Bombers fail to win their second local eSports premiership - you’re cut

Really excited by this so I had to make an account to post.

Review of the games play at LOL MSI Invitational 2019 by BOMBERS ESPORTS.

Google turned this up (stats! info!):
https://lol.gamepedia.com/Bombers


2019-05-01 games. Hosted in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).
Round 1 games. Round-robin.

Group A Teams:

  • (Phong Vũ Buffalo) (PVB) (Representing Vietnam League)
  • (1907 Fenerbahçe) (FB) (Representing Turkish League)
  • (Isurus Gaming) (ISG) (Argentina, Representing Latin America League)
  • (Bombers) (BMR) (Australia, Representing Oceania League)

Format: Round-Robin. All teams play twice. 12 matches in total. (Essentially, a 6-round season)
Only top spot advances to the next round.


8 games for Group A were played on Day 1 (Weds, May 1st 2019).
There is only 1 stage/arena, so games played out 1 after the other.
Games take about 35 minutes with breaks in between. (the entire steam broadcast lasted almost 9 hours.)

Bombers played in games of the day:

  1. PVB vs BMR
  2. FB vs BMR
  3. BMR vs ISG
  4. BMR vs PVB
    (Handy if you want to fast-forward through the video for the Bombers games.)


Notes:

  • Teams listed on the LEFT are assigned the BLUE-side (left) of the map. Teams on the RIGHT are assigned RED-side of the map.

  • The map is supposed to be symmetrical-rotated-mirror. IE. it’s supposed to be balanced and fair. My opinion is that Blue side has an advantage (Personally, I hate playing from red side) As it would turn out: Blue-side won 7 out of the 8 matches played this day.

  • The bookies odds should give you a fair indication of the anticipated ability of each team.
    PVB - $1.72 to advance to round 2
    FB - $2.50
    ISG - $11.00
    BMR - $17.00

  • I note that the word “Essendon” does not appear anywhere in the branding for Bombers Esports. This is probably deliberate and it doesn’t upset me. I’m just mentally acclimated to interchanging the words “Essendon” and “Bombers”. This is something we definitely should not do for the Esports team. (Don’t call them “Essendon”)

  • I’m going to use team kill scores as the primary measuring stick in a teams performance. There are lots of other metrics. (Thinks of kills = AFL goals. Scoring kills is good) Ultimately a League of Legends match is not judged by kills, but only by the final victory (like Checkmate in Chess).

  • It is possible to win a game of LoL while scoring fewer kills than your opponent (like AFL…)


The Bombers roster is:
Top: BMR-Mimic (Min Ju-seong) (Korean)
Jungle: BMR-BalKhan (Choi Hyun-jin) (Korean)
Middle: BMR-ry0ma (Tommy Le) (Australian)
Bottom: BMR-FBI (Victor Huang) (Australian)
Support: BMR-Rogue (Jake Sharwood) (Australian)

(Jungle) is essentially AFL’s loose man in attack.
(Support) is the loose man in defence.
(Mid) is midfielder I guess.
(Top/Bottom): are I dunno, both wingers?


The player choose game characters for their battles (like the Street Fighter video games, Fortnite, etc.) Each character has different abilities, and there are counter-strategies for everything.
Shorthand used for this: (BMR-BalKhan (on Jarvan)
“BMR” is the team name (Bombers)
“BalKhan” is the players in-game nickname.
“Jarvan” is the character they are using this match.
It is more likely that players will be forced to use different character each match, due to the way the rules are set up.


Bomber’s Game 1 (1st game overall): PVB vs BMR
PVB wins
Final Kill score: PVB 24 to 8 BMR (in 28 minutes)
(AFL parallel: 2019 Round 1. GWS vs ESS)

  • Smashed all round the park. A dominant easy win for PV-Buffalo.

  • Every Bombers player was beaten by their counterpart.

  • We were constantly outmanned in the contest. (Fighting 1v2 or 2v3)

  • The enemy Jungler (PVB-Meliodas on Jarvan) tore us apart with a KDA of 4/1/19
    ** 4 personal Kills (goals)
    ** 1 Death (goals conceded?)
    ** 19 Assists (goal assists)

  • His counterpart BMR-BalKhan (on Hecarim) had a shocker, and put up the paltry numbers of 1/6/4 in comparison.

  • The only reason the game lasted so was that PV-Buffalo played it safe and steady. Took no risks. Slowly but surely rolled into the final objective. Gave us nothing.

It looked like the Bombers showed up to the match without the required level of intensity, and were soundly beaten for it (just like the GWS game).
In a later post-match interview, BMR-ry0ma admitted that nerves were a big factor in the poor performance in game 1.


Bomber’s Game 2 (4th game overall): FB vs BMR
FB wins
Final Kill score: FB 27 to 20 BMR (in 28 minutes)
(AFL parallel: 2019 Round 2. St.K vs ESS)

  • Learnings. Much improved showing from the Bombers but still fell short.

  • FB were able to get out to a small lead. They never surrendered that lead for the entire match.

  • Kept us at arm’s length. We were never able to reel them in (just like the STK game…)

  • We had our chances to win that game, but crucial misses by us led to some fortunate kills (goals) by them.

  • Game of inches. If a few more contests went a little bit our way, we could’ve won.

  • Opponent FB-Hades (on Draven) scored 10/3/13

  • Opponent FB-Bolulu (on Azir) scored 13/3/9

  • BMR-BalKhan (on Camille) had another poor game scoring 2/7/8.

Closer than it seemed. Bombers were really in there with a chance.
BMR-BalKhan appeared to be in shock after the loss, just staring at his screen. He had to be poked/reminded by his teammates to get up and be polite for the customary after-game handshakes with the opposing team.


Bomber’s Game 3 (5th game overall): BMR vs ISG (Our first game on the Blue-side)
BMR win
Final Kill score: BMR 19 to 13 ISG (in 31 minutes)
(AFL parallel: 2019 Round 3. ESS vs MELB)

  • The battle of the winless teams. Both at (0 wins, 2 losses). The loser will go (0-3). Season on the line. (just like the MELB game…)

  • A shootout. Both teams jumping into some big fights.

  • Multiple huge momentum swings in this game with gluts of kills (goals) raining in from each side.

  • Ultimately the Bombers prevail in big fight near the end and are able to take the winning objective.

  • BMR-BalKhan (on Jarvan) with a much improved showing, scoring: 1/4/14 (only 1 kill of his own, but 14 assists!)

  • The main beneficiary of all BMR-BalKhan’s assists was BMR-FBI who racked up an impressive score of 11/3/6. (11 of the Bomber’s 19 total kills)

  • BMR-BalKhan’s counterpart was completely shutdown. The enemy Jungler (ISG-Oddie on Kindred) scoring 1/7/8.

The Bombers had confidence and stuck to their game plan.
Or were finally able to execute it correctly for the first time this “season” (for whatever reasons… AFL team.)
The enemy team actually took the lead and maintained it for 3/4 of the match. Bombers were able to turn the tables, gain the ascendancy and push to a big win in the last quarter.

Post-match commentators saying ISG got overconfident because of their lead (Melbourne).

Post-match interview with BMR-FBI says (im paraphrasing). “Mistakes are really punished at this level”.
“Key takings out of our losses in game 1 and 2 are the mistakes and turnovers really cost us. Clean that up and we’re a good show.”


Bomber’s Game 4 (7th game overall): BMR vs PVB
BMR win
Final Kill score: BMR 25 to 14 PVB (in 33 minutes)
(AFL parallel: 2019 Round 4. ESS vs BRIS) (Almost like theres a pattern here)

  • The highly fancied and undefeated home team PV-Buffalo (Vietnam team. MSI held in Vietnam) with a current 3 wins and 0 loss record. (Except that PVB are supposed to be a really good team and BRIS are not.)
    vs

  • The rank underdog, BMRs with a 1 win and 2 loss record.

  • Amazing game from the team all round. Every player on the roster lifted.

  • After being crushed by PV-Buffalo in game 1 (but then attributing the poor performance to nerves), the team was able to regroup, and 6 hours later soundly defeat that same opponent.

  • We opened up a small lead in early-game and were able to hold the advantage throughout the entire game.

  • PV-Buffalo tried many times to make some risky plays and gain the ascendancy but we rebuffed them every single time.

  • BMR-BalKhan (on Jarvan) important with the early goals finishing with 4/3/13.

  • BMR-ry0ma (on Leblanc) MVP with the late goals scoring 9/1/8.

  • BMR-FBI (on Ezreal) also contributing heavily with 7/3/9.

  • Opponent PVB-Meliodas tore us apart using Jarvan in game 1 (4/1/19). He has a much more subdued 3/2/7 in game 7.

Some amazing fighting ability from BMR-FBI and BMR-ry0ma in particular when outmanned in the contest led to some amazing kills (goals).
All players on the Bomber’s roster played their role well.
Had confidence in their skills. Took the game up to the opponent.

Key point in the match:

  • At 27 minutes with Bombers leading 14 kills to 9. PV-Buffalo make an aggressive mass push into Bombers territory with their full team trading the deaths of 2 PV-Buffalos players for the deaths of 3 Bombers players (player respawn 40 seconds later). The 2 remaining Bombers players run away from the fight.
  • At 28 minutes, 1 of the remaining Bombers players BMR-BalKhan is surrounded by the 3 remaining PV-Buffalo and caught (HTB, jk). Easily killed.
  • At 28 minutes and 30 seconds, PV-Buffalo mass together 5 players (with all players who died at 27 minutes rejoining the fight) for an attempt to “capture” the Baron (who provides an extremely powerful power-up to the team that captures him). Bombers decide to contest in an obviously outgunned situation 4 players versus 5 players. (BalKhan is benched due to “concussion check” since he recently died)
  • At 28.5 to 29 minutes. Amazing team fight from Bombers. In a 4v5 outnumbered, Bombers kill the ENTIRE opposing team’s 5 players in exchange for 1 death. (3 kills to BMR-FBI, 2 kills to BMR-ry0ma)
    With their 3 remaining live members, Bombers capture the Baron and are able to ride the momentum to victory.

The home crowd in the arena which was raucous while PVB were winning, were deathly quiet for the majority of this game.
Fair bit of angst and noise when PVB players were getting caught and killed.

Post-match commentators: “Phoung Vu Buffalo didn’t play poorly, this was still a strong Phoung Vu Buffalo performance, it’s just that Bombers on the day were better.”


Wash-up from Day 1
Commentators: “They(Bombers) have blown this group wide open”

Since the format only allows the top team to progress, PVB were sitting at (3-0) and BMR were (1-2) going into that game.
The expected result was for PVB to improve to (4-0), which would eliminate (1-3) BMR and (0-3) ISG.
Instead, PVB are (3-1), BMR are (2-2) and FB also finished the day at (2-2). ISG at (1-3).

PVB were the clears favorites to take this group, but BMRs have given both BMRs and FB a chance to claim it.

Despite losing their first 2 games, Bombers could still take top spot in this group (each team has 2 games remaining).
We would want to win our next 2 games.
And other results to go our way (PVB needs to lose again.)

18 Likes

Not too long : Did read.

cheers.

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I enjoyed this. Nice one.

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Great story-telling @Ritsujin!

I am soooo starting at 27 minutes in…

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Yep, gonna head home and watch the last 5 or so mins of the last game before getting ready for tonight! onya lads.

and big ups to the new members and their write ups. really useful!

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Hopefully Phong Vu royally choke

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ISG gettinng up in the opening game will be huge for us.

However, their mid is on Zoe who absolutely dominated us with that character in our first game

PVB have got red. Hopefully the “blue wins” theory applies!

No kills 5 minutes in, money even.

EDIT: spoke too early, crowd appreciate a double kill.

So only one team makes it through? No playoff of a second spot or anything?

Yep. only the top team or each group makes it out of this phase. its brutal

I don’t know much about LOL,
But it looks like ISG is playing it way too safe against the best team in the comp.

I heard ISG flew Ross Lyon in for the day. No fights for ages, down 1-6 and $5000.

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1-11 and $11K

Ow.

An attempted final assault after 23 minutes is fended off. They have a guy called SLOW, that tells the story.

Ironically enough, as the support, it’s his job to protect the kids.

So, to advance:
We have to beat 1907 up next.
1907 have to beat Buffulo
and then we have to beat Isurus

Which would put us at 4-2, equal with PVB. We’d then need to win a tiebreaker to actually advance.

We’ve got blue.

And more importantly, Balkhan has Rek’sai.
Edit: also, Ryoma on LeBlanc, which is what he dominated on in the last game.

Need a good start from Balkhan again - don’t recall seeing him on Rek’sai who is currently a strong pick for jungle. Looking forward to seeing how aggressive he is early this game.

I’ll defer to the people who apparently know what the hell they’re talking about.

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