GAM Esports has always been a strong team in the VCS with its rich history and high-quality players in the lineup. Winning the VCS Summer Championship in 2019 confirmed this, however, the dramatic loss in the Spring 2020 tournament showed that GAM could no longer simply play their own style to guarantee a championship, as other teams are continuously improving.
This was especially evident in this summer’s tournament when, alongside the usual powerhouses, Cerberus emerged as an undefeated contender for the championship, adding even more rivals for GAM Esports. Therefore, the black and gold squad had to find a new playstyle, a trump card to defeat their competitors, which was demonstrated in their intense battle against Cerberus Esports yesterday.
After the victory, Levi was interviewed and made two notable comments about GAM Esports’ current playstyle; one was about the champion Gragas, which can catch the opponent’s carry. The second comment was about how GAM frequently executes plays in the third game where each player goes to a different lane, catching their opponents off guard.
Regarding the champion Gragas, although no longer a top-tier choice, this drunken brawler remains a strong jungler. He has enough jungle clearing speed to not fall behind against opponents, deals damage with the new Predator rune, and most importantly, his ultimate can separate the opponent’s carry. Remember that teams in the VCS usually have only 1-2 outstanding players in the carry position; if this can be separated, GAM always has the advantage.
The second weapon that GAM Esports is applying is the tactic of engaging in team fights from multiple angles. This playstyle is extremely risky because it requires splitting the team up, and if the opponent has the right conditions and information, they can wipe out one flank and ruin your plans. However, if done correctly, the opponent is like fish on a chopping board and is very likely to fail.
GAM Esports understands this and has been trying to mitigate the weaknesses of this playstyle with their bans and picks. In the third game against Cerberus, you can see that GAM Esports banned champions with strong burst damage like Akali, Graves, Syndra, or Zoe, and if not, then Azir, a champion that disrupts your team’s rhythm.
Moreover, for the multi-angle attack strategy to be effective, all your champions must have some means to initiate fights from a distance, create chaos, and split the opponent’s formation. GAM adheres to this principle, and champions like Gragas, Ashe, Sett, or even Ornn serve the purpose of initiating fights from afar, while Dia1’s Lucian plays a cleanup role.
The final condition for executing this strategy is that the opponent must be a team that plays systematically and wants to control objectives; at that point, they are essentially walking into a trap set by GAM Esports. Unfortunately for Cerberus, they indeed fit that description, and GAM was able to use this new strategy to defeat them and end their undefeated streak.
Perhaps the VCS teams should find a way to counter this new “trick” from GAM Esports if they don’t want this black-and-gold squad to charge towards the VCS championship once again.