LYON's first international campaign began in the deep end — drawn against LOUD, CBLOL's first seed, in what promised to be one of the most entertaining series of the group stage given the growing rivalry between the two regions. Five games later, it delivered indeed with NA getting their revenge for what happened during Americas Cup. Here are RFT's editorial ratings of the series.
Blew hot and cold. Some strong games with solid laning phases, others more difficult or frustratingly even despite the counterpick he pulled out. His Gnar and Rumble were first damage of the games and his Garen was excellent — a well-drafted pick that genuinely made a difference. That said, he got caught far too often throughout the entire series. Not quite Bin's Jax, though.
MVP of the series. Played much better than usual around objectives and secured most of them. Outside of that, Inspired had an Inspired match. Very clean overall, always in a good state in the game — even when his teammates were making costly mistakes. Composed, consistent and reliable throughout.
Had a few rough outings, most notably the Cassiopeia game, but on the whole he carried his team by dominating Envy in the 1v1 — even when facing counters. The last Viktor game is the perfect proof: if this man take an early advantage, he will snowball the game. The Jayce game was more of a draft issue than a performance one; he actually won the lane convincingly but couldn't convert given the difficult conditions he was playing under in midgame. He overextended a bit too much in this game though.
Consistent across all five games. He did get bullied in lane during games 4 and 5 due to unfavorable matchups, but won every other lane and always found a way to remain relevant and deal his damage. The Jhin game felt more like a pick issue than a performance problem.
Not much of a deciding factor in this series. To be fair, he wasn't handed champions with a great deal of agency to carry on, especially through the first three games. He had some good highlights — notably the ward play on Poppy and the bush flank on Rakan. His Seraphine performance, however, was rough.
A few mishaps in his first game on Renekton, but looked genuinely interesting everywhere else. Known as a strong carry top laner, he put together three convincing games on tank champions against a Dhokla who was keen to throw out cheesy counterpicks. His early game on Ambessa was particularly impressive in the 1v1 — and he was arguably his team's only real winning condition in that game, despite, once again, being counterpicked.
Looked completely lost on Qiyana and Zaahen. The latter was a clear reminder that the champion is still relatively new and should not be picked without proper practice beforehand. His very outstanding performance on Aatrox saved his day, as well as his good Nocturne game. He couldn't do much more on Jarvan IV given how his laners have been outclassed everywhere on the map.
Got bullied in the 1v1 for most of the series, even when he was the one counterpicking — the Mel and the Vex especially. He did have two very strong games on Ryze and Akali, both of which directly translated into wins for his team.
Barely made an impact in the series outside of the Miss Fortune game, which looked like a fairly free ride from the draft. His support didn't help matters, giving away too many advantages in the early game throughout the series. The duo never seemed to be on the same page — one was consistently pushing much harder than the other, and it showed.
Redbert died far too many times and too many of those deaths were avoidable, such as recalling inside a warded bush with low HP. That said, he did appear to be the more proactive of the two, trying to play the game rather than play it safe. A handful of mechanical misplays hurt his performance rating slightly as well.
LOUD overcooked a little too hard in their game 5 draft, and the Vex pick got punished accordingly. The botlane also had a rough time finding its footing in the series. That said, LOUD's top side showed a lot of promise throughout — they were far from embarrassing in their home turf against NA's first seed. Going forward, they might want to give their top laner more agency and let him carry, given what he showed in this series compared to his botlane, and especially that Ambessa performance. More broadly, LYON need to clean up the sloppy mistakes — Dhokla dying too much being the most glaring example — and become a bit less one-dimensional in their approach. Relying so heavily on the mid push and river skirmishes dynamic will not be enough if they want to compete against the very best.
Great Review