Team Comp Analysis: Curse's Korean-Inspired Wombo Combo

In wins this week against CLG and Velocity eSports, Curse put into place a team composition that surprised many in its strategic strength. Combined with excellent execution, their "wombo combo" teamfight-oriented comp struck fear into the hearts of both teams they faced with it as they were able to perform well during the laning phase before showing off the true strength of the comp by winning teamfights before the enemy knew what hit them.

The Comp 

Toplane: Zac (Voyboy), "the displacement"

Over the course of the summer split of LCS and the summer seasons of Hot6ix The Champions and LPL, Zac has been a hotly contested pick. His strength in both the jungle and toplane combined with his immense teamfight presence makes him a solid champion. In jungle, he has ganking potential immediately after hitting level 3 when he picks up his AoE slowing Stretching Strike, then gains even more strength at level 6 with his ultimate, Let's Bounce. In top lane, he is a relatively safe pick in a 1v2 lane thanks to his innate sustain and range of cc, while he is capable of performing well in any 1v1 lane where he can farm to his heart's content, becoming a tanky initiator for his team with the additional ability to buy a damage item (typically Haunting Guise or Void Staff thanks to his spammable, high-damage abilities) on top of the standard picks of Sunfire Cape and Spirit Visage for early tankiness.

Jungle: Jarvan IV (Saintvicious), "the lockdown"

Jarvan IV has been a strong choice of jungler since the beginning of season 3 and the onset of innately tanky, high-cc junglers who can survive on low-income builds focused around Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Runic Bulwark. His AoE cc from his ultimate, Cataclysm, is a huge factor in teamfights, able to force flashes and lock down multiple champions at once, while his Demacian Standard-Dragon Strike combo allows him to knock up multiple champions, providing a huge window of time for free damage from Jarvan's team. 

Midlane: Orianna (NyJacky), "the burst"

For over a year now, Orianna has been a popular pick worldwide as a midlaner. Her safety in lane is valuable; her ability to protect a key ally is great, and her immense teamfight presence is the icing on the cake. Orianna provides everything a team comp wants: co-initiate through her ability to place her ball on an ally in order to use her Shockwave, Command: Attack, and Command: Dissonance on multiple targets; high damage over time thanks to the low cooldowns on both of her main damaging abilities; huge amounts of cc from her AoE slow and AoE knockup, and even a strong shield.

AD Carry: Twitch (Cop), "the deeps"

Twitch has recently seen a rise in popularity, with pick percentage in OGN and LCS increasing. It's easy to see why: he has a strong laning phase thanks to his Explosive Cask and Expunge on top of true damage over time from his Deadly Venom passive, his level 6 is incredibly strong from his ultimate, Spray and Pray, and he boasts one of the strongest lategames of any AD carry via his Ambush steroid and additional damage and range from Spray and Pray.

Support: Nami (EdWard), "the protector"

It took several months, but repeated buffs finally pushed Nami to the top of the pile as far as support choices go. Her kit is perfect for the current meta that rewards a hybrid of engage and disengage. Aqua Prison is a powerful AoE stun with a frustratingly long duration and a deceptive animation, while Tidal Wave is a massive-width, long-ranged AoE knockup that can either disengage a bad fight or add more cc onto any engage. Add in her sustain from Ebb and Flow and her autoattack slow from Tidecaller's Blessing, and you find one powerful support. 

Execution 

At the beginning of the Summer LCS split, Curse seemed to be in a rough state. Their communication suffered from a language barrier stemming from the addition of EdWard; Voyboy's favorite champions saw repeated nerfs; NyJacky seemed to be in a slump; Saintvicious was the target of many jokes thanks to his missed smites, and Cop received endless amounts of hate for his seemingly overly-passive playstyle.

However, come Week 7, these issues seemed to have largely dissipated. Thanks to the tutelage of EdWard, Cop became a more aggressive player, unafraid to harass and place himself in more ideal positions in teamfights; Voyboy found a new home on high-damage and high-utility Zac; NyJacky returned to old favorite Orianna, and Saint managed to hit smites and make solid calls in-game. All these factors led to their success in playing this teamcomp. Curse survived laning phases without much issue, making their way to teamfights with near-even gold totals compared to their opponents'. In those teamfights was where they shined.

This teamcomp is focused around a few factors. First, Zac and Jarvan must engage the fight in order to zone, lock down, and generally be a nuisance toward the opposing backline. Second, Orianna must find a solid ultimate, aided by Cataclysm and Let's Bounce. Third, Twitch needs to maximize the damage from Spray and Pray - again aided by the immense AoE cc of his teammates. Finally, Nami should make full use of her skill set to protect Twitch and aid in up-front cc and burst damage through perfect usage of Aqua Prison and Tidal Wave.

As emphasized perfectly by one bot lane fight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09C8CIN5ErM&feature=player_detailpage&t=9754) versus Velocity, Curse understood how to execute this team composition. Voyboy used his Elastic Slingshot and Flash to get in range for a perfect Let's Bounce onto multiple members of Velocity, while Saintvicious used Jarvan's E-Q into Cataclysm combo at the same time as Orianna's Shockwave hit three members of VES. At this point, the entire team was at such low health that Nami's Tidal Wave and Twitch's Spray and Pray were only needed for a bit of cleanup; Twitch and Zac each picked up a double kill en route to a 4 for 0 trade that led to a Curse dragon pickup.

Why Does It Work? 

This teamcomp is a straightforward one. It focuses on AoE cc and upfront damage to kill off multiple members of a team so quickly they have no chance to react. Its strengths lie largely in the range and variety of engage. Zac's Elastic Slingshot has 1500 range at maximum rank; it's a simple matter to land it into a Let's Bounce onto the enemy team. Jarvan's combo is also a decently long ranged one, and allows for a Command: Protect tether to lead into a massive Shockwave from Orianna. Add in the additional range granted by Twitch's Spray and Pray and Nami's Tidal Wave, and you can see why it's difficult to do much about such an engage, should the team choose to take it.

Another strength is its combination of upfront damage and sustained DPS. The immediate Let's Bounce + Cataclysm + Shockwave wombo combo makes for immense front-loaded damage onto the opposing team, and Spray and Pray + Tidal Wave furthers this. As for follow-up, Twitch is one of the highest-DPS AD carries in the game; Orianna has low cooldown damage abilities that also allow for continuous slowing; Jarvan's combo is on a relatively low cooldown as well, and last but not least Zac has a great amount of cc available to him multiple times in a single engage.

Weaknesses 

A full-on dive/teamfight comp requires a lead. A team trying to pull off these fights from behind would face one of a few obstacles. Firstly, they could simply be outdamaged: their engage would fizzle as their divers died instantly, and without the front-end damage the fight would rapidly turn against them. Second, kiting. Champions such as Ashe and Zyra can use their lockdown cc to stop the full engage from going off, then the permanent slows begin to take effect to prevent chasing and follow-up engage; similarly, Janna's Monsoon and Howling Gale can also offset much of this engage strength.

The second weakness is split pushing. None of the champions in this comp are particularly strong in a 1v1 scenario, and as such it could fall prey to a 1-3-1 or 1-2-2 split push as popularized in Korea. Without ever seeing a full 5v5, the comp would never come to fruition, and the players would become increasingly frustrated as any attempt at a teamfight would see the other team off in other lanes pushing them as far as possible while one or two remained to waveclear and defend.

These weaknesses have their counterplay, however. A team can never be behind if it is always pushing - early turrets lead to early grouping, which then allows for objective-based 5v5s. In such a scenario, the wombo combo team would always be ahead in the game and thus could force any engage it wanted - see Cloud 9 for an example of a team that employs such a strategem whenever possible. As for split pushing, the "roaming gank squad" as played in China would nip such a problem in the bud. By roaming together, the team can pick off any player attempting to split push and use the advantage created by getting picks to force 5v4 fights at turrets or neutral buffs. It isn't perfect, but it is a viable solution.

Conclusion 

Team Curse needed wins, and fast. Moreover, they needed *decisive* wins. Ones that showed the rest of the NA LCS teams that they were still a force to be reckoned with. Wins that proved the naysayers wrong: that their communication was solid, that Saintvicious can make good calls, that NyJacky and Voyboy aren't slumping, that Cop can be aggressive. By playing a highly volatile "wombo combo" team composition, Curse found their solution. They picked up two decisive victories and displayed a style of play that is difficult to execute and even more difficult to compete against. They proved, finally, that they are still a team deserving of their place in the upper half of the NA LCS.