How a gap in Najin's Shield wall let the KT Arrows slip through.

Most people going into the first quarter final were predicting KT Arrows aggressive play style to run right through an underperforming Najin White Shield. It was quite the surprise then when Najin Shield after a slow start to game 1 out played KT strategically. For the first two games of the series every time the Arrows would try to make a move for picks Shield would heavily out position and win out. The superior movement, timing, and vision of Shield that allowed them to out position the Arrows carried them to an early 2-0 lead and early on in game 3 it looked as though it would turn predictions on their heads and 3-0 the Arrows.

About 27 minutes in Shield appears to have all but won the game, they’ve built a small but comfortable 2k gold lead as well as a significant tower and vision lead. Shield’s Save on Jax has hit the two item point that allows him to just maul towers and no one on Arrows can deal with his split push yet. Even after Shield’s support gets caught out warding the Baron pit Shield is still in a great spot. Not only do they have a lead and a two item Jax, but that Jax has a full wave of minions about to smash into the bottom lane inhibitor turret as the Arrows start the Baron.

At this point Montecristo, English caster for OGN, can actually be heard saying “Shield is okay giving up this Baron for the inhibitor.” He is of course exactly right. There is no one left behind to defend and a Jax with Trinity Force and Blade of the Ruined King will easily take the tower and inhibitor before Arrows get back. At the same time Shield has 3 people poking over the Baron wall and a 4^th running from base. If Jax needs an extra second or two to escape they could easily stop backs to buy time, and if they were feeling extra confident could even try to delay Arrows long enough for Save’s Jax to shred Nexus turrets.

With the inhibitor down and the fact that Baron will not even out the gold for Arrows it would leave Shield in an excellent spot. KT is forced to defend their base against super minions and the ever present threat of a Teleporting Jax back door. If the Arrows try to make one of their trade mark aggressive plays while wearing the Baron buff they run the risk of Jax, or super minions, or both destroying their base and finishing the game, and the inhibitor will not respawn till the Baron is gone. Meanwhile Shield will be free to take vision control and eliminate the 2 remaining towers outside of KT Arrows’ base, knowing that if the Arrows contest they will lose the game. Then once the Baron has respawned Shield can use their map control and split pushing Jax to force a no win decision from the Arrows. If KT contests the Baron with no inhibitor tower to stop him Najin’s Jax will take the game by himself. If KT instead send enough people to deal with Jax’s split push they will be forced to give up the Baron buff allowing Shield to safely siege and systematically close out the game.

Instead when Montecristo gives us his wonderful quote that shows how Najin Shield can secure the victory if they play right, Save’s Jax teleports away from the turret to the Baron pit. Shield then engage with their Jungler at half HP and their support still not in range as they run back from the base after respawning. Despite these disadvantages for Shield it is actually the fact that two of their most important champions, Jax and their ADC Ezreal, end up tanking the Baron for large portions of the fight that turns it against them. They lose the fight in a very close 3-5 but stop the Baron. Not long after a second Baron fight erupts this time going much worse for Shield who were stuck without Jax, because he’d teleported into the last fight where Mundo had not, and Arrows picked up the baron off the back of a fight that went 4-1 in kills.

While this was not the only chance for Najin Shield to win the series, it was definitely the pivotal moment in the best of five between the two teams. KT Arrows were granted a stay of execution by the mistake and they used the momentum of the first win to capitalize on further mistakes in game four, Ggoong’s failed Shockwave into a failed Flash, to force a game five. In the blind pick game five KT were able to get a horrendously strong pick comp that had been banned out the previous games and use it to insurmountably snowball the final victory and the series win over a tilting Shield.