StarHorn Royal Club’s “Dominating” Performance

The Demacia Cup kicked off this Monday with a best-of-three between StarHorn Royal Club's new roster, featuring Choi "inSec" In-Seok, and Young Glory. The twenty-six minute destruction of YG's nexus in the first game paints the picture of a dominating new team, but the reality is that SHRC didn't so much win as YG lost. SHRC made quite a few mistakes that would have cost them the game against stronger teams, but YG failed to capitalize and eventually fell under the weight of SHRC's gold lead.

The Review

SHRC's first mistake came when inSec gave up first blood at YG's blue buff. StarHorn Royal Club gathered around their own blue in the early game, but were forced off with YG's invasion. In response, inSec headed for YG's blue without protection from wards or his teammates. YG quickly crushed down SHRC's buff and found inSec defenseless for first blood.

Many would criticize inSec for this simple error or say it was the result of poor communication, but it's really just carelessness. Even with the language barrier, something like "group for enemy blue" would be easy to communicate with pings, and his team has a set of unpopped warding trinkets at their disposal to guard the flank. Throughout the game, SHRC got away with this kind of carelessness repeatedly.

In the bottom lane, UZI and Zero were constantly pushed to the opponent's turret. Of course, this was a lane swap situation, but the fact that SHRC made plays while YG did not was a definite concern. Instead of defending Number1, the top lane Trundle player for YG, or attempting to find ganks on the rest of the map, YinFu continued to farm as Elise. InSec, meanwhile, found multiple ganks in the mid lane. YG's DianGun failed to place ward properly for protection after the first gank, allowing inSec to make return visits.

In addition, while SHRC put pressure on the bottom lane, YG's duo froze the wave between the outer turrets. Cola did not make an appearance in the top lane at all for the first eight minutes. He teamed up with inSec in the mid lane for ganks, and SHRC found a free dragon off the picks while ZhenLong and YanSir froze.

The lane remained frozen and unattended by SHRC members until around eight minutes, after UZI and Zero managed to take down the bottom lane turret and rotate top to take the top lane turret nearly uncontested. Lane phase in this game was riddled with similar mistakes on both sides. SHRC simply capitalized while YG dropped the ball.

SHRC's mistakes prevailed into the team fighting stage of the game. At the time of the second dragon's spawn, UZI was caught out from his team with a death sentence. SHRC's composition relied on the ability to use Wild Growth on either inSec or Jax to allow them to get into the back line and disrupt the team, but corn was forced to use it to keep UZI alive, resulting in a waste of resources. Zero had also used that ultimate in an attempt to assist inSec in his chase of ZhenLong. With UZI's mis-positioning and the absence of these tools, SHRC fell in this dragon fight, giving up the objective to YG.

UZI mispositioned again in a subsequent fight out in the open, and both Tidal Wave and Wild Growth were burned to save him. In this case, however, YG over-committed to chase UZI, and inSec bided his time in stealth, waiting for an opportunity to clean up. InSec found a triple kill, which gave him enough gold to get away with extremely aggressive play going forward.

On a positive note, SHRC adapted by trying to find fights in narrow corridors and brush, utilizing Rengar's stealth and inSec's fondness for making plays. Twice, inSec initiated by sitting on a pink ward in the purple side red buff brush, waiting for YG to come check for vision. He then chased forward, engaging onto members of the opposition who fell for the bait.

In the first instance, SHRC found success. InSec latched onto YanSir's Thresh, taking down a defenseless target to start the fight, and his team followed closely behind. He then made a questionable pursuit into the top lane, behind the inner turret. He was caught out by YinFu's Cocoon and trapped by Trundle's Pillar of Ice. This lockdown could have spelled disaster for inSec, but YG did not have enough damage on their two remaining members to capitalize.

In the second instance, YG learned their lesson. They sent the tanky Trundle, played by Number1, to check the red buff brush, and inSec committed to him without his team. Number1 was able to escape and regroup with his team, while inSec's team lagged behind him. InSec went further and flashed into YG's waiting team, giving up a kill.

This play resulted in the end of the game in SHRC's favor. YG and SHRC both had to disengage, but SHRC was able to push into YG's open base with Cola split-pushing in the bottom lane. Two cases can be made here:

1) InSec's engage distracted YG from the split-push, resulting in their scatter and opening up SHRC's path to the end of the game.

2) SHRC could have won the game by pressuring the base in the open without inSec's death in the jungle.

Obviously, SHRC won off this play, so it's possible I'm splitting hairs, but there are some interesting conclusions to be gleaned from this match none-the-less.

The Breakdown

StarHorn Royal Club's "domination" was an abuse of a general lack of vision and map control that plagues the Chinese scene. I say "domination" in quotes because SHRC abused YG's weaknesses without correcting the same weaknesses in their own play. Both sides had a general lack of vision in this first game of the series; SHRC simply punished their opponents for it more often.

There are definitely still positives here for SHRC. Seeing inSec gank mid lane, punishing the immobile Syndra pick, especially when DianGun failed to ward, is a breath of fresh air. Cola finding ways to pressure the rest of the map when ZhenLong and YanSir failed to pressure his lane is another bright spot. In addition, the Rengar pick itself is a creative way to take advantage of an expected lack of warding from YG.

UZI's mispositioning and inSec's over-zealous engages, however, could have been punished by more coordinated teams. In fact, in the second game between YG and SHRC, inSec continued to go down for engaging ahead of his team. This could be due to communication errors, but it was also symptomatic of his play on KT Bullets after he returned to the jungle earlier in the season.

In addition, early game warding improved in the second game between these teams. SHRC had much tighter protection transitioning into mid game, but these safeguards deteriorated later, and the map again went dark for both sides.

I am tentatively hopeful that SHRC's punishment of lack of vision and lack of pressure will help the Chinese scene improve on this front, but without the team implementing their own safeguards against these kind of abuses, it's also possible that inSec and Zero will begin to adopt these bad habits without a team to answer them.

Ultimately, because YG allowed SHRC to get away with mistakes and left openings that more coordinated teams like Edward Gaming and OMG would be less likely to expose, it's difficult to gauge how strong SHRC looks going into LPL. Their warding and team fighting may improve as communication begins to flow between the Korean and Chinese members, but the initial results are not extremely impressive. Time will tell if inSec and Zero can leave their mark on China, or if China will make them more comfortable with sloppy play.

StarHorn Royal Club will play their first series in LPL against LGD Gaming at 1:00am PDT tomorrow, June 15th.