Interesting picks & bans were seen in the starting games(MVP vs bbq) of the LCK 2018 Summer Split on June 12th. Master Yi & Taric, the notorious duo in KR ranked, made their debut on the pro scene. 

With the huge nerfs made to the ADCs and the surge of non-ADC champions taking over the bot lane, many players are skeptical, especially with these strange and yet powerful comps appearing. It wasn’t too long ago when safe macromanagement was the key in the LCK, but now it seems like crazy comps abound.

Looking at the results, however, it’s hard to criticize these “crazy” comps. After all, the jungle Master Yi & mid Taric composition has been crushing enemies and bringing victory in professional games.

At a glance, it just seems like they got an easy win by simply picking champions considered OP in KR ranked. However, MVP penetrated bbq’s defenses with thoroughly calculated macromanagement. Looking at MVP’s picks on that day will show you how perceptive the MVP team and Yondu were when it comes to the Yi & Taric comp, as well as what kind of macromanagement makes Master Yi more powerful.

For those who wish to or are already using Master Yi in ranked games, here are the key points to MVP’s Yi victory in that particular match.

Requirement #1: Everyone in the team must agree to picking Master Yi (especially the mid laner).

First of all, if you understand what picking Master Yi is like, you need to have everyone on your team agreeing to it and choose champions according to this particular pick.

There are two roles Master Yi can play in League of Legends -- a terrifying dominator of the Rift or a troll that leads his team to death.

That is why Master Yi shouldn’t be picked if you are not confident that you can crush the enemy or if the whole team is not willing to support Master Yi with the belief that he will lead them to victory. This is actually similar to the past AD Carry + Ardent Censer meta.

Without meeting this requirement, both the player and team will find themselves quarreling tirelessly. This is why you must be able to assert your confidence in your ability to carry the whole team.

Notably, if you chose to go for Master Yi & Taric, the mid laner (Taric, in this case) should be willing to sacrifice all his CS and blue buffs to Master Yi. In truth, Taric, in this case, will have to be played less like a mid laner; he must be able to give up on the usual fanfare of the mid lane in exchange for victory. Thus, whenever possible, jungle Master Yi should be picked when you are duo-queuing with a willing mid laner and if both of you can persuade the rest of your team.

Requirement #2: Your enemy must have few to no targeted CC skills, and you need to be confident that you can evade all non-targeted CC.

Actually, the secret behind playing Master Yi lays in the enemy’s picks. What bbq came up with for their picks on that day was the ideal prey for Master Yi.

A powerful counter to Master Yi is having CC (speed reduction skills don’t count since they mean nothing when Master Yi uses his ult).

Master Yi’s strength is reduced when enemies have a number of targeted or broad CC skills. If your enemy has more than 2 champions with such abilities, you will find it hard to carry the game with Master Yi, and it will be nearly impossible when there are more than 3. Picking Master Yi without taking note of the enemy picks will lead to you becoming a walking piggy bank for the enemy team.

None of the champions bbq picked on that day could put a stop to Master Yi. The broadest CC they had was Gragas’ ult, which Master Yi could easily evade with his Q or by simply moving, which leaves Shen’s Shadow Dash. Both of these CC skills were non-targeted, and Gragas is more of a support that revolves around the laning phase. This meant that he was a scoop of ice cream that Master Yi could melt in a mere 2 seconds.

That match-up was the best situation for Master Yi to hard carry. While it was quite unexpected that MVP would bring out the Master Yi/Taric comp, bbq still should have had a contingency plan. Since they had no solid CC, they should have put more focus on jungling to stop Master Yi from scaling or should have had all their lanes crush their enemies in the laning phase before Master Yi could do anything. It was MVP’s perfect victory in terms of picks, bans, and macromanagement.

Requirement #3: Ally should have at least be one skill that can save Master Yi.

This requirement is the reason the Master Yi comp is called the ‘MaTa (Master Yi & Taric) comp’ instead of the jungle Master Yi comp.

Master Yi is indeed a swift assassin, but a rather squishy one. Just as he can melt his targets quickly, he too can be melted in a few seconds. This is why as an opponent, you need to have CC that can hinder Master Yi, and once your CC successfully hits Master Yi, you can easily finish him off.

That is why Master Yi needs a safeguard in order to prevent such situations; nothing is more appealing than the invulnerability that Taric’s ult offers. Taric goes perfectly with Master Yi since Yi has to capitalize on advantages his team gains while Taric doesn’t particularly require much scaling.

MVP had 2 safeguards on that day -- Taric’s and Lulu’s ults saved Master Yi even if he was hit by enemy CC, which allowed him to boldly penetrate the enemy defenses.

The most fascinating part about MVP’s picks was that everyone in MVP picked ‘what was good for Master Yi’; they picked Ornn, Taric, Lulu, and Fiddlesticks to meet this requirement along with requirement #1. Two of these champs had skills to save Master Yi, and all 4 had enough CC to help Master Yi prey upon their enemies more conveniently. Master Yi survived with their help and his teammates CCed his enemies for him; there was essentially nothing hold Master Yi back.

Requirement #4: The Master Yi comp, including Master Yi himself, should be prepared for 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 skirmishes, based on requirement #3.

Some of you may be confused by this requirement. Master Yi is a champion that needs time to scale, but you are asked to engage in skirmishes?

The reason for this is that your composition should be based on requirement #1 and 3. Without Master Yi, whatever composition you chose based on requirement #1 and 3 probably won’t be a powerful one. Thus, you may end up being crushed during the laning phase or even lose your inhibitor or Nexus turrets while waiting for Master Yi to complete his 2nd or 3rd core items.

That is why you should try to engage in skirmishes in the early phase in order for Master Yi to scale even sooner and put less burden on the laners; let Master Yi have these kills from the early phase skirmishes. The laning phase for MVP was dismal on that day; their bot lane kept giving kills.

The game began to turn around when Master Yi got those 3 kills from the skirmish that took place in front of the dragon. bbq was ahead in the laning phase, so letting MVP have the dragon must have been infuriating for them. They gained back their confidence by causing the enemy Lulu, who had already died twice, to use her ult and Flash in the bot lane. The team even had Karthus use his W first when they came across the ‘MaTa’ comp in the brush near the dragon. This was when things started going downhill for bbq -- Master Yi, with Taric’s Cosmic Radiance on him, dashed into his enemies and scored 3 kills.

There are actually many times where the duration of a game with the ‘MaTa’ comp is quite short, which is contrary to the common belief that Master Yi needs time to scale. Master Yi scales on the kills he gets, so more kills means less time needed for him to end the game. It took exactly 30 minutes for MVP to destroy bbq’s Nexus, and there aren’t many times pro gamers went over 30 minutes in the solo-ranked games they won with the ‘MaTa’ comp.

In order to cause skirmishes to take place, it’s best to have laners with plenty of CC. Since Master Yi doesn’t have any other course of action outside simply inflicting damage, the rest of the laners should actively support him with their CC.

If you are able to meet all of the 4 requirements above, you will be like Yondu whistling cheerfully in ranked games.