In the Gold Finals of Cycle 1 we saw a rematch of two teams from the Winner’s Bracket with [C1K]Call It Karma versus [FyKu]Fack You Kurdi.
Game 1
During the picking stage of Game 1, Call It Karma as the Hellbourne gave us a special treat by using a strategy that would make most teams uncomfortable—they locked three "troll heroes,” forcing Fack You Kurdi to pick one of them in their lineup. While C1K picked Gemini, Artesia and Shadowblade, FyKu was forced to pick up a support-suicide Artesia.
With the obvious stronger lanes C1K looked good heading into this match. They ended up pseudo tri-laning bottom lane with Pharaoh, Glacius and Aluna where they repeatedly tried to gank to Fayde. On the third attempt they finally succeeded in the Bloodlust kill. Tundra had a decent time mid versus Forsaken Archer, who remained the one hope for FyKu throughout the game while Artesia fared well considering the fact she was facing Draconis.
On paper FyKu had a strong lineup, with the Nymphora ability to port her and Fayde around as well as having Artesia able to assist from anywhere on the map with her ultimate. Sadly they were unable to use this to its full potential, as they had a hard time getting a strong foothold throughout the match.
With the tower advantage heavily in favor of C1K the lead grew out of control as Draconis was able to farm freely with multiple kills racking up in his favor. Forsaken Archer and FyKu could do nothing to stop the momentum charging towards them. With max items on Draconis C1K attempted Kongor before the game finished, but FyKu did not want to wait that long and tried to jump onto them. They were unable to take out the near 700 gpm dragon fast enough and fell to the might of his flames.
1-0 in the first set for Call It Karma.
Game 2
Game 2 started off slowly with a remake due to alme disconnecting in the picking stage, so after a delay the game was restarted. We saw some different strategies coming out from both teams, with Call It Karma going for the global carry assist with the Empath + Sand Wraith combo; first brought onto the scene by Vitriolic Gaming, it has become popular among many teams as of late. Fack You Kurdi relied on more of a common pickup with the Wildsoul and Hammerstorm carries.
Empath and Sand Wraith went long lane with Parasite in the Hellbourne jungle while Ophelia went to the Legion jungle. This really hurt Pebbles early on as he was ganked by Ophelia and fell to the Hammerstorm and Nymphora for first blood. After this Parasite finally started to gank and they managed to dive Plague Rider multiple times and kill him.
After roaming for a bit Parasite found Ophelia in the Hellbourne jungle and with top lanes help they got an easy kill on her. This helped Sand Wraith even more as he was getting a lot of farm, but Hammerstorm in mid still led the way as Pebbles was unable to put any resistance up to try and slow his farm down.
Another gank onto Ophelia prompted a much larger response from FyKu this time as they received port-ins and Plague Rider was there to use Plague Carrier. While there were unfavorable bounces as it jumped into a creep camp to get absorbed, they did pick up a double tap cleaning up Sand Wraith and Parasite in exchange for their Ophelia.
A large misplay happened after this when Nymphora tried to teleport bottom with Hammerstorm to gank Torturer, but there was a miscommunication within FyKu and Nymphora went alone, leaving Hammerstorm to get picked off in mid as a result. This death from Hammerstorm put him on equal terms with Sand Wraith, and from there the lead for Sand Wraith took off.
With C1K’s Empath at level 6 she should have used her As One Ultimate; combined with Sand Wraith they would have been in any team fight, though picking off Plague Rider and Nymphora multiple times put them at a large enough lead. Despite losing a few teamfights Call It Karma had control of the match and eventually took match point, 2-0 in the first series.
Breaky and Tralf were both impressed at how well the Empath + Sand Wraith combo worked, and it came down to this final series to decide the Cycle 1 Gold winner. Fack You Kurdi had knocked Call It Karma into the Loser’s Bracket, and now C1K had fought back, dominating every game they have been in to make it here—one series away from being the winners and taking home the $1000 prize pool and most importantly, the 1000 points that go towards the Grand Finals placement once the 8 Cycles are complete.
Game 3
This game started off with a style more typical of what we have seen from these teams and their willingness to have fun with the advantages of Lock Pick. Call It Karma locked both Artesia and Gemini again, but this time Fack You Kurdi respond by locking Gunblade and Artillery, putting both teams at the same advantage. I will discuss this more at the end of the recap so as not to take away from the game. In the end, this is how the teams looked going into the match:
This is not something we are used to. With both these teams going into Diamond Division, will they employ the same tactic against the higher-tiered teams to try and gain an advantage? This is something I will be looking forward to, but for the moment, how will these teams lane and play with Artillery and Gunblade?
We see Tempest in a solo safe lane versus an aggressive tri-lane of Engineer, Magmus and Andromeda. Gunblade + Aluna face the Tundra mid with Artillery against the suicide Plague Rider. Overall all lanes come out possibly in Call It Karma's favor because of the Ophelia jungle and the fact that top was not able to get many kills onto Tempest.
Primarily this Legion team has a surprising amount of anti-push with the Andromeda and Artillery in combination with the rest of their team, but they could not stand up to Hellbourne in the teamfight department. Comparing the carries, Artillery has gone a glass cannon build with a Shieldbreaker first item, while Gunblade already had a Shrunken Head before his Assassin’s Shroud.
At a fight at the tier 1 tower, FyKu tried to defend it but a Triple Kill came out from the Tempest and Plague Rider Ultimate. With the clean up this put Call It Karma at a huge lead as Plague Rider managed to pick up a Sheepstick 30 minutes in with his whole team having great farm and a 12k gold, 15k experience lead over Fack You Kurdi.
The one person on Fack You Kurdi who had any type of farm was the Magmus who did manage to pick up his Hellflower, but despite this there was no one on the Hellbourne team who they could pick off safely besides possibly Aluna. After a good initiation middle by Magmus onto Plague Rider and follow-up from his team, they were unable to get a strong foothold and the counter initiation from Call It Karma was too strong with the heals. The lead was too far gone at this point. Fack you Kurdi conceded the match, putting Call It Karma up 1-0 in the final series. They are now one game away from taking it all.
Game 4
With the final game possibly on the line for this series and Call It Karma in the Legion position we see a more stable and common lock pool coming this game. Not wanting to take any risks both teams chose to go for a solid lineup besides the one interesting pick coming out from Fack You Kurdi: Swiftblade. Apparently Pewe` had been wanting to play it for a while in a game and ShiZzor complied with his teammate’s request and gave him the hero.
This is probably one of the most solid lineups we have seen from either side this series. With Fack You Kurdi trying to take a game off Call It Karma to force the 3rd and final match of the series, they go with the very strong lanes of Magmus, Engineer in mid, the suicide Keeper of the Forest and the TMM pub-style Glacius, Swiftblade top.
Despite having one of the most common pub-style level 1 first blood lanes, that honor actually goes to Pebbles mid who managed to get a turn-around kill onto Magmus. With a Glacius gank from top lane FyKu managed to get a kill on Pebbles once Magmus returned, tying up the game in middle.
As far as other lanes, Swiftblade was beating Plague Rider (as expected) and Keeper could get all the last hits he wanted versus Moon Queen, who was getting decent farm herself. Yet again, the overall advantage swayed in Call It Karma's favor as they had the jungler in Tempest. Swiftblade held the lead in farm for quite some time as he had a stronger early game opposed to Moon Queen, but as the game progressed we saw that as fast as Swiftblade could farm, Moon Queen was catching up and eventually overtook him due to a few unfortunate deaths.
It seemed that throughout the series Call It Karma just had things going their way. They were winning engagements, pushing strong, alme was carrying extremely well every single match, and TheJellyfish's Plague Rider was extraordinary the past two games. In the end with a C1K lead of 20k+ in gold and experience, Fack You Kurdi conceded, having lost 4 games in a row. Call it Karma are now the Gold Division Champions for Cycle 1.
Forethought
An advantage that remained consistent was Call It Karma's ability to play the Lock Pick mode to their favor, something we don't see often in when both teams basically have written consent that they will always play safe. This has prompted much response from the community, bored of seeing the same picks come out. Tralf has pointed out multiple times on stream and on the forums that he is able to call out both side's picks on a near perfect basis (except when one team recently picked Balphagore and Deadwood).
In the past two series we saw Call It Karma—when in the Hellbourne position—use it to their advantage. The first time may have caught Fack You Kurdi off guard as they were forced to pick up the Artesia, while the second time they countered with the Artillery/Gunblade locks. I think if more teams start to mimic these actions they could toy with teams and their safety nets in locking heroes like Wildsoul, Keeper, Tempest, Ophelia, War Beast and Parasite in the same pool.
I do not feel it is on S2's responsibility to change their Lock Pick mode, as it is the teams themselves who have molded it into this way of picking. As it is with the Meta game, the players dictate what is safe to run and what will win them the game; it is up to these teams coming out of Gold to play to their strengths if they wish to remain in Diamond.
One thing I would like to see is the Gold Division teams who are going into Diamond—Shit Happens, Do You Even Lift, Fack You Kurdi and Call It Karma—able to take some games off of the powerhouses that are in that bracket, although I would not be surprised to see them back in the Gold Division in Cycle 3. I wish them the best of luck.
- Crowslaw
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