Gigabyte Marines Shatter the Meta on Day 1 of Groups
The first few games of Day 1 in the Worlds 2017 group stages looked about as standard as one could expect. Kalista stayed on the ban list, ardent censers were rushed, and Cho’Gath still looked as powerful as ever. However, Gigabyte Marines, the top Vietnamese seed out of the GPL, had something to say about that in game 4 of the day versus Fnatic, the #3 seed from the EULCS.
In the first round of the pick phase, both teams picked up fairly standard champions. Fnatic focused on an early to mid game composition with Varus, Karma, and Ryze locked in, while Gigabyte Marines took a slightly more scaling team including Galio, Lulu, and Tristana. After the second round of bans though, the Vietnamese squad did something that hasn’t been seen for years in professional play. Nocturne was almost instantly locked in for Levi in the jungle, a player who is known for his ridiculous farming numbers and carry performances. Another non-meta caveat that should be mentioned was Nevan taking Heal and Ignite as his summoner spells on Lulu for the GPL team.
The game got off to an interesting start as Gigabyte Marines gave their jungler what’s known as a “super leash” to really get Nocturne snowballing early. After this, their duo lane of Noway and Nevan headed up to the top lane to meet with Soaz from the Fnatic side for a lane swap that most of us haven’t seen for a whole season; however, Gigabyte Marines are actually known for their common lane swaps back in the GPL. Top laner Archie joined his teammate, Levi, in the jungle and helped him clear every camp but made sure to give all the experience to the Nocturne.
Because of this, Levi hit level 6 with 36 CS by 5 minutes and was ready to start causing nightmares for Fnatic. Caps made a roam down to bottom lane on Ryze, and it appeared it would be a free double kill. However, Levi’s Nocturne had so much early gold that he was able to turn around the fight and make it a 2 for 2.
The game continued at a very quick pace as both teams matched up evenly after the avalanche of a start that Gigabyte Marines had. Caps and Rekkles racked up a few kills each for themselves on the European side, while their opponents in Optimus and Noway were beginning to scale up for the mid and late game on Tristana and Kassadin. Fnatic kept pressuring the top lane for the impending Baron spawn as a group of five; meanwhile, Noway continued to split and destroy towers on his own.
Both teams finally met all together in the bottom lane as Noway showed the power of his Tristana and picked up a massive triple kill at 20 minutes into the game. Gigabyte Marines destroyed the bottom lane inhibitor of Fnatic, quickly reset, and made their way over to the Baron. They successfully picked up the objective at 22 minutes and were getting ready to close out the game. One final team fight in the European squad’s base led to a Noway quadra kill on Tristana, and Optimus teleported and flashed in to secure the final kill and prevent the penta kill, leading to a 5 for 2 ace.
The Gigabyte Marines confidently secured the victory over Fnatic in a commanding fashion. The League community knew the Vietnamese #1 seed was quite strong, but an extremely quick 23-minute victory was a surprise to many. An even bigger surprise though was the unusual way in which they did it. Lane swaps, a no-flash support, and an insta-lock Nocturne in the jungle certainly showed that success can even be found while breaking the meta.
