Week 7 Snapshot: Supa Hot Crew

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With Ryze picked in three of their four games this week, it's clear Supa Hot Crew sees a lot of merit in investing in the late game. The mid lane Ryze pick against Alliance might not have worked out, but Mimer's Ryze aided the team in subsequent matches. Supa Hot Crew managed to take a game from SK Gaming with three hyper carries: Kassadin, Kog'Maw, and Ryze. SHC has been a team with a reputation for struggling to close out wins, and it's possible they feel that extra late game punch might seal the deal.

The Low: Starting with a Loss

Selfie has now played Ryze twice in the EU LCS. Both games were against Alliance, and both were ultimately losses. This week, Ryze represented the greatest ticking threat to Alliance, and Selfie found himself the target of repeated ganks from Shook.

Though the first gank at three minutes in resulted in a kill for both junglers, Shook picked up first blood and used his advantage to spread the wealth in a return trip. Froggen's kill resulted in no negative consequences for Alliance.

Unanswered jungle pressure to set Supa Hot Crew's hyper carry behind wasn't the only mark against the team. They grouped early to try to find an advantage in numbers and get back into the game. In response, Alliance spread out and began pressuring the map. SHC made little effort to answer a split-pushing Lulu in terms of objectives, even when they got kills in response.

The inability to handle early pressure and to deal with wave control were things that pervaded Supa Hot Crew's superweek, but Alliance was the only team that punished them thoroughly. Instead, Supa Hot Crew used a frequent grouping strategy to make up for early vulnerabilities and relied upon late game scaling to carry them through.

The High: Emerging Victorious in a Slugfest Against SK

At first glance, a team composition of three hyper carries shouldn't succeed. It would be too easy for the opposition to abuse early vulnerabilities in lane, and indeed, SHC fell behind by quite a lot in the early game. They gave up two dragons to the superior early game power of SK Gaming's lineup, and MrRallez's Kog'Maw fell behind in farm.

Because SK Gaming had so much zone control in their composition with Ashe and Zyra and two fail-safes from Kayle and Yorick, SHC had only a brief window after MrRallez's Kog'Maw picked up his Blade of the Ruined King to abuse the power spike on isolated targets. The team clumped mid to secure more gold for both MrRallez and Selfie's Kassadin to keep SHC in the game.

SHC still wasn't on top after that, and fights careened in and out of their favor. Ultimately, however, the power of Kassadin and Kog'Maw and a lack of focus and over-commitment from SK Gaming allowed SHC to win two key fights: one in bottom lane where Selfie bided his time to turn the engagement with a Rift Walk over the wall, and another around the Baron pit to close the game.

Hour long game? Don't buy boots.
—Deman, 2014

While Selfie's lack of footware may not have been fundamental to SHC's success, it let him pick up his power spike earlier and rely on positioning to win fights. The kind of individual skill necessary to pull that off might not win games by itself, but it goes a long way.

Week 8: What to Expect

Overall, Supa Hot Crew has a Summer Split record of 10-8 wins to losses. That means their 75% win rate in Superweek is an improvement, but is it an anomoly? Supa Hot Crew seems to be finding band-aids for some of their Spring Split problems (struggling to close games, getting picked off early in lanes), and Alliance has shown that some of these fixes can be abused. They've made strides all split and edged themselves into the top four, even with setbacks like a revolving door on the support position. They might, however, want to avoid over-investing on champion picks they haven't been practicing in the future.

This week, they face Fnatic and Gambit. With Gambit undergoing heavy roster changes and struggling with coordination, an early grouping strategy could be the perfect recipe for success. Though relying too heavily on late game could introduce a lot of variables that SHC might not want in what should be an easy game to close out.

Fnatic represents the greater threat. If SHC wants to make a case for an appearance at the Season Four World Championships, they'll have to knock Fnatic from their second place perch. Jungle invades are an excellent recipe against Fnatic's jungle-sharing team, but Fnatic has long mastered the art of double teleport split-pushing, and that's something that SHC struggled against this past week. That said, Supa Hot Crew has bested Fnatic twice already this summer, with one of those wins occurring in Week Six. Unless Fnatic's new strides are revolutionary, SHC can enjoy some optimism.