Regardless of results the SK vs GMB rematch needed to happen.

UPDATE: Riot Nick Allen has confirmed in a follow up post that no decision was made by the referee and therefore 8.3.3 did not apply, and that the forceful remake was done to prevent SK falling under undue external pressure from the decision. He goes on to state that LCS rules will receive an update soon to make what happens in this scenario clearer and hopefully prevent another incident. 


When it was announced only hours before it would take place the remake of SK vs Gambit, caused in large part by this Aatrox bug, rustled a lot of feathers. Reddit and Twitter exploded with people railing against the decision, spurred on by a statement from Gambit blasting the decision. All the arguments were focused around the same flawed points the official Gambit statement used, a single rule example against the idea, and examples of other known bugs that did not result in remakes. Both are flawed arguments for different reasons so I'm going to tackle them one at a time.

First is the LCS rule book quote. Gambit's statement quoted a single rule which they thought proved Riot themselves were breaking the rules by having a remake. That quote in full from the LCS rule book is 

8.3.3 Finality of Judgment. If a referee makes an incorrect judgment during a match, the judgment cannot be reversed, as the decision of the referee is absolute and final and there is no appeal process. 

On the surface Gambit sounds like they're correct in stating the remake shouldn't have happened, but it's ignoring a few key details. First is Rule 11 which states all rules and their interpretations are at the discretion of LCS officials. This is important because it means Riot already stipulated that theirs is the correct interpretation of the rules, Gambit may disagree but so long as Riot maintains the interpretation uniformly then no amount of quoting the rule book can make Riot's interpretation wrong.

The other important flaw with gambit's rule argument is that it fails to actually take into account why the remake was happening. Both the official Riot statement and Travis' interview with nRated make it clear that no referee decision was actually made. Roughly 4 minutes in SK paused the game and informed the onstage referee of the bug. Once the bug was verified rule 9.4.2 of the LCS rule book states that the game may be remade, a fact that the referee failed to communicate to SK at the time. The referee's failure to inform SK that they could remake the game, not a decision by the referee, was what Riot sought to rectify by forcing a rematch. As the referee did not make a judgement rule 8.3.3 had absolutely no bearing on the situation.

The other argument against the remake was in the form of citing other prominent bugs that did not get a remake. Most often cited was the semi-recent Coast vs Curse game which Saintvicious tweeted post game saying he experienced a bug causing him to drop Annie Tibbers on himself instead of the enemy team. Other popular references were made towards Xpecial flashing out of CC bug which hit the front page of Reddit a few weeks back and the Zed bug that occurred in the NA All-Stars vs LPL All-Stars match last year.

All 3 bugs, of which only 2 were confirmed, have one thing in common that sets them far apart from the SK vs GMB case. None of the bugs referenced resulted in a pause to challenge them with a referee. The Saintvicious and Xpecial bugs were complained about on twitter and Reddit, and the Zed bug was found by fans on Reddit. None of them were immediately paused after happening, none of them resulted in players having a conversation with the referee.

Without a stoppage of play to challenge the bug the players are by their continuing to play the game signalling that the bug is in line with acceptable play conditions. If the bugs used as counter examples had resulted in a pause and been verified they likely would have been given the option of restarting the game just like SK should have when they paused. We can see this in action during Team Alternate vs Wizard Club in the EU summer promotion tournament where a skill shot bug resulted in several game remake attempts and days of delays to fix the issue. While the Alternate vs Wizard example is far more extreme of a bug it is a much more applicable of an example, play was stopped, a bug was verified, and a rematch (though heavily delayed) was offered.

Not only did Riot not break their own rules, nor contradict themselves, they handled the situation in the best way possible. Once the referee's mistake was clear Riot needed to rectify the situation. They could not do that by awarding special treatment to SK in subsequent games, nor could they punish gambit in subsequent games, for something that was entirely the on stage referee's fault. The best course of action to ensure the situation was handled fairly was a rematch. Even more important is the decision to forcibly have the rematch rather than give it as an option to SK. Had SK been approached before the LCS started on Friday and asked if they wanted to have a rematch of SK vs Gambit their decision would have been heavily tainted by the potential blow back that a rematch would entail. SK suffered a large amount of undue hate for the rematch when it was forced upon them, it would have been a thousandfold worse for SK if they had chosen to play a rematch on Friday.

The remake being forced upon both teams was the fairest way to make up for the referee's mistake, regardless of how the original and the remake played out. While it is unfortunate for Gambit, it was also unfortunate for SK that the referee mistake happened in the first place. Riot handled the mistake as best as was possible to bring about an outcome that was fair to both parties.

Millenium hopes Kottenx can bring them a last minute miracle.

This Sunday Araneae announced with a lengthy and emotional facebook post that he was stepping down as Millenium's starting jungler. He cited the team's poor performance and his own lack of confidence and motivation as the reasoning behind the decision. Millenium were quick to follow that up with their own announcement that sub and high elo player Kottenx would be taking over the role for the remaining 6 games of the EU LCS spring split. Many fans expressed worry that such a late roster change in a critical role could be sealing Millenium's fate as the last place EU team, but there is still reasonable hope for Millenium's playoff chances or at least a more favorable relegation.

Millenium currently sits in last place at 7-15 they're two games back from the 9-13 SHC and 3 games back from the 6th place playoff spot currently held by 10-12 CW. This means that with a strong showing Millenium does still have a reasonable shot at snatching a last second playoff spot. If Kottenx can solve Millenium's late game decision making issues it's hardly unreasonable for a team in Europe to pull off a 6-0 run for the playoffs. Copenhagen Wolves much win 3 matches, or 2 if one of them is against Millenium, to lock Millenium out of the playoffs. Supa Hot Crew must win 5 games to secure their lead over Millenium.

So long as Millenium can pick up wins their hopes to at least improve their relegation chances will remain alive right to the very end. If Millenium drops the game againts CW their playoffs could be dashed immediately as CW would only need 1 more win to lock Millenium out of the top 6. Millenium is no doubt hoping the roster change keeps their playoff dreams alive but we wont find out how well it's worked until Thursday. 

The new All-Stars format is utterly underwhelming.

The announcement for this year's "All Star" tournament finally came from Riot revealing the event is to take place at the start of May in Paris, France. Unfortunately a new venue was not the only change, a long with it came a new format. Gone is the fun tournament of fan voted best players in the region competing together for glory of last year, in its place is a $50k winner take all tournament between the 1st place teams of OGN, GPL, LPL, and both LCS regions all done under the banner of more international competition.

A lot of people had fun with last years All Stars tournament format. We expected it to make a return after being so successful. Naturally myself and many others on Reddit and Twitter were making predictions about the All Star rosters for different regions. Debating on who was the best in the region or who would fit together better to bring about an All Stars victory. Hype had been building for weeks, when I made my lists for All Stars in mid February plenty of others were also talking All Stars. That hype should have turned to frenzy after the announcement, instead talk about All Stars has completely disappeared over night.

The source of the lack of enthusiasm is easy to see, the fans have simply been left out of this event. The teams picked are whoever's #1, instead of debating and voting we just have to sit back and watch what happens. Riot attempted to make up for it with a show match, 2 players voted on per region (10 total) will be split into 2 teams and play against each other. It's hardly compensation though, the top team is exempt from the show match so many fan favorites like Faker will be excluded from voting. All this is without touching on the fact that the 1v1/2v2 show matches from last year's All Stars event were highly criticized.

Problems with the new All Stars don't stop at the elimination of fan involvement though, they run right to the core of the event. Unfortunately the fact that only the 1st place team from each region means that many of us with an objective eye turned to the League scene already know how things play out. In fact thanks to the way team selection works and the fact that OGN won't finish in time we know for sure SKT T1 K, the Season 3 world champions and current unstoppable force in OGN, is already confirmed to be the Korean team attending. The SKT teams stand head and shoulders above the Korean region at the moment and thanks to IEM Katowice we've had a firm reminder that Korea stands far above the rest of the world. While the best of NA, EU, and SEA were relatively competitive with each other they struggled against some of the worst performing Chinese teams at Katowice. Worse no one was able to put a dent in KT Rollster Bullets, the only Korean team at Katowice, and KTB's only wins with their current roster come from the Katowice event.

With IEM fresh in our minds it's hard to imagine a world where the top of China and Korea don't take the top 2 slots at this new All Star event. Almost as difficult as imagining a scenario where SKT fails to walk away with the winner take all $50k prize. Riot made the change to answer the call of more international tournaments, but they have utterly failed to account for the realities of the international scene. The LCS and GPL simply haven't caught up to OGN or LPL in terms of talent yet. Without more teams, more variables, we simply have too much knowledge to be surprised by this event, and that makes for a lack luster tournament.

Ohmwrecker has a 100% win rate this season.

Yup, you read that title right, Ohmwrecker has a 100% win rate so far in Season 4. It has been picked up in two professional games, in the same week.

The first purchase of Ohmwrecker came out in Korea during the OGN Champions Spring qualifiers in the SKT T1 S vs Midas FIO match. The second barely over a day later in the European LCS during the Gambit vs ROCCAT game. There is some argument that it's a troll pick as SKT never used the item in their game, and Roccat were against Gambit's substitute squad, but I think the Roccat game shows it's potential viability.

Since the recipe change in 3.14 that dropped the price of Ohmwrecker by about 800g the item has been gold efficient on stats alone. It remains a mostly unused item though, and not for no reason. Items like the Talisman of Ascension, Sight Stone, and often Mikael's Crucible take priority for a support to aid in team fights. Ohmwrecker's turret disabling active is useless outside of tower sieging and while the AP and HP are nice they simply don't stack up to the benefits of the other aforementioned item's actives.

Ohmwrecker is definitely not useless though, and Roccat gave a perfect example of the situational viability of the item. When Roccat buy Ohmwrecker they're ahead and looking to siege on Gambit's inhibitor turrets, but they only have Ziggs and Lucian for ranged damage and Gambit has an incredible amount of wave clear. This is where Ohmwrecker shines, allowing Roccat to keep their siege champions under the turret longer in the face of heavy wave clear. It also comes in handy in more than one dive for them, disabling the turret long enough to win the fight without taking heavy casualties.

It's unlikely Ohmwrecker will ever be as popular a pick as the Talisman of Ascension, but in a season where games often turn during the inhibitor turret siege there's a niche for Ohmwrecker to fill. It's possible we wont see much more of it, but then again SKT and Roccat may have planted just enough of a seed for pro teams to value Ohmrecker's niche usage.