowing for Week 7 against a FURIA team that has been limping, but still winning. Flamengo is also waiting for them, having upset LOUD in Week 6 as well. The standings are chaotic, but paiN has always thrived in the chaos.
8. Flamengo Esports (W6: 1–1) FURIA + LOUD
Another week, another roster change for Flamengo as they’re still trying to find some sort of win condition for the team. I fully agree with this one though, as asta has been struggling to find relevance in this gank-heavy meta. Sting has previous CBLOL experience on both Cruzeiro and FURIA, with a more aggressive early game style, so it should address a lot of Flamengo’s concerns. Will it be enough against FURIA and LOUD though? Probably not, but Flamengo has beaten top teams before (RED just 2 weeks ago).
Miracles are miracles because they defy the odds and are incredibly rare. Which is to say that Flamengo didn’t win against FURIA. Sting’s KDA did not look good after the game, but to his credit, he was constantly on the look-out for opportunities. I liked Boal’s willingness to try the Fiora counter to Gwen as well, but while the spirit is willing, the hands were weak. A lot of good ideas here for Flamengo, but they failed to execute quite right, and FURIA just outplayed at almost every turn.
Almost the exact opposite happened against LOUD where Boal and Flare had some incredible pop-off moments. Sting got the ball rolling with a sneaky Blue buff steal at level 1, and though he had a bit of a questionable early fight top side, still applied pressure throughout the game. More importantly, Sting also set up the incredibly rare dragon stacking win condition for Flamengo which forced LOUD into engaging into Flamengo’s defensive team-fighting composition. Able to kite back with a Viktor and Jinx, Flamengo were in their comfort zone, and to top it all off, Boal got to ambush LOUD’s back-line of DudsTheBoy and tinowns as they charged recklessly after the dangled bait of Tutsz and Flare.
Huge wins to keep Flamengo mathematically alive for a play-off berth, and an even bigger showing for Sting coming in to revive Flamengo’s hopes. Week 7 will see Flamengo facing off against INTZ and paiN, both of whom are also currently in direct contention for that highly coveted 6th place. If Flamengo can keep things up, the scaling Flare win condition is eminently viable.
8. INTZ (W6: 0–2) Netshoes Miners + FURIA
Big win last week for INTZ against KaBuM!, and once again off better macro play. As CBLOL English’s Axeman87 has said, it’s weird to see a lower ranked team find wins (especially against higher ranked teams) through better macro, but I think it’s a testament to INTZ’s game understanding. The problem INTZ has been struggling with is their team-fighting coordination, and if opponents start banning out globals for Kick, my faith in INTZ begins to plummet.
INTZ is going to be kicking themselves after this game. To start, Netshoes Miners identified Kick’s predilection for global roamers, banning Twisted Fate, and picking Ryze/Galio for themselves to deny INTZ those options. INTZ responded well though, grabbing the power picks of Hullbreaker Graves and Ahri to try and win lane. Spoiler, it didn’t work. However, micaO and Decoy found themselves well ahead of the game, picking up a triple kill in lane for a 4/0 early game lead. Things were looking good for them, and they should have been able to leverage that lead into team-fights. Sadly, micaO and mis-positioning has become a bit of a meme, and the fact that Netshoes Miner’s composition was particularly good at isolating a single target (with Camille and Galio) did not help matters. INTZ weren’t able to pick up the pace of the game, allowing Netshoes Miners to eventually out-scale them.
Another great early game from INTZ despite not having a global composition. Their map control and ability to read their opponent’s early game was on full display as they read RedBert and Ranger like a book. With the lead they accrued, INTZ didn’t slack off but pushed the pace with solid rotations to break the map open with turrets. The idea was good, but FURIA’s Envy was having none of it, single-handedly punishing INTZ’s dives and sieges with flanks and the overwhelming mobility Ahri is feared for. Kick tried to answer, but just didn’t quite have enough damage yet (though he did a great job zoning out everyone else on FURIA). Without an answer to the assassin who was bursting through anyone not named Yampi, INTZ were left without a way to effectively fight, push or really win the game.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. INTZ continues to impress with their understanding of map movements, especially in the early game. However, their inability to win team-fights is starting to bleed over to an inability to win games. Even with split-pushers, INTZ can’t seem to win the 4v4 or even hold the 4v4 long enough to allow Tyrin to push in the side-lanes. Without a global ult as a crutch, INTZ are looking more exposed than ever, and I’m not quite sure what they can do about it.
8. Rensga Esports (W6: 1–1) Liberty + KaBuM!
If we’re talking about roster changes, no one can top Rensga Esports. Most teams replace one player at a time, maybe 2 tops. Rensga has gone with 3 players being swapped out, with Trap from LCK CL replacing Ayel, NinjaKiwi from the Academy team replacing Hades, and World traveller Mocha coming in most recently from the TCL replacing Guard. Normally, I’d hate this sort of major change in the middle of the season, but considering Rensga’s recent performances, I don’t think the coordination or proactivity will get much worse, and maybe the lack of information might work in their favour.
Rensga’s roster change buff is completely unreal, and in the immortal words of thecyangod, Liberty activated Rensga’s Trap card. I can’t think of a better CBLOL debut for Trap, NinjaKiwi and Mocha. Trap picked Yone blind and intimidated the entire of Liberty with his fearless playstyle. NinjaKiwi and Mocha had a quiet laning phase, but reaped the benefits of the chaos which Rensga managed to generate in team-fights, with NinjaKiwi ending the game deathless, 7/0/5. However, the MVP of this game was Goku, who did not miss a single charm (at least on camera) and repeatedly found picks to crumble Liberty’s battle-lines. A huge win for Rensga to keep them in the running for play-offs.
The roster change buff continued, but wasn’t quite enough to overcome KaBuM!. Credit to Rensga, the game was incredibly exciting and close for most of it. NinjaKiwi coming up from Rensga’s Academy team (currently in last place) popped off, working with Mocha to win multiple 2v3’s against KaBuM!’s ganks. While KaBuM! is a team known to love constant fighting in the mid-game, Rensga matched their bloodthirstiness, actually winning out in terms of kills. Regrettably, as amusing as constant fighting is, League of Legends is a game about taking the enemy’s Nexus, and while Rensga got caught up in their battle fervour, KaBuM! snuck into their base and backdoored Rensga to steal away the win.
A truly welcome surprise, even with the 1–1 week, Rensga are looking completely revitalized! All 3 newcomers have shown great promise and made a statement in their debuts. While I’m not quite ready to proclaim Rensga as a top 6 team just yet, I am looking at them to play the ultimate spoiler in this 2nd half of the regular season, especially before teams completely figure them out. Combined with Flamengo’s second win, and paiN’s play-off buff kicking in early, CBLOL is at the precipice of complete and unmitigated madness… and I’m loving every second of it.