In the last event before the mid-set update for Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies, Robin “Robinsongz” Sung decided to take the infamous Mech-Pilot Infiltrator comp on one last ride. After playing the composition in five of the eight games in week three of the Liquid Galaxy Qualifier, Robinsongz walked away the champion. He said he knew what the plan was before the event began.
“My strategy going into the tournament was to spam mech basically,” Robinsongz said. “its because players know me as a mech player.”
Robinsongz is a known Mech-Pilot Infiltrator “one trick” in the TFT community. A “one trick” is a player that plays one specific composition only. It is because of his notoriety that players will not contest him. Robinsongz comp of choice, Mech-Pilot Infiltrators, has been oppressive since the start of TFT: Galaxies. But nerf after nerf came to the comp and now its a shell of its dominant self. Shortly after the nerfs many mech players vanished. However, Robinsongz believes that even though the comp isn’t in its best state, it can beat the best if uncontested.
“I did some research going into the finals, I looked up all seven of my competitors and none of them were mech players.” Robinsongz said. “If there is a lobby full of players playing the other meta comps, they are going to contest each other and also take out units I don’t want which let me hit my units way easier.”
Robinsongz isn’t the only prominent mech “one trick” in Challenger, Ki Yoon “Kiyoon” Yoo is also a mech specialist. He said that the comp being under the radar was critical for Robinsongz success.
“Playing an uncontested comp in a tournament setting increases your winning chances drastically,” Kiyoon said. “Being known as a player who plays a certain comp really well gives the player a really big advantage.”
Robinsongz knew he would do well going into the event but things did catch him by surprise. One of the players that caught Robinsongz by surprise was was “STAIGZOR”, a player that Robinsongz coached himself. Robinsongz said that STAIGZOR impressed.
“I was actually surprised that STAIGZOR made it to the finals because he hit me up for a coaching session,” Robinsongz said. “I coached him on how to play mech and then he got all the way to the finals, that’s really good, he’s better than I thought he was.”
We won the TL tournament pic.twitter.com/eAizFu7R4U
— robinsongz (@robinsongz) June 7, 2020
STAIGZOR is a former Challenger player who is also a mech “one trick”. After the barrage of nerfs, STAIGZOR lost his footing. He said that his coaching session with Robinsongz allowed him to gain traction.
“I was on a very big loss streak before the coaching session,” STAIGZOR said. “It served as a mental reset of sort by having someone look at my gameplay it was definitely worth it.”
STAIGZOR, like Robinsongz, didn’t play mech in all of his games. In fact, STAIGZOR only played mech twice in the event. Those two games resulted in a first and second place finish though. STAIGZOR said that the coaching was a reason behind that success.
“With the nerfs to the composition there is a lot less room for errors,” STAIGZOR said. “The coaching session definitely helped me understand a lot more specifics of the comp.”
In the finals, STAIGZOR did not play mech in any of the three games. His reasoning was simply that he did not have an optimal start for the comp. Due to the lack of power in the comp, players playing the mech comp need optimal items to succeed. In a tournament structure like this one that punishes players heavily for having one bad game, playing an off-meta comp like mech in a less than optimal position is a death sentence. Robinsongz said that’s the reason why he doesn’t play the comp in every single game either.
“If I don’t start with the right item or if I’m contested I like to pivot,” Robinsongz said. “My strategy was still to default to mech but if I got red buff I played cybers and if I got sword I played Kha’Zix.”
Robinsongz is one step closer to a world championship invite, but he isn’t taking his foot off the gas.
“Im going to maximize my chances to go to worlds, I’m still going to climb ladder to qualify there,” Robinsongz said. “But im still going to be playing in the LGQ to gatekeep stronger players from making it.”
Players that are looking to take down Robinsongz can do so by signing up for week four of the eight-week LGQ. More information is available at Liquidtactics.gg.
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