Week 7 Snapshot: Copenhagen Wolves

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

As of Wednesday, July 9th, the Copenhagen Wolves have a score of 4-14 wins to losses in the European LCS and are currently seated in last place. One of those wins, however, came last week against Alliance, the first place team. The Wolves employed a new strategy that allowed them to completely shake off their reputation for sloppy indecision when they decimated Alliance in a thirty minute game.

That doesn't mean that the Wolves have turned a new leaf. The next game they played against SK Gaming saw them try to replicate the same strategy they used against Alliance, resulting in an even shorter game with the Wolves losing out, 29 kills to nine. A quick look at this last week's performance might give us a better idea of what to expect from this team moving forward.

The High: SuperWeek Win Against Alliance

Watch the game here.

The Copenhagen Wolves pinpointed the backbone of Alliance as their target from the get-go. They executed a four-man assault on the mid lane, forcing out the flash from Froggen's Orianna. They didn't relent from there and wrapped around through Alliance's blue side jungle to target Shook and then find first blood on Froggen between Alliance's turrets.

The rest of the game hinged on a heavy roam strategy from Unlimited, while Woolite remained in the mid lane, farming his advantage over Froggen. CowTard's Ryze was content to remain in the 2v1 down bottom. With an advantage in numbers, the Wolves focused on making plays between mid lane and top jungle, continuing to find kills on members of Alliance between their inner and outer turrets.

According to Woolite's tweet, part of the victory can be attributed to a heightened level of communication throughout the team. After beating a monster like Alliance, they should have been in good stead to take out SK Gaming. Indeed, they picked a very similar composition, choosing to go for three of the same five champions with Jinx subbed in for Twitch and Ryze banned away to force cowTard onto Lulu.

The Low: Sunk at the Hands of SK

Watch the game here.

The results against SK Gaming were drastically different. SK caught the Wolves out in their group roams in the top side jungle. They predicted that the Wolves would attempt to replicate the strategy they used against Alliance and did some hunting of their own.

Qu1kshot, who had praised the Wolves' jungle control in their game against Alliance wondered where the Wolves' heads were in this match, blaming it on the "in-game leadership and in-game calling." True, these things may have deteriorated when the Wolves started lose, but it boiled down to something simpler.

The execution of the strategy against Alliance was fairly one-dimensional. When they went to gank Froggen repeatedly behind his outer turret, they used the same path through Alliance's blue side jungle. Alliance's undoing could have been avoided either by some simple wards or by predicting when Unlimited and Airwaks might invade—which is exactly what SK Gaming did. The Wolves attempted the same path through SK's blue side jungle, only with the map flipped. Then, when they were caught out the first time, they repeated the same invade again and again to disastrous results.

Week 8: What to Expect

So is the new strategy of the Wolves completely sunk or can they pull it out again?

CowTard dubs the strategy "cheese," and it's easy to see why—it worked once, but it can be countered easily. That doesn't mean that other iterations of the strategy don't exist and can't come out again with favorable results. The Wolves tried to replicate the same invade path from the entrance to blue buff around the camp and between the towers on most of their invades. Different paths, different champions can make this less telegraphed and less transparent.

Otherwise, the Wolves played last week the way we've come to expect: failing to make many moves against ROCCAT or SUPA HOT CREW, and ignoring opportunities. For example, the team could have secured a free dragon when Overpow chose to back at an inopportune moment, but they instead rotated top and gave the dragon up to ROCCAT.

The team faces Gambit Gaming and Millenium next week: two other teams the Copenhagen Wolves have found wins against this split. Kerp is another strong, play-making mid laner with a target on his head like Froggen, and a variation on the strategy used against Alliance might aid them, especially since few would expect a third attempt so soon after the disaster against SK. That said, I doubt the Wolves will take the risk, and they'll either flounder against Millenium's improved pacing or come up with something entirely new.

As for the game against Gambit, the Russian team has had similar struggles this split, trying to replace stars that kept their team above water in the Spring. Both teams have suffered from indecision, and Gambit may be hosting two new players, making them vulnerable. A more practiced Copenhagen Wolves could use the opportunity to shake off last place, as Gambit only hold their spot with one extra win.

Watch the Copenhagen Wolves play against Gambit Gaming on Thursday, June 10th at 10:00am PDT, and check back at onGamers for ongoing coverage of the European LCS.