Snoopeh was never considered one of the best in EU, and now the meta has shifted he is seen as quite the opposite. Snoopeh desperately needs to adapt his champion pool or find a way to make his old favourites work again. Wickd was another dominating factor of EG from Season 2.
Still, the Wickd of old died when lane swaps and 2v1 became more popular- such has been the fate of most top laners. Whereas this holds no fault with the giant Dane himself, it still limits his ability to carry games.
His champion pool has suffered slightly with the obvious example being the nerfing of his beloved Irelia but his positive ability to adapt has been displayed in the past and EG will benefit when he can master the likes of Kennen.
On the other hand, Wickd has never been very good on AP champions outside of Elise. Europe is not known for its amazing botlanes, but as far as it goes these two are one of the best pairings. Being on EG has meant that he never really needed to carry as Froggen or Wickd would always have it covered.
As a result, Yellowpete was the definition of reliable and consistent and it worked very well for the old EG. In Season 3 however, more focus is being put on the ADC to carry games and Yellowpete is struggling to step up.
I personally see little difference in Krepo from Season 2 to Season 3. On the times he does get Thresh though, he can be very effective as long as the team is on the same page. The game has changed and they need to adjust. It would be a total shame if one of the most successful EU teams was forced to have a roster change. Hopefully they can resolve issues before that becomes necessary.
These articles will be sharing his opinions on certain LoL related topics and be a mix of his own thoughts and some more purely educational stuff. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook foxdroplol.
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Cloth5 would not be the same without you - Come back soon! Previous Post. Being the Lane Bully: Mind Mechanics. Next Post. EU could really dethrone the kings of LoL. Including their online success, CLG. M5 could tell themselves that the group stage game had been their loss, throwing away a huge lead, and that it had been a meaningless game anyway, since both teams had qualified for the playoffs. In the first game of the final CLG. EU immediately established that they would not only play the late-game stall-out style that they were quickly making famous.
A five man tower dive onto Darien at the very beginning scoring them first blood. The next 23 or 24 minutes were back-and-forth, with even trades at dragon fights and dives in different lanes. EU were leading by a few kills, but it wasn't until their four kill unanswered sequence at 33 minutes that they truly secured a significant lead. Taking the baron right after, they were able to fight around the M5 base three minutes later, going in kills and winning the opening game. The game not only put M5 on the back foot, needing to win two straight to still claim the crown, but also established in spectator's minds the effectiveness and impact of Froggen's Anivia and yellowpete's Kog'Maw, those two carrying the game on those champions.
M5 certainly took note, banning out Anivia for game two. This time both teams were playing a little more cautiously, M5 not wanting to get behind again and CLG.
EU facing the pressure of being a game from the title. It wasn't until after 10 minuts that the first blood arrived, with Wickd's Renekton killing Darien, thanks to a Snoopeh gank. M5 struck back with a kill, but CLG's team-fighting was proving a match for the key strength of the Russian side, seeing them getting a key kill out of seemingly every fight between the teams. M5 were used to being able to come out on the top of all the team-fights, left only to choose how and when they happened.
EU could not only dictate the location and time of the fights, they would try to ensure the engagement came in a manner they could direct to their carries. Froggen's Karthus was fearsome this day, killing again and again. Darien died a number of times and M5 were unable to find any way back into the game, the game ending around 43 minutes.
Counter Logic Gaming Europe had come back from an impossible deficit in the group stage and now they had become the first team to ever defeat Moscow Five in an offline Best-of-3 series. But this time we were aggressive early, got a bunch of kills early and it just worked out". Teams before had struggled to find anything that would work offline against M5, now CLG. EU seemingly had the formula, winning three out of three games in Sweden.
EU's style revolved around stalling out the game when behind, allowing time to farm and perhaps catch the occasional kill. As a team with superior team-fighting to almost any team they might face, even Moscow Five in that first offline meeting, they didn't need to be ahead or even even in items and gold, they just needed the right team-fight.
By waiting, attempting to grind a little closer to the leading team, they could look for or craft those openings. Back in that meta-game everything revolved around team-fights, no game was finished by split-pushing or backdooring or whatever. It was always the build-up to the 20 minute mark, when you will contest the dragon and you know inevitably there will be a 5v5 fight. Even if you're prone to lose it you have to take it.
It's simple enough to propose playing cautiously from behind to get back into a game, but few teams could hope to pull off this approach. When behind teams would often attempt to force a fight, hoping to win in out-right combat, often at a dragon or baron, and get back into the game that way, turning things around with a moment of skill and a tally of kills. Playing from behind required CLG. EU to farm safely, something that Froggen proved to be a monster at.
In the botlane yellowpete and Krepo understood that they didn't need to force trades and fight, they would just farm and wait for a Snoopeh gank.
Everyone would clash into each other, but we would go in, take a step back, especially playing against Karthus, go in, kill Karthus and move out. Then champions like Anivia or Maokai become really good, because they have to walk through Maokai's ulti and they have to fight in Maokai's ulti. Or the base cc off his gets really strong, or Cho'Gath as well, if you walk into a silence. Walking through an Anivia ulti will definitely slow you down so much that we can decide when to turn on you again.
So when they're chasing us into the fight we just turn on them in the front and we were so synchronised that that guy drops and they lose their, like if they're not all in synch moving back and forth then they easily get baited into positions where they don't want to be. In S2 that was our biggest strength, even if we were down in gold I remember saying so many times: 'We're better than them, we've got this'".
Playing from behind was one thing, but CLG. EU also had a different approach when playing with a lead. Most teams would again try to force team-fights, hoping to use their lead to snowball harder and run over their enemies. EU instead were willing to play patiently from the lead, looking for safer opportunities, with less potential for turnarounds, to close out a game with more certainty.
This would become a characteristic seen later on, and thus we will return to this point later in the story. Losing to M5 online for the first time in a series, they would manage to qualify for the offline event nonetheless. This event was the biggest league in Korea, televised and featuring some of the world's best teams. In the previous season a number of Western teams had tried their luck competing, only to find the level of Korean LoL had rised up and overtaken them, with none moving beyond the quarter-final.
Members of those Western teams would later tell stories of finding the Korean solo queue incredibly difficult, often unable to reach respectable ELO scores for a top pro, and suffering loss after loss in scrimmages against the Korean teams. So basically it came down to us not playing aggressive at all, just trying to counter their aggression.
EU were allowed to play all of their group stage games on the same day, rather than spread out over more than a week. Days later they flew out to Poland to reunite with the best European teams. After Dreamhack and going here [in Korea] and having so much practice, compared to the European teams, which are generally really stagnant, since can only practice mediocre teams, the top teams can't practice each other, we should have an edge we can exploit.
As fate would have it, Wickd and his men had been placed in the same group as Moscow Five, once again. This time the game was not the last scheduled of the three, removing that excuse from either team. Anivia was, unsurprisingly, banned out. The storyline of this game proved to be M5 Top laner Darien's bizarre aggression on Gangplank, dying over and over at the most inopportune times for his team. By the 10 minute mark he had recorded zero kills and five deaths.
M5 fought back, scoring crucial kills from 13 minutes to 18 minutes, including a trade at dragon, and were close to evening the kill count around 22 minutes. Less than a minute later Froggen scored four kills as part of a CLG. EU ace and the game quickly spiraled out of control again for the Russians.
When it came to a close, at 39 minutes, the kill count was for CLG. In the semi-final CLG. EU encountered more resistance from a new look SK Gaming team, going three maps before winning a dominating decider and moving on to the final. The opponent for the second offline final of CLG. EU's time together would, of course, be Moscow Five. Despite having an offline record of two IEM wins and a second at Dreamhack, M5 would come into the final as the underdog.
EU were in offline games against them, seemingly able to control the Russians whenever they played and get the better of team-fights, leaving M5 wondering what it would take to score a victory over them.
The final got under way with Wickd giving up the first two kills. At 14 minutes a 3v5 fight saw CLG. EU, the team with less numbers, giving up two big kills. They scored back the same minutes later, but then a disastrous fight around dragon led to four kills for M5 for one to CLG. The second game had M5 leave up Anivia, which Froggen of course took.
It would be the other mid laner in the game making all the plays though, as Alex Ich on Gragas took over as the best player in the server. It took more than 27 minutes before CLG. EU were able to get on the board with a kill, by which time M56 had eight to their name. An M5 ace at 31 minutes and CLG. EU would be fighting a losing battle the rest of the way. The game finished with a score.
With a combined two game score of , M5 had more than gained revenge, they'd stamped out a clear statement that they were entirely capable of beating CLG. Gone was the M5 who had hesitated in their Dreamhack group stage lead, gone was the M5 who had failed to find favourable team-fights again and again in the final. Now M5 had found a way to do to CLG. EU what they did to everyone else, overwhelming them with team-fighting and ganks.
Darien's group stage feeding aside, M5 had regained ground in the psychological battle against their European rivals. They're a good enough of a team that, I said this once at the [analysis] desk: if you give them a finger, they'll take an arm! The month would be more intercontinental travel for yellowpete and his young men, heading back to Korea after ECC for the quarter-finals of OGN.
EU players met a familiar semi-final opponent: SK Gaming. Having beaten SK in the semi-final in Poland they had tasted the danger of this new line-up, but a big win in the third map had allowed them to escape a potential upset. SK Top laner Kev1n had been a beast in the series in Poland, carrying the opening game win for SK and doing his best to put his team in position to win a second game they narrowly lost late. EU's blue buff from them. This would prove to be the approach SK had determined would give them the best chance to win against their stall-out opponents, taking CLG.
EU's red buff and the next two blues as well. Nobody had died yet, but without blue buffs Froggen, CLG. EU's star mid laner, was placed in the unusual position of being unable to directly 1v1 SK's ocelote. SK continued to steal buffs throughout the game, Kev1n again carrying, this time on Gangplank. The second game began with CLG. EU aggressive early, killing Araneae at his own blue buff, and getting up in kills after 13 minutes.
EU players, while his team suffered only a single death. The rest of the game would be all about SK winning team-fights and ocelote and Kev1n leading the way as the carries. We gave SK the chance to get 3 buffs lvl 1, 3!.
If we smited the blue lvl 1 which we should have because we had vision game 1 Alistar would have had 0 buffs left in his jungle and he would've been rendered void. The entire game basically revolved around that blue steal. Then second game the baron-phase threw the game. Yes SK played better, yes they deserved the win. I'm not making excuses here, just analyzing what went wrong. We were out of shape, they were in shape.
I, however, did learn a thing or two about preparing for important LAN matches, and that knowledge I will carry with me whilst forgetting these 2 matches. Shit happens, one has to learn how to deal with it. I'm glad we are top 3 and that was my goal. EU and would go on to the final, where they'd face M5.
This semi-final had been more important than other semi-finals, with a win ensuring the team would be one of the three representing the European region at the World finals. EU's loss to M5 in Poland had been one thing, M5's performance in the final had been above and beyond what one could have expected, but losing to SK here put doubts out there about CLG. EU's level. They would battle fnatic in the third place decider, the loser going home and the winner earning a spot in Los Angeles.
Snoopeh and the gang won and secured that Worlds spot. Under a week after Gamescom the CLG. They had already exceeded the previous mark of any Western team, now they had a chance to put a stamp on Korean LoL. EU prevailed in a full five map series, reaching the final of the entire tournament.
Their opponents there would be Azubu Frost, considered the best team in Korea, especially after having beaten sister team and reigning champions Blaze. On the eight of September the OGN finals arrived and a packed house was ready to see their beloved home favourites battle the foreigners with strange accents and an even stranger style of play. It is customary in Korean esports finals for there to be some trash talk in the pre-match interview, often doing jokingly and with permission to be what, at other times, might be perceived as a little rude or harsh.
The casting team asked Snoopeh why he had said he thought Frost were weaker than sister team Blaze and the Scot explained that while he had not played Blaze directly, he still considered this to be the case. The broadcasters then asked Froggen if he knew that RapidStar, mid laner of Frost, was considered the best mid player in the world. EU's Danish mid star explained that he didn't know that, since he was the best mid player in the world, promising to crush him in the final.
The first game of the final got under way with Frost invading and stealing CLG. EU's red buff. Wickd would strike first, killing Frost top laner Shy twice in the first seven minutes.
The next four minutes saw kills back and forth, but CLG. EU were coming out better overall, leading Snoopeh's ganks proved key, including a countergank after Frost's CloudTemplar went top lane to try and help Shy. The game was then broken wide open by CLG. EU, with Froggen leading the way putting kill after kill up with his Diana play. Frost would surrender without CLG. EU even being in their base, knowing it was futile to continue.
Most amazingly, Froggen would later reveal that he had not even been practicing Diana, having not played her for more than a month. Playing her in a solo queue game before the final had convinced him to try her in the final, now CLG. EU led the Bo5 after the first game. Frost again began with an invade, getting a kill at the top tri-bush on CLG.
EU's side. Kills were traded over the first 15 minutes, but a three kill sequence at 17 minutes established a lead for CLG. A huge team-fight at 23 minutes had Frost seeming to be in position to get back into the game, killing four CLG. EU players and losing three of their own. The most important moment of the game was around 30 minutes, as a baron fight went in CLG.
EU's favour and they took an inhibitor. Leading they took game two. Frost were facing elimination and Counter Logic Gaming Europe were one win from the trophy. In the third game CLG. EU led in kills for all of a brief few seconds, Frost gradually pushing ahead throughout the game, even if it remained close right through 21 minutes. At the 24th minure a trade put CLG. EU ahead, but they were not to close out the championship in this game.
Frost had two key sequences over the next eight minutes, scoring aces both times. RapidStar's Karthus was doing damage with his ultimate and the game ended around 32 minutes, Frost moving within a game. In the fourth game CLG. EU were battling in a close game with little between the teams. From 11 minutes to 18 there were runs from both sides, but the game was still close in kills.
MadLife's blitzcrank was making plays for the Korean side and a crucial one for the fate of the series came around 33 minutes, as Froggen attempted to use his Ahri ultimate to dodge a potential Blitzcrank hook, only to see MadLife, seemingly randomly, hook him and prevent that.
The look on Froggen's face said it all, CLG. EU would lose the fight and the fourth game. The fifth game in OGN tournaments has an unusual and yet delicious quirk in its settings, played as a blind pick game. This opens the door for mind-games, as a player can pick any champion he wants, but knows that his opponent might expect him to pick his strongest. Froggen had the opening to select his beloved Anivia, his signature champion, but instead chose to go with Diana.
As it turned out, getting this champion would be facing off against Karthus, a good match-up. A trade in the bottom lane had the two teams tied at , but two minutes later Wickd was ganked in top lane. EU managed to trade their blue buff for a dragon at nine minutes, pulling close in gold. Their botlane was caught out less than a minute later, both dying. In the 10th minute it was kills from Frost's mid laner and top laner on their respective counterparts that put the Korean team firmly ahead.
Bad fights in the next six minutes saw CLG. Krepo was loved by the community for his commitment to understanding even the tiniest details of the game, and showcased this knowledge to great effect on the World Championship analyst desk. In between rants about support itemisation and the race to level 2, he managed some entertaining lines.
However, after realising that he needed to make lifestyle changes, Krepo managed to lose a substantial amount of weight, inspiring gamers around the world. So, what next for Krepo? He has proven before, on both the analyst and caster desks, that he has a gift of intelligent, well-formulated gab. Alternatively, he could become a coach, analyst or streamer. He has shown that he has the ability to thrive in all but the former. As a coach he is largely unproven, but given his nurturing ways, say-it-as-it-is attitude and tactical intelligence, he has the raw qualities to make an excellent coach.
Krepo will be remembered as a legend of the Western scene. He was an inspiration to many, and can be proud of his achievements. He has merely finished the first stage in what is destined to be a legendary journey. Skip to content.
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