As everyone knows, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in China, causing the LPL to postpone matches for quite a while. During this time, five teams in the LPL, namely eStar, JD Gaming, Suning, Top Esports, and Victory Five, organized a friendly tournament called the LPL Online Scrims League 2020. On the very first day of this tournament, Sofm’s gameplay sparked tremendous curiosity among commentators and led to lively debates about it.
Sofm’s Rek’Sai immediately became a focal point due to the build being described as “ineffective.” Commentators, Riot Games staff, and coaches analyzed and debated this on Twitter:
After reading those comments, Jensen Goh (former coach of several well-known teams like EVS and HKA) explained the main reason for Sofm’s build: Sofm is not a traditional DPS (damage per second) carry, and some items provide advantages that are not reflected through gold efficiency. Duskblade helps in map control. Maxing E also reduces tunnel digging time primarily, not for damage.
In the end, many agreed with Sofm that Duskblade is an incredibly effective vision control item. In this game, Sofm had 105 vision score by minute 27 – double that of any player on the map. Sofm’s vision control ability significantly contributed to team fights in various ways, the effectiveness of which is hard to measure with statistics.
As for not buying boots, many believe that Rek’Sai’s movement speed combined with Burrow (W) and tunneling can compensate for the lack of boots. Others think it’s simply because… Sofm likes it that way, just as his name suggests: Style of Me.