League of Legends LCS 2019 Summer Playoffs runner up game preview: Clutch vs. CLG
By Josh Tyler
Mid Lane
Tanner “Damonte” Damonte vs Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage
Tanner Time continues in the runner up match, as Damonte continued to show that his playoff buff wasn’t a one-series fluke. He outplayed Jensen for considerable stretches in his team’s wins, particularly that Game 2 on his signature Qiyana pick. It’s gotten to the point that Qiyana needs to be banned against him (and indeed, Liquid was banning it every game after this) as he’s never lost on the champion and averages a ridiculous 32 KDA in the playoffs on Qiyana.
Therein lies the problem, however, champion pool issues. Do you know how many champs Damonte had a KDA over 4.00 on this summer?
The answer is five, but only two of those were on champions that he played more than once: Qiyana and Irelia. When put on more common mages like Azir, Corki, Syndra, or Sylas, Damonte was quite ineffective during the Summer Split and playoffs (his KDA on Sylas in three playoff games is 1.83). Damonte can be quite easily neutered with proper bans.
On the other hand, there is perhaps no player who is less ban-out-able than PowerofEvil. In the summer, he’s played five different champions at least two times and has a KDA above 3.00 on all of them. Although PoE doesn’t have the same ability to pop off that Damonte does, he’s shown a much higher level of consistency.
That trend continued into the playoffs, where he’s ahead of Damonte in terms of gold and damage contributions. Considering how much more versatile he is and how much of a liability Damonte could be if he’s not on his main champions, I give the edge to PoE in this match-up if CLG bans properly.
Advantage: CLG