Swimming Home: VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo NRG vs KOI Match Analysis and Breakdown

São Paulo is now here, and the first day of VCT LOCK//IN has concluded. Here is the Strafe Selected VCT LOCK//IN Match for Analysis and Strategic Breakdown.

 

Map One: Icebox

Composition Differences:

KOI elected for a ‘Spear’ comp, centered around the Jett pick as the pivotal entry and supporting utility from the Sova. This comp is faster paced and is typically known as the ‘death ball’ comp, where a Jett will execute, and the team follows up in quick succession for trades.

NRG, meanwhile, elected for a ‘Ox’ comp, with a greater focus on macro and cohesive teamplay. Their utility was meant to work more in unison and had a great deal of flexibility for chaining combos. It is slower and more methodical, but with a robustness that is capable of handling a large degree of strategies and unexpected elements.

Both teams ran Sova, Killjoy, Viper, and Sage. The primary differences in their comps, was the KAYO on NRG’s side, for the Jett. This meant both sides had big round-winning ultimates in the Lockdown, the Viper’s Pit, and Hunter’s Fury. The Hunter’s Fury was also run as a counter to the Resurrection for both teams.

 

Composition Analysis and Flaws

Ultimately, the compositional flaws of KOI showed themselves, with their attack side heavily hinging on “Wolfen’s” capabilities as an entry. He did end up delivering multiple rounds thanks to stellar entries, however, as exposed in the past with teams such as Sentinels, a prepared team would be able to isolate the Jett and punish them. Moreover, the ‘Spear’ comp specializes in quick, surgical entries, and struggles on rotates as more often than not, the Jett will have blown some of their utility already.

NRG’s comp was interesting. OpTic’s prior favored Icebox comp had “Victor” and “crashies” on KAYO and Sova respectively, with “FNS” on Sage, “Marved” on Viper, and “yay” on Chamber. They kept the majority of this composition, with “s0m” inserted for “Marved”. The crux was that with Chamber gone, now FNS could pivot back onto a more comfortable Killjoy pick and pass the Sage over to flex player “Ardiis”.

 

Gameplan Breakdown:

NRG’s first pick of Icebox was likely a surprise to many of the teams who studied the old OpTic lineup. As mentioned, what many failed to take into account, was that the Chamber nerfs had a knock-on effect on NRG’s comp as well. Killjoy is an agent that shines extremely well on Icebox, and NRG was able to play to their strengths, thanks in part to the meta.

Initially, NRG adopted a heavy B lean on defense, with four towards B, Killjoy mid, and setup towards A. NRG showed a great tendency to use the ‘funnel’ strategy during this map. Since the B lean did not work as well, they adopted a slightly revised ‘funnel’ that saw two mid and two B, with Viper solo holding A. This held two extremities of the map, with the plan to drive them towards A as the end-site.

However, KOI’s early gameplan ran contrary, with them favoring a heavier B lean in their executes. B is structurally harder to hold for sentinels such as Killjoy, and therefore, exploiting that part of the map was well-planned from KOI.

On attack, NRG adopted a passive spawn hold, with a heavier mid and A lean. Killjoy held the B extremity to prevent early pushes. Meanwhile, mid and A pressure was applied. Tube and Kitchen were heavy priorities for NRG, allowing them to lock down the early rotates through Kitchen, under Tube and Snowman.  This isolated the B defenders and allowed stronger B takes from the core three of Sova, KAYO, and Sage.

When KOI adopted the OP to counter the mid-pressure, NRG began hitting A fast. That negated a lot of the OP’s strengths, and they did so until the OP was no longer available for KOI. With mid-pressure now available again, NRG was able to do that, and abuse the more forced passive KOI, running full team contacts instead.

 

Map Two: Haven

Composition Differences:

OpTic have had many iterations of their Haven comps, with the most notable ones being “crashies” on Fade, Sova, and Skye at different points. “Victor” has largely been placed as the duelist role on this map, with Raze and Neon being main candidates. Controller has been kept fairly standard to Omen, with the occasional flex to Astra. “yay” was a fixture on Chamber in 2022 for them, as the only stable part of the comp. “FNS” meanwhile, has pivoted between Breach, Killjoy, and KAYO.

NRG in this VCT LOCK//IN series, went for an unusual pivot. “crashies” was kept to the Sova (his comfort pick), “FNS” and “s0m” were given comfort picks of Breach and Omen. Then because of the absence of Chamber as a sentinel, Killjoy has become the premier pick for this map. This allowed NRG to run their star player “Ardiis” on Jett this time and send “Victor” on to the Killjoy.

KOI, meanwhile, went for a mirror comp with no unusual variations. However, how they chose to use the comp, varied differently from NRG.

 

Composition Analysis and Flaws:

There weren’t any apparent large flaws in the shared comp, the issue laid more with the execution for KOI.

 

Gameplan Breakdown:

There wasn’t too much strategic depth to this game, with the large majority of rounds coming down to contact plays, and opposite site fakes. However, NRG also added in their Icebox strategy of passive extremities. This denied a lot of information from KOI, and allowed NRG to thread the needle quite a few times on the attack half.

KOI’s Haven looked fairly lackluster, with a large reliance on “Wolfen” to find opening picks on aggression. Because they played more passive, KOI were largely response heavy, relying on NRG to make the first move. This also meant NRG was able to pull the defenses one way or the other fairly easily.

KOI’s one strategic answer was to call NRG’s bluff on the early pressure. “Wolfen” would push out and try to catch NRG as they were falling back. This worked out once, and then after that, NRG began full man punishing “Wolfen” for overextending. KOI was unable to help him.

On defense side, “Ardiis” OP was crucial in NRG’s answer to KOI. Since the latter favored early pressures into contact plays, the OP slowed down the whole process with more utility needed to double back. KOI’s answer of fast-executing off barrier to catch off the OP, however, was not the solution, as NRG were quick to retake while KOI were still in the midst of resetting. NRG win the first VCT LOCK//IN series, 2-0.

 

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Image credit: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games