TFT Set 4.5 Cloud 9 Qualifier Tournament Player Analysis: GrandVice8 (Stage 3 Games 1-5)

Cloud 9 Qualifier Tournament Analysis

The third qualifier for Set 4.5 had just occurred last week, and GrandVice8 was able to secure the top spot for the qualifier.

The meta in patch 11.2 was very interesting as the patch evolved with many reroll comps becoming viable.

In this article, I’ll be going over each of GV8’s games and how he managed to secure that first place finish.

Keep in mind that the qualifier took place during patch 11.2, so many of the comps you see might be stronger or weaker depending on the current patch of the time you are reading this.

Even if the analysis is from an old patch, you can always stay up to date with the meta comps by using our overlay to give you guidance on all of the meta comps in-game.

Game 1: Kayle and Friends 1st Place

Note: GV8 had two Ornn artifacts on his units. Kayle: Infinity Force and Lee Sin: Randuin’s Sanctum 

GV8 started the game out very strong with a top 1 finish with a Kayle comp. Kayle is still one of the best 4 cost carries in the current patch, and it was largely the same in 11.2. While this comp doesn’t have anything out of the ordinary, there were a few major factors that allowed GV8 to secure first with this comp. Let’s go into a few key aspects.

Chosen: Kayle (Divine)

The first thing to note is that GV8 was able to find a Chosen Kayle at level 8. This was the best case scenario for him as hitting your main carry as Chosen is especially important for late game fights. He was able to do this largely because he set up a strong economy by win streaking through the early game.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

In the first match, GV8 followed a default leveling strategy by leveling up to 4 early and then leveling up to 5 after the carousel on 2-4. In this match, it was quite successful as it netted him a solid win streak that eventually broke after 4 wins.

Even though his streak broke in Stage 3, he was able to continually maintain a strong team that kept him above 80 health for a majority of the game. This allowed him to comfortably build a strong economy until he would eventually roll down at level 8.

GV8 hit level 8 at Stage 4-5 and waited until 5-1 before selling off his early game Chosen unit and rolling down for a late game carry. In this game, that led to him finding a Chosen Kayle which then led to his first place finish.

Itemization: Flexible

In the early game, GV8 built two items early on. Sunfire Cape and Chalice of Power. With this, we can see why he went for an aggressive win streak start. Sunfire Cape allowed him to be confident in his early game strength, while Chalice also provides more bonus stats while still being flexible in many comps.

The major downside of playing items too flexibly is that you often are not able to build champion specific items like Hextech Gunblade for Aurelion Sol or Rapid Firecannon for Kayle. In this game, that was not an issue as Kayle was still able to carry even with suboptimal items.

Game 2: 6 Elderwood 6th Place

Unfortunately, in Game 2, GV8 faltered a bit with a 6th place finish and a team comp that looks very incomplete. The idea for this game was similar to Game 1, except he was unable to maintain a strong win streak and lost quite a bit of health going into Stage 5.

Chosen: Xayah (Executioner)

In this game, GV8 was still able to find a solid Chosen carry in Xayah, but he simply did not have the gold to finish off the rest of the team. He was unable to finish the 6 Elderwood synergy and was also seemingly looking for Aurelion Sol to hold the items that Veigar has.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

Unfortunately, the qualifier vod did not show much of GV8’s early game, but we do know that he initially built Guinsoo’s Rageblade and attempted to start an early win streak with it. However, he dropped his streak right before Krugs, and for the rest of the game, he would win and lose rounds without building either streak.

This is a game the showcased the opposite of Game 1. You can be successful with your streak and put yourself in a great position to win, or you can fail your streak attempt and play the game fighting for any placement that’s not 8th.

Itemization: Somewhat Flexible

We weren’t able to see what items he built as what specific times, but we can tell a lot about his playstyle from his first item built. Building Rageblade early on is an alright choice for a win streak, but it’s nowhere near as strong and as flexible as Sunfire Cape.

He once again built buffing items like Chalice and Zeke’s, which are very flexible and likely were built either in the mid game or with extra items. The items he had on Xayah and Veigar were all good items, but he simply just did not have the gold to find the right units to hold his items.

Game 3: Spirit Assassins 3rd Place

This game wasn’t anything particularly special. GV8 was able to find an early Chosen Diana, which he then used to play the common reroll Diana comp. A 3rd place finish with this board is still quite respectable as the comp could have fallen off more considering he played a somewhat non-optimal variant.

Chosen: Diana (Spirit)

As previously mentioned, this comp is nothing new and by now is quite common in the meta. The biggest downfall of getting a Chosen Spirit Diana is that you will not be able to fit in 6 Assassin unless you have a Spatula. This was unfortunately the case in this game, and he ended up running two Yuumi’s and a Janna to fit in Mystic and Enlightened.

Leveling Strategy: Slow Roll at 5

As with most 1 cost carries, you will either choose to slow roll at level 5, or hyper roll at round 3-1. In this game, he had 5 copies of Diana at round 3-1, and opted to slow roll instead of hyper roll. This may be because he wanted to be more consistent or he felt that he didn’t have enough copies to hit Diana 3.

However, what was VERY interesting was that GV8 actually leveled up to 5 at round 3-1. I can only assume this is either a visual bug in the VOD or he accidentally miskicked a level. Either way, he was still able to find Diana 3 by round 3-6 which is what I would consider to be an average timing.

After hitting Diana 3, he leveled up to 6 and then committed all of his gold to hitting level 7 at round 4-2. In higher elo, it’s not uncommon for players to spend more gold hitting level 7 to catch up.

It also is less important for this comp to hit level 8, as he does not have a super important unit to put in. Even so, he was able to win streak through all of Stage 4 and put himself in a comfortable position during Stage 5.

Itemization: Comp Specific

As with all reroll comps, you want to commit your items onto your 1-cost carry early to apply pressure to enemy teams. While he wasn’t able to provide pressure in the early game, once he hit Diana 3, the items and pressure started to hit other players who were likely saving up gold for level 8.

He first built Hand of Justice, then Infinity Edge, and then went on to build the rest of his items. There isn’t much to analyze here as since he committed to his comp early, he could also commit items to his specific carries.

If there was one thing to note, it is that he didn’t build more items for any secondary carry like Talon or Akali. If he had tried to commit more items onto Talon or Akali, he could have had a stronger late game team and possibly finish 2nd or 1st.

However, that may not necessarily be true. He didn’t have the greatest early game, so building the best items he could at the time may also have been the optimal decision. A 3rd place finish is nothing to scoff at and he clearly was able to put enough pressure on enemies in Stage 4 that allowed him to finish 3rd.

Game 4: Ninja Assassins 1st Place

Up next we have a comp that is not extremely common in the meta. This comp revolves around hitting Akali 3 star, which GV8 did. However, most players would still opt to run the Diana Assassin comp and possibly hit Akali 3 in those games rather than hitting Akali 3 in a regular leveling game.

Chosen: Akali (Assassin)

GV8 very likely decided to play this comp when he found a Chosen Akali. He also was able to build Infinity Edge and Rapid Firecannon which are the core items for Akali. It’s very uncommon for players to play this sort of build as you rely on hitting Shen in order to run all of your Ninjas or else they become dead weight on your bench.

But as you can see, the risk paid off as GV8 was able to secure a 1st place finish with this comp.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

This game followed a similar pattern to Game 1 and 2 of the qualifier. He leveled up to 4 early and tried to build an early win streak. This time around, his first item built was Zeke’s Herald paired alongside a Chosen Wukong. This start was very close to landing him a perfect Stage 2 win streak, but he dropped it just before Krugs.

For Stage 3, he didn’t build up any strong streak, but he didn’t lose as much health as he did in Game 2. Once he hit level 7 in Stage 4, I assume that he sold off Wukong in order to find a better Chosen. It was at this point he found Akali and began rolling down more to find additional copies. By round 4-5, he had 8 copies of Akali and about 10 gold.

Instead of donkey rolling for Akali 3, GV8 then decided to play it safe and saved up gold to hit level 8 at round 5-3. This was quite risky as he not only leveled up later than most of the lobby, but there was still no guarantee he would hit Akali 3. Luckily, he was able to hit Akali 3 shortly after and was able to finish in 1st place.

Itemization: Unclear

Unfortunately the qualifier vod doesn’t show too much about what items he built throughout the game. We know that he built Zeke’s Herald first as a way to try and win streak. He also was then able to build Rapid Firecannon and IE onto Akali in Stage 4. The rest of the items were likely last minute slams or items picked up from carousel.

At this point, we can see that GV8 and other players in the lobby as well really like building Zeke’s and Chalice throughout the game. If the component isn’t necessary for their carry, they’ll go ahead and slam one of these onto a unit. In GV8’s case, he is ready to slam Zeke’s as his first item as he knows it will be useful in basically every team comp.

Game 5: 8 Brawlers 2nd

This last game was a nail biter. GV8 was poised to take the top spot, but the early and mid game was quite shaky for him. With some clutch rolls and carousel pickups, he was able to scrap is way to 2nd, barely losing out to a Kayle 3 in the final round.

Chosen: Shyvana (Brawler)

GV8 started out the game with a Chosen Tahm Kench and tried to build his win streak from that. Eventually, he was able to sell that off and trade that in for a Chosen Shyvana Brawler which is the perfect Chosen for what he was initially building. He also was able to get very strong items on Shyvana, making this comp a possible first if it wasn’t for the Kayle 3.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

Once again, we see GV8 level up to 4 early and try to start a win streak. He was very unsuccessful this time, much like in Game 2, but fortunately, he was able to turn it around by the end game.

Once the lobby hit level 7, we can deduce that GV8 rolled down quite a bit to look for a good Chosen, much like how he did with Akali 3 in Game 4. Only this time, he was able to find Shyvana Chosen and built around her instead. What was different about this game was that he did not opt to save up for level 8 and instead decided to keep rolling for Shyvana 3.

The main reason for this was that he was able to get a Sett off the carousel in Stage 4. This allowed him to hit 8 Brawler and did not force him to look for Sett at level 8. This turning point was huge as he was at the bottom of the lobby with 22 HP at this point in the game. Shortly after, he was able to find Vi 3 and Shyvana 3, which allowed him to save up for level 8 to add in another Sett.

Itemization: Somewhat Flexible

Once again we see that he prioritizes strong items like Sunfire Cape, Chalice of Harmony, Rapid Firecannon, and Hand of Justice. We don’t know the exact order of how he built these items, but we do know that all of these items are very flexible. Sunfire and Chalice fit into every team comp, Hand of Justice can go on any carry, and RFC goes onto a lot of carries as well.

We’ve seen him play Kayle, Akali, and Shyvana who all use this item very well. While RFC doesn’t fit into every comp, we can see that he plays comps that use the item very well.

Additional Comments:

If there was one thing I did not think was optimal on GV8’s play this match, it was the decision to not frontline Sett. His reasoning behind this is one, to use Chalice to buff up Shyvana, and two, that Sett was only 1 star so he might not be tanky enough to be in the front.

Even still, I believe that front lining Sett might have made a difference. Even if Sett is unable to cast his ability, the sooner he goes to do sit-ups, the sooner he comes back dealing true damage.

However, this is just a very minuscule detail that I would have done differently. But, considering he’s the one who won the qualifier, I am more likely to be in the wrong here.

Overall Playstyle

After watching these 5 games, we can see a clear strategy that GV8 and most of the players in the lobby used. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s interesting to note the patterns that repeated in each of his games.

Leveling

In 4 out of his 5 games, GV8 opted to level up early to try and start a win streak. He slammed almost any item he could, and for the most part, it worked out. If he was successful in building his win streak, he could comfortably hit level 8 and look for a carry like in Game 1.

If it didn’t work out, he would spend more resources rolling at level 7 for a 3 cost carry like Shyvana or Akali. It’s also possible that he could have hit a 4-cost carry at level 7, it just didn’t pan out that way in these games.

The only time GV8 didn’t level up early, was when he committed to Diana reroll. We don’t know what his priorities were regarding which reroll comps he would play, but we can deduce a few things. It’s very likely that Diana was his first Chosen and that’s what made him decide to commit. If he had hit any other decent Chosen, he likely would have bought it and tried to level aggressively to win streak, as he did in his other 4 games.

Itemization

For the most part, GV8 seems to slam a lot of early game items. He especially likes buffing items like Chalice of Power and Zeke’s Herald, but he also looked to build items like Hand of Justice and RFC. We can’t look too in depth at his item choices, but these seemed to be what he gravitated toward.

Even though these games were played in patch 11.2, a lot of these things still hold true in patch 11.3. Reroll comps are still very meta, and these item choices are still very strong on their respective carries and team comps.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, we can see that GV8 plays a very aggressive style of TFT. Playing the early game aggressively is very common and consistent, as you are less likely to go 8th than if you lose streak or open fort.

It’s important to note that playing this type of style really tests a player’s ability to play many comps. When lose streaking, you try to build an optimal team to make a comeback for a high finish. When playing aggressively, you are open to any and all champions and items that come your way.

Playing the latter requires a deep knowledge of the champions and how to transition between the stages of the game.

GV8 has shown early on in this Set how proficient he is with all of the changes and meta adaptations. It will be interesting to watch the next qualifier to see if he can continue to perform at this level.

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