Season 5 Patch 5.4 Top 10 Solo Queue Junglers.

Patch 5.4 Tier List

Hey guys! So I skipped 5.3 and didn't make a tier list then because there weren't **too many** major changes and I didn't feel like I had to revamp the tier list much. 5.4 is now out though and so I'll be making a new tier list. The main change to this tier list is that I'm not going to be going super in-depth and writing major essays. Instead, I'm going to make a shorter section for each champion and I'll have a picture TL:DR attached. I've noticed that most people prefer that these type of posts are a little bit shorter and have more pictures. TL:DR at the bottom! Runes and masteries are also included in this post. Keep in mind that these vary.

10. Hecarim (New)

The pony is golden boys. 

Hecarim is powerful due to his decent sustain in the jungle (his W was buffed at rank 1 and heals for a large amount), his clearspeed (Q spam!), and his relatively powerful ganks pre-6 and post-6. Hecarim snowballs very hard and becomes a monster to deal with, especially with damage items such as Trinity Force and Youmuu's Ghostblade. The key issue is that, while he is an effective jungler, he's better utilized top lane due to having better access to the farm for expensive items like Trinity Force and his sustain in lane is effective as well. Also, the changes in 5.4 where swapping a jungle item isn't free anymore hurts him a lot. He's playable in the jungle but superior in top lane.

Pros : Decent sustain. Clearspeed. Powerful pre-6 and post-6 ganks. Snowballs hard.

Cons : Snowball/farm reliant. Stronger as a laner than a jungler.

Example rune page : Movement quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example mastery page : 

9. Rengar (Moved down from #8)

Stab kitty is still here! Struggling to stay in the top 10 but still here!

Rengar is incredibly powerful due to his high damage output (high base damage) and his versatility. In addition, his pre-6 ganks aren't the most effective but can still be pulled off effectively in top lane and bottom lane due to the bushes. His invades are incredibly powerful (e.g. level 2 invade) and he can skirmish very effectively with most junglers early game. His post-6 ganks are almost guaranteed kills if pulled off correctly due to being able to stealth in and chain your bola strikes. His versatility allows him to be built as a tank initiator or a full damage assassin and he plays well in both roles. 

That being said, his main cons are that his early clears are atrocious. The 5.4 changes hurt him significantly due to not being able to start Rangers for easy early clears and then swap to another smite. He gets early low in the early jungle so if you're not invading, you're susceptible to invades by other champions. In addition, while his ganks pre-6 can be pulled off, he's still pretty ultimate reliant. Rengar also is snowball reliant and is relatively weak if he doesn't get ahead early game. He's pretty high risk, high reward.

Pros : High damage. Versatile (can be tank/bruiser/assassin). Pre-6 ganks aren't the worst. Post-6 ganks are potent. Invades are incredibly powerful. Can skirmish with most junglers.

Cons : Gets INCREDIBLY low in the jungle if not invading. Susceptible to invades. Ultimate reliant. Snowball reliant.

Example runes :  AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

8. Pantheon (Moved down from #3)

Spartan's man dropped down a lot. Awkward. 

I'll be honest. I still feel like Pantheon is a top tier pick. But a bunch of nerfs that hit different jungle items here and there, as well as an AD nerf to the warrior enchantment kind of made me feel like he's not as good as he used to be. That being said, he's still a top tier pick but, after experimenting with it through dozens of games, I'm just not feeling it anymore.

Pantheon's main strengths is his ability to sustain in the jungle with his passive which blocks monster auto attacks as well as his early damage. Pantheon has incredibly high damage at low levels, allowing him to effectively invade, level 2 gank, and pre-6 gank. His post-6 gank is referred to by many as a guaranteed double kill in bottom lane. He snowballs incredibly hard and can 100 to 0 targets with ease with just some armor penetration. His initiation is also incredibly powerful and his objective control is great with his guaranteed crit at low % health. The main issues with Pantheon is that he falls off late game, especially with poor itemization. You need armor penetration to effectively play him but need to also build slightly tanky so you can survive long enough to deal damage. You also need to correctly use to ultimate (e.g. positioning) or you'll fail due to the long delay before you land. Another issue is that Pantheon goes IN but has no real escapes so you have to fully commit to fights.

Pros : Great sustain in jungle. High early game damage. Can invade. Level 2 ganks and pre-6 ganks are very effective. Post 6 gank is amazing. Ultimate is great for initiation. Snowballs hard. Neutral objective control is great due to guaranteed crit.

Cons : No escapes. Falls off hard if not itemized correctly. Need to get used to effectively positioning ult.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

7. Jarvan IV (Down from #1) 

The prince has fallen from grace.

To explain why he's dropped down, Jarvan took a decent sized hit to his E which removed the passive armor portion of the spell. To compensate, Jarvan received +3 base armor. His first clear should remain unchanged but the it's still around 400g worth of stats lost. While it doesn't sound like the biggest of deals, it hurts his mid game tankiness where Jarvan would be innately tanky despite not having any actual tank items. In addition, Riot fixed a bug where players would occasionally get knocked up when walking into Jarvan post E -> Q. While it wasn't a prominent bug, this makes Jarvan slightly weaker (though no one's complaining because IT WAS A BUG). 

All that aside, Jarvan is still incredibly powerful. His first clear is a little sketchy and he gets pretty low but his early ganks make up for that. His pre-6 ganks are incredibly powerful and something as simple as his E->Q is enough to force a laner's flash. His post-6 ganks are just the same and will lock someone in the Cataclysm. The pressure he can apply with his kit is absurd. His damage is also incredibly high, even when built tanky, due to the fact that his passive does 10% of a target's current health on his first auto attack. His neutral objective control is great because of his passive and because of his ability to get in and out (E->Q). His utility is amazing because his E still provides attack speed, he can disrupt and peel with his E->Q and his R. His initiation is incredibly powerful. 

The main issues with Jarvan is that his E->Q is his main method of getting in. If he uses it to initiate, he has no means to get out other than burning a summoner. His ultimate can also be troll-y and screw over your teammates, hence the term "I'm Jarvan! I'm helping!" He gets low in his early clears and is susceptible to invades.

Pros : Potent pre-6/post 6 ganks. Great neutral objective control. Great initiator. Decent damage, even if tank. Great disruption in teamfights.

Cons : No method of escaping after E->Q. Ultimate can screw over teammates. Susceptible to early invades.

Example runes : Atkspd quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

6. Fiddlesticks (Down from #2)

Another champion who's dropped down in the standings. Fiddlesticks is still an incredibly powerful pick but, after experimenting, I've found a few other champions that carry more effectively. That being said, he did receive a nerf that hurt him a little bit. His Drain tether range was nerfed by 50, from 700 to 650. It's not a MASSIVE nerf but it's still a nerf.

Fiddlesticks main strengths is that he remains incredibly healthy in his clears due to his drain, his ability to skirmish with enemy junglers with rank 2 drain, and his devastating teamfight with his CC/Ultimate. Fiddlesticks has very little trouble in the season 5 jungle because he heals through all the damage with his drain. His pre-6 ganks aren't the greatest but are able to be pulled off with fear, though I personally don't rank up fear first. His post-6 ganks are incredibly terrifying and are more effective than Pantheon's level 6 bottom lane ganks. His ultimate can singlehandedly wipe out players, even at rank 1. His neutral objective control is decent because he can secure an early dragon since he can drain through all the damage, however, he has no ability to combo with his smite so neutral objectives can be stolen. His ultimate will devastate an entire enemy team if used effectively and he only needs one item to carry (Zhonya's Hourglass). His initiating power stems from his ultimate as well since it can be used over walls. He can effectively CC targets and win teamfights, even without his ultimate due to his fear and silence. Fiddlesticks main issues is that he's semi-reliant on blue buff. Denying his first one can really screw over his early clear. Fiddlesticks is also an incredibly squishy target and can be picked off very easily. Vision control is also super critical with Fiddlesticks since his ultimate is best used as a "Surprise Party!" Since his ultimate is a channeled spell, it can be interrupted so it's critical you're always in fog of war.

Pros : Clears. CC. Exceptional teamfight. Good ultimate = win teamfight. Strong initiator. Good neutral objective control.

Cons : Can get picked off easily. Ultimate is interruptable. Mana hungry. Reliant on first blue buff. Requires effective vision control.

Example runes : AP quints. Magic pen marks. Armor seals. Scaling CDR glyphs.

Example masteries :

5. Rek'Sai (Up from #7)

Rek'Sai hasn't herself received any buffs that warrant moving her up. However, as people have become more and more experienced with her, there's more and more reason that she's actually a really powerful pick.

Rek'Sai's early clear is great and she has no trouble sustaining due to her burrow passive. In addition, Rek'Sai also can't get invaded very effectively since you can see tremors of enemy players when burrowed. Her clear is powerful as well due to her ability to knock up monsters to allow for short disruption to reduce damage taken. Since her ultimate is utility based rather than a combat ultimate, her pre-6/post-6 ganks are the same and are incredibly powerful with her able to use her tunnels to effectively gank. Her main method of ganking involves getting underneath the enemy and knocking them up by unburrowing. Outside of that, her tunnels are also useful for getting in and out of the enemy jungle to place vision. You can also leave your tunnels by every lane and, when a lane is getting ganked, use your ultimate to quickly get there to countergank, no matter where you are on the map. Her E true damage allows her to deal a large amount of damage to players but can also be used for neutral objectives to help secure them/combo with smite. She does a decent amount of damage while building tanky and does an absurd amount of damage if built with just one damage item (e.g. Trinity Force). Her teamfights are powerful and she provides decent initiation/disruption with her unburrow knockup. She can also determine whether or not you're about to get death bushed by using her burrow to look for enemy tremors. Her main issues is that she's not THAT tanky without items like pre-nerf Jarvan. Her burrow can be interrupted. She can be kited very easily since she has no slow in her kit. Also, you might troll yourself and get yourself killed if you don't pay attention to tremors when burrowed.

Pros : Great clear. Invades are unlikely to be successful. Great early ganks. Great mobility, especially for placing deep wards in the enemy jungle. Effective at counterganking, especially post 6. Great neutral objective control. Decent damage. Can prevent vision cheese. Good teamfight initiation/disruption.

Cons : Not innately tanky. Burrow can be interrupted. Kited easily due to no slow. You're blind when burrowed. Pay attention to tremors.

Example runes :  Atkspd quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries :

4. Lee Sin (Up from #5)

The Blind Monk's moving up. Why? Everyone else is getting nerfed.

I don't really like putting Lee Sin in a top 10 list just because I feel like to be a top tier jungler, he requires you to be relatively skilled at the champion and his mechanics. I decided to anyways since he's a relatively powerful pick right now.

Lee Sin is renown for his great early game prowess. His ability to snowball lanes AND shut down the enemy jungler is almost unrivaled. Lee Sin's early game is aiming to snowball all of your lanes. In addition, depending on the enemy jungler, you also want to shut him down by playing aggressive in his jungle as well as counterganking. Lee's key strength is in his early game pressure. In mid game, he's effective as a damage dealer while also providing displacement with his ultimate. His late game is pretty lackluster due to the fact that the most effective Lee Sin build path is Warrior + Sightstone + Tank. His late game revolves around focusing on kicking a squishy member of the enemy team into your team to force a teamfight (an Insec). He still provides some damage but it's not that effective. Aside from that, his early clear is great due to his sustain with his W. His pre-6 ganks are incredibly strong since landing his Q results in a dash and his second cast of Q is an execute (more dmg the lower health you are). His E slows as well to help with that. Post-6, he can displace you effectively with his ultimate. Neutral objective control is amazing since his Q is an execute and there are very few champions that can outsmite him. His vision control is superb since a core part of his kit is building a sightstone for mobility. The main problem with Lee Sin is actually effectively playing him to his maximum potential. Lee Sin is quite possibly one of the most difficult champion's in the game. While his kit isn't THAT difficult to understand, perfecting his combos/knowing when to insec/applying pressure early game is something that requires a lot of practice to get down. Outside of that, Lee Sin falls off hard late game no matter what and is a utility bot. If he doesn't play the early game effectively, Lee Sin shouldn't even be placed in this top 10. Ganks are critical. Snowballing teammates is critical.

Pros : Early game strength. Neutral objective control. Snowballs lanes hard. Mobility. Vision. Clears.

Cons : Weak late game. Utility bot. Incredibly high skill cap. Reliant on early game.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

3. Fizz (New)

Patch 5.2 made AD on-hit Fizz a thing but he was only brought into the jungle recently. The changes to his W makes him do an absurd amount of damage with just two items in the jungle (Devourer/BORK). Afterwards, you build full tank and focus on auto attacking.

Fizz's early clears isn't the worst and he can get through his camps without much of a struggle. His pre-6 ganks are fairly effective and he can put out a decent amount of damage when using his active W. He does need his red buff to keep them slowed so he can consistently auto attack. Post-6, with his ultimate, he can not only amplify his damage but also slow them with the shark to do more damage. His early game damage is absurd and he doesn't fall off at any point in the game. His mid/late game damage is amazing as well. His teamfight involves either being the initiation (using your ultimate and getting in their face once you're tanky enough), providing disruption, or just diving into their backline to kill them all with auto attacks. His neutral objective control is decent because he does % health damage and also builds Blade of the Ruined King. Fizz's main issues is that he can be kited pre-6 relatively easily. He's also a little susceptible to level 2 invades when he has no E to escape. He's also more reliant on landing his ultimate since it amplifies his damage. His E is also his main escape so wasting it can be fatal.

Pros : Absurd damage. Decent clears. Effective pre-6 ganks and great post-6 ganks. Doesn't fall off. Can initiate, disrupt, or just dive backline. Neutral objective control is strong due to % health damage. 

Cons : Can be kited pre-6. Susceptible to level 2 cheese. Sort of ultimate reliant since it amplifies damage. E is main escape so wasting can kill you.

Example runes : Atkspd quints. Atkspd marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

2. Nidalee (Up from #6)

While Nidalee did receive a nerf in the form of a bug fix in 5.3, she's still an incredibly powerful pick in 5.4. 

Nidalee's early clear is a little rough but she can get through it without too much of a struggle. Her general clearspeed is incredibly fast, especially once she gets some AP. Her early ganks are incredibly powerful and she can decimate people at level 3 as long as she manages to apply her Hunted debuff. Generally, you'll land your Q which will empower your pounce (W) and allow you to jump on a target. Your cougar form Q is an execute so you'll do more dmg the lower the target's health. Her damage is absurd early, even without much AP. Her neutral objective control is also incredibly powerful between using her spear to apply the hunted debuff and then pouncing in and then using Q. Nidalee is one of the best at securing those neutral objectives and it's very easy to steal neutral objectives with her without having much risk to yourself since you can jump back out after jumping into the dragon/baron pit. Nidalee's mid to late game is also incredibly powerful since she's great at sieging with her poke. She snowballs INCREDIBLY hard and can one-shot most carries with just one or two AP items as well as long as you land a spear on them. Her roaming potential and ability to maintain vision is exceptional due to her passive movement speed bonus while running through bushes. Her main issues are that, in teamfights, when she goes in, she kind of has a little bit of trouble getting back out, especially if she doesn't kill her target. She REALLY needs a Zhonya's for those sort of situations. She's also pretty mana reliant and it's probably a good idea to take blue buffs or build some type of mana item (e.g. Ranger's Trailblazer for the smite regen or Rod of Ages). You're also fairly squishy depending on your build so you need to be careful with positioning. Targets that lock you down are your worst nightmares (e.g. Annie/Lissandra/Vi). She's also very skill-shot reliant.

Pros : Clears. Absurd damage at all points in the game. Can assassinate carries with ease if you land your spears. Neutral objective control is uncanny. Sieging is incredibly powerful, especially with blue buff. Snowballs HARD. Roaming is superb and she can apply pressure everywhere. Vision control. 

Cons : Goes in but can be in trouble if target doesn't die. Blue buff reliant. Squishy depending on build. Lockdown is your worst nightmare.

Example runes : AP quints. AD marks. Armor seals. AP glyphs.

Example masteries : 

1. Vi (Up from #4)

Everyone else got nerfed. Vi didn't. She's still here. 

Vi has decent clear speed with her Q (positioning) + W (armor shred) + E (cone) and her passive allows her to sustain by shielding her. Early game, Vi can sort of effectively gank with her Q. Landing it generally means you force a flash. Post-6, however, Vi becomes a monster with her ultimate. She can point and click to knock up whomever she wants while also displacing everyone in the way. She can effectively jump terrain with her Q and her W provides % health damage for neutral objectives. Her key issues are that she has high mana costs and has no method of getting out after going in. Her ultimate, while a great single target lockdown, isn't AS effective as other champion's for teamfights but the lockdown can effectively just remove one person out of a fight, especially when mixed in with a Lissandra. She's still great at teamfights because she can burst specific people down but she doesn't provide the same level of disruption as other champions.

Pros : Snowballs hard. Decent early. Great mid/late. Great clearspeed. Objective control is powerful due to % health damage. Pick potential.

Cons : Mana costs. Goes in, can't get out. Single target ultimate vs teamfight ultimates of other champs.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

TL:DR :

Thanks for reading guys!

5.4 Jungle Infographic

EDIT :

A fellow redditor created a prettier, more condensed version of the infographic. Thanks http://www.reddit.com/user/killersquirel11!

http://i.imgur.com/la8Oxpb.jpg

This is something I spent a little bit working on because a few people didn't like that I'd explain everything in text. So instead, here's a basic jungle infographic. Lots of pictures, some text!

Imgur link : http://i.imgur.com/DPDX8pV.png

Analysis of Picks and Bans : Team Liquid vs Team Solo Mid

Hiya guys.

So I decided to do one more pick/ban analysis though for NA this time. This game was quite possibly the best game of the split so far and the only reason Team Liquid didn't win earlier was due to the picks on TSM's  side. Liquid had a team that was more focused on the early to mid game and TSM had a superior late game hence why they were able to stave them off as well as they did. Anyways, I'd appreciate any and all constructive feedback on my analysis and a VOD will be linked at the end for those who are interested in watching the game.

Bans

Team Liquid Bans :

1. Kalista : A champion that scales incredibly well into the late game and is one of the powerful AD carry picks in the current meta. She's generally banned due to her mobility (kiting bruisers/tanks), objective control (rend smite), and damage output with rend. Wildturtle has shown some proficiency on her in his game against WFX in Week 2. 
2. Maokai : Maokai is resurging in popularity due to his powerful late game scaling and his decent laning phase. He's able to effectively farm in both 1v1s and 1v2s. Dyrus has a 100% win-rate on Maokai right now as well from his games in week 2 against WFX, week 3 against Dignitas, and week 5 against CST. Maokai is an incredibly powerful pick in the hands of TSM since the champion can not only initiate but effectively peel for the two carries on TSM (Bjergsen and Wildturtle). 
3. Zed : A target ban towards Bjergsen who has shown exceptional performance on the champion. Zed is an incredibly skilled duelist champion and excels at effective split pushing. Bjergsen has shown time and time again that he can outplay most other mid laners on champions like Zed. 

Team Solo Mid Bans :

1. Fizz : A target ban against Quas who showed incredibly proficiency on the champion in their game against WFX in week 5. Quas solo killed the enemy top laner and made the enemy top laner ineffective for quite awhile. AD Fizz is a pretty powerful early/mid game pick with his damage output but his damage does fall off a little bit late game. That being said, instead of dealing with it and outscaling, TSM decided to just ban the champion against Quas.
2. Morgana : A ban most likely against Xpecial (though, Morgana has seen play in top lane as well recently). In this case, I think it's likely that TSM knew that they were planning on picking a team composition with an immobile mage/ad carry so they decided to ban Morgana out due to her snare. Her not being on the map makes it a little bit more forgiving to have more immobile champions. Plus the black shield is very powerful, especially against double AP comps.
3. Vi : A power ban, less targeted at IWD and more banned out due to Assault and Battery, Vi's ultimate. This ban kind of made it a little bit more obvious that TSM was looking to pick champions who were more immobile. IWD hasn't had many strong showings on the champion recently so it wasn't exactly a target ban. 

Picks

1. The first pick is to Team Liquid who brings out the notorious Lissandra pick, currently a champion with one of the highest win-rates in the LCS (91.7%). The pick is incredibly potent and versatile, able to be used in both the top lane and the middle lane. Lissandra provides incredibly powerful lockdown, decent damage, and very effective crowd control. Lissandra can also effectively initiate teamfights with a self ultimate -> zhonyas combo to disrupt teamfights. In this case, Team Liquid first picks Lissandra as a bait, sort of. They picked Lissandra as a feign to bait out TSM's top lane pick and then decide to counterpick it later.
2. TSM's pick. TSM decides to lock in the Janna and Jarvan for both Lustboy and Santorin respectively. Janna is quite possibly the best peel support in the game right now and Lustboy is incredibly effective at keeping Wildturtle alive while he's going as hard as he normally does. Janna is great at effectively disengaging and is one of Lustboy's best champions. Jarvan is currently one of the best junglers in the game right now and Santorin is incredibly effective on it. High damage, great objective control, amazing disruption. Overall, one of the most overloaded kits at the moment and definitely worth taking away so Team Liquid doesn't get it.
3. Team Liquid's turn. Rek'Sai and Annie are locked in for IWD and Xpecial. Rek'Sai is an incredibly potent jungler and another one of the top tier competitive junglers right now. This is due to her ability to detect where enemy players are when she's burrowed and also due to her mobility, allowing her to effectively get vision in the early game, especially if a sightstone is built on her. She can get in and out without many problems. Annie is probably one of the strongest support picks right now due to her incredibly potent initiate in the form of flash tibbers and the pick allows for an incredibly aggressive 2v2 lane against TSM which is something that Team Liquid most likely wants to have the advantage in.
4. TSM's pick. Rumble is locked in along with Jinx for Dyrus and Wildturtle. The Rumble pick isn't a half bad pick against a Lissandra and Rumble's mid game powerspike when his magic penetration items are complete is incredibly potent. In this case, Team Liquid baited the pick but, assuming it was a Lissandra top, it would have been a decent pick. Rumble's ultimate has incredible disruption and can singlehandedly win teamfights as was displayed in the game prior when Balls had Rumble (CLG vs C9). Jinx is probably one of Wildturtle's best champions and he has incredible positioning to boot. The Janna pick makes a little bit more sense once this pick is locked in to make sure Jinx is kept alive throughout teamfights. Jinx is one of the last hypercarries in the game right now and, when kept alive, will do an absurd amount of damage AoE with her rockets, decimating entire teams and carrying teamfights herself.
5. Team Liquid's pick. Corki is locked in for Keithmcbrief and Quas shows his hand when he locks in Irelia. Turns out that the entire time, it was a Lissandra mid and Quas wanted to counterpick Dyrus. The Irelia pick decimates Rumble in lane and Team Liquid caught TSM exactly where they wanted. Corki is one of the best mid game ADC due to his incredible powerspike off one item, Trinity Force. While Keithmcbrief doesn't have any showings in competitive with the champions, he's an essential part of any ADC's champ pool and is incredibly effective. Meshing into their team composition, it sets Team Liquid's team to basically be a very effective pick composition that's very reliant on their early to mid game snowballing. 
6. TSM's last pick. Cassiopeia for Bjergsen. Essentially, the pick is sort of suicide for Bjergsen into their team composition but he ends up running Cleanse to help against the Lissandra/Annie/Irelia/Rek'Sai. Regardless, Cassiopeia has incredibly high damage output and scales superbly into the lategame. In addition,  her ultimate can turn the tide of teamfights so effectively due to the potential to stun the entire enemy team. Overall, TSM's team settles down to become a lategame powerhouse.

Overall

While Team Liquid was a little cheeky with their picks and drafts by baiting out Dyrus and counterpicking him, TSM's team is much better, especially in the hands of their players. Their mid to late game powerspike is absurd and Team Liquid were incredibly reliant on winning the early/mid game or they had absolutely no chance in this game. 

Spoiler alert :

Basically, TSM had this game in the bag if they performed better in the early to mid game. However, there were too many mistakes made and too many picks by Team Liquid which resulted in their team snowballing out of control. In addition, TSM had very poor early dragon control which set them behind overall. Team Liquid played the game very effectively for their team composition and, while they almost lost due to TSM's incredibly powerful lategame, they ended up taking the game by forcing TSM in an unfavorable circumstance in the late-late game. 

Thanks for reading everyone and I hope that this was useful. If you have any constructive feedback, please send me a message on Twitter (@Lilnovalas), on my Facebook page (NovasRTC), or comment here. 

Vod : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmJT46YlPnQ

Analysis of Picks and Bans : FNC vs SK

Heya everyone.

I decided to try something new for today's post. I've been wanting to do analysis for picks and bans for awhile but decided to go ahead and do it for this post instead of a self match analysis. It's mainly because I was intrigued by this specific games picks and bans and also thought that the game itself was thoroughly entertaining. VOD link will be included at the bottom of the post. Keep in mind that I'm VERY new to this and I would really appreciate any and all constructive criticism. I really want to better my analysis and would love any type of feedback at all. Thank you!

Bans

FNC Ban :

1. Kennen : A ban directed towards Fredy, especially after his impressive showing on the champion in week 3 of the EU LCS. The champion is actually pretty decent in a meta that's focused more on teamfighting due to his ultimate. In addition, he fairs relatively well in 1v1s against many of the current meta laners (except Lissandra, I'd argue) and also does decent in a 1v2 by csing with his Q.
2. Gnar : Another ban directed towards Fredy. Gnar is still a power pick despite nerfs due to his damage output despite building full tank and his ability to deal with a 1v2 and win/bully out a lot of meta top laners in a 1v1. 
3. Kassadin : A flex ban since Kassadin is played both in top and mid lane right now. Though more likely, it's a targetted ban towards Fox due to his strong performance on Kassadin in week 1 and 2. Kassadin, while having a "weak" laning phase, still has an innate ability to bully players out with his Q and his mid-late game mobility is uncanny for roaming. In addition, he does a large amount of damage once he has his core items (e.g. ROA/Zhonyas/DCap).

SK Ban :

1. Lissandra : Likely to have been a target ban against Huni, Huni is an incredibly skilled Lissandra, currently with a 100% win-rate over 3 games from weeks 1, 2, and 3. Lissandra's ability to shutdown one target is absurd so even if one target were fed, she can effectively remove them from the fight for a short period of time. Or, ya know, burst them down instantly.
2. Rengar : 100% a target ban towards Reignover. Reignover has proved himself as the BEST Rengar in the west right now. His early game map pressure and his mid game picks are insane. Over 5 games, Reignover has snagged 29 kills and 43 assists, a very impressive track record. That being said, Rengar is a champion that not all junglers can effectively play to maximum potential. A lot of junglers tend to ignore the fact that he still has powerful pick potential pre-6. 
3. Leona : Target ban towards Yellowstar but also a ban to set up SK's pick of Annie. Yellowstar has had strong showings on Leona but it's also a decent counter to Annie since Annie is a relatively squishy support and Leona likes to get all up in her business. 

The top lane is a pretty important match up in this game due to both Huni and Fredy122's skill in their respective roles hence the three bans directed towards those lanes. So 3/6 were focused on top lane. Kassadin was banned out against Fox so 1 ban towards mid lane, though one could argue Lissandra was a flex ban so it could potentially be 2 bans in mid lane. Rengar was 100% a targetted ban against Reignover so 1 jungle ban. I feel that Leona was mainly a ban so nRated could comfortably pick Annie over anything and that's 1 support ban. 

Picks

1. FNC first picks Zed. In my opinion, it's a relatively questionable and ballsy first pick. Febiven has had strong showings on the champion, specifically in week 1 and 2 but I feel like it's a little overkill to the FNC style of play which seems to have been grabbing lots of picks all over the map and then pushing for objectives. He's also a little bit of an awkward teamfighter where he aims to blow up one target with his ultimate and, if the target lives, Zed does what he can but, he's still a melee. In addition, Zed is countered by an item (QSS) which would utterly negate a large portion of his damage output. 
2. SK's turn, they pick their bottom lane. In this case, Annie is picked as she's an incredibly powerful initiator with her stun and also matches the aggressive style of play from FORG1VEN. It's also picked to deny the pick from Yellowstar who has shown amazing plays on his Annie. Graves is picked for FORG1VEN and it's arguably one his best AD champions with him having a 41 KDA on the champion. Graves is a powerful pick due to his strong all in potential with Annie and his powerful early/mid game which matches FORG1VEN's aggressive style of play. 
3. FNC's turn. FNC picks their jungler, Rek'Sai and Corki for Steelback. Rek'Sai is a very powerful pick in competitive, for a multitude of reasons but the main ones being her ability to grant vision when burrowed (the little shockwaves) and her mobility which allows her to easily get into the enemy jungle and get out with little risk. In addition, the champion's mobility is in FNC's advantage due to FNC knowing the fact that SK tends to not place as many wards as other teams which should give the jungler free reign(over) and should allow him to apply pressure/place wards without being detected. Corki is a power pick for FNC and Steelback has had incredible showings on the champion though nowhere near the level of FORG1VEN. That being said, his 10.3 KDA is nothing to scoff at. The Corki pick shows that FNC wants to go for a more mid game teamfight centric team composition due to Corki's powerspike with one item (Trinity Force). 
4. This time, SK goes for an Ahri and Jarvan pick up for Fox and Svenskeren. Ahri is a power pick for Fox who has had great showings on the champion and Jarvan is quite possibly one of the best, if not the best junglers right now due to the sheer amount of utility he posses as well as his early game gank pressure, mobility allowing him to easily place wards (hence the popular sightstone build), and high base damage/disruption. Ahri is an incredibly powerful mid lane mage and allows SK's team to have someone for quick and effective picks. In addition, it synergizes well with Annie stun due to being able to guarantee land a charm on a target once they're stunned, practically 100 to 0'ing a target.
5. For their last picks, FNC picks Rumble and Thresh, completing their mid game power team. The Rumble pick for Huni and Thresh for Yellowstar. Huni has had great performance on his Rumble and Yellowstar is known as one of the best Thresh players in the west (other than that one time he whiffed everything). The Rumble pick synergizes with the Corki pick and creates a team composition for FNC which allows for a powerful teamfight with very few items built. The idea is to basically force early teamfights around dragon/mid lane which FNC would have a huge advantage in due to reaching their power spikes incredibly early (e.g. Trinity for Corki/Magic pen for Rumble). Thresh helps with his kit of being able to secure picks with his hook and his ultimate disruption as well as the other utility provided with his slow and lantern.
6. SK's final pick is Renekton for Fredy122. This pick is interesting because it's more to pressure Huni in lane due to Renekton's incredible early game power but the champion falls off incredibly hard and becomes nothing more than a meat shield around 15-20 minutes. I feel like the pick was mainly to render Huni useless over anything which explains a few of the mistakes Fredy made in lane.

Overall, I feel that FNC drafted a better team mainly because it was likely for them to get effective picks off due to SK's tendency to not ward as much as other LCS teams. These picks would lead to small skirmishes/gold leads which in turn would benefit FNC's mid game powerspike. 

In the game itself, SK's lack of warding really did result in Rek'Sai being able to do whatever he wanted all over the map, getting ganks off consistently everywhere. The fact that Fredy122 actually managed to die two times in lane was something that really shouldn't have happened. In the end, while SK does have incredibly strong laners, I feel that their transgressions in the early game against a team that excels at picks led to their loss in this game.

Anyways, thanks everyone for reading. I would really appreciate any and all feedback on this post. I'm still learning so I'm sorry if this is bad! If you did like it, I'd love for you to follow me on Twitter at @Lilnovalas or like my Facebook page "Road to Challenger". I'm working on creating quality content every 3 days! 

Vod : http://euw.lolesports.com/eu-lcs/2015/spring/matches/week-5/fnatic-vs-sk-gaming-1

Diamond B O Y Z

Not a real blog update but posting this anyways. WE HIT DIAMOND AGAIN, FRIENDS! I'll be doing a mega in-depth analysis of each of my series games soon tm! Thanks everyone for following the blog! One step closer to challenger!

Patch 5.3 Analysis

     In this post, I'll be going over most of the changes in patch 5.3 and explaining the impact of each of the changes.

Champions

1) Ahri

\Q :

Nerf to Q overall. Penalizes Ahri for misplaying with Q usage (e.g. missing the Q/spamming Q). Denying blue buff becomes even more critical from a jungler perspective.

W : 

So from what I understand, Fox-Fire's damage will be dealt faster now. That being said, her damage output from her W is taking a significant hit (so you can't just instantly decimate someone) and the range that the W hits from is being reduced. Woo Ahri nerfs.

R : 

Same with the W, the range on the energy bolts shot from her ultimate has been reduced. 

Overall, this should make Ahri a little bit more reliant on her skill shots which is a great change.

2) Azir

General : Base AD is increased. Should help his csing a little bit early game. Though, this is mainly to compensate for the nerfs (e.g. the soldier stab range and the early game q damage nerf).

Q : Q damage gets gutted early-mid-late game. Azir was actually a little silly with his damage output, especially late game where, if the Azir played it properly, it was impossible to win any teamfight.

W : Soldier stab range reduced. Range nerfs are always a little sketchy so this might be a little bad for Azir. As of right now, his win-rate has already dropped around 10%. The W also is used to chunk towers and that damage was reduced significantly as well because Azir could decimate a tower REALLY quickly.

Overall, good nerfs to Azir. He was a pretty powerful pick and could singlehandedly carry games almost all the time if played effectively.

3) Diana

Passive : Her passive stack debuff, as stated, shows up as a buff. It's a great quality life change.

W : Rotating means that the spheres pop faster AKA, it does more damage. While not a GREAT buff, it's something and should help Diana's burst a little bit.

This shouldn't make Diana a meta pick per se but it should help her out significantly. I've tried her out in the jungle with the changes and it helps her clear with **faster** damage. Nothing too big though.

4) Fiddlesticks

W : Drain tether range dropped by 50.

Like I said before, range nerfs are killer. While this won't completely decimate Fiddlesticks play, it's still a pretty significant nerf and will hurt him. I don't expect a 10-15% drop in win-rate in any way though, don't take what I'm saying that way. I'm just saying that I hate range nerfs.

5) Gnar

Passive : Tired debuff duration increased by 2 seconds. Mega Gnar lasts 15 seconds instead of 19 seconds.

While this is definitely a nerf in the long run, one can also argue that being able to stay in Mini Gnar to deal effective W damage and bully people longer is a buff. That being said, the window for engaging in Mega Gnar drops down significantly with this patch in teamfights. I feel like it's a buff to laning and a nerf to teamfights.

6) Gragas

Q : Base slow increased by 5%/10% at all ranks and maximum slow increased significantly.

In no way, shape, or form is this buff strong enough to compensate for the nerf to Gragas' wave clear in top lane (massive reduction in minion/monster damage). However, it's a free buff and helps him. I don't think this will necessarily make the champion meta though. There are still better picks in top and mid lane.

7) Kassadin

Q : 10 dmg nerf at all ranks.

This is a warranted nerf. Kassadin has always been a toxic champion and a toxic late game champion shouldn't be able to bully people out of lane with a low mana, spammable ability (COUGH COUGH RYZE). It's not a massive nerf and Kassadin will still be playable though.

8) Kennen

W : So Kennen's W now hits everyone in his ultimate, neat. 

R : But then they bugfix him -cough- nerf him. 

Overall, it should be a buff with the change to his W. Not a Kennen main so can't tell you the exact details and whether or not he'll be meta now. It doesn't sound like it'll make him top tier to be honest.

9) Nidalee

General : "no power change" rite. ok gai. No. Nidalee's CDs would reset everytime she applied the hunted mark. This resulted in very effective clears with Nidalee jungle. This is actually a pretty massive nerf to Nidalee and her clears have suffered. It also makes her feel significantly more clunky.

Passive : Yeah. Nidalee can root things now. ^_^ Well, has been able to since 5.2.

Overall, Nidalee was hit pretty hard. She's still a top tier jungler, just a little bit more tedious to play.

10) Twisted Fate

E : So his E stacked damage bonus stacks up off of towers and you can then use the bonus damage on champions/minions after stacking it up. That's kind of neat.

R : Yay, clarity!

Some decent love for a relatively underplayed champion. Probably still not in meta right now since there's a lot of lockdown right now (e.g. Lissandra/Jarvan comps) but maybe soon.

11) Varus

R : Width buff.

Nothing MASSIVE here. It's nice to see some Varus love though. More and more buffs and he might be meta again. ^_^

12) Zyra

Q : Range indicator.

E : Range indicator.

Clarity. This helps Zyra a lot because it gives her plants range indicators.

Item Changes

1) Oracles Lens

Oracles price reduced meaning it's worth investing into it earlier into the game. Vision control can begin even earlier and this means that you can take control of a game and negate vision. It's an incredibly powerful change and junglers/supports should look into getting it ASAP now. The meta revolves more around vision than before.

2) Farsight Orb

More incentive to purchase the Farsight Orb. Still not sure if anyone but an AD will purchase this though. Will have to experiment with it. The ward it places can be killed instantly by the enemy team AND can't be tp'd to.

3) Greater Stealth Totem

Greater Stealth Totem was ALREADY an amazing purchase in 5.2. This only makes it even better. It CHARGES wards. So now that top laners will have a mini sightstone, there **should** be even more wards on the map. Again, the meta is shifting into a more vision centric one than before.

4) Spectre's Cowl

This change is pretty obviously aimed at the excessive double AP compositions that are being played like woah right now. It's a pretty neat buff to an MR item. It's not going to necessarily shift the meta on it's own but it's a start.

Random Summoner's Rift Stuff

1) Baron Nashor

Reading it the first time, it doesn't sound like the biggest change but it can make baron pit teamfights a little bit more rough and interesting. We'll see how it impacts things as this patch goes on.

2) Inhibitors

God bless. AP champions can take inhibitors again! Woo! Awesome bugfixes are awesome. Thanks based Rito!

3) Ignite

So I didn't actually know Ignite didn't interrupt recalls. Neat change.

Alright guys, thanks for reading my analysis of patch 5.3. I'll be posting a tier list in the next week or so and I'll be posting self match analysis on the 17th. See you guys soon!