With their fourth pick, NIP immediately locked in Black Brother K'Sante.
Clearly, NIP's Coaching Staff had seen EDG's intention to pick K'Sante. Whether it was Jax or Fiora in the Ban Slots, both had been making way for this champion. Since they had already accepted that bot lane would lose, they naturally couldn't let EDG comfortably take him top. They snatched him outright!
Maokai paused for a moment, then locked in Gwen and Akali with the final two picks.
Gwen was undoubtedly the third-choice counterpick against K'Sante.
NIP rounded things out with Sylas.
Thus:
EDG: Top Laner Gwen, jungle Vi, mid Akali, bot Caitlyn + Lux
NIP: top K'Sante, jungle Sejuani, mid Sylas, bot Zeri + Yuumi
The match began!
Hundred Martial Arts, This Was Firepower Cover!
At the start, with the jungle's importance having dropped again in this patch, neither side planned to stage any level-one antics. Over on V5, though, Photic stared at EDG's composition and simply couldn't figure out why EDG had still picked Caitlyn for bot lane when this clearly wasn't a Caitlyn System composition. Something felt off.
But on second thought, if even he could see it, there was no way EDG—a team centered around bot lane—couldn't.
Thinking it over more carefully, if they understood that and still drafted this way, weren't they plainly looking down on him?
Photic's fists clenched.
Though he was furious inside, Photic didn't recklessly go looking for Luo Zhen's Caitlyn the moment they hit lane because of the range difference. Against Caitlyn's 650 range, with the minion wave in the way, blindly poking at level one wouldn't drive them off—it would only drive off his own career. Not worth it.
But...
Just because you didn't go looking for trouble didn't mean trouble wouldn't come looking for you.
Caitlyn Lux, AK