Taipei Assassins may not be the unstoppable saviors of SEA that they used to be, but they seem to have the knack for innovation. Being spread through the North American Challenger scene with mild alterations, Taipei Assassins has found how to take control of the map and dominate the rift without an AD carry. Not only that, but they did it multiple times, creating a strategy rather than a one-use gimmick.
Today, we'll take a look at their game against ahq. TPA shows that they can bring a "no AD carry" composition into competitive play and still have a solid variety of pushing, teamfighting, and sieging potential.
Every week, we will showcase one team with either an interesting or well-executed lineup, and analyze how they work. From the champions to the matchups, as well as its pros and cons, this article aims to help readers understand the pro scene better, and possibly even incorporate these strategies into their own games.
Picks and Bans
To start things off, Taipei Assassins were blue side and, therefore, were first to pick and ban. Gragas was the first ban against ahq to target Westdoor and also to prevent ahq from utilizing strong disengage techniques that could otherwise disrupt the nature of Taipei Assassins' poke-and-dive composition.
The following bans were Corki targeted at Bebe from ahq into the Shen ban from ahq. Orianna, Zyra, and Vi were banned directly after respectively. When picks began, TPA were quick to grab Fiddlesticks, who does well in complementing very dive heavy compositions. With Renekton left open, Prydz was quick to pick it up for his team as well as Zed, another very strongly contested pick nowadays.
Bolstering the strong "dunk potential" further were Jarvan and Jax, picked up by TPA. While Jax is typically a solid counter to Shen, they still decided to ban it out due to his global threat and resilience to dives. TPA's potential to lock down a target prompted ahq to pick the most slippery of marksmen, Ezreal, complemented with Kayle to prevent quick burst from eliminating a target.
Finally, TPA locked in Nidalee and a top lane Shyvanna, prompting Thresh to be picked for Greentea, an overall strong pick in the current metagame.
Execution
The game commensed with a 4 man invade into TPA's Elder Lizard side from ahq, who managed to ward successfully, but do no real damage. A successful gank from Dinter would help grab first blood for TPA's support following mindgames associated with early vision. It was Bebe on Nidalee and Jay on Fiddlesticks in the mid-lane, facing up against an Ezreal and Thresh combo which likely showed that TPA's strategy was anticipated from their prior use.
In this particular game as well as a few others, Taipei Assassins utilized a three smite strategy which they have altered in other games. While this made laning and teamfighting a bit weaker due to lack of offensive or defensive summoners, it made pushing easier and, obviously, securing objectives easier.
Although TPA's smiting priority wasn't always the brightest and they didn't utilize it to its full capabilities in this particular game, we were able to see that if they aimed for an objective, they could take it nearly instantly, a particularly useful feat against hard scaling enemy champions or those that rely heavily on buffs.
Even if it was risky, Taipei Assassins were relentless in their aggressive approach in the jungle. While not spearheading baron or being overly greedy, TPA did find success in lighting up the enemy jungle with wards, taking the gold and buffs, and utilizing that vision advantage to push down towers and bring a slow and painful defeat to ahq.
Invade and Pillage with no Marksman: How and Why
The most important thing to know about this composition is that you need the capability to lock down and quickly eliminate any ranged targets that provide consistent damage since you won't have one of your own. Nidalee has been a staple in this composition as it provides heals and the necessary poke required to get the team low enough to siege the tower without an AD carry. However, it's not entirely necessary as Taipei Assassins found success against Taipei Snipers using Orianna as an alternative when TPS pulled away Nidalee from their brother team, knowing what strategy lied ahead.
It's a good idea to have a strong ganking jungler to help your more unusual lanes establish early leads before they get starved by long ranged AD carries like Caitlyn or get poked down by the likes of Ezreal. Using Jax or, like Curse Academy recently adapted, Tryndamere for this camping style is effective since both characters are capable of snowballing and killing a carry depending on their early success.
Since the use of this strategy doesn't adhere to traditional lane setups, it's best for you to put your "duo lane" against a solo, forcing a 2v1. Mid lane is the best for this if you're going to use more than one smite since you can shove it in and easily access any part of the enemy's jungle, take their objectives, and keep the enemy mid laner shoved in so they cannot retaliate. You can even use smite on the cannon creep to force a faster shove.
Finally, you'll want to have a top lane that can shove hard while escaping ganks. There's not many that can fit this role and also serve as a soft initiator in the late game, so Taipei Assassins really enjoys using Shyvana in this composition. Alternatively, they also could have used Renekton, Singed, or potentially a Lee Sin maxing E top so you can duel top while at the same time pushing out early, allowing you to help invade and sabotage the enemy's jungle.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Although in competitive play the strategy is rather niche in its purpose, it's solid for a wide variety of reasons. Oftentimes, players won't know what to do from behind -- so although you're sacrificing lane and teamfight strength, you make up for it if you can starve the jungler and mid laner of buffs and take early dragons.
On the other hand, the strategy has a lot of glaring weak points. If you plan on running it with your team, you absolutely cannot reverse snowball the lane. If this happens, they will put vision everywhere, forcing you to group and have a weaker teamfight due to the lack of summoners and AD carry. Lastly, no AD carry means that sieging towers is incredibly hard, so if you don't poke them down or don't pick them off, they will be able to stall until you are irrelevant.
Recommendations and Final Words
I've personally been fascinated with this style of play even as an AD carry main, but I think it should be altered a bit for ranked 5's play with your friends. I think 3 smites should be reduced down to 2 because if you grab Nidalee, you have another ability that can help secure objectives. Also, if you don't plan on running a gank jungler, I really think running Nasus is an amazing idea. This idea works well because since you shove so hard with multiple smites as well as the general composition of the team, Nasus can farm and hit 6 quickly, practically soloing dragon. Add in a Zyra support and your objective control is through the roof, though beware that your hard engage will be weaker than using a support like Fiddlesticks.
While it may not be at the highest echelons of play, Taipei Assassins have shown a strong performance using a composition that does not need an AD carry. As long as you can snowball in ways that don't involve quickly taking down an opposing inhibitor as it is very easy to stall against this team.
